• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Let me start by stating that the guys in Unherz can play their instruments as well as sing. I cannot question their ability. What I question is the music they choose to sing and play on their second album, 2011's Herzschlag. To be fair, over half the album consists of standard Germanic Hard Rock/Heavy Metal in the same vein as countrymen Unrest. Singer Felix's gritty, Joakim Broden-like voice is well suited to the mid-tempo riffing that makes up the bulk of the album. The playing isn't particularly exciting and the solos are weak, so fans of flashy guitar work can safely stop reading. Unherz don't seem to be concerned about that, happy, perhaps, to tread the middle ground.

The band tries a few different things on Herzschlag beyond the generic rockers and I give them some points for thinking outside the box. Too bad not one of them resulted in any compelling Heavy Metal or even Hard Rock. "Und Dunkelheit wird Licht" and "Prall und Kugelrund" are pop/punk/mallcore songs that belong on Blink 182 or Green Day records. The are upbeat, "party hymns," as the band calls them, but they are most certainly not of "Prall und Kugelrund," like Joey Ramone, I almost choked. Then Unherz breaks out Metal. The first time I heard Felix croon "whoa-oh-oh, whoa-oh-oh," during the chorus a harmonica (yes, a harmonica) for the opening of "Halt die Fresse" and any points I'd given them for originality were withdrawn, with interest.

The Hard Rock/Heavy Metal material on Herzschlag isn't any great shakes to start with and when you add on the "party hymns" and harmonica it renders the album baffling and nearly unlistenable. Unherz don't appear to know if they want to play Heavy Metal or some kind of Party Rock. Until they figure it out, they can be avoided.