Band: Fuck Your Shadow From Behind
Title: Freigeist
Label: Bastardized Recordings
Distribution: Suburban
Release date: 26/02/2010
Review: CD

It is remarkable what a strong scene Germany houses when it comes to ultra-technical and eccentric Extreme Death / Grind / Mathcore-alike stuff. One of the ultimate revelations is sweetly called Fuck Your Shadow From Behind (ever tried?), formed in Summer 2007 as a quintet, soon expanded into a sextet, pretty popular within the German underground scene on base of their first demo-CD, known from performing live in their home country with Callejon and War From A Harlots Mouth etc…

Freigeist is the band’s debut studio full length, having duration 41:39 minutes, and released through the weird and harsh German label Bastardized (think Llynch, Lower Hell, Faust Again, Six Reasons To Kill, Arsonists Get All The Girls etc).
The album truly is an unusual musical experience, shamelessly able to combine technical craftsmanship with melody. Every track is filled with avant-garde breaks and hooks, lots of tempo-changes (from rather slow over up-tempo to blasting fast), rough screams (not the sometimes enervating so-called pig-squeals) and deep growls (the band consists of two vocalist, Tobias Jaschinsky and Adrian Schler), and, at the same time, nice melodies. At the same time, Fuck Your Shadow From Behind don’t exaggerate, keeping a modest accessibility in mind – that’s why this album will not loose your interest after a while, or will not cause any brain damage after struggling through it). And because of their ‘universal’ approach, they will please fans of (almost) every extreme scene, no matter if you’re into Death or Thrash Metal, Grind or Mathcore, Groove, Post-Punk, Crust or Sludge.

86/100

Ivan Tibos.