Review : KMFDM – 'Kunst'

KMFDM 

'Kunst' 

METROPOLIS 

Twenty-nine years KMFDM have been going, twenty-nine. For a bulk of that it has been the joke that their name stands for “Kill Motherfucking Depeche Mode” and it’s took them until 2013 to put that into a song!  ‘Kunst’, the title and opening track, is full of self-references and singing in the third person with an irritably catchy chorus of “KMFDM kill mother fucking Depeche Mode”. 

Yep, it’s another bout of ten stompy tracks from the German industrial pioneers, they’ve been around long enough that you know what to expect – but ‘Kunst’ is certainly an enjoyable opus.

Always ones to keep it topical, ‘Quake’ takes on a look at refugees, whereas ‘Pussy Riot’ is self-explanatory and ‘Next Big Thing’ draws parallels with the music industry.

Musically, their change has been slow rather than progressive – this hasn’t moved on much from the last few albums, stompy beats, punky electronics, primary focus on the rhythm of the track, dual female and male vocals – so it’s a safe bet. If you like KMFDM, you will probably like ‘Kunst’, just don’t expect anything fresh or cutting edge.

However, the strength here is they haven’t needed to put out something fresh or cutting edge, they know how to put together a decent tune and that’s what you’ve got here. Ten decent tunes. No big hits, no real sloppy parts, just ten decent tunes.

Listening to the album you can often hear hints from bands as diverse as Angelspit or Inertia, this being down to the mix and type of bands they’ve influenced. 

Posted in: KMFDM,Kunst,music