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BANDINFO
FROM CONSEQUENCE TO CORRUPTION
"They'll try to scare us, honey, with weapons they can't use/I'll sing
back from the archives a song I wrote for you" - the defiant lines from
the new record's opening song, "Lost in '95", characterise German goth
rock stalwarts REPTYLE better than any statement of intent. Founded in
1999, at a time a which the genre was considered all but dead, the quintet
has made a convincing point of the merits of being undead - without all
mainstream industry support, instead building on scores of gigs in Germany
and abroad, the loyalty of a select, unswerving fan base, and the quality
of their acclaimed full-length albums, "A High and Lonely Place" ("Powerful
guitars, sinister vocals, driving drums and bass lines, all swathed in
atmospheric keyboards - total hit!" - Zillo magazine, 2004) and "Consequence"
("Reptyle goth and rock for all they're worth" - Orkus magazine, 2007).
Indeed, attitude is important but not everything, as this overdue new
offering proves. REPTYLE have honed their considerable songwriting skills,
evident in more diverse, yet more focused tracks. Consider the strutting
opener quoted above; the spacious and epic "Into Her Desert"; the breathy,
yet gutsy groove of "Heroes of the Working Dead"; and so on. Speaking
of focus: Zulu's vocals are grimmer, yet more intimate, both in terms
of content and delivery; the guitars combine punkish outbursts with shoegaze
atmospheres more effectively than ever; the production is more transparent
than on any earlier REPTYLE release; and no, the addition of a live drummer
doesn't harm at all.
If this, indeed, is "old school" goth rock, it will inadvertently provide
the new century with a new example - and REPTYLE, hopefully, with success
beyond defiance.
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