Ingrimm

Böses Blut

Written by: EW on 21/05/2010 00:12:48

Despite a number of contenders for the title, nothing these days short of Bavarian folk music sounds as German to these ears as does the 'folk/medieval metal' of Ingrimm and their brothers in Subway to Sally, Schandmaul, Nachtgeschrei and the likes. I won't even get onto where the 'medieval' comes from in this genre but safe to say the folk elements within Ingrimm don't sound much like the typical folk sounds emanating from the countless Scandinavian bands whom, on average, sound less synthesised and more 'earthy' in their folk tendencies than the bagpipes and modern production of these Germans. "Böses Blut" is their third album, sung entirely in German and clearly destined to place Ingrimm on the lower reaches of some of the numerous metal festivals in their home country each summer being as unchallenging and middle-of-the-road as it is.

The presence of the bagpipes are intermittent but when they do appear to take the lead in songs like "Stella Maris" they create a nice funky atmosphere in contrast to some of the nu-metal like riffing found spread across the album. I have my reservations regarding the exact authenticity of these bagpipes, for they verge into dreaded Eluveitie territory during "Stein Auf Stein" and "Böses Blut", sounding more digitised every time I listen, but at least the gritty vocal performance of Stephan 'Fenris' Zandt provides something to cling to amidst a paucity of invigorating riffage. The opening to "Ad Bestias" is one of the few bright sparks with it's thrashy guitars pulling the song through nicely until the strange choice of inserting a couple of dropped-bass beatdowns for next to no reason belies a band not exactly sure of their strongest suit yet.

The attitude taken to play it safe with regards the song structures and songwriting across "Böses Blut" will help the album become an admirable occasional listen with a few decent, if unremarkable, tunes making their case for separating Ingrimm from the pack of similar artists, but in reality it doesn't bear enough brunt and class to take the band beyond the stage of local support act. There may be no bad or unpleasant songs here but to a non-German audience it's a difficult one to recommend and perhaps more a contender for 'easy listening folk/medieval metal album of the year'?

Download: Ad Bestias, Stein Auf Stein
For the fans of: Nachtgeschrei, Schandmaul, Eluveitie
Listen: Myspace

Release date 21.05.2010
Black Bards Entertainment

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