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Notre Dame finally return with a new album filled with intense music with an erotic overtone. Now don't let your thoughts wander in the wrong direction because this has little to do with the younger generations of gothic metal bands like Tristania, Theatre Of Tragedy or Lacuna Coil. Instead the musical roots of this Swedish-French project can easily be traced to the punk rock scene. Add to this some more traditional heavy metal riffs, a portion of guitar solos, some electronics, an industrial touch and raw unpolished vocals and you will get some kind of an idea of what Notre Dame is about. There are very few female vocals but there is indeed a female member in the band who is apparent in their live shows with her dance act. As you may see the erotic overtone does not lie in the music itself but in the lyrics that are mainly centered around sex, satan and sado-masochism. Could it get any better? Snowy Shaw is one of the most experienced metal musicians Sweden has to offer and his work with King Diamond, Memento Mori and Dream Evil is quite impressive but in those bands he is more of a follower. Here he is creating something of his own and I am not lying when I say that there is no other band that I know of who sound like Notre Dame. Not using any clichés or quotes from the rather silly promo sheet from Osmose I still have to admit that it is impossible to categorize this band or put them into a genre. It is aggressive, harsh, heavy, atmospheric, chaotic, beautiful, extreme, rough, raw, unpolished, dark... No use writing more, this is an album you have to check out for yourself. A little bit of boredom kicks in from time to time and the vocals could have been better but overall this is still a rather entertaining album. Those of you who are fans of Osmose Productions in general should know that this is as commercial as it gets on the French label though. They use sex and horror as marketing and there are even some obvious Rammstein influences in one of the songs. Did I mention their cover of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking"?
| Tracklist |
| 1. The Thing.../Munsters! |
| 2. The Ride / My Ride Into Afterlife |
| 3. The Stripper |
| 4. Verbal Diarrhoea |
| 5. Bon Voyage Mutherfucker! |
| 6. The Master, The Servant And The Slave |
| 7. Beyond The Threshold Of Pain |
| 8. Hitmusic For Hitmen |
| 9. Demi Monde Bizarros |
| 10. S/S Hellride |
| 11. These Boots Are Made For Walking (Bonus Live) |
| 12. The World Is Sick...And So Are We (Bonus Live) |
: 41.17
| Buy other Notre Dame albums |
