Sheep in wolf's clothing!
Here we have another great band from Germany signed to the ever popular People Like You Records. Now for the majority of songs, Broilers sing in their native German, which for us ignorant English speakers can be annoying, however there are some good songs here that break the language barrier, reuniting with a love of rock music.
'Vantas' is the first album for Broilers on a major record album, and it is a mixed bag for those of us who only know how to be polite in a barely passable GSCE standard. The album starts off with an acoustic interlude which leans towards a more Spanish or South American feel to anything German, British or American where you would expect the influences to come from for a punk album. Things kick into a full sing-a-long frenzy in, 'Zuruck Zum Beton' which is slightly Backyard Babies mixed with Rancid and The Clash and with a good hint of German culture thrown into the mix.
Although the song sounds good, it has a classic European rock feel to, 'Meine Sache' that could be seen as a little bit cheesy. It has a nice piano melody over a mid-tempo beat, but turns a little into a big power ballad that would have been huge in the 80's, and probably still will be in Germany today. Things are a little better with the Ska-punk flavoured jig of, 'Held In unserer Mitte', before the thick riffs of album title tune, 'Vanitas'. However, it is, 'Ruby Light & Dark' which jumps straight out in it's very Rancid-esque street punk mixed with a dash of goth rock.
Things turn a little bit rockabilly in the music on 'Das Verdikt Rache' before the songs blends a little bit into a mediocre middle of the road rock song, and this is sometimes the problem here as although a lot of the songs start off original, they have a tendency of sounding very samey. 'Lost Soul' could be AFI singing in German, whilst, 'Punk Rock Song' is a little bit like Left Alone with keyboards mixed with punk rock. 'Werdet Ihr Folgen' has a little more balls to it with deeper vocals and feverish guitar licks, which is only surpassed by the great, 'Sicherheit'.
The heavy dual of keyboards and guitars give a nice rhythm section with great depth to the almost rock'n'roll influenced track of, 'Wir Gehen Schomal Vor', and it's a job to know what to say about the fusion of reggae, ska and slide guitar in, 'Schnonheit Das Biest'. It's a nice enough song although sounds rather out of place here. This is the problem with an album that has 19 songs on, that mixes up many musical tastes and genres. I can see that the band themselves say that they are drawing on their musical roots and influences, but sometimes you have to have an idea which way you are trying to go.
'Vanitas' has been described as oi-punk mixed with rockabilly, however the punk is at most stages non-existent, unlike their fellow country men, Frontkick, who prove to be the best German punk band around. The rockabilly isn't evident enough either, so what we get is a fairly decent rock band that dips in and out of many genres but could perhaps be best described as a European hard rock band with a slight goth-punk leaning.
It's not bad stuff, but folks this is not oi punk, nor street punk, so if you want this then look elsewhere. This is so European that it should've been recorded in Brussels.