KAPTAIN KAIZEN • Alles Und Nichts • LP

This Charming Man Records

Good news for everyone still mourning my beloved brothers Freiburg and their breakup — Der Kaptain has set sail to take up the torch!

Not from the provincial corners of North Rhine-Westphalia this time, but from almost-Luxembourg — the beautiful Saarland — come these guys, who now call Mannheim their home. You could almost think that a certain kind of melancholy is required to make music like this: a longing for change, a desire to break free, to get away somehow. That longing unites all those beautifully pissed-off German-language bands. The dreariness of small-town life with Mensch Meier on repeat gets on your nerves in every possible way, Bild is still shaping opinions, and everyone knows the folks up top are screwing them over anyway. Somewhere between AfD, NSU, and Pegida, someone’s got to drive a wedge!

So, the direction is clear: full-throttle emo power — the kind we already know from up north. Not reinventing the wheel, but damn, it’s good. Check them out!