Angst [Original recording remastered]

Just kidding ;). KMFDM does not suck. They are easily one of my all time favorite industrial bands. For a long time, the band's catalog from the past decade had been out of print. Last year Sascha Konietzko finally was able to obtain the rights to the band's earlier albums and began to remaster and re-release them through KMFDM's own record label and Metropolis Records. One of the first handful of albums that released last year was the classic ANGST. Without a shadow of a doubt, the album sounds a hundred percent better than the 1994 version. The production on the original album is awful in comparison to the remastered version. The music sounds fresh as ever, never sounds dated or obsolete. Considering the current state of the world, ANGST captures the discontent that many Americans are feeling with its politically charged lyrics. The music itself is as abrasive as the lyrics with its searing guitar riffs and club friendly dance beats. I am glad that Sascha went through the painstaking task of remastering and re-releasing the band's earlier albums. They deserved it and to be heard all over again.

Most KMFDM fans would tell you Symbols is their greatest, however i personally much prefer this album to Symbols because i find that the problem with Symbols is that the album only has three extremely good tracks "Megalomaniac", "Stray Bullet" and "Leid Und Leid" and then the rest of the album just doesn't live up to the first three songs making it a bit of a dissapointment, whereas all the tracks on this album are great. I also found that Symbols was a little to techno for me, where as this album mixes electronics with nice catchy guitar riffages in the background.

Eitherway aside from that this is a terrific album mixing funky, catchy, rhythmic distorted guitar sounds with amusing electronics with sascha's blistering vocals and Dorona's nice female backing vocals and not to mention En Esch's german vocals which are beyond words. Other than that this album also features great synth's and great sampling work remiscent to ministry, oh and like many other reviewers have stated this album is humorous lyrically with tongue and cheek yet playful lyrics towards policy.

Some KMFDM tracks worth taking note of include their moshpit friendly industrial-thrash song "Drug Against War" which is very remiscent to Ministry(sampling, guitars, pace), and "A Hole In The Wall" is a well written(lyrically and musically) powerful love ballad and "lust" is a heavy electronic energetic song with En Esch growling in german. All the songs on here are great, ranging from 4 stars to 5 stars.

The thing i like about KMFDM is that they've always been trying out new things and experimenting which is what i look for in a band/musician such as adding a more metal edge to their sound as done on this album making it one of the best albums mixing metal with electronics along with Rammsteins highlight of their career "Mutter" and Fear Factory's classic "Demanufacture", and aside from that they are very creative and original, and this may be me but i find this album helps me think things over and reduce my stress. All in all this is a memorable well produced album with great musicianship that will be in my top albums list in years to come which i am working on.

KMFDM has put out so many delicious albums since the inception of that now-infamous moniker, and have developed a mainstay of fans since they bulleted to chart-topping heights and helped pull Wax Trax to new levels. Their earliest pieces (What do you Know) were a little on the crude side when it came to developing their sound, but the 90s brought out a KMFDM that knew how to throw its muscle around into guitar-driven political/industrial. This refinement begins to show within works like Money and is especially evident in works like Angst and Nihil, where KMFDM seems to lose a lot of the theatrics of the past and "finds its way."

And that way, as we all know, can be compressed in the words "Rip the System."

With Angst, KMFDM hit stride and dropped quite a few tracks that have become staples in their line-up. As an album it gets me pumped up when I listen to it, having so many great tracks on it and also possessing a flow from start to finish, proving that they are a powerhouse in the genre to contend with. The energy they have is electric and contagious, and it gets the day started off right.

Hitting some highlights:

"Light" kicks things off and showcases the turn KMFDM is taking. KMFDM is a self-hyping vessel too, and one that likes to say things about themselves. That's one of their charms and it starts early. The track also works to say that this isn't going to be a softer, more touching KMFDM, and I it. It's spawned an army of singles (the cover on Don't Blow Your Top is Amazing) and simply is a tasty "treat for the freaks." "A Drug against War," was huge when it came out, getting some video play before the little KMFDM "incident" that happened between the band and MTV, and it was noticed with good reason. It is perhaps one the most driven KMFDM tracks, has the political message KMFDM becomes synonymous with, and the vocals are pounding. "Strong than never, ever before, KMFDM is a drug against war!" Yeah. "Blood(Evil-Mix)" is a nice sound, dark in its own right and still staying with the flow of the album, and I like the vocal distortion used here. "Hold no head higher than your own." "Lust," powered by En Esch's German vocals, is utterly amazing. I love the way he sounds and I have to say that the song goes right up there with some of the best. "Glory" is also a great one in the KMFDM line-up, kicking in the political overtones. "Black man, white man, yellow man; Rip the System!" "A Hole in the Wall" is a little flavorful sexy taste, one I like, and most KMDFM listens are acquainted with "Sucks!"

As anyone familiar with KMFDM will tell you, the line-up shifts a lot and some "pros and cons" show up depending on what album you're in. So, the first thing to do is find what you like about KMFDM and then trace the line-up. I personally miss Raymond Watts on the albums he doesn't take part in and seek him out, sometimes like or dislike Lucia depending on how much of my supposedly Sasha-driven feel, and I still don't know about Skold (not that it currently matters) even though I liked Symbols. I also miss En Esch quite a bit these days (even though his side-project Slick Idiot is entertaining), thinking he added a touch to the songs driven by German lyrics. Still, the albums all comes together in their own right and any are nice to try out. This is a great example of some Sasha/ En Esch fusion, an perhaps a starting point if you like the sound portrayed herein.

"War and slavery, exploitation; the common thesis of a western nation."