Callejon


Biography Callejon

Callejon

Callejon
The fact that some, having been hit by “Blitzkreuz” (“Blitzcross”) for the first time, feel reminded of RAMMSTEIN in the first moment of shock, is not so much due to the unbelievable force with which the opener of the fourth CALLEJON album impacts, but rather with the combination of hard guitars and German lyrics, which almost inevitably evokes associations with RAMMSTEIN - who, internationally speaking, are the most successful German band, after all.

But even after quickly realizing that there are few musical parallels between the two bands, it may not be so wrong to compare them to each other: CALLEJON have never before sounded as international, as big as on “Blitzkreuz”. That is due partly to the album’s mix by star producer Colin Richardson (AS I LAY DYING, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, MACHINE HEAD, SLIPKNOT, TRIVIUM...) and partly due to Grammy winner Ted Jensen, who took over the mastering and has worked with AVENGED SEVENFOLD, DEFTONES, GREEN DAY, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, MASTODON, PANTERA or UNDEROATH before - really just to mention a few bands.

The fact that “Blitzkreuz” outmatches its predecessor, which had entered the charts at position 31, is mostly credited to the songs themselves. The five musicians from Düsseldorf worked on the album's eleven tracks for nearly a year, subsequently spending two months in the studio and creating songs that, after hearing them for the first time, are clearly distinguishable from each other and recognizable among thousands - a stunt, that notoriously only a few metal bands can pull off. “Wir sind allein auf weiter Flur“ (“We’re out on a limb”), CALLEJON sing in “Kojote U.G.L.Y.”, the album's second song, and those who listened to the sweeping chorus will agree. The band does not even lose their boisterous power when the songs get more electronic and spheric as on the subsequent “Meine Liebe” (“My Love”). And at the latest after the first words of the next track ("Atlantis") it becomes clear that this album will not grant us a toilet break: “Seid ihr bereit / Für dieses Lied? / Ein Lied, das euch von Feuer singt / Und euch den Atem nimmt." (“Are you ready" / For this song? / A song that sings of fire / And will take your breath away.") CALLEJON are ablaze, for three quarters of an hour, until the record ends with “Kind im Nebel" ("Child in Fog"), as epic as it began.

Something as powerful as "Blitzkreuz" does not come out of the blue. It is an album that only a band can write, which has slowly evolved in subcultural underground and still has its roots there. In the past ten years, CALLEJON have used the wood of a metal pigeonhole to build their very own cupboard out of it. And it is so spacious that it does not only enclose sweeping, dramatic choruses and riffs, sheer bursting with energy, but also, for example, the rappers of K.I.Z., Mille of Kreator and Sebastian of MADSEN - sometimes all of them in a single song, like in the, unfortunately awesome, "Porn from Spain 2".

“Willkommen in der Sackgasse" (Welcome to the dead end"), the band sings (surely joined by everyone who will ever hear this song) on "Blitzkreuz". After all, musical sound barriers can only be broken where it supposedly does not go on. CALLEJON continue their path undeterred and by that open new perspectives to modern metal. “Willkommen in der Realität" ("Welcome to reality").

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