Die Liebe

It’s common these days that guitar-focused bands mix and blend dozens of different musical styles to create new sounds. Considering metal, there were times when these cross breeds were unusual and experimental misfits. One of these misfits is "Die Liebe" (in German, "The Love"), the 1995 co-production of two German heavyweight crews: death metal band Atrocity and ebm/gothic squad Das Ich. Without getting too much into detail, the musical differences outweigh the lyrical differences by far. It suffices to say that both bands observe the dark, morbid sides of human existence.

Being unknown to many outside Germany, Das Ich mark the spearhead of poetic and lyrical excellence and are highly acclaimed across the scene. Atrocity, on the other hand, was one of the leading German death metal bands back then, considering musical craftsmanship and on-stage tightness. B.L.U.T (1994) and Willenskraft (1996) were way ahead of their time and were brilliant technical death metal records, especially considering the flawless rhythm/drum work.

The songs on "Die Liebe" are not new, but newly arranged versions of previous tracks of both bands, complemented by cover songs from Laibach, one of the founding fathers of industrial and gothic. In this perspective, the album gives fans from both shores of extreme music the opportunity to hear their beloved songs from another perspective. This experiment can only be described as utterly successful as the gruesome bastard of metal and ebm is terrifyingly viable, beautiful, and repulsive at the same time.

Without writing song-by-song, it can be said that half of the album is very aggressive, yet danceable metalized ebm. Cold technoid sounds and driving (man made!) beats stand out as simply great new versions of Atcrocity’s songs, galvanized for the new millennium. The inherent magic inside "Die Liebe" comes from the melting of high class electronic influences with earthly low-tuned death metal riffs in an incredibly organic way. The great vibes between the two unlike bands is palpable at every second. The other half of the album is more focused on the lyrical concept of death, decay, and madness, often presented in spoken passages and from time to time underlined by heavy guitar riffs. So this part of "Die Liebe" may be best suited for listeners with German language skills (the foreign language can also be enjoyed as a rhetorical device, sending mystical shutters down the spine, like f.ex. Norwegian in certain black metal releases). Especially "Von Leid und Elend und Seelenqualen" ("Of Grief and Misery and Agony of Mind") stands out as a tremendous lyrical experience. The album ends with an absolutely astonishing version of "Die Todgeweihten", which begins as an ebm stomper and finishes as a chaotic black metal thunderstorm.

"Die Liebe" is nothing for metal or electro purists, but for open-minded listeners who want to expand their horizon and take a look into the very soul of Faustian Germany. Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of gothic or wave music and I do not own a single ebm record, but the experience of certain chasms existing inside the human soul that classic metal simply cannot look into I owe to "Die Liebe". I am grateful for that record.