Review Summary: The album that carries listeners away to a dark fairy tale, the world of poetics and melancholy full of love, despair, hope and delicately restrained passion. When the words are not enough, the music expresses everything.
The third studio album of German gothic rock formation SCHOENGEIST fully displays the potential of the band and leads it to the new level. The poets of the dark scene with their own aesthetics, romanticism and profound lyricism of the compositions are able to touch the finest strings of one’s soul and please even the most sophisticated listeners. If it were necessary to describe the music of SCHOENGEIST in two words, those words would be “grace” and “taste”.
Thus the album “Wehe!” (Woe is me), the title of which already allows us to realize what we should actually expect from this creation. 10 amazing, stirringly affecting and heartfelt tracks with the lyrics in German are about unreciprocated love, wishful thinking and spiritual wounds of a person, vulnerable and sincere who still tries to see the beauty of the world. But despite the seeming gloom and doom that one could feel while listening to the album, the songs are able to inspire and to give hope. However the lyrics is not the only point, as the wonderful voice of the vocalist and interesting original melodies in which electronic elements of the dark scene are skillfully and harmoniously combined with folk or it’s better to say oriental notes, evoke fantasies and dreams. Even if you don’t know German, the words are collected so well that the very sound of them may be enough to feel the atmosphere of the songs and to fall under the charm of SCHOENGEIST. Welcome to the world of poetics and melancholy of “Wehe!”, to a dark fairy tale, to the world full of love, despair, hope and delicately restrained passion. The title track that opens the whole thing starts with the sound of the violin. And that is just a peculiarity of the band, the violin which makes a valuable contribution to the formation of SCHOENGEIST’s unique style. The emphases made correctly, great work of the rhythm section, expressive guitars, great arrangements, the singer’s energy make you plunge into listening and forget about the reality. Yet it’s only the first track and there goes the next one entitled “Tief!” which promises a new immersion in other emotional depths. The song is fully resolved and even expresses somewhat protest; it makes one understand the simple truth that we live only once and the risk is often justified. At the same time musically the compositions are not overloaded with synthetic effects or harsh and heavy rock components. There’s always some space for pop sound and that is also a peculiarity of the band thanks to which their music may interest even a wider audience. With “Wieder” we again feel the leisurely mystical influence of the music, deceptively and sweetly speaking about the doom.
The subject of loneliness and struggle with oneself may be familiar to many people if not to everyone. But even in loneliness you can be together as it’s demonstrated by rhythmically aggressive “Zusammen allein”, that clearly shows that the dark romance is the main but not the only side of the world of SCHOENGEIST. So much stronger the contrast with “Ich bin dafuer” is. The song definitely can be called the gem of the album, the classic composition of the dark scene which tells us about true love, self-forgetful and doomed, that doesn’t need anything except the delusive but enduring hope, as if the track is devoted to all daydreamers. But where dreams may lead we know listening to “Es zaehlen die Sekunden” (Counting Seconds). The violin part in “Kenne mich” immediately carries us away to the ethereal atmosphere of mystery, but as usual the violin is supplemented with guitars turning the whole song into a musical carnival. The rhythm intensifies and “Traumtanz” begins, the dance of despair and anguish after which we can hear the command “Lebe” (Live). “Darkness is the splendor of color”…. This line could become the motto of the band. Dark, stern and uncompromising “Lebe” doesn’t leave any other choice but to live and to love no matter what.
The finale is the excellent cover version of “Where the Wild Roses Grow”, a bit more anxious than the original. Actually that subject will be eternal but such aesthetics is especially close to SCHOENGEIST. The music is over, but the dark romantic appeal still remains in the air. So to sum it all up I can only say that the album “Wehe!” of very good band SCHOENGEIST deserves to be listened to again and again and will please all lovers of high quality interesting music with the sense, ineffable atmosphere and fragile bliss.
