Rough Times
| Rough Times | ||||
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| Studio album by Kadavar | ||||
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Publication |
29th September 2017 |
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| Label (s) | Nuclear Blast | |||
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
44 min 53 s |
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Kadavar |
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Studio (s) |
Blue Wall Studio, Berlin |
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Rough Times is the fourth studio album by the German psychedelic rock - band Kadavar . It was released on September 29, 2017 via Nuclear Blast .
Emergence
In January 2017, the band began to build their own studio in an old factory building. The so-called Blue Wall Studio is located in the Neukölln district near Sonnenallee and is around 100 square meters. Before that, the band used a studio in the Wedding district , but that had to be given up. According to singer Christoph “Lupus” Lindemann, the old studio was too small, too far from the musicians' apartments. In addition, the walls were moldy. While the last work was being done in March, the musicians began with the songwriting, which took the band around two months. In contrast to the previous albums, the musicians split up the songwriting because the band was behind schedule and the musicians didn't want to compulsively work together. In contrast to the previous album Berlin , Kadavar wanted to go back to their roots according to “Lupus”. The songs on Berlin would have concentrated on the essentials. Drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt added that the band “had started to relax” with the feeling that “they didn't have to prove anything to anyone”.
The actual album was then recorded, mixed and mastered by the musicians in May 2017 within two weeks . The song Words of Evil was released in 2016 on the 7 "single A Million Miles Away from Home . For the recordings, Christoph "Tiger" Bartelt used his old 16-track tape recorder, with which he had already recorded the first two cadaver albums and which could be repaired after a defect. Again the album was recorded completely live. Each song was recorded a maximum of three times. The best take in the band's opinion came on the album. With the last three tracks on the album, the musicians did some experiments that they felt like doing. For example, the song You Found the Best in Me was influenced by southern rock . Two of the recorded songs were ultimately not used for the album because, according to "Lupus", the album would otherwise have had to be released on two long-playing records and "an album simply belongs on a record". The order of the ten titles roughly corresponds to the origin of the songs.
publication
The album cover is a collage that was glued together from several magazine images. It shows a girl lying on a kind of hammock and sunbathing. Her face has been replaced with a skull and she has the album title carved into her skin. According to Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt, the motif of the musicians was attracted by the duality of the image. Christoph "Lupus" Lindemann described the picture as striking. A&R Andy Siry, who is responsible for the band at Nuclear Blast, compared the picture to a traffic accident . It would be "not nice, but you can't look away either".
In advance, the band released the 7 ″ single Die Baby Die on August 4, 2017 . On the B-side is a cover version of the Beatles song Helter Skelter . Helter Skelter can also be found as a bonus track on the digipak version of the album. For the song The Baby The was a music video released. The video was made with the help of Milan from the band RotoR in the Leipziger Felsenkeller with the help of green screen technology . On August 29, 2017, the band released a music video for the song Into the Wormhole , in which the singer of the band Aqua Nebula Oscillator David Sphaèros has a guest appearance.
background
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According to drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt, the album title was chosen because of its ambiguity. For him, the album title is representative of the creation process of the album. After the studio was built and he started writing songs, he felt bad and empty. He slept badly and the stress led to fear of failure. Christoph "Lupus" Lindemann added that the three musicians would have properly gone through hell . Although the musicians have undertaken a lot of work, the decision for the stint was correct.
For Lindemann, the album title is a criticism of the younger generation who are not interested in achievements that their parents had to fight for, such as B. to preserve women's rights or to defend them against external influences. Instead, it would be more important for many people to present themselves on social media . He also criticizes fans who let themselves be photographed at concerts with the musicians in order to get as many likes as possible on social media . Lindemann called such people superficial. The songs Skeleton Blues , Vampires, and Tribulation Nation address these issues.
According to Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt, the song Into the Wormhole philosophizes about abbreviations to achieve the feeling of happiness at the speed of light . That shortcut would be a wormhole . The song The Lost Child refers both to the three musicians of the band who left their homeland to move to Berlin, as well as to other people who are on the run for various reasons. A l´Ombre du Temps was originally written in English by Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt and then translated into French by Simon “Dragon” Bouteloup and recorded. The song is about friendship.
reception
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Holger Stratmann from the German magazine Rock Hard , Kadavar are "always in a position to weigh in with album components that have become rather rare, such as euphoric interaction, spontaneity and magical moments". The band would "once again skip the beaten path of retro rock". Stratmann described the song Tribulation Nation as the highlight , because "only musicians can sound so refreshing who don't give a shit what critics and record companies say". Stratmann awarded 8.5 out of ten points. According to Walter Scheurer from the online magazine Powermetal.de , Kadavar have “increasingly brought the term artistic freedom into focus”. The band presented “a kind of free-spirited part, because it is always filled with elements of surprise, but in any case again a successful part”. However, one could “wonderfully discuss the sound” as to whether it sounds “authentic” or “old-fashioned”. Scheurer awarded eight out of ten points. Frank Thiessies of the German magazine Metal Hammer wrote that with Rough Times " one could convey the feeling, meaning and taste of the late sixties and seventies to future generations", since Kadavar "channels the classic distillate of that era". Thiessies awarded five out of seven points.
Rough Times entered the German album charts at number 30. The album reached number 43 in Austria and number 71 in Switzerland.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Jan Schwarzkamp: Just courage . In: Visions , issue 295, page 40
- ↑ a b c d Lothar Gerber: Room with a view . In: Metal Hammer , September 2017, page 126
- ↑ a b Alice Srugies: More facets, more freedom . In: Rock Hard , September 2017, page 9
- ↑ a b c d e Holger Stratmann: Like a traffic accident . In: Rock Hard, October 2017, page 26
- ↑ KADAVAR - reveal album details, 7 "of the first single available for pre-order, more European shows! Nuclear Blast , accessed July 16, 2017 .
- ↑ a b KADAVAR Releases 'Into The Wormhole' Music Video. Blabbermouth.net , accessed August 29, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c Lothar Gerber: Show of strength . In: Metal Hammer, October 2017, page 42
- ↑ Kadavar in the German album charts. Federal Association of the Music Industry , accessed on October 6, 2017 .
- ↑ Kadavar in the Austrian album charts. Hung Medien, accessed October 13, 2017 .
- ↑ Kadavar in the Swiss album charts. Hung Medien, accessed October 13, 2017 .
- ^ Holger Stratmann: Kadavar - Rough Times . In: Rock Hard, October 2017, page 88
- ^ Walter Scheurer: Kadavar - Rough Times. Powermetal.de , accessed on September 18, 2017 .
- ^ Frank Thiessies: Kadavar - Rough Times . In: Metal Hammer, October 2017, page 84