Review by Daniel for In Extremo - Sünder ohne Zügel (2001)

2001's "Sünder ohne Zügel" represents the fifth & most celebrated album from German folk metallers In Extremo who are supposedly one of the senior players in a subgenre known as "Medieval Folk Metal". I only recently heard about this particular subgenre & immediately found myself feeling curious to see what it sounded like. And it was this curiosity that drew me into giving "Sünder ohne Zügel"  a few spins. 

Surprisingly, there's very little of anything "medieval" about this record. In fact, it sounds very clean & modern compared to most folk metal I've heard which left me pondering over whether it even qualified for the genre at all. But after several listens I came to the realization that there was just enough folk instrumentation to warrant the Folk Metal tag (particularly the regular bagpipe contributions) with the rest of In Extremo's sound being comprised mainly of Nu Metal & Alternative Metal with little bits of Progressive, Industrial & Traditional Heavy Metal tossed into mix on occasion too. The vocals of front man Das letzte Einhorn are delivered in the deep, croaky, monotonous & heavily German style of Rammstein's Till Lindemann & are written in the band's native tongue as far as I can tell.  

There are 4 or 5 very good songs scattered across the tracklisting & the band was obviously quite experienced in the studio because everything sounds very clear, tight & generally pretty heavy. But sadly there are too many tracks where I find myself put off by parts that sound more like Limp Bizkit or the more generic Korn efforts than they do the better works of the largely black metal driven folk metal genre. And then we get those cheesy folk melodies. Certainly not as many as you'll find in most folk metal outings but they're there nonetheless. So overall this amounts to a record that (whilst generally well composed & executed) ultimately fits comfortably within the confines of my "none of my business" file.

For fans of: Subway To Sally, Saltatio Mortis, Ignis Fatuu