A stunning debut

Too hot cold I came more or less by a fluke: a friend asked me if I'd be interested in two tickets for the concert in Leipzig and as I heard just have a look to see that this band in my opinion, a great future has before him. The first song I heard of Hot Cold was "hello" - a beautiful walking forward rock song that is fun and can already see a certain potential, but is still quite conventional knitted. "December air" is for me one of the best German-language ballads of all time and I decided to take the cards. On Spotify I heard for the first time "From the stand or fall" by completely and was flashed, sophisticated can a debut not on the market, the enthusiasm should be noted the boys in each song. At the concert, I was finally a big fan, the energy, bring the four Schwaben on the stage is enormous, and as they captivate the audience is great cinema. After the concert, then time to buy the album and to have it signed, in addition to live a few conversations with the band. Home again thrown the disc into the player and added back into the small club that burned half hours. Madness!

By pressing drums and chanting the album debut of the guys starts with the song "The remains here". Anfngs the comparison is pushing for Casper to something and you already afraid that someone tried here on this unique course to succeed. This fear vanishes at the latest, to half of the song, as the hymn-like vocals start and great guitar walls are raised. For this, the lyrics are full of references at the beginning and you have the chorus, which completely fills in principle the latter half, just sing along.
With a hot guitar riff then begins "Not willed otherwise" to. Pretty punky the second title of the disc goes forward, also are influences from post-hardcore and screamo even ("We want a piece of the pie") to find. In the middle section follows a brilliant instrumental part with heavy guitars. For this, the lyrics are again a very great success and the music video is well worth a look.
And even with "sun over Vienna" one is immediately in the flow of the title - the beginning is just fantastic. The vocals sound absolutely awesome and convince the lyrics again with an astonishing linguistic sophistication. The chorus is extremely catchy, the music we move somewhere between melodic hardcore and pop punk. At the end of the title is with great guitar harmonies damn melancholy, always produced in me goosebumps. Also live absolutely outrageous.
The beginning of "individual identities", the next song is extremely quiet, then explode the guitars, Matze and Phil is Satzfetzen roar around the ears, then one understands that they complement each other. The chorus can also immediately be sung, breaking repeatedly loud cries the loud guitars and drums, then the number will be quiet again and goes into a melancholy instrumental part, which sounds fantastic and slowly runs towards the end, to also silenced the last guitar.
It follows the initially quite quiet song "So easy". Especially great are here, the Drums, the break the singing from time to time, to great played guitars use, which continues fairly quiet, but also very dark (as the text also) are. It is with long instrumentals produced an incredible tension that discharges to the second period in a dark sound explosion, which sounds like The National on speed. Matze screams almost philosophical lines of text (You just have to fly, if you fall). At the end of the number will be quiet again and leaves the listener back with his mouth open.
"Broken" begins as calm as "So easy" ended. Clapping hands give the rhythm, then the band plays loudly. Here come again very punky sounds evident, fat guitars meet on rousing drums and aggressive vocals. Again it create to satisfy its on one side youthfully rebellious and on the other side linguistically sophisticated lyrics.
And now we must also take things easy out the sow, we do that with song number seven, "All good." A party-rock song from a band that still remains faithful to its fairly rough sound and also has something to say here. Lyrically certainly partly somewhat simplistic ("As long as the club is not full is when we"), but fun is the number all and that the boys have something to say, just come for the text over well, since lyrically almost to the point of caricature exaggerated becomes.
I get goose bumps every time when the next track, "Not to win," starts. Matze sings extremely calm, then the silence is broken with loud guitars. The very serious text is converted into a magnificent great rock song between quiet and noise, between ballad and Hardcore. In the end even set a clapping hands and convey a certain hopeful mood than the rest of the song, even if the text that hope may not support quite.
"Gipfelkreuz" is just great rock music. On the one hand very restless, on the other almost meditative catchy. With singing between normal and salve-like spat, a bloody clever text, perfectly realized with the summit cross-subject, and a stunning Instrumentaliesierung this is one of the most moving pieces of German rock music. And the message at the end is clear: "Please take care of each other in this shitty world!"
High emotional comes "existence", the penultimate track of the album, therefore. With ingenious lyrics, soft vocals, which threatens to break almost, and chorartigem backing vocals it creates "existence" to move deeply. Although singing and music again remember something Casper, you can hear that this is a work of "hot cold". As the number is led to the end, is calmly and very quiet - time to think.
Even the last song "doubt" begins quietly and with calm vocals, then strum the guitars going on, that sounds beautifully dirty and is great fun. At the end actually is such a thing as hope, hopeful melancholy overtones and hymnal singing before desperate cry at the end of this hope seems to be questioned again.

Conclusion:
"From the stand or fall" is a stunning debut. Here everything from cover to cover, the songs are structured variable, the texts demanding and have the guys that you can hear, fun with what they do. What then comes one of the best German-language albums of recent years. That hot cold after their EP, which was not yet fully developed broadly to progressive step, grab harder and more experimental sounds, has been exactly the right way. Connect American influences with German language and thus, for sure, be hearing a lot more from him. I'm happy for that!