Rebellion – Arminius: Furor Teutonicus

Rebellion is a German power metal band and was formed in 2001 by two ex-Grave Digger members, when guitarist Uwe Lulis left the band in 2000, taking bassist Tomi Göttlich with him. They have written concept albums about William Shakespeare‘s work Macbeth, a trilogy about the Vikings and Norse mythology and heavy metal songs about motorcycles, metal and war in their past albums. On December 30th 2010 Uwe Lulis, Simone Wenzel and Gerd Lucking left the band and were replaced by Matthias Karle, Stephan Karut and Oliver Geibig in 2011, completing the present line-up. Their new sixth full lenght album is called “Arminius: Furor Teutonicus“. The recordings mix and mastering of the album were made by Oliver Geibig at Tone Town Music, and it was produced by Oliver Geibig and Tomi Göttlich. The album cover was created by Felipe Machado Franco.

It is obvious that Rebellion have huge similarities with Grave Digger on the sound and style and at times they also remind of Accept. While Grave Digger explore the Greek mythology in their latest effort, Rebellion after their Viking trilogy went back in the history, to the Roman Empire era. Way different than Ex Deo’s “Caligvla” when it comes to music which is raw Teutonic heavy power metal with an epic touch and the theme is about Arminius, son of the Cheruscan chief Segimerus, who was trained as a Roman military commander and attained Roman citizenship, then returned to Germany and defeated a Roman army in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.

“Arminius: Furor Teutonicus” contains solid rhythm guitars and some cool guitar solos, steady drumming, stiff bass and Michael Seifert’s voice that reminds a lot of Chris Boltendahl but is way more melodic. The songs are typical heavy power metal anthems with some sing along choruses, unfolding the story of Arminius, balancing between the heavy songs like ‘Varus’, ‘The Tribes United’ or ‘Ghosts Of Freedom’ and power metal songs with double bass drumming and heavy riffing in songs like ‘Ala Germanica’ or ‘Prince Of The Cheruscer’. Of course the epic vibe is not absent, especially in songs like the opening track ‘Rest In Peace’ or ‘The Seeress Tower’. The album is generally fast with frequent tempo changes from song to song with an exception of the last track of the album that is a ballad called ‘Requiem’. The song i liked the most is the speed power metal song called ‘Furor Teutonicus’.

‘Arminius: Furor Teutonicus’ is an album that follows the same successful recipe that many bands have adapted, similar with Paragon’s ‘Force Of Destruction’ and many other releases mainly from German bands, made for the impenitent fans of Teutonic heavy power metal.