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Böllverk are a new band from Germany just getting their first album self-released. Welcome to the digital age, and all that. Sometimes labels act as a blockage, keeping good bands from getting out there, but sometimes they serve as a needed brake, keeping bands from releasing albums when they are not quite there yet. I don't feel like Böllverk are quite there yet.

This is pretty good, sound-wise, with a nice crunch to the guitars and some energetic riffs. Böllverk are working a stripped-down, back-to-basics Trad Metal sound without any gimmicks or frills. The catch with this kind of music is you can't hide behind anything, and you just have to write great songs. Böllverk have good riffs, but no great songs. The compositions are pretty straightforward, and they just kind of start, repeat, and then stop. There's too much repetition here, or rather, repetition of things that don't need to be repeated. New singer Svenja has a strong enough voice, but she doesn't have anything really strong to work with, and too often the vocal melodies are dull or soggy, not keeping up with the energy of the riffs, and also there is again the problem with repeating things too much. Way too much.

So this is a band with potential, but I really feel like they needed to cook this album longer, as they have the right idea, but they needed a label or a producer to help them cut what's not good and beef up what is. Right now, Böllverk are just relentlessly average.