Linus Klaussenitzer - Tulpa Review

Linus Klaussenitzer with “Tulpa” is here to prove that the bas isn’t the ugly duckling of instruments in Metal music. With very few exceptions, which I’m sure my dear child of the night knows by heart, we’re not used to having the bass as a prominent part of the music. Fun fact is even though this is an album of a bass virtuoso, the album isn’t in any way the equivalent of an album of a guitar virtuoso, if you know what I mean. “Tulpa” was written to be a band album by all means.

For the ones who like me doesn’t have a clue of whom we’re talking about I’ll show you a short biography of Linus Klaussenitzer who at the age of 19, attended the Music College in Regensburg, and afterwards made a degree at Hamburg Music and Art University. After finishing studies, he did a lot of session work in different genres, and in the meantime, was in a number of different German bands, Fall of Serenity being the most well-known one. He was also a member of Noneuclid, a German/Dutch progressive death metal band. He first joined Obscura as a touring bassist in 2011 and not shortly afterwards, Klausenitzer was announced as the band’s new bassist. With them, he has recorded two albums – 2015’s Akróasis and 2018’s Diluvium.

As I said before, “Tulpa” isn’t the bass virtouso equivalent of a guitar virtuoso album with minutes and more minutes of endless guitar solos. Truth to be told, if I hadn’t said a word, my dear child of the night would never know this is an album of any kind of virtuoso. Of course, there are bass solos here but, to some extent, they are incorporated to the songs as in “Our Soul Sets Sail” whose modern Metal approach clash with the band’s Death Metal. In general, the songs are well-balanced and the bass only take the lead as in “Sehraff” or “Sword Swallower” in a very subtle way. Linus Klaussenitzer was very careful here, if you know what I’m saying. His intent was to record an album of music, not an album of showing offs. This matters a lot.

“Tulpa” is a great chance to listen to an album with the bass as the prominent instrument even though it’s not stated. It’s an album with lots of modern Death Metal influences which makes it bright.

Linus Klaussenitzer “Tulpa” will be released on October 06th via AOP Records.

Track Listing: