MELOTRON WELTFRIEDEN ALBUM SYNTHETIC SYMPHONY RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2002 REVIEW: DECEMBER 10, 2002

Let me just start by saying how undescribably happy I am that Melotron found their way back to their origin of surprising variation and superb song writing. "Weltfrieden" is in a way a natural evolution from "Mörderwerk" and luckily lacks much of the stale, over produced aura that plagued parts of "Fortschritt". Ideas (some of them still from And One...) flow freely and the basic emotions seem more spontaneous again.
The opener "Welt du bist so still", in all its fantastic synthpop glory, still made me think about "Fortschritt", its best track "Du bist es nicht wert" and how disappointed I was with the rest of that album. "Weltfrieden", though, just keeps me smiling, transmitting almost orgasmic sensations here and there. Following the flawless "Welt du bist so still" is the single track "Gib mir alles", an equally good song, but with its EBM-ish foundation, significantly different. Melotron then return to their emotional side with "Wach auf", only to dive back into Nitzer Ebb-like sounds in "Wir sind!!!". It is overwhelmingly impressive to hear the trio so effectively and care free handling different styles. The path to a perfect grade of ten looks free of obstacles when marvellous tracks like "Folge mir ins Licht" (with guest vocals from Julia Beyer of Technoir, single release in January) and "Lillienthal's Traum" (a slow, beautiful synthpop cover of an old Reinhard Mey song) flow through my speakers.
There is a somewhat redundant instrumental on the album, as well as the electroclash influenced "Ich tanz' die Welt für dich", which wasn't my cup of tea, mainly because of the boring vocoder vocals. "Weltfrieden" also sports two tracks from the "Brüder" EP, the title track and my personal Melotron favourite "Wohin?" and in the end, all things considered, I must argue that Melotron have succeeded in creating something worthy of a strong nine grade. Germany's finest electropop right now, no doubt.

NIKLAS FORSBERG