Stahlwerk 9 — The Grey Ghost
Reinhard Hopfe has been releasing material under his steely moniker for nearly twenty years now and it is not uncommon for projects of this longevity to start driving in circles – though you could of course argue that some are already guilty of this come their second album and be quite right, too. At this stage of the game, most artists have an enraging tendency to favour tried and tested recipes, either to please their audience or, more prosaically, because they simply haven’t got much to tell anymore. Inevitably, they end up biting their own artistic tail more often than not and while this might be more of an issue for your average rock band, the stylistic confines of the industrial genre can sometimes be as limiting as the proverbial bass-guitar-drums conundrum.
Maybe it’s his time off with his Sturmpercht mates or the other side-projects he has been busying himself with over the years which allow him to return to the foundry with a fresh mind but I am glad to report that our Mittel-European friend has yet to be proven guilty of the above-mentioned misdemeanour, a fact which this new album is ample proof of. Don’t get me wrong, though, what you’ll find here is no drastic departure or major re-invention. If you liked his previous albums, I am quite ready to wager you’ll enjoy this one, too. No, what’s telling is how fresh and inspired Reinhard manages to make it all sound.
As is his habit, the man knows how to pace his songs – seven nine- to ten-minute tracks in this particular case, which means, for those mathematically-impaired amongst us, that the album clocks in at a bit more than an hour – and manages to conjure up mental images of a bygone grandeur with an apparent effortlessness and power of evocation second to none. At times moody and melancholic, at others downright malicious and telluric, the atmospheres never sound tired or dated and flow nicely into each other, giving The Grey Ghost a very nice balance indeed. As a man of experience, Reinhard never abuses clichés (speech samples, anyone?) and his use of rhythmic elements (the bass can get quite rumbling at times) is intelligently sparse enough to let the actual music do the talking. And really, why should it be any different when the sounds he gets out of his tools are this good?
Over the years, Stalhwerk 9 have refined their brand of industrial signature, drawing in elements from dark ambient and neo-classical to power electronics and noise, to splendid effect and it feels like they still have a good deal left in them to say. No running behind past glories, rather a project intent on producing their best work yet and getting there at just the right pace.
Ultimately, it is too early to say what the exact merits of this album will be when it finally settles down into the already imposing Stahlwerk 9 body of work. While it might not have the immediacy of personal favourites such as the afore-mentioned Revolution of the Antichrist, Der Tod Nagelt Die Augen Zu or even the 1905 album, this might just prove to be its main strength over the long-term. And really, in a genre where stylistic repetitiveness is de rigueur, instant self-gratification is best looked for elsewhere anyway...