Influenced by Swedish crust/d-beat bands, US hardcore/punk and extreme metal, German act KRATZER are releasing their raging debut full-length “…Alles liegt in Scherben” (“all is lying in cullets”) on October 29th via 7 Degrees Records / 783 Punx, and today we have teamedup with the band to give you an early listen of the full thing, along with a special track by track breakdown from guitarist Simon and drummer Henning, as well as their take on their local music community below.
Although comparisons to From Ashes Rise, Victims and The Secret are understandable and locatable, the band’s signature blend of raw hardcore with the texture of extreme metal is here highlighted by the consummate hand of experience, giving stunning credence to the riff, the song and the meaning.
During that time KRATZER were able to consolidate their reputation as a powerful live act and their musical style and make it a sound of their very own. Singer Marché’s pissed off screaming in his mother tongue German, makes one feel the anger and despair sticking in every word. Combined with the tight riffs and fast d-beats, gloomy breaks and metallic leads wrapped up in a thick wall-of-sound production, the outcome has become an absolutely dark and heavy yet hard rocking piece of music and an angry comment on the world we live in.
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑’𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑛, 𝐻𝑎𝑚𝑏𝑢𝑟𝑔, 𝐺𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦, 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑎 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑢𝑛𝑘/𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑙/ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑘.
“There is a number of different venues, ranging from small self-contained basement squats to professional high capacity halls.” – comments the band. “The DIY culture is especially vivid with places like Lobusch/Disgigz, Störte, Astrastube, Semtex and Gängeviertel doing a great job in hosting shows and contributing to subcultural variety.
Unfortunately, with covid, all of these venues struggle to survive as they´re unable to live up to the city´s hygiene regulations and remain closed for the time being.
As far as the band goes, we haven´t been affected too much by the pandemic so far, as all of us had personal obligations to focus on this year of so the band was put on the backburner anyway. With the LP coming out in October we´re going back to rehearsing intensively, hoping that things will return back to normal next year and we´ll be able to properly promote it! Two bands from our area worth checking out are rha. and sarkast – we can´t wait to go back on the road with these guys!
Asked for more inspiring bands and artists, Simon highlighted Fvneral Fvkk, “who play some great doom metal” and Aarghfuckkill, while Henning recommends looking into their label mates in Dephosphorus, who just put out a promising new record, streaming below. “Some other bands that I’ve been enjoying lately are Gulch, AUA and Harrowed to name a few.” – he concludes.
Track by track commentary
Concrete
Deserved to take the opening slot as it´s probably our most effective song: it comes straight to the point, is fairly catchy and sets the context for the album perfectly by incorporating fast d-beat and a slower hardcore-ish breakdown. This song is one of our favorites to play live as well. The lyrics describe feelings of depression and isolation through social media, expectations in society and the ever-present finger that points at everything different.
Staub
Takes a more melodic approach, is slower paced and allows more space for the riffs. People seem to enjoy this one at shows.
Hast du daraus gelernt
Time to take a breath as this song is slowly evolving with just drums at the beginning, leading up to a faster d-beat with plenty of arrangements and details on all instruments.
Lyrically this one describes people who, through personal frustration and insecurity, flee into populism and national pride. With neo-right groups having recently demonstrated in front of the parliament in Berlin, raising the war flag of imperial Germany, this song is more relevant than ever.
Error/Tunnelblick
These two songs are ever connected, were recorded in one piece and are performed live this way. Quite fast throughout, very exhausting to play and among our favorites in our live set. Again, d-beat and classic riffs are joined by a heavy breakdown in “error”.
Kapitulation
Probably our most experimental track, working with tension rather than articulated rhythm or riffing. It sometimes feels like it is just a long three-minute break or interlude which has proven as difficult to perform live. The title suggests that giving up thinking promotes ignorance.
Freilandhaltung Monokultur
Hard to believe, but there are still people out there pondering about white supremacy and dreading foreign “infiltration”. Starting off with a classic punk riff, this one once again erupts into a d-beat laden tune accompanied with a typical crust melody. Our singer is joined by his brother for the gang shouts in the chorus.
Dreck
Short, raging song with a punkish feeling, finishing off with a blastbeat over shredding guitars. Lyrics are about the ignorance towards other people´s misery and anything that deviates from the “norm”.
Kranke Welt
This first part is really going for the chord harmonies, somehow indicating some black metal inspiration. Again, more d-beat and crusty riffing while tackling the subject of social inequality and sacrificing our planet for personal prosperity and luxury.
Alles liegt in Scherben
The most “epic” one, with a lot of guitar details, has us in a more desperate mood than the other songs. Being the title track, it outlines the general feeling of restlessness and discontent of Marchés lyrics and deals with shattered hopes and broken relationships and ideals.
Blinder Spiegel
Despite being the oldest song on this record (it already appeared on our second split EP), we still like this track and very much enjoy playing it live. The main reason for re-recording it though, is the fact that it set off the songwriting for all the other songs on this album and thus had to be included.
