Killerpilze – Grell (2013)
Killerpilze is a German pop rock/pop punk band that was founded in 2002. The name Killerpilze is made of English and German words and it means “Killer Mushrooms”. Apart from another tour troughout Europe (among others, the band played concerts in Germany, Austria and Greece) and many festival performances, the Killerpilze recorded their next album Grell. The band described Grell as a “farewell formula to youth and a leap into the unknown”. This album of German pop-punk rockers Killerpilze was released in 2013. The album was produced by guitarist Maximilian Schlichter. The songwriting was supported by the rapper Curse. The songwriting of Killerpilze has changed a lot thanks to Curse. The lyrics seem to be taken directly from his life. If this is about the life of teenagers. The band released their first CD on various social media channels. The first single “Nimm mich mit” with self-produced video clip reached 1 position of the Myvideo charts. On September 6, 2013 the album Grell appeared in the Deluxe edition with some bonus tracks.
People, who are already familiar with the songs of this band, used to the major sounding a la Green Day and energetic chords, as in the case with their album Ein bisschen Zeitgeist, which is closer to the metal and has a more dramatic music. With the album Grell everything changed. The band decided to do an experiment and began to perform pop-rock, playing melodic ballads. The lyrics, by the way, are written in collaboration with rapper Curse, so everything is great with the lyrics of the album. As for the music, the guys have really grown and learned how to play the guitar. It is especially can be heard clearly in the songs of Grell. Grell has very strong songs like “Lauf” and “Atomic” but on the other hand there are very weak songs. With the track “Lauf ” the band brings some punk on the record, and even a few metal riffs are hidden here. But they seem to be inappropriate.
The whole album can be divided into two parts: the main (consisting of ten songs) and lyrical ballad Himmel (three songs under the same name that should be listening to in a specific order). Unfortunately, with the change of the style of music, strong vocals had disappeared, which is so perfect combined with the German language. Fortunately, in the live-versions it has not disappeared.
People who prefer soft rock, will like this album. For those who prefer a harder, I advise you to listen to earlier songs of Killerpilze.