(Bjørn Alexander Brem & Co)
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| Gothminister (Bjørn Alexander Brem & Co) |
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 "As the artist Gothminister,
Brem delivers a total goth package. The music is
catchy, pompous, precise, industrial and brutal. In his company, to guilty
parts: Machine on guitar and Halffaceon keyboards. In addition Dementia, in different characters; as the vamp, the
demon, the devil, the innocent girl, and in the end the angel. Gothminister is
a poser of devilish style, a master of ceremony and a catalysator for the
audiences fantasy and romantisism of death and darkness.(...) On record Gothminister may still sound as a one man project, as Brem writes all the music, words, the vocals, the main guitars, does the main programming etc., though he is helped out by producers and guitarist Machine when it comes to details in guitar riffs and some co-production. "
-- Gothminister.com bio
  ½
2003:
Gothic Electronic Anthems Tracklisting: 1.Gothic Anthem 2.Angel 3.The Holy One 4.Pray 5.The Possession 6.Devil 7.Shadows of Evil Sins 8.Hatred 9.March of the Dead 10.Wish 11.Post Ludium "You show a lot of guts if you call your band Gothminister, play a mixture of gothic and industrial rock and state that you have "the message that (Goth-)people need". This Norwegian band, however, does not need to be labeled as a mainstream band only because of a big mouth and a dozen catchy pop songs. On the contrary, band leader Alexander proves that this band, originally a one-man project, should be mentioned in the same vein as bands like Marilyn Manson (vocals), Terminal Choice (melody) and Godhead (sound). (...) The majority of this debut is however founded on songs like Angel, Pray and Devil, which were already recorded and released before. That’s not as bad as it may sound, on the contrary, since - especially - Angel is still played an awful lot in clubs and made it’s way into many charts. "
-- Eelco, rockezine.com, 4/03
 2005:
Empire of Dark Salvation
 Tracklisting: 01. Dark Salvation 02. Welcome 03. Monsters 04. The Calling 05. Daughter Of S 06. Forgotten 07. Nachtzehrer 08. Leviathan 09. Swallowed By The Earth 10. We Die In Dreams 11. Gates Of Salvation 12. Happiness In Darkness. + Bonus Live Video: Dark Salvation, Hatred and Monsters "Two years ago now, the Norwegian Gothminister released on Tatra Records the great 'Gothic Electronic Anthems'-debut cd. It was a stunning piece of music and a perfect, powerful mix between electro arrangements and hard gothic guitar riffs. I was really looking forward to discover the successor... Two new members joined in, while the band signed to the more metal devoted Drakkar/BMG. 'Empire of Dark Salvation' marks an important evolution in style moving towards dark, doom metal fields. This way they’ll probably gain a larger audience, but their evolution sounds a little bit anticipated and opportunistic. From start on, I feel like a band, which has listened to too much Rammstein, trying to emulate the same guitar riffs. The riffs on Dark Salvation are really close to Rammstein’s Asche zu Asche. The 2nd piece entitled Welcome is another illustration of the Rammstein influence although the gothic mood of the song reveals another angle of their writing. (...) The guitar parts became harder and explicit, the electronic parts have been placed in the background while the way of singing also moves into a doom expression. It all feels a bit like a band, which sold their soul to the devil, just to gain a wider audience."
-- Cedric, side-line.com, 4/05
2008:
Happiness in Darkness Tracklisting: 01. Dusk Till Dawn 02. Darkside 03. Your Saviour 04. Freak 05. Sideshow 06. The Allmighty 07. Beauty After Midnight 08. Emperor 09. Thriller (cover) 10. Mammoth - Bonus VideoTracks: 01. Forgotten 02. Gothic Anthem 03. Devil 04. Interview "Bjørn Alexander Brem, a lawyer in real life founded GOTHMINISTER as his solo project in 1999 and already the debut album ‘Gothic Electronic Anthems’(2003) gained overwhelming critics by both the national and international critics. With the second album ‘Empire of Dark Salvation’(2005) continued on the path of success and was the first Gothic Industrial act ever to hit the road for a night liner tour through the big cities. Meanwhile the project is grown to a real band and brings us the third album ‘Happiness in Darkness’... The album celebrates its relentless start with the club single Dusk Till Dawn which not only comes up with the typical rocking guitar/industrial crossover it reaches orchestral heights with monumental arrangements, apparently from a real orchestra, anyway it sounds very much like it and as a good song is nothing without a good chorus it is placed in the middle as usual where Brem rises to top form. Gloomy male and female choirs ascend to announce the coming of the next track Darkside. (...) It speaks for GOTHMINISTER that he’s also able to keep his temper and knock out a solemn balladry kind of track like Emperor which reveals rocking elements to as it progresses but much more understated."
-- Sebastian Huhn, reflectionsofdarkness.com, 11/08
 2011:
Anima Inferna Tracklisting: 01 Stonehenge 02 Liar 03 Juggernaut 04 616 05 Solitude 06 The Beauty of Fanatism 07 A.I. (Anima Inferna) 08 Fade 09 The Beast 10 Hell opens yhe Gate 11 Liar (remix) "... It’s easy to appreciate that the group’s vocalist has decided to play around with multiple tones this time because the last time I sat down and listened to 'Empire...' I couldn’t stop myself from musing on the fact that tonally this guy sounded exactly the same on every song. 'Anima Inferna' is a bit more straightforward as well. This disc is actually pretty short in comparison to the group’s previous efforts. It really only falls into the thirty five minute range. However this probably won’t win the band many new fans as they do drift into comfortable territory. There’s a couple of samples that the band have used before that pop in the keyboard synths here. There’s one that is very familiar that comes straight out of the song Leviathan from Empires so if you’ve been listening to everything the band has done you’ll either feel very nostalgic or you’re going to fall into some serious deja-vu territory. Gothminister does this again with the opening song Stonehenge (which has a bit of a swing to it) and Solitude which has almost the exact same beat in the opening section. Liar, 616 and the title track Anima Inferna are all really good songs if you’re into this sort of music though. (...) If you enjoy this band then 'Anima Inferna' is more of the same and those new to Gothminister would be just fine picking up any album of theirs, but there’s no real reason to dive headfirst into this one. It’s a solid effort but once again the band finds themselves wallowing in mediocrity for a bit, which in this current music economy can really hurt a group. I enjoyed the disc a bit but it’s probably going to wind up more of a collection of singles that will pop up on shuffle every once in a while as opposed to a go to disc to listen to."
-- DemiGodRaven, thenumberoftheblog.com, 3/11
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