Apr
14
In Extremo
April 14, 2005 | Leave a Comment
I’d love to have been a fly on the wall when the concept of pairing German rock with a liberal dosage of bagpipes was raised.
In Extremo are a 7-piece band and when you consider their musical influences stretch not just to bone-stripping guitar but also to harps, horns, gongs, chimes, bodhrans, bouzoukis, tablas, shells, sticks, stones and generally any old piece of junk that comes to hand then you can see why. I’ve got this image of In Extremo’s studio looking like a cross between Steptoe and Son’s den and a minstrel’s gallery circa 1543.
7
(100% native)
Mediaeval rock. Not at all as bad as it sounds. Standout track : ‘Küss mich’ (Kiss Me).
It’s all part of the band’s self-confessed attempt to unify mediaeval music with modern rock and I can see the average UK punter’s eyes already glazing over but, if you exclude the opening to ‘Davert Tanz’ with its Corrs-like tweeness and annoying Irish jiggery, then somehow the whole thing works, and rather well. If you really are looking for something quite different then this talented bunch of musicians, who have been around for nearly a decade now, are more than just a novelty.
Like Rammstein, In Extremo tend toward the low, growl type of vocals and on ‘7’ at least, more scary photos of the band in bits abound.