Cost: $2.00
Feels like a bit of an odd release, especially considering the band are now playing pretty standard power metal stuff a decade later. The intro is the only thing here that resembles their later material, and it's just a short speed metal version of the first verse of the Swiss children's song "Roti Rösli" ("Red Roses"). It ends up being the heaviest and purest metal on the entire EP. The two original songs are both slower-paced and kind of meander on. "The Pulse" has very mellow verses and then a more hard-driving riff during the chorus, but the song is also very hard rockish. It's not until the solo section and the preceding bass run that it feels like proper metal. "Hymn" is an attempt at an epic anthem celebrating Switzerland (I think?). Considering the female guest vocals, the brief spoken word/narrated vocals, and the slightly folksy/kitschy feel, I suppose there's a very vague similarity to something you might typically find on a fantasy power metal album, but again, despite the distorted guitar, things feel very rockish and unheavy.
I'll tackle the cover songs individually:
Schrei nach Liebe (Die Ärzte) - The most straightforward cover and probably the best in terms of sounding like the original.
This is the Life (Amy Macdonald) - Never heard the original song so I had to briefly check it out. Seems recognizeable but due to my unfamiliarity with the track I'm not really invested in it.
La Isla Bonita (Madonna) - I was expecting this to be highly amusing either in a very good or very bad way. While not terrible or anything, it's rather punky and fairly unrecognizeable aside from the lyrics.
Das Model (Kraftwerk) - Stripped down cover, no electronic effects here. Obviously quite a different feel from the original, but just as a guitar-based rock/metal cover, pretty admirable.
To be fair, I'm not sure how the band were marketing themselves at the time. Based on the variety and selection of covers, this disc feels more like a promo release to help Crashtime book gigs as a cover band. The covers are decent from a purely technical perspective but as a metal fan, I found both the original songs and the cover song choices to be underwhelming and a bit disappointing. It is kind of heartening to know they heavied up and didn't waste the potential in that intro track!
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