EISBLUT – Schlachtwerk

First of all, it’s interesting to read the pre-information about this project of two EISREGEN members M.Roth and Bursche Lenz, because surprisingly THIRDMOON guitarist Wolfgang Rothbauer plays the solo guitars. Every time EISBLUT sounds similar to his main band the songs get off best, like in the first track Wenn Der König Stirbt or the title song Schlachtwerk – the lyrics are not recommendable in particular, if someone intends to eat in the near future.
I think that Wolfgang wants to act out his extreme side here, all riffing that would not be suitable for the Austrian artists are applied in a skilful way. In all, Schlachtwerk contains a lot of variety, there are very fast forward, nearly chaotic songs as well as ballad-like parts which sound all the more sick because of this contrast. Lyrically, the last part of Sag: Ich Will Sterben is glaring in opposition to the lovely melody. This is the recipe of the freaky musicians: partly sounding like Grind, partly slow songs with pleasing instrumentation. The singer uses his voice also in clear domain, which is not really satisfying, because it is not voluminous enough. His croaking is well known because of the EISREGEN CDs I assume.
The lyrics are biting as usual and cross the border to good taste (off the mark is e.g. the text of Silbersarg) or they are simply dull provocation. Titles like Menschenfleischwolf (with a swinging rhythm…) or Wiegenlied Vom Totschlag are self-explaining. The latter is introduced by a nursery melody and nice vocals, but it changes to a gruesome scenario and the music conforms to this mood and speeds up. The guitar work is outstanding, but this fact is not surprising. Wolfgang conjures some fine leads mainly in Gespenst In Den Trümmern and upgrades this song. Totally off the trolley is the short interlude simply titled “?”, it is blessed with a voice which seems to come directly out of the madhouse. On the other hand, Am Glockenseil contains modern elements, so I can’t complain about missing diversification; it occurs a lot during the nearly 40 minutes. The outro Altersheim which could be a Napalm Death cover version sounds funny.
The cover artwork reflects the musical content perfectly - it operates simple, cold but effective and memorable. Musically, Schlachtwerk is absolutely interesting and if we take the lyrics with a portion of black humour, this album offers good but morbid entertainment with slightly feeble clear vocals, but this is compensated by the above-average guitar work.