Kreuzweg Ost – Edelrost

Just when I though the stream of war-inspired releases was drying up, Cold Spring comes with “Edelrost” by Kreuzweg Ost.

It’s the second album of this German project, after “Iron Avantgarde”, which appeared a year or five ago. Again Kreuzweg Ost has created a martial piece of work with a very dark, unheimisch atmosphere.

They use the usual recipe: neo-classical melodies are combined with industrial elements, heavy percussion and choirs. There are no vocals, most compositions get their characteristc trademarks from the (many !) samples taken from old German films. Many tracks can be described as atmospheric soundscape collages.

Only a few songs are really bombastic, like ‘Fur Kaiser, Gott und Vaterland, which marching style strongly reminds me of Von Tronstahl. The track which appeals to me most is ‘Eiserne Menschen’, where the combination of a solemn classical hymn, opppressive background and repetitive speech sample (‘Das Vaterland braucht eiserne Menschen’) works best in my opinion.

Not all tracks are completely convincing (at times I get tired of all the samples) and there are perhaps more powerful artists in the martial field, but “Edelrost” is a solid album with a consistent style.

artist: Kreuzweg Ost
label: Cold Spring
details: