Siegfried – “Nibelung” (2009)

Label : Napalm Records

Review By Erwin Van Dijk

My first idea when I got my hands on the promo was: Wagner and metal? And having read the bio I was correct. I had never the opportunity to listen to the first two Siegfried albums of this trilogy before so this is my first contact with the band. Since Sandra Schleret is female singer of Siegfried you might be tempted to compare Siegfried with Elis, especially when you take in consideration that both albums are mixed by Alex Atrocity and Leaves’ Eyes Krull and are signed by Napalm Records. While other band members might be complete unknowns, Sandra Schleret has been active in Elis and Dreams of Sanity for years now. This is the third album from the Siegfried trilogy. The first two albums were “Drachenherz” (2001) and “Hoghenwinter” (2003) and “Nibelung” follows after a gap of almost six years mostly due to Sandra‘s health problems. “Der Ring des Nibelungen” (The Ring Of The Nibelung) is a opera written by Richard Wagner and you could consider the work somewhat like The Lord Of The Rings from the ninetieth with the same enormous scale. Mr Wagner worked 26 years on it, from 1848 ‘till 1874 and like the work of J.R.R. Tolkien the story is full of Gods, Dwarfs, Dragons and Heroes and it is amazing that Hollywood has not made a big budget movie trilogy out of it after the success with the Lord of the Ring movies. It is very ambitious for a band to use this epic masterpiece so the big question is: did Siegfried got away with it? If you expect some kind of Therion style music with choirs and orchestrations you are wrong. You should also not expect the kind of movie score music Epica makes today. Siegfried is more related to bands such as Rhapsody with a little Battlelore and Elexorien in the mix. Because Sandra is also the singer from Elis you might be tempted to compare “Nibelung” with “Catharsis”. The way Sandra sings on “Nibelung” is closer to her work for Dreams Of Sanity then Elis. The voice over on “Nibelung” even sounds like the voice over on “Catharsis” but all similarities end here. I’ve never heard the first two albums of this trilogy so I can not compare “Nibelung” with “Drachenherz” from 2001 and “Eisenwinter” from 2003. The first song “Der Ring Der Nibelungen” is a very epic song like Battlelore or Elexorien would do at their best and sets the pace of “Nibelung”. The interaction between Sandra, Werner and Hagen is absolutely necessary to bring the story alive. I do not want to downplay the effort of Hagen and Werner on this album but Sandra is clearly the soul of “Nibelung” when it comes to the vocal parts just to note that all the song are sung in German. “Nibelung” is not the big Hollywood movie production with a 200 million dollar budget but it is a good epic metal album. Not a big spectacle but very entertaining none the less. With “Nibelung” the trilogy is complete but since Wagner has done many more operas I hope there will be a fourth Siegfried album. We haven’t heard Ride Of The Valkyries after all.

Rating – 80/100

Tracklist

1. Der Ring Der Nibelungen
2. Fafnir
3. Die Eisenfaust (Alberich)
4. Die Prophezeihung
5. Brunhild
6. Sachsensturm
7. Totenwacht
8. Der Todesmarsch
9. Die Götterdämmerung

Line Up 

• Sandra Schleret – Vocals
• Werner Bialek – Vocals
• Hagen “Bruder” Cle – Vocals
• Daniel “Ortwin” Bachmaier – Guitars
• Hannes “Schattwan” Krause – Keyboards
• Johannes Leierer – Bass
• Patrick Schrittwieser – Drums

Links

MySpace * Site