MEPHISTO WALTZ

EN

No new music but a at least a new release! Aha and what kind of music! Bang!! Hello!? Back to 1986! Yes indeed that long ago but still as fresh as a daisy, but one with nice black flower. Death-Rock and Gothic-Rock waltz with the devil. If you don't know this Mephisto Walz, well, 10 whip-lashes are yours, and hell too, but I suspect you prefer this exciting and daring environment to the rather tasteless rice pudding with golden spoons in heaven.

In 1986 Mephistol Walz emerged from the ashes of death-rock icons Christian Death. Mephisto Walz was founded by Bari-Bari and John Schuman (RIP) when cult figure Rozz Williams (RIP) had left the band Christian Death a year earlier and a dispute arose with new Christian Death frontman Valor Kand. That same year, the band already released its first album, the EP “Mephisto Walz” on the obscure Italian Supporti Fonografici label, containing 6 songs in the Death-Rock tradition that would each become cult and would later appear on numerous compilations.

The name Mephisto Walz was immediately etched into the black-wallpapered bedroom wall of every Death-Rock and Gothic-Rock lover. Now Bari-Bari, still the great inspirer of his Mephisto Walz in 2025, is once again bringing these songs to the attention on a limited edition of 300 vinyl copies. Songs that had already been released on CD in 2000 on the compilation “Eary Recordings 1985 -1988” (Cleopatra).

On this self-released vinyl you get masterpieces like “Tribal Conflicts”, “Alle In Asche”, “Oh Fallen Angel”, “Painted Black” (indeed a cover of The Rolling Stones, but in my opinion better in the Mephisto Walz version), “Porecelain Gods”, “Eternal Deep”, “Forest Dying” and “Aboriginee Requiem”. Eight blissful Death-Rock songs with a tribal primal scream and a 'sehnsucht' like the flying Dutchman who, rocking on the waves of passion, haunts your cold bones. Mighty.

You will have to make some effort to make this release yours, but you are either a music fan or you are not. If you do not know this band or the songs, shame on you. Classics and ready knowledge in our midst… What a ‘power’, what a passion, what songs. Bang! And still just as fresh, rousing and enthusiastic in 2025 as in 1986! Convince yourself with the Bandcamp jukebox below.

Kurt INGELS
16/02/2025

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NL

De Nederlanstalige versie van deze review kan u HIER lezen bij onze collega's van Dark Entries Magazine!

Kurt INGELS
16/02/2025

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