"Because we humans can be manipulated." With the haunting "43," FJORT from Aachen announce the arrival of their fifth album, "belle époque" (Grand Hotel van Cleef). The first minute, a ballad-like journey, takes us into the unimaginably dehumanized era of German history, drawing a cautionary arc to our present. Only then does the trio play their strongest card: a musical outburst that underscores what has just been heard. When, in the following verse, "we have murdered, looted, desecrated, strangled—we are capable of it" is screamed with 98dC distortion, and the listener is repeatedly urged to reflect on this horror, it becomes clear: "belle époque" is the band's most powerful album to date. "We live in swastika times," FJORT conclude at the end, and we are unmistakably aware of how close we are to a repeat of the past. On a musical level, FJORT remain their own benchmark: compositions like theatrical pieces, emotionally charged. condensed, yet simultaneously capable of instilling fear and liberating.