Blutengel – Erlösung / The Victory Of Light (Album – Out Of Line)
Genre/Influences: Dark-Wave, Dark-Pop.
Format: Digital, CD, 2CD, Box, Vinyl, Double Vinyl, Cassette.
Background/Info: Chris Pohl remains pretty prolific during the ongoing pandemic. While he last year unleashed the debut album of his new side-project She Hates Emotions, he this year took off with a special Blutengel album featuring 80s covers “Fountain Of Destiny” and now strikes back with the brand new album “Erlösung – The Victory Of Light”. The regular album features fourteen songs, but the double album features an extra disc (cf. Erlösung – In The Shadows”) with seven more songs. Last, but not least there also is a Box-set featuring one more bonus disc (cf. “Erlösung – A World Beyond”) with six extra songs. Notice by the way it also is the very first time there’ll be a Blutengel-album released on cassette.
Content: Blutengel didn’t really change its familiar sound formula. The songs remain driven by a Dark/Wave-Electro-Pop style mixing hard kicking bass drums and melodic choruses. The songs are still sung in German and English featuring Chris Pohl and Ulrike Goldmann. Some tracks have been empowered and achieved with guitar riffs. I now and then noticed some good-old 80s aspects. The softer tracks have this melancholic touch on top. The album features the already familiar singles “The Victory Of Light”, “Wir Sind Das Licht” and “Wie Sand”.
+ + + : Chris Pohl never stops to take me by surprise. Considering the impressive Blutengel discography featuring the same-old influences you might expect an artist who’s repeating himself. I should say the music style hasn’t changed, but he each time again finds the trick to create great melody lines resulting in elevating choruses. Next to the aforementioned singles, this album reveals a few more potential singles. “We Are Not Dead”, “I Am The Darkness”, “Erlöse Mich” and “Darkness Awaits Us” all are potential hits mixing power and melody, charismatic vocals by Chris Pohl and vocals that express both sensuality and grace by Ulrike Goldmann. I like this work for its menacing bass lines and dreamy atmospheres, but it also is one more totally accomplished opus by Blutengel.
– – – : When you get a regular album featuring 14 songs and you get the feeling nearly half of the tracklist could be potential singles and dancefloor hits, you can’t complain. I’m however less convinced by some of the very few softer –and even ballad-like tracks.
Conclusion: The Blutengel fans will all have their favorite albums and songs, but I’m sure this new opus will quickly become one of their favorites.
Best songs: “We Are Not Dead”, “Darkness Awaits Us”, “I Am The Darkness”, “Erlöse Mich”, “Illuminate My Soul”, “The Victory Of Light”, “Wir Sind Das Licht”.
Rate: 9.
Artist: www.facebook.com/BlutengelOfficial
Label: www.outofline.de / www.facebook.com/outoflinelabel Read the news on ‘Erlösung / The Victory Of Light’.
About Blutengel
Blutengel was formed in Berlin, Germany, in 1998 by singer Chris Pohl after he left the project Seelenkrank. The band mixes Dark-Wave, Futurepop and Synth-Pop into a style Pohl describes as “dark pop”, with lyrics in German and English delivered across male and female vocals. Ulrike Goldmann joined as female vocalist in 2005 and remains, alongside Pohl, the band’s current lineup; earlier vocalists included Nina Bendigkeit, Kati Roloff, Gini Martin, Eva Pölzing, Constance Rudert, Steffi Weingarten and Anja Milow.
The studio album chronology runs from “Child Of Glass” (1999) and “Seelenschmerz” (2001) through “Angel Dust” (2002), “Demon Kiss” (2004), “Labyrinth” (2007), “Schwarzes Eis” (2009), “Tränenherz” (2011), “Monument” (2013), “Omen” (2015), “Leitbild” (2017) and “Un:Gott” (2019), all on Out Of Line. Pohl launched She Hates Emotions in 2020 with Melancholic Maniac, and Blutengel opened 2021 with the covers album “Fountain Of Destiny”.
Out Of Line released “Erlösung – The Victory Of Light” on 16 July 2021 as a CD, a two-CD deluxe edition, a limited box set, a double LP and a limited cassette, with a download. The fourteen album tracks are “Illuminate My Soul”, “Wir Sind Das Licht”, “We Are Not Dead”, “Seasons”, “Wer Ist Dein Meister?”, “Deine Dämonen”, “I Am The Darkness”, “Erlöse Mich”, “Wie Sand”, “No Religion”, “Darkness Awaits Us”, “We Fall”, “The Victory Of Light” and “Hand In Hand”. The second disc “Erlösung – In The Shadows” holds “Herrschaft”, “Freak Out”, “She’s Not A Saint”, “Purple Sky”, “Angel’s Cry”, “New World”, “Wir Sind Unsterblich” and, unlisted on the cover according to Discogs, “Old”. The box set adds the six-track bonus CD “A World Beyond” (“Lost Hope”, “Dark Universe”, “Resistance”, “Light In The Distance”, “Final Warning”, “Demented”), an LED flashlight keychain, a hologram sticker and a 32-page photo book. Stefan Heilemann made the artwork. Pohl discussed the album with Side-Line in the Interview with BlutEngel: ‘Everything Is Better Than Digital Music’ published on 30 August 2021.
“Un:Sterblich – Our Souls Will Never Die” (2023) and “Dämonen:Sturm” (2025) followed on Out Of Line. “Erlösung – The Victory Of Light” is the band’s twelfth studio album.
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