Der Gerwelt
Human Breed
~reviewed by Eric Rasmussen

Human Breed is possibly the most boring metal CD I have ever received. I wondered - what kind of people would make this music? So I looked in the liner notes and scanned the names. It began normally enough, with a singer named Alex. Then my eyes shifted down and saw that the guitarist is named Lazar. Hey, that's not too out there for a metal band, no problem. But then I saw the drummer. Yanarrdakh. Yanarrdakh? The way the list of band members gets progressively weirder, I can only imagine what'd happen if they brought in a fourth musician. Xgliwangydxkpr, maybe, or Eldinaaakplkng.

Ah well, enough ranting about names, I guess. If I sound incredibly bored during this review, and if I keep going off on tangents... believe me - it's for the benefit of the band. Otherwise you'd get four paragraphs viciously ripping Human Breed to strips of its raw, fleshy composite. But this CD isn't so much terrible as it is extremely boring and generic.

I've tried to get into it. I've spent a lot of time listening to it, loudly. I tried nodding with the beat, but I began to nod off. I tried getting into the proper frame of mind. The cover shows a wolf and some trees, so I thought maybe I could make up a little movie in my head that would let me better feel the music. Turns out the movie was pretty cool, and the music still sucked.

Der Gerwelt play blackish... metallish... rockish... stuff. There are generic riffs likely culled from better bands such as Emperor, Immortal, Enslaved, or Cradle of Filth. The vocals are monotonous rasp-singing. The drums are so prototypically "metal" that they might have been willed into existence of their own volition, a manifestation of the metal drumming archetype, named Yanarrdakh. So, yeah. I'm out of things to say. The music is not offensive. It is played and produced nicely enough, though it's not at all technical. Some people do enjoy this, for what it's worth, but unless you prefer the most repetitive and dull side of not-so-extreme black metal, stay away from Human Breed.

Track List:
1) Intro
2) A Shred Of Me I Cannot Reach
3) Newborn World As We Know It
4) Into Mayhem
5) A Bleeding Path
6) Dreaming With The Dead
7) Human Breed (Ripped Open To A New Reality)

Der Gerwelt is:
Alex Duke - vocals
Lazar - guitars, bass
Yanarrdakh - drums

Rage of Achilles:
http://www.rageofachilles.com/

The End Records (US):
http://www.theendrecords.com/

3/16/04