The South of Germany has always had a historic affinity to death metal made in Sweden: for some 20 years, Fleshcrawl have oriented their music to the raw Stockholm style, and a few years later, Violation and Soul Demise drew inspiration from Gothenburg. AKREA from the Oberpfalz region also prefer to flirt with various manifestations of elk death rather than peer a few kilometres up the road to Bayreuth in Upper Frankonia and follow in Richard Wagner’s footsteps. At the same time, they liberated themselves from the influence of their idols at an early stage, exploring in their compositions new paths which they have been following ever since with reflected German lyrics of a kind which is highly unusual in their genre. One day after the release of their second album, ”Lügenkabinett”, on 22 October they will celebrate at their release show a mere five years of band history, this period also including their pre-AKREA phase when they still operated as Inner Aggression. Having recorded an English-language demo, even their 2007 debut recording ”Beginning Of An Inner War”, still released under their old moniker, saw the musicians opt for their current lyrical direction.

On their hopefully still very long journey through life, ”Lügenkabinett” is a next step which AKREA have taken together with Victor Bullock again. The Triptykon and Dark Fortress guitarist (also known as V. Santura) took care of AKREA’s transparent sound at his Woodshed studios, despite his love of detail always keeping an eye on live performances, so AKREA will not have to go without fundamental arrangements or have to use samples. The inclusion of piano passages, for example, has been restricted to the instrumental, ’Zwischen den Welten’, which, together with the other instrumental, ’Ach was bist Du schön...’, will in all probability remain but a studio recording.

The combination of the latter two song titles indicates, even without knowing the words, the biting irony which rules Sebastian Panzer’s lyrics. The cabinet of lies as an overriding concept describes a not necessarily human power which feigns an ideal world to us here on earth. Panzer unmasks and criticises that manipulation, at times in metaphors, at others in an open reckoning with the information, fun and couch potato society which is choking on its contradictions. His vocals, somewhere between massive growls and variable screams, is certainly no less committed than on the album’s predecessor, if slightly deeper and more controlled. The introduction to ’Versprochen Ist Versprochen’ may hint at a (semi-)ballad, though melodic vocals are currently not a priority for the band. But who knows which direction the quintet’s lifeline may still take them. You should never feel safe when it comes to AKREA: they’re much too open as musicians and songwriters to ever be predictable.