Blitz

A quarter century on and KMFDM find themselves bouncing between the industrial crunch style that best suits the voice of founder Sascha Konietzko and the dark alt-club music that seems designed for vocalist Lucia Cifarelli. Listeners with both Rammstein and Garbage in their collections should fall instantly in love with Blitz, an album that holds few surprises for the fans who’ve kept up with the band since the millennium turned. Good news is, if they liked what they heard, this one won’t disappoint them either. As far as high points, "Bait & Switch" is light political commentary with a heavy beat and even heavier hook, while “Potz Blitz!” is a lumbering monster with crunching guitars and thunderous drums. A cover of the early Human League number “Being Boiled” will please the elder synth pop heads, and with the ridiculous trash disco of “Strut” the album already has its fair share of highlights, but the great KMFDM track is yet to come. Displaying their love of snide, Sparks-like humor, “Bitches” pulls the rug out from under the rabid fans with priceless putdowns like “With a smile and a wink/We make believe our poop don’t stink” and “How you dribble, how you drool/Priceless how we had you fooled.” When the lyrics go on to point out that their wit is over-praised by fools, it is irony on top of irony with irony spewing out of the side. Shame they’re just berating the converted at this point, or maybe that’s the point. Either way, it’s a thrill. Plus that symbol representing the first track translates as “Up Uranus.”