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HANZEL
UND GRETYL |
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| Uber Alles is the next installment in the crazy-cosmic-intergalactic-warring-feuding saga of the NYC duo known universally as Hanzel und Gretyl. The 13 tracks here are the kind of dark industrial, heavy on the metallic guitar crunch made popular by the likes of Nine Inch Nails or Ministry (to name a popular few), or one of my older faves, Die Warsau. Loopy has outdone himself this time on the programming, sampling, and guitars. Then there’s the menacing growl of Vas Kallas, spitting out deadly machine-gun blasts auf Deutsch. | ||
| Opening
with “Overture”, we hear air raid sirens, bombs dropping, and
the crowd yelling ‘Seig Heil’, but before you get your panties
all in a big fat wad thinking this is some kind of Nazi or White Power thing,
(like the German government has, by banning the album entirely, or Canada’s
HMV has by refusing to sell it), let me tell you that it’s a hyper-Wagnerian-industrial
full-on assault with a story line. “Third Reich From The Sun”--a
bombastic, foreboding, pounding piece—transports us from the comfort
of Earth into their ongoing intergalactic strife with an insane warlord…or
so the story goes. By and far, it’s sets the tone for the whole album,
and it’s actually on par with Queensryche’s landmark 1988 opus
Operation: Mindcrime, for creativity and execution. “Ich Bin
Uber Alles” (I Am Above All), “Mach Schnell” (Make It
Fast) , “SS Deathstar Supergalactic”, and “Verbotenland”
(Forbiddenland) pick up the tone, define the texture and carry us through
their world of space war on a heavy wave of distorted guitar angst. There
are a few light moments, like “Intermission”, where they sing
a cute little twisted nursery rhyme, the uncanny double entendre and sexual
delivery of “Mein Kommandant” (My Commander), and the lilting beauty of “aufwiedersehen” (goodbye)…proving that VasKallas can do more than growl and scare the bejesus out of us… |
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----Christine
Natanael |
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