VARG - "LEGACY EP" (German Pagan Metal; Appetizer eleven track CD EP release via "LEGACY MAGAZINE" in 2012)

VARG - "LEGACY EP"
("Legacy Magazine"; CD):

So, next one and at least for this very one here we will stay for a little while longer in the Metal department. This one here is a little appetizer CD release as a foretaste of or for the new album by Germanys Pagan Metal darlings of VARG that's released as a free garnish of one of the very last issues of and via the german Metal magazine of the name of "LEGACY" and so you should also know by now how the title of this little album came to happen and what's the meaning of it, of the name or title of "LEGACY EP". This band is heavily discussed over here in Germany, some name them as too commercially and label them as PC mainstream dickheads that rape and use and abuse this whole Pagan/Viking thing for the benefit of money making and that are just into it for the sell out, some other label them as Nazis or at least "Nazi friends" that just moved by pure money greed driven into the middle, politically and commercially, of the Metal scenery, and again some others defend them against the upbraidings of both sides and celebrate them as one of the best Metal bands of today, especially from Germany. Okay, if they believe in this whole Pagan thing or if they just use it as a gimmick, pffff, I don't care about, I don't know about it. But, in my perception, it won't make anything that much better if they would believe in a sky or heaven that is filled with a lot of neurotic Superheroes with some more or less spectacular Superpowers that come down to earth to have some fun with fucking, fighting, drinking, and fucking, fighting, drinking, and, of course, killing and, again, fucking, fighting, drinking with their disciples and believers, I mean, for example, I love the whole "MARVEL" and "D.C." thing, but I wouldn't form a personal religion I believe in out of it, and the "MARVEL"/"D.C." Superheroes aren't even neurotic or at least not so heavily neurotic like the whole ''nordic gods''... Yes, okay, this was of course surely some sort of a little bit overdrawn so cool down your mood, all you brave Pagan Vikings outta there. ;-) And, yes, you can believe what ever you want, at least if you ask me, and this is all good and fine and this is also how it should be. But, anyway, yes, I think that you can make some good money with this whole Pagan thing, especially in Metal, but that's nothing new and is well known for many years now, so now secret or evil conspiracy going on here or anywhere else. Hm, and I think that the guys in VARG surely don't run in their private life around with, for example, red and black corpsepaint, as well as for example the guys in ENSLAVED won't be running around in their cloathings made out of leather and fur as well, so you see, who should blame them for making some money with and out of this whole Pagan stuff thing, neither they believe in it from the heart or just use it as a money making vehicle for their very own fiscal benefits. If they are Nazis or at least "Nazi friends" I also don't know, hm, and after I am not in business with some thought police stuff I also don't care for it that much. Okay, to dress up in ABSURD shirts on public photos wasn't and isn't that smart of you if you don't share their political beliefs in NS and WP and don't want to be positioned next to them on the NS/WP sector, and also it's not so smart to play and/or make concerts with ABSURD and in their musical and political department when you have no political alliances with them, if it's true what was some time ago ''everywhere'' on the web to read, but everyone can make mistakes and make wrong or questionable decisions, but anyhow, bottom line is that neither I know nor I care about if they are anyhow into NS and/or WP or not, and what's from my point of view the deal with this whole sell out affair I think I have also already pretty much enough pointed out. Hm, but anyhow, that magazines like "ROCK HARD", "METAL HAMMER", and "LEGACY" hype them like cold beer for free on a hot summer day at a Metal festival and propagate them as totally politically credible by any means is anyway pretty strange if I think back and remember what a big trouble some of this mags did back then in cases of bands like UNLEASHED and MORBID ANGEL, to name just two examples. So, okay, enough thoughts and words about this band and its standing and the controversial discussion around it all, now back to the topic, this little CD and the music featured on it. We get eleven tracks in total on this silver shining compact disc, hm, and okay, after this is more or less my first experience with VARG, hm, I have to admit that I have not a single clou which songs are pretty new up on this very one here, but judging by the datas of year and age listeted behind the song titles then the opening track "GUTEN TAG" is from 2012 new and seems to be also the title track of the brandnew album of VARG as well as the third song "TIER" that is from 2012 and also labled as exclusive (I guess for this very disc here), the other ones are, "WIR SIND DIE WÖLFE", "SCHWERTZEIT" and "ROTKÄPPCHEN" (feat. Anna Murphy... who ever this may be) are all from 2011 and so I would guess that this tracks had been already released on older respectively earlier released albums of VARG before this one here. Beside this five studio recording songs from 2011 and 2012 we get also six live recorded songs, "WOLFSZEIT" (written in 2007), "BLUTAAR" (written in 2010), "VIEL FEIND, VIEL EHR" (written in 2010), "DONAREICHE" (written in 2007), "NAGELFAR" (written in 2011), and "SKAL" (written in 2007), all songs had been live recorded in 2011 at the band's very own "WOLFSZEIT" named festival in pretty good sound recording quality. So, okay, then for all what I know or think to know then VARG started as a Pagan Metal band and are always everywhere labeled still so today, also by themselves (I think so). Lyrically, however, but musically they honestly seem to me more than some sort of aggressive, heavy, yet pretty melodic kind of pretty modern and only slightly northern influenced ''Death'' Metal stuff than something anyhow like Pagan or maybe Viking Metal stuff, with what I personally by myself associate more bands like for example the above already mentioned ENSLAVED or something like this, hm, and also the music of VARG, judging by this eleven track disc here, isn't anyhow really ''occult'' or ''extreme'' or what ever, it's more than anything like this pretty trendy and mainstream compatible and especially the big bunch of ''tough'' and ''paganized'' kiddie Metalheads will really cheer up to this stuff for sure. Okay, what ever this now precisely may mean... Personally for me, I just think that this is pretty much one of the most overrated and mostly hyped bands in Metal today, point and fact. But maybe it's just a matter of age, who knows... a matter of taste surely, but anyway... We get mostly in heavy mid tempo to as well heavy sort of up tempo paced forward stomping songs with a some sort of hymnal approach to it all. Heavy yet melodic and pretty massive done somehow dark guitars, a pretty stunning and powerful rhythm section, all pretty stoic hammering and such stuff, while some solos and leads shake it all here and there a little bit up, so that it's pretty stoic but never really monolithic or something like this. And then there are still the lead vocals, more or less guttural done pretty hysteric drooling lead vocals, but that are done totally stale and also damn commutable without any charisma and also anything but really skilled, and not to talk about the terrible crappy dull and dumb abysmal lyrical outpourings, all done in german, but one short translation of a very embossing line of the lyrics to "TIER" which means "ANIMAL": "Your blood starts to flow and it makes me horny." What a bullshit farce, even they want to deal with serious issues, like psychotic sickness like in this very case, they do it in a totally ridiculous adolescent way, sorry guys, but that's just nothing than a incredible ridiculous farce. The other lyrics are more or less about some strange "Unity!" stuff with a for some specifics folks maybe pretty questionable vocabulary used in it (but, in this case, they are totally right, because why ever should they care about the wellbeing of such defaming PC nutjobs), about being some sort of misunderstood outcasts that live their lifes with a true and self-determined cause in contrast to the countless members of the faceless grey mass running through the streets of this world, and about some more or less mythological and respectively or paganized topics and they like to adjure heavily some sort of a battlefield and final battle last stand atmosphere, hm, even they look also even with their wanna be evil snoots and the pretty unsightly red and black corpse or face paint like the well raised affluent middle class kids playing what they think a rebel against the modern society must be that they also maybe in reality in fact really are. Okay, anyhow, back to the music that they bring us, some last words that I forgot to point out before I gave you a overview over the contents and qualities of their lyrics, so I just have to say that even the guys in VARG are pretty well skilled and well versed musicians they really lack any protrude ability to write anyhow songs that really stipulate themselves in your ears, it's a very insipid and convertible style and sound that they play that also lacks any atmosphere with a however and whatever Pagan feeling to it all, and so I really ask myself why the hell this guys are so heavily cheered and celebrated on the one side and so heavily deuced on the other side (even maybe because of different reasons from their different groups of hostile contemporaries), neither the music nor the lyrics give any reasons for this, so it's again, so I think also in the case of VARG, that it is again nothing else than the political and ideological discussion around this band and nothing else that heated it all so up and helped the guys heavily out to gain such a pretty big presence, success and following. Anyhow this tells a lot about what's going on in Germany no matter in which however subcultural underground music secenery. But think for yourself a little bit about it all and come to your own conclusions. What's left to say is that the artwork is very strait and slender and also aesthetically a pretty ridiculous cliché affair, just by looking at the cover picture you should know what I mean, but at the end (at least just by looking at the coverage) pretty okay for a free release, and the production sound of the album respectively the studio recordings is pretty good and loud and hard and brutal, while also the live recordings have a pretty decent sound quality. Okay, absolutely nothing for me and I can't imagine what can or just could make anyone go nuts about this band, by judging just by this disc, but I think I am also anything but in the target group, so fans may see it very different and will be made hungry by this little appetizer disc. Decide for yourself what you make out of it, choose your side or so, haha ;-) ... The points they get for their pretty strong song "WIR SIND DIE WÖLFE", the only track to stand out and is really worth listening to it, as well as their at least pretty sympathic live recordings and their backbone to go their own way without bowing down to their ''enemies''. Guys, you're doing right with this. (3 of 10 points)
(http://www.varg.de/)
(http://www.facebook.com/VargOfficial)