Porta Nigra : "Kaisershnitt

This German duo sounds more French than German to me. They do not carry the stiff militant  nature of most German metal bands instead opting for a much more experimental approach not unlike Peste Noire. The blast you into a sample heavy freak out with an almost industrial feel shadowing the groove. "Femme Fatale" might not be as extreme as the opener of any where close to black or death metal, instead falling in line with what the "decadent dark metal" label the band gives themselves, it does show the duo carries a wide range of musicality. They keep their heads way above the waters of becoming another Rammstein, the tight chugged syncopation still holds plenty of head banging appeal for fans of more mainstream metal.

They shift from groove to groove sometimes jerking you back from one more violently than they do from others. Choruses of clean vocals ooh and ahh in the back ground. They can lock into tight head banging chug fests just a deftly as any more mainstream metal band, but have a dirty edge to the ambiance. The stomp to a song like " In Stahlgewittern" might come across as monotonous if that is what this band was limited to but that is not the case."Mata Hari" almost feels like something from the most recent Mayhem album. It's oddly timed with a spoken German narrative on the verse. The rest of the song it's a throaty but not totally growled bellow and a few bars of clean singing tossed about. The oddly named "Hepatitis Libido" is more straight forward than it's name might imply, almost like Angel Dust era Faith No More.

There is more of a rock groove to " Ich -Zerfall" . There is one really straight ahead riff that doesn't do much for me. The song is well written and they continue to throw clever samples in not just to fill the gaps , but to coat the songs in a manner similar to old Ministry, even though I would not really say this is industrial, just industrial influenced. There is enough shreddy guitar on this album to make most aspiring guitarists happy. The closing song which leads off with the clean vocals reminds me of Enslaved. The initial listens had a little more impact as I did not know what to expect now after hearing this one a few times it's settled in and I am not as blown away with it as I was a few weeks ago. This is more off beat than mainstream metal, but in comparison to some of the stuff we review around here not so much.This also is not black metal, but it is a fun listen I'll give it an 8.5.