'Für
Immer'
It's hard to believe
that the duo of Kaizer Von Loopy and Vas Kallas (AKA pseudo-Neu
Deutsche Härte act Hanzel
Und Gretyl) have been around for nearly 20 years now. With a handful
of interesting albums to their name in the 90s, they gained
international infamy due to the playfully parodying of albums such as
2003's 'Über
Alles' and 2004's 'Sheissmessiah'. Now off the back of their sixth
album 'Born To Be Heiled' comes the companion EP, featuring tracks
remixed by Von Loopy's electro side-project KyzrWölf.
One
criticism of HuG has been that, although their music has a lot of
variety, it often seems to quickly become unfocussed as there are so
many influences vying for control. What this remix album brings to
the table though is a more focussed and linear style that maintains
the unpredictability of the originals.
Purists
can pick on the band for their lack of grammatical correctness (and
believe me... they will ad nauseam), however there is something
undeniably fun about singing and dancing along to tracks like 'More
German Than German', 'Unterztützung
87', 'Born To Be Heiled', and 'Holy Shiza' with their cheesy and
parody orientated titles. The fact that these are all electronic
remixes as well gives the band back their club-orientated sound that
has become increasingly over-shadowed by their various metal
influences in recent years.
The
remixes have a nice modern edge that gives a nod to the band's early
electro-industrial style, while also dropping in nods to more recent
trends such as dubstep. It's a solid effort that will undoubtedly
yield some club hits to keep both DJs and old school fans more than
happy.
This
is a kind of “best of both” situation. HuG have a pretty solid
fanbase that expect the heavy guitars and metal posturing of the last
decade’s worth of albums has presented. Yet, with what is quite a
well thought out and reconstructed remix album, the band are able to
tap back into the dance/club market once again and widen their
appeal. Hopefully this is a trend the band will continue on future
releases.