Review: Tarre – Unheil fan ‘e klaai

Doom risen from Frisian clay. As a metaphor alone it works very well. Would it work musically as well? The first song kicks off doomfully with church bells ringing, dark vocals and music alike. The Frisian language (second language in The Netherlands) fits creepily well with. Twelve minutes of misery, heavily leaning on bass, drums and haunting vocals -of which I do not understand anything- make me yearn for more.

However…after the first song Tarre leaves the Frisian language and moves to English instead. And that is actually the downside of the album. Meindert Pander is a fine vocalist, as he proved with his other bands/projects (Pander and others). English suits him fine, but Frisian just works better, basically because in that language his tone of voice is lower and doomier. 

There is more than vocals of course. The songs are all of a certain length, making it possible to have variety within the songs, without the feeling of putting too much in too little time. There are some very good moments, and even a funny one. Especially the start of Skin Fits Me is very strong, and would immediately turn any listener into a metalhead. During Repulsive Vanity we hear a spoken word sample, with the positive message “the human body is a pitiful sack of blood, piss and water. I fear in your case … mostly piss”

The production of the album is fairly rough, giving it a garage-sound to it. This production is fitting though, would it be too slick, it would soil the sound. After listening through the entire album, roughly an hour, my conclusion is that there could be a bit more variation into it and…there it is again, please, more Frisian songs, it would surely make the next album stronger. Otherwise, maybe just change the name of the band to ‘Tar’ instead of Tarre 😉

Come back tomorrow if you want to check our interview with Tarre’s bass guitarist Meindert Sterk!

Tarre Official Website
Tarre Facebook

Martijn Bakker