Band:	Angizia
Album:	Ein Toter Fährt Gern Ringelspiel
Style:	Avantgarde metal, Gothic doom metal
Release date:	December 27, 2004
Guest review by:	Gothic Metalhead

01. Klopfzeichen, 1947
02. Ein Toter Fährt Gern Ringelspiel
03. Macht Die Säge "Siege-Sage"
04. Schaukelkind
05. Der Teufel Hält Die Fäden
06. Mit Einem Purpurroten Leichenkarren
07. Macht Platz Und Lasst Die Toten Vor!
08. Das Mädchen Im Prinzessinnenkleid
09. Klezmerabend
10. Totenackerswing
11. Du Wundervoller Zeitvertreib
12. Liebt Dich Range Die Dohle?
13. Schwarze Puppen
14. Es Reiten Die Toten So Schnell
15. Die Flüchtige Leiche
16. Das Gerippe Geht Dem Ausgang Zu
17. Die Graue Welt Macht Keine Freude Mehr
18. Er Blieb Noch Ein Weilchen Am Leben
19. Zehn Tote Hampelmänner
20. Der Kirchhof Spielt Zum Leichenschmaus
21. Hoppa Hoppa Reiter (Requiemmix)
22. Mein Gaul, Mein Gaul Verreckt Im Dreck
23. Siehst Uu Dein Köpfchen Im Spiegel? Nein.
24. Der Vorhang Fällt

Never once in my life of listening to metal have I heard incredibly weird music, and don't look for the weirdest stuff I can imagine. The band that I will be reviewing is so weird that it even makes the likes of Faith No More, System Of A Down, and even Monumentum sound normal compared to this. This band is called Angizia, a band from Vienna, Austria, and somewhat like Monumentum and Lacrimosa, this band combines avant-garde music with symphonic and gothic metal. With this album that I choose not to pronounce, I have no clue what just happened. The album is by no means awful, it's weird in a good way. I did not expect this to be so weird; I looked at the album cover expecting something like Monumentum. Instead, we get a 75-minute album with 24 tracks filled with unconventional sounds and vocals.

First, I'm talking about the album cover for Angizia's 2004 album. Now I have to say this is actually a nice looking cover. Very dark, and looks hand-drawn with a lot of gothic imagery. However, this album cover is somewhat deceiving when considering what you will be expecting when you start listening to the music. This album does have gothic elements in the album, but it's not gothic metal, and it's even debatable as to whether it is a metal album. Maybe the band added this cover to make the listener feel unprepared for the fun that we are about to tackle.

I question as to why this is considered a metal album, because the music to this album lacks any elements of metal. No electric guitar with heavy distortion, not even the use of chorus guitars. This is more heavily avant-garde with the use of unconventional instruments like strings, wind instruments, reed instruments, accordions, and of course a lot of elegant pianos. This is an album that sounds straight out of a theatre play. At the same time, it is enjoyable music to dance around in. It sounds almost comedic in its tone, especially when the vocals are very odd and the singing incredibly weird. There is also a classically trained female singer on this album, which adds to the symphonic elements, but this approach adds nice macabre sounds. I want to mention something about track 20, titled "Der Kirchhof Spiele Zum Leichenschmaus." Some of the sounds heard change in tone to sound disoriented and weirder. Do you know what that reminds me of? It reminds me of that one level on Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island where whenever you hit those hairy floating heads, you become dizzy and the music gets dizzy as well. This is the album equivalent of what I described, a sound that's very dizzying yet satisfying. The darker stuff doesn't come around until track 12, where it has some really dark piano with some violin instruments. However, you won't find a lot of dark music in this music. This album almost sounds upbeat, you can't help but dance to this music to be funny in front of your friends and have some fun. The music is really weird, and the vocals are even weirder. That's all I have to say on that part.

The lyrics to this album were foreign and I had to translate the album. To be honest, this was the biggest chore when tackling this album, because there's so much freaking text to translate. Despite that, the lyrics are good. This is obviously in the form of telling a story as if it were again a theatre play. The lyrics are indeed macabre and dark so in a way, it's almost twisted having bouncy, upbeat music with some dark lyrics. Maybe that's why this album is considered a metal album. Even though the lyrics are well-written, it doesn't really justify the music.

The name of this album is translated as "a dead like to ride a ring game", so I can see why this album would be so weird vocally, musically, and lyrically. It's very macabre and as my friend would describe it: it would fit into a Tim Burton movie where a bunch of skeletons plays bone instruments. Again, not a bad album, but I just felt so confused throughout the experience. I will be giving it an average score because there's no love or hate with this album, but because it does give a solid pass for being entertaining. Be the judge on whether this sounds like a metal album. I'm checked out.