Without Voodoo Kiss, Summer Breeze wouldn’t exist. In 1997, Achim Ostertag was forced to start his own festival to give his heavy metal band a worthy stage. But while the Summer Breeze Open Air quickly became one of the largest and most popular metal festivals in the world, Voodoo Kiss disappeared into obscurity soon after the festival was founded.
Luckily not forever: Achim will get the band together again in 2022. After over 20 years of hibernation! He brings in Steffi Stuber (Mission In Back and participant in “Voice Of Germany”) and Sacred Steel iron pipe Gerrit Mutz as new additions, releases a powerful debut album and makes a furious comeback at Summer Breeze. All of this is intended as a one-off choice, a nostalgia trip for the sake of old times. But of course it happens as it has to happen: Voodoo Kiss taste a lot of blood, have a lot of fun with their music and don’t even think about bringing the band back underground. The debut goes into the charts, appearances with the Brazilian branch of Summer Breeze and Rock Harz follow. But now it’s official: Voodoo Kiss have come back to stay. And their furious new record “Feel The Curse” is even more fun than the comeback. “I never expected the reactions and, above all, the consistently
positive reviews. Of course that gave us another big extra boost,” says drummer Achim enthusiastically.
A matter of honor in the Voodoo Kiss camp: the basic ingredients of the sound are not shaken. This is Voodoo Kiss, and where this band name is on it, there is also jagged, catchy, melodic heavy metal in it. Nevertheless: Rarely has a German metal record been so enjoyable. Despite all the homage to the past, despite all the commitment to the grand riff gesture, the Voodoo Kiss of 2024 are a remarkably revitalized bunch that goes all out and doesn’t even see the need to hold back. It’s as if the band knew this time that the world was still up for them. And play accordingly in a relaxed and unleashed manner.
With verve, verve, punk-like vigor and their typical sense of melodic hardness, Voodoo Kiss shoot, rave and groove their way through eight powerful examples of how this music from the eighties can still be made exciting, original and rousing in the 21st century. Of course, the list of ingredients on “Feel The Curse” reads like it comes straight from the textbook of electric guitar music: The opening title track is a galloping banger with razor-sharp riffs and Pretty Maids flair, “Spellbound By Her Eyes” offers black romance and early Maiden music. Vibes, “Angel Demon” inspires with crisp heaviness and dark drama, “On Wings Of Serpent Dreams” comes with early Manowar vibes and the closer “Dead Without A Grave” fires on all cylinders like Motörhead at their best. Everything in it, everything there.
Voodoo Kiss are now among the guardians of the holy heavy metal grail, but they still do what they feel like and after all these years they know better than most what this music needs: precision, skill and good songs, among other things, that too, of course. But above all, one thing: goat. As we know, you can’t learn it. You have it or you don’t – and on “Feel The Curse” Voodoo Kiss don’t know what to do with it because of their sheer joy of playing.
Of course, a good heavy metal record also needs a good concept. Singer Gerrit Mutz developed this again – and it follows directly on from the self-titled comeback. Is a Voodoo Kiss metaverse slowly emerging here? Seems like this: After the band mascot Dr. Evil holds a heart in his hand on the cover of “Voodoo Kiss”, we finally find out what that’s all about on “Feel The Curse”. Gerrit explains: “Dr. Evil is quite lonely due to his poor basic character, so he wants to create a bride for himself like in Frankenstein. To this end, he kidnaps a young woman and performs a voodoo ritual with her in order to transfer her life, soul and heart to his previously lifeless demon being. “Of course,” says the singer dryly, “that goes wrong and the young woman doesn’t survive the procedure.”
Over the course of the album we experience the, shall we say, complicated relationship between the two and accompany Dr. Evil in his search for a suitable heart for his beloved. Of course, that doesn’t work without a pact with the devil. Oh, and a cat appears too. It’s always better with a cat. “At the end of this story,” the singer then concludes, “Dr. Evil is trapped in hell, but his creature has developed into a real, beautiful woman made of flesh and blood who has her heart in the right place. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any of it and is pretty angry about it. Maybe he’ll come back on the next record and want terrible revenge? We will see…”
Here too, Voodoo Kiss demonstrate enough narrative class to give the album a completely new level. Despite all the occult epicness, it’s always told with a wink, because since 1995 this band has been about one thing above all else: having fun with the most beautiful music in the world. The only special thing is that almost 30 years after the band was founded, Voodoo Kiss are suddenly having more fun than ever before. And you have to do that first.
Tracklist:
01 – Feel The Curse
02 – Angel Demon
03 – Spellbound By Her Eyes
04 – Dr. Evil
05 – Lords Of Darkness
06 – Kiss Or Kill
07 – On Wings Of Serpent Dreams
08 – Dead Without A Grave
Line-Up:
– Gerrit Mutz – Vocals
– Steffi Stuber – Vocals
– Martin Beuther – Guitar
– Klaus Wieland – Bass
– Achim Ostertag – Drums
