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The Days Of The Trumpet Call

Von Thronstahl / The Days Of The Trumpet Call * Pessoa/Cioran (cd 2004 terra fria)

This cd has 13 exclusive tracks, was released for a Portugese show and is only available from the bands themselves. It comes in a nice little box (cd-box size) with a small booklet. However the cd is also dedicated to the Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran, it has nothing to do with the Romanian Cioran compilation that will be released some time. The music is mostly tranquil and nice. As always I like the Von Thronstahl tracks better than the Trumpet Call tracks, but this very limited cd is very enjoyable overall.

Death In June / Von Thronstahl / The Days Of The Trumpet Call / Folkstorm vs MZ.412 * Steel Night 29/11/01 (4cd 2003 cold spring)

This box is a registration of the first evening of the “Stigma festival” in London end november 2001. I’ve travelled to this little festival (see my report here) and I was surprised that after all this time a release dedicated to it comes out. A strange release by the way. Douglas P. asked if he could open the night with an accoustic set. A nice surprise, which you can hear here. The official and original fourth act, Nocturne from Germany, does not have a disc in this box though and I don’t know why. Another thing is that in two years time you would say that the recordings could have been polished through and through. Nothing is less true! It seems as if the recordings are taken from the microphones instead of directly from the PA. Especially in TDOTTC and Folkstorm you can hear the audience talking loud and clear. Further the sound is quite flat in most cases and for example Von Thronstahls ‘soundcheck’ in the middle of the show isn’t cut out. When you’ve been there, you know the situation, but ‘new listeners’ will see no advantage in it I guess.

So, what do you get? Inspite of the spectaculair descriptions you will read, this box is nothing more (but also nothing less) than a small box like TMLHBACs “The Smell Of Blood…” or Sopors “Songs From The Inverted Womb” (cd box size but slightly bigger). Inside are four slips with a disc in it and a small ‘poster’ with some live photos. The front cover is black with black letters.

DIJ has an 11 minute cd with 6 songs. Just Douglas with a guitar. There was almost no audience when DIJ played (even though the doors opened far too late), so the recordings are alright.
Von Thronstahl has a cd of a little over 50 minutes. They played tracks that were not yet released back then and different versions of known tracks. The recording is quite good.
The Days Of The Trumpet Call present their (to me) best material. In contraction to the normal releases there are some guitars and nice vocals which surely adds to the sound. As mentioned, the audience is too present and the sound is too flat. Short too, 16 minutes.
Folkstorm vs MZ.412 had a nice set which slowly builds up from dark industrial to extreme noise. Also here not too good sound and too present audience. The lenght here 42 minutes.

The price of this box is quite impressive, I paid E 40,- for these 2 hours of alright to nice recordings. Of course (again), I’ve been there, which makes this box a nice memory, but I don’t know if I should recommend this box to people who just like the bands presented. Should you consider buying it, be sure to be quick. There are 1500 copies, not extremely limited, but I suppose that with DIJ on it, it will sell out rapidly.

The Days Of The Trumpet Call / Von Thronstahl * s/t (cd 2004 der angriff)

These guys prove hard to keep up with. I hadn’t heard of this cd until someone asked me if I had it. While trying to order it from Raymond he told me that there is another split cd as well. Later I heard that both bands would play live in Belgium. So last Saturday I not only watched the great Von Thronstahl show, the interesting Trumpet Call show and the alright shows of HERR (bel) and Dead Man’s Hill (bel) but I also bought these two cds there (for the other one see below). This one is a split mcd with three tracks of both bands. The Von Thronstahl tracks are quite tranquil and nice. The Days Of The Trumpet Call is not my favourite band, but the exclusive track that they also played live (“Lebendige Mensch”) is by far the most interesting Trumpet Call track so far. The Days Of The Trumplet Call are a little less orchestral on this cd and there is more room for the guitars. This 22 min cd costs the same as the other full-length (see below) and is limited to 500 copies.

The Days of the Trumpet Call * Purification (cd 2000 black rain)

Orchestal music from the Feindflug label! Trumpet Call is a project of Raymond P., a name that you may know from his participation in the controversial industrial/folk band Von Thronstahl. With this in mind I actually hear some similarities between these two bands, but I doubt I would have noticed that if I didn’t know about the connection.
Anyway, The Days… makes rather primitive orchestral music (neo-classical in a way). It all sounds quite nice, but it isn’t smashing. The music is mostly tranquil, but at times a bit more bombastic. Once in a while there is drumming. There are quite a lot of vocals on this cd for an orchestral cd, but who says that everything has to sound similar? Here and there I even hear a folky tune, but for the largest part the music is quite typical.
All in all an alright cd.

H.E.R.R./The Days Of The Trumpet Call/Dead Man’s Hill/Von Thronstahl * Carpe Noctem Festival I – Sturmgewitter Ziegn Durchs Land (cd 2005 carpe noctem)

At the end of the summer of 2004 I heard that Von Thronstahl would give a show in Belgium. You don’t get the change to see this bands very often, so I went to a small village near Brussel. There wasn’t a very big audience, but the show that the gentlemen gave was superb. Other bands were the allied Trumpet Call and two bands that I have seen a few times more around the same time. Both HERR and Dead Man’s Hill seemed alright to me live. Not too original in sound and of an average quality. DMH tries to draw attention by shocking people with their shows (which sometimes works).
Accidentally I heard about this split cd that is of course a result of the show of 4 september 2004. “Sturmgewitter…” fortunately doesn’t contain live material recorded that night though. Each band contributed a few exclusive tracks (or at least exclusive in this form). Since Von Thronstahl always has my interest and The Trumpet Call gave a great show, this was a good opportunity to listen to studio material of the other two bands. The cd opens with three odes to Constantinopel (nowadays Instanbul in Turkey) by HERR. Three very nice to great orchestral tracks! Then follow two tracks by The Trumpet Call which are also very nice. Dead Man’s Hill (three tracks) is less interesting. Their first track is a very dark industrial but rather monotous track and the last one is better and more bombastic track, but their second track doesn’t sound good to me at all. The last band is of course Von Thronstahl, new versions of “Wider Die Masse” and “Bellum Sacrum Bellum” with guitar and in the second case new samples of America’s sacred war. A nice split cd of which especially HERR positively surprised me. <15/6/05><3>

The Days Of The Trumpet Call * I Saw No Temple In The City (10″ 2001 black rain)

On 29/11/01 the Trumpet Call played in London with Death In June (surprise act), MZ.412 vs Folkstorm, Von Thronstahl and Nocturne. Live Raymond P. had invited some guest musicians in the form of a guitar-player/singer, a bassguitarplayer and two girls handling the equipment. Raymond himself took care of the electric drumkit. The show was more bombastic than the cd with of course drumming, guitar and singing. I figured that this 10″ would somehow have the same style, but in fact “I Saw No Temple…” is in the same neo-classical style as the “Purification” cd of last year. There is some acoustic guitar here, but not like live and also no drumming. Just as the cd I think that this is alright, but not groundbreaking.
This 10″ is limited to 555 copies.