BlutEngel

BlutEngel

(I am convinced by this picture 

he's quite possibly a player... 

and he gets away with it 

because no one seems to mind.)

Hello wonderful people!

 

My last Halloween review, and this is what I shall end it with... I love vampires, I think they are quite sexy and you know what I don't care what other people say they're supposed to be. I absolutely love how they can be 'human' and full of lust all the while they're waiting for the perfect time to suck the blood right of their pray.... who happens to be a human.

BlutEngel means Blood Angel in German, what's a blood angel? A vampire and if you don't believe me, go to Google Images then search either Chris Pohl or BlutEngel and scroll through the pictures then come tell me I'm wrong...

The band is a 'Future Pop' music group formed in 1998 by Chris Pohl (as previously mentioned) the group was formed after he had to leave Seelenkrank for to legal drama that everyone loves so very much. Their music style is electronic (obviously) covering topics such as Love (including the tragic romance of vampires as well as the more animal aspects of desire says Wikipedia, and their song lyrics) as well as death, etc. The first ever BlutEngel album was released in 1999 called Child of Glass which captured the previous fans of Seelenkrank (and/or Terminal Choice or on of Chris's other projects) as well as bringing in new ones once it gained popularity in the club scene due to songs like "Weg Zy mir" and "Beauty of Suffering" (Kati Roloff and Nina Bendigjeit were the female vocalist for this album.) After the mass success of Child of Glass, things in the world of BlutEngel got quiet.

That is until 2001 when their second album Seelenschmerz was released. The lineup had changed for this album, Nina had her own solo career and Gini Martin joined Kati's side for the female vocals. This album contains the song that was (I think) the first song I ever heard on AOL's Gothic radio, Bloody Pleasures, other catchy songs on the album are "Soul of Ice, Children of the night, Seelenschmerz, and Der Spiegel." The album also got them enough popularity to perform live for the first time in the two years the band had been together. The concert took place at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen on June 1st 2001 in Leipzig in front of 10,000 fans.

I love this album so much; I listen to it more than any other album that I have (which is like three) but point being it's a real gem. I'm sure it has it's downsides but everything in life has its negative sides. Some people might disagree with that opinion because of the following album released in 2002, Angel Dust. 

New studio with new technical opportunities as well as new vocal scope (Kati and Gini left the band and were replaced with Constance Rudert and Eva Pölzing) allowed for the high quality production of the Angel Dust album. It received a huge feedback placing 58th on the top 100 albums in its first week because of songs like "Angel of the Night" as well as "Vampire Romance" which boosted their popularity.

 

2004 saw the release of Demon kiss as well as DVD called Live Lines (later in 2005) as well as Eva Pölzing being replaced by Ulrike Goldmann which led to a sound change for the band. The sound change threw off some older fans but some other people liked it, Chris was busy with Terminal Choice (his other project) and only had time to release The Oxiding Angel to introduce Ulrike to the world. The rest of the singles released for the next two years focused more on a pop sound until their long awaited fifth album Labyrinth was released in 2007 (which was followed by a small tour.) Constance stayed with the band until 2010 and was replaced by Steffi Weingarten.

Three albums has been released since 2007, one in 2009 called Schwarzes Eis, in 2011 came Tränenherz and later this year saw the release of the tenth anniversary of Seelenschmerz called, Seelenschmerz 10th anniversary.

Chris Pohl is the sexy looking front man for the band as I mentioned before, he embraces looking like a vampire and well liked writing songs involving vampires. However, he cut his hair at some point and it looked weird. He's grown it out more but shaved the side of his head and it still looks slightly weird but he still has the contacts. Personally my favorite hair style is in the video for their first live performance, however that is not my favorite live performance at all. It's far from it...

Listening to them perform Bloody Pleasures, (my favorite song I prefer the extended addition over the normal one) almost made me stop listening to them because of how horrible his vocals are for that song. However I thought that was too critical considering it's their first live performance so I gave them another chance and kept listening. There's the flaw in the what-seemed-perfect band. They had a rather rocky start when it came to Bloody Pleasures. Their DVD Moments of Our Lives (released in 2008 which contains rather ADHD editing effects as well as special lighting effects and whatnot) adds special effects that would give a normal person a seizure, however Chris's movements are possibly the most epic movements ever. He has a presence about him and it enticing... then he opens his mouth to sing Bloody Pleasures and I mute it because his voice is nowhere deep enough to sing that song. What happened is someone got a little vocal effect happy in the studio and went crazy with that song adding multiple layers and tones to song that aren't really there and making magic out of something that might not have been so magical. Eva singing I really don't like her voice, it bothers me because there are no female vocals on that song in the first place so she should stop trying to sing. I shall equate this to the abomination of a remix released on the Best of Breaking Benjamin album. That girl Velora, is not Ben Burnley she is in no way vocally capable of producing the impact that Ben does when I listen to him so when she is singing over him and trying to sound like him while having her voice put through some kind of filter, it caused my ears to damn near bleed.

That's what this girl is doing on Moments of Our Lives however both male and female vocalists aren't up to any standard, vocal wise. They do know how to put on a show. I could watch Chris perform (without singing) for hours and be entertained, he just needs to do something about that voice issue with bloody pleasures because it's obviously pushing some boundaries that he's not prepared for.

Take exhibit A: The entire opening of Bloody Pleasures until he starts singing. That whole opening part right there, completely amazing my eyes are entertained and have received their fair share of eye candy. Then they sing and it makes me cringe but there are breaks with Chris’s dramatic movements and I am happy again.

 (I want a dress like this)

Exhibit B: Children Of the Night the first two minutes of it his voice isn't that bad again vocal filters need to be a little less prominent in their songs I know, how could I pick on BlutEngel for heavy use of vocal effects when I damn near worship the ground Rudy Ratzinger walks on, simple they perform live so I can judge what they sound like live whereas I have no idea what Rudy sounds like live because he doesn't perform live. (As of yet, I am keeping my fingers crossed though.) Another thing, I wish I was the dancer for BlutEngel, it might be the slight vampire fetish I have but I would absolutely love to at least have him pretend to be vampire like and at least nibble on my neck. Yeah I think Chris is hot because he looks like a vampire I'm sorry, he's a sexy man.

Downside time, that girl is annoying and needs to not sing. I really don't like her voice; it kills the song for me. I can stand Chris's voice but not hers. It's not Constance (the girl with the red hair) it's the girl with the black (Eva I am assuming) Constance is fairly good at singing whereas Eva sounds like she is trying entirely too hard.

My last thoughts on the band, they're not great but they're not bad. They're okay which is okay but I'd personally like to see more amazing things from them. Who knows, they could pull a reverse Wumpscut and become completely epic. (Wumpscut shall receive a review later on for now it's BlutEngel's turn.) As hard as it was to not obsess over Chris Pohl looking as amazing as he does, I had to give myself some room to gush over his “vampireness.”

This is Pugsly hoping you all had a safe and sugar filled Halloween!

See you all again next year!