DIES IRAE

DIES IRAE was quite popular on the German live circuit and shared the stage with many of the bands that would become Krautrock legends but for many reasons DIES IRAE did not enjoy the longevity that many of its contemporaries have enjoyed with the resurgence of psychedelic music and therefore have been pretty much forgotten by all except the hardcore Kraut addicts who seek out the obscurities. One of the problems with FIRST when it was released in 1971 was that the occult lyrical content was extremely controversial and while other Kraut bands were receiving radio airplay time, this band was literally shunned.

However when a band becomes banned, there are always those who seek out the forbidden fruits of the music industry and therefore this band has enjoyed a cult following over the decades complete with CD reissues. Another problem with FIRST is that it is all over the place with the opening track "Lucifer" featuring a hard rock repertoire with bluesy rock and even a harmonica. Compared to early Black Sabbath, which is totally legit, the band totally abandoned the hard rock aspects in the middle of the album and with the track "Trip" drifts off into true psychedelic freakery much like Can did on "Tago Mago" and bands like Faust and Cluster did all the time.

Although the opening track "Lucifer" is rather silly and amateurish, the remaining heavier tracks remind me more of the Scorpions' debut album "Lonesome Crow" which was basically a bridge between the psychedelic Krautrock of the early 70s with the more straight forward hard rock of the latter part of the decade. Unfortunately lead vocalist Rainer Gerd Walhmann doesn't quite match the charismatic singing prowess of Klaus Meine but he does get the job done. The album's bizarre inconsistency reminds me of those late 70s albums where bands were forced to stuff in a career's worth of ideas because they knew they only had one shot and therefore FIRST seems more like a collection of tracks rather than a cohesive album experience but having stated that, it's actually all quite pleasant and totally fits in with the Kraut vibe of the year 1971, opening track excluded.

Unfortunately first impressions do matter. The opening track "Lucifer" may sour this one for many and the unattractive barbed wire fence album cover evokes more of a concentration camp scene rather than a Kraut filled escapist's paradise. Yeah, the DIES IRAE members were not masters of marketing by any means but with the right guidance this band certainly had the talent to take things a bit farther and deserved a couple more albums since the potential is obvious from the tight-knit musicianship and the effortless transition between lysergic floatiness to bluesy hard rock. The band did have a brief reunion in 1991 but no new album came from it so DIES IRAE remains one of those one and done bands that released a sole artifact on the timeline and then went bye-bye. This is one of those albums that's a bit hard to rate. It's not good enough for 4 stars yet is too good for 3 so i guess 3.5 stars is warranted. Rounded down to 3 though.

What we have here is, as other reviewers have commented, a band that sound remarkably like 'Black Sabbath' - a band I've never been keen on. However, the saving grace is the fact that there's a fair bit originality in amongst the run of the mill heavy rock numbers.

Take a look in 'YouTube' for the great video to 'Trip'. (It really is a video - whoever said 'Bohemian Rhapsody was first there is wrong!). You'll see some dodgy characters here who's faces you'd just love to punch! A great tune which is very reminiscent of Floyd circa 'Meddle' but NOT representative of the album as a whole.

Unfortunately most of the other tracks are pretty much straight rock, although the album is disturbingly catchy considering I really can't be bothered with this style of music.

Rainer Wahlmann's vocals are pretty good but derivative in their execution. The drums get pass marks too with some bloke named Andreas Cornelius giving it some serious 'welly'. But, crumbs almighty - gonna sack that harmonica! Yeeuuuch!

A real mish mash of an album that barely scrapes 3 stars. From the dreadfully bad to the dull and ordinary to the surprisingly cool within it's short 36 minute duration. It's not bad... but nothing great.

One such band was Dies Irae who released a single LP in 1971 on the obscure BASF/Pilz label simply entitled "First" ( maybe a more fitting title would be "First and Last" in hindsight! ). Long after all the smoke from the bedlam of that era cleared a concert was held in Saarbrucken in Saarland to celebrate some of this long lost music with a Dies Irae reunion being one of the highlights. A subsequent album was released entitled "Saarbruck Live" which featured 3 cuts from the Dies Irae set. Those three tracks plus the remainder of the set form the foundationand introduce this 78 minute 15 track demo CD that conpletes Dies Irae"s recorded library if you have the highly collectible "First" album on either CD or Vinyl.

Beginning with the live set which includes all the tracks from the "First" album, this has got to be some of the heaviest psych ever laid down. Plenty of relentless guitar freaking along with the wacked out vocals of Rainer Wahlmann from this 1992 hippie orgy. The musicianship is suprisingly above average for such a band and it gets into some really trippy jazzy and bluesy grooves. Wahlmann joins in on mouth harp here and there making the music even more unusual. Those who might be familiar with "First" with it's meticulous Conny Plank engineering will no doubt be in for a big suprise here. Th songs are balsy, literally right-in-your-face and might even scare some old hippies. All the controversial lyrics that got them into trouble when their album was broadcast live on WDR Radio in 1971 are recited here with tenacity and conviction. 60 years down the line there was a bit more tolerance! The centerpiece and jewel of the album is arguably a track called " The Trip" ( the warped 1971 8mm video can be viewed on youtube ). " To nowhere, throw the dice" vocalist Wahlmann chants as he muses about what he prefers, heaven or hell. So he takes a trip to both as he vapourizes into the sureal lyrics. " Hell was fightening!" he declares at one point. Audacious versions of "Lucifer", "Witche's Meeting" and "Harmageddon Dragonlove" are delivered without irresolution as well. And as the master of ceremonies raves at the beginning this part of the CD this is what rock 'n' roll legends are made of.

Around the same time of this live reunion in the fall of 1992 the band attempted to re-unite for another studio album and wrote 5 new songs which were laid down in rough mixes in the Green Wave studios in Riegelsberg, Saarland. They had a raunchy cosmic blues sound that the live set had and were recorded straight with few overdubs. The lyrics were typical of the earlier Dies Irae style that got them into trouble back in '71. Despite the potential for another album the band split for good in December 1992 and slipped into Krautrock folklore forever and those 5 tracks are included here.

Featured as bonus tracks are two Dies Irae tracks that appeared on a long lost to time Krautrock compilation of Christmas songs that was also released on the BASF Pilz label entitled "Heavy Christmas". Dies Irae's contribution to this festive Frankenstein included a nightmarish version of "Silent Night" complete with air raid sirens and gunfire followed by the band's special stoned Christmas message on Shepherd's Song.

The only complaint about this gem would be the varying quality of each individual track that and the abrupt cuts between selections. Available exclusively directly from Rainer Wahlmann this is an essential for fans of early Krautrock searching for that long lost classik. A true Krautrock freakout blast from the past.

Excellent cosmic blues from this obscure German band which reformed briefly in the early `90s. Both tracks can be found on the LP "First" Dies Irae`s one and only studio LP, original pressings of which, like this single are almost impossible to find and fetch high $$$$$$. Unless you`re a serious collector, I would go for the LP which is also available on CD.

Although there are a few tracks ( Lucifer, Another Room, Armagedon Dragonlove ) that get into some groovin' blues/rock riffing there's just too much LSD in these concoctions especially the drugged out vocals to take too seriously. Tired picks up the pace somewhat followed by Witches Meeting which gets into some freaky guitar effects but too much time is wasted on a couple of directionless bass and drum solos here. Red Lebanese Parts 1&2 ( another drug of choice? ) continues on with a bit more structure and more freaky guitar and gets into a jazzier blues slant with Red Lebanese Part 2 briefly becoming more melodic with some acoustic thrown into the mixture along with some toned down electric guitar then returning to the original blues riff. The strangest track on the record and the one which perhaps holds the most curiousity is simply titled Trip. Basically a sound experiment, again with various guitar treatments that was also made into a surreal short 8mm film, a visual presentation of an LSD trip that was even shown on German TV!

Unfortunately the creative potential of these far out blues, rock and elecronic studio experiments are not fully realized because every groove they hit is just not exploited to the max. There are certainly some really cool moments in this mindtrip from these blues hippies, mostly thanks to Plank's studio wizardry, but Die Israe's First will hold more appeal for followers of '60s head counter-culture than it will for the uninitiated. The band was reformed briefly in the early '90s and three live tracks from First ( Lucifer, Another Room and Trip) appear on a 1991 album, Saarlive, recorded in their hometown of Saarbrucken, Germany which are by far superior and more mature than the versions presented here.