Feuerseele - Erntezeit

Last Updated on Monday, 28 January 2013 13:51 Written by EvaLantsoght

Artist: Feuerseele

Album: Erntezeit

Label: Echozone

Genre: Folk Metal

With Erntezeit, the German band Feuerseele have released their debut album. The band has been performing on stage since 2008, mostly in their home-region Nordrein Westfalen.

On their website, Feuerseele describe themselves as “Metalaltercore”, but their heavy use of bagpipes and flutes combined with clean vocals result in a sound that is similar to (amongst others) In Extremo and Eluveiti. Feuerseele are a folk metal band for me, or at least, a folk metal band that borrows here and there from medieval rock, blues (especially when the blues harp is used) and punk.

Even though the music of Feuerseele is uplifting and filled with catchy tunes, my main point of criticism on Erntezeit is that it sounds as if it was recorded and mixed in a hurry: the drums sound dull at times, the balance between the instruments is not always optimal, and the vocals contain many flaws (singing on the consonants, hasty loud breaths, not always pitch-sharp...).

Regardless of the sloppy recording, I can imagine that Feuerseele have all what it takes to bring a great live performance. For example, the opening track “Kein Sonnenstrahl” has a brilliant instrumental opening – it sounds almost, but not quite, like a classic folk song that you should know. Unfortunately, the flow of the song is lost once the vocals kick in for the verse – an issue in many of the songs on Erntezeit.

“Mutter” has a solid foundation of bass and drums, after which “Ego” seems to be telling a story in the verses (but the lyrics are in German, which makes it a little harder to understand). One of the best tracks of the album, in which the difference between the up-tempo chorus and the slower verse actually works very well, is the epic tale of pirates “Verfluchte Karibik”.

A harsher sound, more like pagan metal, takes the lead on “Hetzjagd”, after which the title track “Erntezeit” has a more reflective tone. “Erntezeit” and “Tango” are the slower tracks on Erntezeit.

Towards the end of the album, “Fiebertraum”, “Krieg Der Blicke” and “Feticsh II” borrow from the same old recipe: a slow verse with an up-tempo chorus, and a layer of bagpipes over it all. The similarity between these tracks indicates that Feuerseele might have made a more powerful impression by releasing a better-produced, shorter EP album.

To sum it up: Feuerseele certainly have potential, but they could play more with the additional influences that are used every now and then in their tracks (especially the blues harp) to spice up their sound.

Listen to “Hetzjagd” by Feuerseele here: