Mephisto Walz - IIIrd Incarnation

What the hell. Seriously what the hell is going on here, Mephisto Walz have re-appeared out of nowhere with their best album in over 15 years. Leader and founding member Barry Galvin has assembled a new line-up for the band and cranked the power into the red and beyond. Mephisto Walz celebrate their 25th anniversary in style with a new album that hits vengefully, some of it even has Galvin on lead vocals, making this the first record since 'Crocosmia' to have a decidedly masculine tone to it. If you don't know this man's background, go to wikipedia or discogs and dig in, I don't have the space to fully list his accomplishments and past affiliations in the span of a single review. The guy has paid his dues, that's all I'm going to say.

Over the years, Mephisto Walz have always had an uncompromisingly unique sound to their work and true to the style they helped define in the 1980s: a myriad of members. William Faith was an early bassist, Stevyn Grey bashed the skins for a while as did 'Catastrophe Ballet' alumni David Glass. The defining factor has been, and continues to be, Galvin's brilliant abilities as both a guitarist and arranger. This fellow's effects rack has got to be something to see, he is a master of textures and tones and they are employed to blistering effect on 'IIIrd Incarnation'. Many of the songs featuring new vocalist Sara Reid are almost punk they move so quickly and are so short. If original frontman Jorque is still alive out there somewhere, here's hoping he hears this. She is more than a worthy successor to his unhinged, demented visions. Unlike him, though, I don't think she's endured electro shock therapy and with luck will be around longer than he was.

This new girl has a vaguely Siouxsie-esque sound to her style but it's grittier, and on more than one occasion she drops it all to speak over the music with vicious authority

I'll be damned if this thing doesn't fit perfectly alongside their early, early recordings. Mephisto Walz are amazingly muscular on this outing with no sign of letting up and the only influence I can make out is the same one I've always heard throughout the decades of listening to them: Xmal Deutschland. It's no direct line, either, but the dissonance in some of the endings of songs just for some reason reminds me of them. It should be pointed out that Xmal have been gone for over 20 years now but Mephisto Walz are still around, bless them, sounding incredibly angry yet at the same time righteously stripped down. Who played the drums on this one, I'd really like to know. If they're not live then that is some badass programming.

The variation in each song is, just like I've come to expect, epic. Sometimes it is all I can do to just listen with a grin on my face to one of the originals, one of the greats and one of the first generation of Gothic artists punch it up to the stars with a victorious return to form. May 17 2011