Artist: Die Klute
Title: Planet Fear
Genre: EBM / Industrial Metal
Release Date: 1st February 2019
Label: Cleopatra Records
Album Review
Collaborations are not too unusual in electronic music but this outlet truly deserves the label “super group”: DIE KLUTE are veteran musicians Jürgen Engler from DIE KRUPPS, Claus Larsen of LEÆTHER STRIP and KLUTÆ fame, and FEAR FACTORY’s Dino Cazares. All three of them are legends and pioneers of their genre with a huge back-catalogue and great legacy. So ‘Planet Fear’, the album the three partners in crime released as DIE KLUTE (a hybrid of DIE KRUPPS and KLUTÆ, as you already guessed) should be one hell of a record, right?
Well, “super groups” are a tricky thing. The combination of the creative geniuses and the long-standing practical knowledge of a bunch of experienced artists can lead to great things. Or it can be somewhat good but nowhere near the strokes of genius of the featured artists’ main band and/ or their heyday, when they were at their most ground-breaking. Super groups can be indeed a little disappointing as you might have expected a bit more from big names collaborating together.
DIE KLUTE is certainly not re-inventing the wheel and sounds exactly as you would expect: A cross bread of LEÆTHER STRIP’s harsh and dark endzeit EBM, DIE KRUPPS’ groovy Industrial Rock with a soft spot for great hooks and Dino Cazares’ razor-sharp guitar work he become famous for in FEAR FACTORY. Most of the vocal duties are done by Claus Larsen, with Jürgen Engler joining in frequently as a second voice. The combination of Engler’s commanding clear-cut vocals and Larsen’s signature distorted vocals is certainly a strong point of the album!
Dino Cazares’ influence on the songs is a little less noticeable, although his involvement in DIE KLUTE was heavily advertised particularly in Anglo-American media, thanks to the prestige of FEAR FACTORY in the UK and the USA. Sure, his staccato guitar riffing is all over the album but it is not too far from what DIE KRUPPS have done since they married Metal with German Electro Punk and EBM in the 1990s, if you’re honest. Basically DIE KLUTE is a KRUPPS/ LEÆTHER STRIP mongrel but there’s certainly nothing wrong with that as it combines the best of both worlds.
The album kicks off with the hammering ‘If I Die’ followed by the super-groovy ‘Out Of Control’, a potential floor filler at Industrial clubs around the world. ‘Planet Fear’ hardly slows down the tempo and delivers one sonic attack after another, so a mid-tempo track like ‘Born For A Cause’ or the dark, dystopian ‘For Nothing’ are welcome changes. Engler, Larsen and Cazares showcase on the album why they are at the top of their game and you get exactly what you would expect from DIE KLUTE. You just don’t get the unexpected... Most interesting song, in this regard, is ‘She Watch Channel Zero’, a cover version of PUBLIC ENEMY’s classic from their legendary 1988 album ‘It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back’.
While the production, programming and arrangements of ‘Planet Fear’ is spot-on and flawless it would have done good if Engler, Larsen and Cazares would have left their comfort zone a bit more often to offer something unexpected and different. But if you are looking simply for another dose of stomping, head-first Industrial Metal and EBM killer songs there’s no reason to hesitate to get your hands on ‘Planet Fear’!
Tracklist
01. If I Die
02. Out Of Control
03. The Hangman
04. Rich Kid Loser
05. For Nothing
06. Human Error
07. It’s All In Vain
08. Born For A Cause
09. Infectious
10. Push The Limit
11. Channel Zero
12. MOFO
Line-up
Dino Cazares (Fear Factory)
Jürgen Engler (Die Krupps)
Claus Larsen (Leather Strip)
Website
https://www.facebook.com/WeAreDieKlute
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 9
Total: 8.5 / 10
J.
Comments powered by CComment