Our Time Will Come

Once Rammstein took industrial rage to the stadiums, veteran bands like KMFDM seemed old-school and antiquated with more bark than bite. Sascha Konietzko and crew kept their chins up in spite of it all, and cleverly created a cottage industry while falling out of favor, enlisting fans to shoot their 20th Anniversary World Tour video and messing about on the uncool fringes of pop music, which the blogs and trendy music review sites never bother with. As such, they went "balls deep" into popular culture with 2013's Kunst, an album that referenced newsmakers Pussy Riot and made a concerted effort to be well-rounded. Doing a complete 180 just because if feels great, Our Time Will Come is much smaller, sharper, and sillier, and all to good effect. That last quality is represented by album number 19's ironic title and the "Hello Teenage America!" which opens the LP, because when faced with KMFDM in 2014, the best most U.S. teens can muster is "my parents are fans." Still, "Genau" is a hell of a launch as it churns out rave metal and dirty disco with "That's the sound of the German in you!" as its hook, then, just like in the opera Il Trovatore, "Respekt" beats an anvil during its chorus and it's a wonder why no other electro-industrial act didn't think of this device any sooner. That quintessential sound was waiting for a quintessential band like KMFDM, and as the title cut here croons, "You can't kill, what won't die", although a couple slower numbers here don't thrill, and the calm, kitsch disco that's been flirted with for a while now still seems better suited for My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. Get past those minor complaints and Our Time Will Come feels as if the band handed out post-concert comment cards and were truly inspired by all the excellent advice handed back. Respekt.