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Over the past couple of Der Blutharsch albums the prolific Albin Julius has been gradually reorienting the group from a military-industrial solo project to a fully fledged band. "Where did wonderland end?" is the result of this logical progression, with the music sounding as should be expected from a more formalised band format, where the core the group is now built around Albin Julius (vocals, drums, percussions, piano, synth, programming etc), Marthyanna (vocals, drums, percussion), Jorg B, (guitar and bass) and Bain Wolfkind (vocals, guitar and drums), and further assisted by a variety of contributors form the broad scene the Der Blutharsch is part of.

The greatest degree of change to be noted here is with the addition of bass & guitar to most compositions, and whilst a more sleezy rock’n’roll undercurrent might be evident on a number of tracks, nevertheless the basic core sound of a military-industrial framework remains solid to create rousing, anthemic and nostalgic atmospheres.

Track 11 is an album standout, showing a perfect combination of Der Blutharsch’s past heavily percussive militant style, further reinforced by the reoriented sound. Likewise with Albin having previously written the majority of the music on Death In June’s "Take Care and Control" and "Operation Hummingbird" albums, for this particular album he has borrowed from this period by reusing the song ‘Frost Flowers’ to great effect. Whilst the core of the track remains much the same, it sees the addition of a strummed acoustic guitar along with Marthynna’s angelic vocals (lyrics penned by Douglas P of course).

However one criticism might relate to the album’s production, which sounds slightly flat and muddied. While far from being a serious problem, it is rather a case of me wondering just how much more some of these songs would have soared with a cleaner more polished sound? Although some purists might have some issue with the reworked sound and format of Der Blutharsch, but for myself this is by far the strongest of the last few albums.

RJS