Dÿse - Widergeburt (Cover Artwork)

Dÿse

Widergeburt (2021)

Cargo records


Dÿse are meant to be representative of the new wave of German Noise Rock and Widergeburt, Dÿse’s fourth album, strikes as being their ready to go album. They spent seven years since their last one, Das Nation also on Cargo, and those years seem well spent, since they went straight into the German official charts at an impressive number 22 in September last year. And at first listen it does sound impressive, the sound quality is superior, like if you were in one of those Berlin techno clubs dominated by steel and concrete where the sound of bass and drums is just at a point of perfection. This marries well with their combination of industrial, gothic noise-rock, avant-garde, heavy metal and hardcore punk influences. Think of any, or of all of the bands of those genres since the nineties, say, System of a Down, Deftones, Downset, The Bronx, etc; put some Einstürzende Neubauten -for obvious reasons, or even the song “Präirieauster '' has some clubbing Underworld in it. The keyboards also help add that sense of gothic. All extremely thoughtful. The performance is intense and tight, such that it gets you into a state of (juvenile) euphoria where you also want to be part of something like that. But it’s exactly that aesthetic that leaves a funny feeling like when you watch a movie, it can be good but it’s only fiction, therefore, of doubtful authenticity. Once it finishes you go back to reality. It might just be entertainment, for some, but a matter of life and death for others. The composition is tricky and challenging, based almost on atonality and built on a kind of virtuoso guitar playing and heavy hectic drums. The lyrics are just a fill in, they do say something but superficially, their main significance is to have something to sing or yell. And if they try to convey any rage, they don’t make it beyond adolescent rebellion. There are some interesting verses, though, like in “Alles ist meins” or “89/90”, an adaptation of a novel by Peter Richter about the transition after the fall of the Berlin Wall in the city of Dresden, former east Germany. Officially Dÿse might still be a duo but that’s not what you hear on Widergeburt. I suppose the magnitude of such an ambitious production had to welcome other parties. So the guitar and drums duo is assisted in the studio by different bass players, among them big names in the world of German music, that is Rammstein, Beatsteaks or Die Ärzte’s Farin Urlaub, who plays the keyboards on "Alles ist Meins" (Everything is mine), which together with “89/90” are the best songs on an album that if still well done, in general it results in a feeling that it was all an interpretation, very correct but lacking veracity.