Band:	KMFDM
Album:	Hau Ruck
Style:	EBM, Industrial metal
Release date:	2005

01. Free Your Hate
02. Hau Ruck
03. Youre No Good
04. New American Century
05. Real Thing
06. Every Days A Good Day
07. Mini Mini Mini
08. Professional Killer
09. Feed Our Fame
10. Ready To Blow
11. Auf Wiedersehn

The new KMFDM album is heavy and very metallic, which I imagine will make it quite attractive indeed for MetalStorm readers. If this is your first chance of hearing this band, I would say that this is a very good album to start with. With this said, for old fans, "Hau Ruck" doesnt really offer anything new that is worth getting excited about. For the most part, it is an extremely well produced set of songs that follow all of the cliches that the band created for themselves.

But stop. There is one thing about this album that does make it well worth the money of new and old fans alike. This thing, or rather this person, is Lucia Cifarelli. Her role in the songwriting process has been growing ever since she joined the MDFMK crew back in 1999 and now she has advanced far beyond the role of the typical female background vocal performer that KMFDM is famous for using. She is responsible for all the interesting moments on this album and her songs are absolute gems. Hell, I can imagine that if KMFDM decided to make an album with ONLY Lucia on vocals, they would give bands like Kidneythieves, Tapping The Vein and Genitorturers a run for their money. She exhibits a remarkable versatility in delivery, going from the sweet, pop-inspired performance on "Real Thing" to a very harsh, almost growling scream on many of the heavier tracks on this album (most notably "Free Your Hate"). Additionally, she sounds dangerously sexy on "Professonal Killer". There is no doubt about it, Lucia is at the moment by far the most interesting member of the band and one of the greatest female vocalists in this kind of music.

Now that I have gotten the Lucia praise out of my system, I unfortunately need to go back to reality and evaluate the rest of this album. Sadly, it really isnt all that good. Most of the songs resemble pieces that this band has already recorded on previous albums. Unless the listener is interested in a collection of rehashes (or is not familiar with the band at all), there isnt much to write home about on this album. We are treated to the same old combination of thrashy riffs, dance beats and anthemic refrains gang-shouted by the entire band. Granted, most of these riffs are quite catchy but KMFDM riffs are usually catchy so this is no real indication of quality. What saves these songs from being totally boring is how well they are produced. This is the best produced KMFDM album ever and this is saying a lot since the band has a history of superb production. The bass sounds are very powerful and all other instruments and samples sound crystal clear. This is what makes even the derrivative songs like "You're No Good" and "New American Century" quite listenable.

The reader will have realized that evaluating this album was fairly problematic for me. A 7 is a rather mediocre score for an album to get on MS; however, I feel that this is what it deserves as a whole. With this said, Lucia's tracks like "Real Thing" and "Professional Killer" deserve 9s, if not 10s. For this reason, I think it is actually safe for me to recommend this album despite its shortcomings. After all, Lucia's voice does appear on all of the tracks and the songs are extremely well produced.