20 years of COR from Rügen.
20 years, Rügen-COR.
20 years, always giving more than 100% live, which unfortunately also led to many canceled concerts due to illness, Friedemann's back, or simply because it wasn't possible for other reasons.
COR were and are different from many other bands. This is, of course, a statement that you hear and read over and over again. For me, this statement fits COR as well as it does for hardly any other band.
COR have been sitting between the chairs since the band's founding. They play a mix of punk, thrash metal, and hardcore. Alongside a heavily tattooed man who sometimes jumps around the stage like a dervish (and at least in the past also liked to jump into the audience) and sometimes stands still, screaming out his emotions, his anger, and despair. After that, an announcement that is rarely didactic, but rather describes situations that are as human and honest as only people from the coast can describe. Anyone who has had the chance to meet singer Friedemann personally will notice that this man has a very big heart, is a very good observer, and that these observations often lead to contradictions that tear at him. He expresses this, and the band expresses it in their music.
COR did not want to simply release a new album for their band anniversary. They wanted to do something special. Not that they hadn't done that several times before, but you only turn 20 once.
With “Prekariat,” COR released an album in 2007 that was very special. Here, there was music and smaller spoken pieces that served as a frame and connection to the music.
On “God of Possibilities,” it is different again. Here, music and monologue alternate in such a way that the music supports the spoken word.
COR sets aside a good half hour for the new album and has divided it into ten pieces. It is therefore not particularly long, and yet it is a different COR album.
Friedemann tells, describes...in a monologue...various big themes like love, suicide, being human...and there is sometimes loud and fast music and sometimes dark, heavy music. The dark songs are actually a new side of the band for me. They musically remind me in part of Rammstein, especially regarding the guitar riffs, but also textually. Unusually dark, gloomy, and very gripping.
“God of Possibilities” is for me a very personal album, perhaps because the spoken pieces by Friedemann touch my heart, perhaps because they move me and make me think, perhaps because they are sometimes a bit cryptic, perhaps also because....
I can also imagine the album as a rough framework for a play. Friedemann in front of a dark wall, weakly lit, strong voice...then, in the background, the powerful music with the dark lyrics...a little action that underscores everything... I would go, multiple times!
“God of Possibilities” is an album that lives from Friedemann's voice.
Friedemann demands to be listened to. He has that certain something.
The album shows well what COR were and are, a controversial and yes, you could say...
No, you have to say it, a special band.
