Brunhilde - To Cut A Long Story Short • GRIMM Gent

Attention, (music-) world! BRUNHILDE is coming! The band with the legendary name released their highly anticipated album ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’ on the 26th of February 2021! The pre-released singles by these brand new rising stars of Rock, fronted by dream woman Caro Loy, had everyone gagging for more – in February ’21, after appetizers such as their debut single ‘When You Were Born (I Was Already Dead)’ or the potentially addictive EP ‘Choir Boy’, the band finally released a 14-track
full-length album.

The first few sounds of the album sound already more metal then expected from this proclaimed punk rock album. ‘Miss God’ demonstrates the heavy guitars and punk vocals the band is able to bring forward, somewhat surprising with an old school Guano Apes sound. And if the first song didn’t make you move your feet ‘Hell or high water’ will definitely make you surrender dancing on these straight punk grooves. Even a creepy bridge with Caro Loy using a little girl voice can’t take the power down when the song ends with an extra long refrain.

‘Judas’ shows a nice trick of almost talking / storytelling in the choruses and a very melodic refrain. When hearing the song for the first time it can be a bit confusing to hear the front and backing vocals sing different lyrics at the same time but it creates a great musical experience. The one guitar breakdown at the end is so funny. If you are looking for your next moshpit, ‘Where are you going?’ would be perfect for you. A peaceful chorus and ecstatic refrains with guitars that keep on blasting and a surprise guest appearance from Bloodhound Gang bassist “Evil” Jared Hasselhoff (at least in the music video).

‘When you were born (I was already dead)’ has had a music video available on YouTube for quite some time, but fits right in between the other songs on the album. After a quiet, acoustic intro everything explodes and all the power of Brunhilde is shown when they give full throttle in the refrains. This is the track that brought the band on our radar and the strong old school The Pretty Reckless vibes with a heavy and raw sound made us immediately like these guys a lot.

When the devil takes over and guitars start to speak it is clear Caro Loy is no blonde to mess with. ‘In my head’ has an almost evil feeling. When the deep vocal backings keep roaring and front vocals keep screaming it becomes almost satanic. It is good to calm down every now and then. The rock song ‘All is lost’ is more modest. But don’t be fooled; it is still full of punk energy and of course loads of emotion.

It happens here and their in their songs, but in ‘Come out, come out’ has maybe a bit too much repetition. The song feels a little bit flat. It makes the song maybe my least favorite song on the album, but looking at the high quality of the album overall, it’s still a pretty good song.

Back to a lot of punk power and a big arrangement with ‘I’m Crying’. A song is this majestic could easily be a classic from a famous band and who knows, might become one for Brunhilde. After the quiet bridge you can, just by hearing the song, feel the mosh pit occurring. ‘Choir boy’ is something different. It seems an easy song, but still so complex. With the slow legato refrains repeating the same line again and again, while the chorus contains so much lyrics it seems to be spitting rap.

‘Digging Ditches’ could be a song of the evil sister of The Pretty Reckless. It is such a fun song to listen to with all the melodic guitar riffs, it is over before you noticed. To be honest: it’s also the shortest song on the album. Although the same sentence “Sleep with your enemy” is repeated all the time in ‘Sleep with my enemy’ it’s always pronounced or sang in slightly different ways keeping it entertaining.

‘So bad’ could be a song straight from a movie. Who knows? Maybe it can still happen. It’s an honorable cover version of the Nina Hagen classic. A very classy song to sing along to. Although still most of the power seems to come from Caro herself. What a sudden surprise is ‘It’s all lies’. Just a piano and a deep voice sound so pure and full of soul. A great closer for the album taking it a lot calmer and slower and making you listen to every word. To make it even more melancholic there are even some moments with a string section.

This lengthy debut album from the German rockers of Brunhilde is quite the sight to behold. Every song on ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’ has its own personality and sound while still maintaining a consistent style. Almost every song gets the juices flowing in some way, whether it’s getting ready to mosh your heart out or get drawn into a highly emotional track. For a debut, this is really of a high quality and holds a lot of promise for Brunhilde to grow out to a major player in the modern rock scene! One to keep an eye on, so to say. Whenever shows are possible again, you might want to try and catch a concert from them, the energy will be through the roof!