Ratlehole's The Nibelung Saga: Where Mythology meets the machine.

Ancient legends reborn through symphonic metal and digital fire.

Half human emotion, half machine precision, fully immersive. Ratlehole is an Austrian virtual metal, rock project created by lyricist and composer Franz Habegger. The project, which comes from Vienna, is at the intersection of mythology, symphonic metal, and high-tech digital performance. In fact, all lyrics and melodies are done by hand, and the vocals and instruments have the most advanced computer technology, so Ratlehole is a very close thing between human creativity and machine precision. It is not really a band but a form of digital music theatre, which is the result of a concept, storytelling, and cinematic ambition.

The Nibelung Saga: A Rock Opera is a daring, deep, and engaging story album that is the opposite of a hit single collection.

Instead of a few standalone singles, it is a dramatised metal opera based on ancient Germanic myths, telling the rise and fall of heroes in ten powerful chapters that feel like the acts of a staged metal opera. This record is a journey from the dark and foreboding The Curse Begins to the world, ending Twilight of the Gods, full of power struggles, treason, and tragic fate.

These three characters, Siegfried, Brnnhilde, and Kriemhild, are not simply the myths of old, but Ratlehole presents them as the most human of beings, richly psychologized and brought out to their extremes through the grandiose musical language and the overwhelming power of metal. Metal guitars and modern production techniques are blended with the traditional side of the metal world in a very theatrical but, at the same time, quite powerful manner. The Nibelung Requiem is the solemn and sombre take on the myth, while the rap, metal style of Dragonfight is the most surprising one amongst the bonus tracks, which further broadens the story realm.

In the end, Ratlehole is presenting music theatre for the digital agevery ambitious, pretty creative, and going for the epic tone without apology.