Transilvanian Beat Club - Das Leben Soll Doch Schon Sein (CD)

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Das Leben Soll Doch Schon Sein… finds TRANSILVANIAN BEAT CLUB expanding on their strange brew of musical styles. They do sound big, as the ultra-heavy crispness of a rather faceless sound mix flattens out the rough surfaces of the 'punk' Rock riffing that serves as the backbone of the German death' n' rollers' sophomore release. Part humorous venturing into the grotesque, part aggressively blasting out simple chord progressions, with the backing of Hammond organ and a mariachi trumpet adding texture, the band's music sounds like a bunch of drunk 20 year-old cowboys laughing their guts out at a horror b-movie, as surreal as that may seem.
The fun factor is kept high throughout, as we get a surprisingly diverse crop of tunes, ranging from the playful melodicism of the opener or the Hard Rock soloing of the addictive Schwarze Katze, to the occasional …blastbeat of Schwarze Witwen (…Sterben Gehen Pt. Eins), or the demonic slow dance of its fierce mid tempo twin, Der Mann Am Strick (…Sterben Gehen Pt. Zwei).
Singer Yantit's stern, alternately grunting or tremulously wailing delivery violently stitches all of these different elements together by sticking to an unabashedly Teutonic, positively alienating barbaric phrasing, that unexpectedly even manages to reach TOM WAITS' levels of ragged, late-night self-irony during the guitar-less, decaying-cabaret tune Der Apfelbaum, the album's true highlight.
Fans of RAMMSTEIN's more adventurous side, as best depicted in their relatively recent Latin-tinged, horn-driven minor hit Te Quiero Puta! should give this a good listen.