Herzschlag 2011

"Do you recognize this situation. You give an album you have not heard before the first spin, and the first track totally blows you away, and, as the first track plays, you become more and more enthusiastic and you just know that you are in for a great musical experience here - and, to your great disappointment, the rest of the album just seems bland and uninspired to you? That is how I experienced Unherz' "Herzschlag"; I have experienced it a couple of times before, but, apparently, I never learn.

After a creepy intro, the album explodes into the title track, which is an uptempo heavy metal speaker-blaster with massive classic metal riffage - and, overall, the track is musically reminiscent of the Judas Priest of the 1980s. But after a really promising beginning, the rest of the album offers what I think are okay, but very standard heavy metal and rock tunes (and also a couple of ballads - "Die Hölle Must Schön Sein", taking the Most Cheesy Track of the Album prize), which simply fail to rock my world, and which left me feeling very disappointed.

That being said, I do like how Unherz bake extensive use of lead guitar melodies, many of which are quite good and catchy, and, fortunately for me, the album regains momentum towards the end with "Kein Paradies" and "20.000 Freunde" being heavily rocking metal tunes, which make sure that the album at least finished on a high.

"Herzschlag" contains solid rock and metal tracks to be sure, and I am sure that it will constitute a great sound track for an all night party.

(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"