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ALBUM REVIEW
- H.E.R.R. - XII Caesars
- Cold Spring
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- We all have our eclectic interests
and obsessions, but the neoclassical dream-spinners H.E.R.R. easily trump the majority of
us with both the scope and depth of their fascinations. Founder Michiel Spape, flanked by
an impressive vocalist task-force in the form of Troy Southgate and Miklos Hoffer, has
elected this time around to delve into the writings of first century historian Suetonius,
using the most striking events from De Vita Caesarum as an inspiration for these thirteen
stately, dramatic, imperious tracks.
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- Like its source material, “XII Caesars” is relentlessly
narrative, moving from one evocative, suspenseful situation to the next. Without context
this might be disorienting, but I’d imagine most people have been sufficiently
exposed to the Caesars in modern culture to find the most basic references –
Claudius’s stutter, the grand, busy violin that ornaments Nero’s track –
moments of illuminated delight. The album is a grand parade of larger-than-life characters
who expostulate on their own triumph and even their own downfalls, bringing with them
colourful images and snippets that will instantly worry at the mind and drag forth
questions from the unknowing; what did happen “down in the old goat’s
garden”, does he really mean that his sister is his wife, who is the fat man, how do
you give the world a python, and can men really become gods…
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- Matching this riot of activity with
musical composition is a tall order, but one in which Spape is very successful. He summons
an impressive range of emotion and tone from both his violin and his digital tools, so
that the same ingredients can be cleverly redirected to personify the good-hearted, the
proud, the villainous, the victorious and the insane. In this respect, “The Old Goat’s Garden”, “The Age
of Blood and Iron” and “The Eagle
Standard” are especially successful, the first embodying creepiness and pastoral
unease, the second powerfully reflecting Otho’s rapidly unravelling state of mind,
and the third providing all of the pomp and ceremony one would expect of a release of this
nature. The component parts of H.E.R.R’s epic and stately neoclassicism may remain
constant, but the moods which they summon certainly do not.
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- The vocal performances of Hoffer and Southgate
take some getting used to, in all their over-articulated, melodramatic mirth and menace,
but once they’ve captured your imagination it’s clear to see that they are
perfectly suited to this album, and they, too, are not without variation, particularly
when enunciating for one of their less stable muses. In all, while ‘acquired
taste’ is a grievous understatement here, fans of martial neoclassical cannot help
but be won over by the sheer scale of the endeavour, and for those of us who can combine a
taste for snare drums and symphonies with a deeper knowledge of imperial Rome… what
an absolute treasure.
- 81/100
- Ellen Simpson
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- www.myspace.com/herrenliga
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