STERNTAUCHER

This was a sad review to write. Declines use to continue unfortunately. Novalis' ninth studio album "Sterntaucher" from 1983 was not an especially pleasent thing. It is not totally bad and it contains track that could be worth hearing. The musicians are Hartwig Biereichel, Detlef Job, Fred Mühlböck and Lutz Rahn as earlier so nothing particular has happened with them. The cover picture is, I think, the best thing with this record. An astronaut that is floating around in space and the artistic Novalis' logotype.

The sound of Sterntaucher seems to be an attempt to go back to a more rock based sound. That is good and some tracks are worth hearing. "Keiner kann gewinnen" on the first side has especially in the end a powerful feeling with vocals and especially great guitars(6/10). The album's best track though is the final instrumental "Sinus"(7/10) which itself almost uplifted the record to a three. That song has parts that have similarities to Pink Floyd but other parts that are to melodic for that. Fine guitars are present there too. I would also recommend you to hear "Abschied" a song with a lot of feelings(6/10).

What is wrong then with the rest? Well the two first songs for example are terrible. These two could make you stop listen. Boring melodies and vocals out of key(I use to like Mühlböck's voice) together with some hard rock yelling and just mediocre songs. When the cover is the thing that is best with an album, something is wrong. Not terrible, but terribly close...