Steorrah – The Altstadt Abyss

[schema type=”review” url=”Fastball Music” name=”Steorrah – the Altstadt Abyss” author=”Miguel Melo” pubdate=”2018-11-16″ ]

Sterroah, German Band, released their third full length album, The Altstadt Abyss. Expect progressive death metal.I will be honest, it wasn’t the easiest review to do. The album doesn’t seem badly executed as a whole but the songs appear disconnected. I kept hearing the album again, and again and didn’t strike as anything special. I usually am a sucker for progressive metal. This album didn’t fulfill my satisfaction. Their first album, An Eroticism in Murder, has that initial flair that newcomers got to have, that hunger for success and carelessness that casts a spell over the listeners. This album didn’t have it. I’m also fair and will say that there is effort and the execution is thought and taken care. Is not that this band didn’t give a damn. They have the quality that just doesn’t deliver. I understand that the individual musicians have quality and they are definitely used to play together. I want to see them live.

The Silver Apples of the Moon starts the album and there is nothing remarkable. In the track “Sea Foam Empyrean” bass guitar controls the track. The tracks seem disconnected from one another and if you have long songs in the progressive genre. “Saturnalia for Posterity” had a pretty cool beginning and then, unfortunately, worn out as it went. “Wolves and Seagulls” starts as a theater play in the beginning and tries to evolve into a jazz extravaganza and a lousy ending with forced lyrics into the rhythm. As for really long songs, “Where my Vessel Dwells” is long, 11 minutes and 47 seconds, so, congrats for taking the cake. Long songs usually have awesome bits, boring bits and try to end with a big bang. This one has the oriental sitar sound in the beginning, goes again on a spree of random sound and has again some weird vocal that seems to fit perfectly and nowhere at the same time. I guess not everybody can do a perfect match between melody and growl. It was my favorite song because I had mixed feelings for almost 12 minutes. Still don’t know if I like it or don’t, but maybe that’s the point. “Spheroid Nine” has sweet piano play and the ending, with the song with the same name, is the second longest song.

To summarize, this work seemed messy in a certain way. The individual songs, due to their length, sounded confusing. I really hope they can get something different in the next album. I hope I can see them live so I can be proven wrong, but this didn’t deliver to what the extent it could.

Line-up:

Till Ottinger – Bass
Christian Schmidt – Drums, Piano
Nicolao Dos Santos – Guitars, Vocals (backing)
Andreas März – Vocals, Guitars, Guitars (acoustic)

Tracklist: 1. The Silver Apples of the Moon 2. Sea Foam Empyrean 3. Saturnalia for Posterity 4. Wolves & Seagulls 5. Where My Vessel Dwells 6. Spheroid Nine 7. The Altstadt Abyss

Links:

http://steorrah.com/