Morbus Kitahara

review by Travis Baumann

Morbus Kitahara was the first band to go on the first day of the festival for us. We had chosen to go see Janus at the Park Bruhne and decided to go early to figure out where everything was. It was a good idea that we left early because it took us forever wandering through the park in the rain. We finally arrived and Morbus Kitahara had just gone on.

I was hoping we would make it in time to catch these guys because the few songs I had heard were pretty cool. On stage they consisted of the female lead singer, keyboardist, bassist and a drummer. Their sound was good live but I felt their stage presence somewhat lacked in comparison to other bands we saw through-out the festival. It wasn't that they didn't try hard with their music (and it was raining pretty hard), it was just their stage-selected apparel and overall impression wasn't as "all-out" as it could have been. Then again maybe they aren't into the glam-goth-evil vibe so much which is ok too but I do enjoy those extra touches.

I purchased one of their discs while in the great gothic hall after seeing them live and that is pretty much the best endorsement you can give and their live performance definitely encouraged that. On CD, I found their sound pretty cool. I especially remembered "The Beast" song live so I bought the album that had that track on it but I nearly went for their remix album because a lot of really cool bands do mixes for them.

MORBUS KITAHARA

By VNA

I really liked listening to Morbus Kitahara before we saw them live, but I didn't know much about the band. This was another band that just by being on the WGT roster gave us reason to find out more about each band listed. I had heard some tracks from the internet. Live, the band was intriguing right away. They had the right attitude about making music and playing live. Their sound is unique and so is Ullie, the lead female vocalist. Ullie is well spoken. With the other three guys on stage Morbus Kitahara created a perfect scene with sounds of drums, keyboards, bass and additional backing vocals. It was strange to be waiting to see a really cool dark band in the middle of the afternoon and to be standing there just as we wanted. We were watching the band as they continued playing really strong with flowing music. Instantly the music put us at ease. The music was uplifting and magical with people moving to the sounds and to Ullie's vocals. Ullie's voice is very different and direct but comfortable and quite interesting.

I like listening to the stories she tells. Her words are soothing and fulfilling to my mind. Morbus Kitahara was fun to watch. The band made me have such a good feeling about the festival. The entire event, the outdoor venue and the sound of Morbus Kitahara was amazing. Ullie makes it easier to recognize that Morbus Kitahara has a future creating music. Live Ullie sang and swayed but at home she creates their music using keyboards. We were able to pick up one disc of theirs and had seen some others we should have bought at one of the big Saturn Record Stores in Germany. Can you believe after the four day festival and the incredible conference-size-hall of merchandise being sold we still looked for more music all through-out our trip until our luggage was completely full. We found a used CD store in Cologne, too that we will definitely return to again.

Previously the band was Kricki, Ullie, Thomas and André on the CD I bought but live it consisted of Kricki and Ullie Schech and guest musicians Patrick Crowley who is the bass player for The Hall of Souls and Jochen Raithel who is the drummer for the band Shallow Talks.

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This link will take you to the next chronological event of the festival: Cryptic Carnage