WTF?!

The “ultra heavy beat” sounds as “ultra” and “heavy” as ever on WTF?!, the 17th studio album by industrial juggernauts KMFDM. Drum machines pound, slogans are chanted, and guitars slash through speakers as they always have, with the only real differences being a tighter, lower bottom end, perhaps influenced by the stadium techno sound favored by the European hardcore crowd. Whatever the source, these newly tuned beats inspire vocalists Sascha Konietzko and Lucia Cifarelli to roar unrestrained, driving home the simple hooks of “Krank” and “Vive la Mort!” with a new lust for life, or better yet, death, as the topics are as dark and desolate as fans require. A big surprise is the disco rave-up “Take It Like a Man,” where Cifarelli forgets what former Wax Trax! band she joined and delivers the quintessential My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult song. It’s a relief or nuisance depending how loyal you are to the original KMFDM aesthetic, but even when purists give it the boot, they’re left with an outstanding blast of dark dancefloor destruction. Put this one on the band’s top shelf.