SALTATIO MORTIS - Aus der Asche

Well, here’s an album that got me surprised. I didn’t expect to be won over by a sensitive song of a German "medieval rock" band, and by that I mean Nights bleist mehr. For the less familiarized with Saltatio Mortis, you could easily compare them to In Extremo; they have the same mix of metal and traditional music (as a matter of fact, the two bands have the same producer: Thomas Heimann-Troisen).
Affected in 2006 by a small quake in the band makeup, the four remaining members out of seven decide to go on, and with four new members they write this latest material, Aus der Asche. The songs were written by Alea der Bescheidene and the newcomer Mik El Angelo, with much panache and inspiration, combining again folk music with metal, i.e. bagpipes and flute with modern drums and guitars.
The songs have a lot of force, except for three, which I will describe just to make you curious. Two of them are "ballads", extremely sensitive (Irgendwd in meinem geiste, Nights bleist mehr) and prove that the prejudice about German being an ugly language is so wrong. Alea puts a lot of passion in and it feels like it, and he surprises us with his soft tones. The third is a rather unique appearance in the current landscape, clearly inspired by the medieval times, full of decadence and non-conformism. I am referring, of course, to Choix des dames. Of the metallic ones, I would recommend for starters Wirf den ersten stein, and then you’ll find your way.
(+) a lot of excellent songs, force and non-conformism
(-) German lyrics make it a little less accessible, but they are excellent even like that

SkyDancer Nota: 9