|
User
Reviews 32
Approval 98%
Soundoffs 314
News Articles 3
Band Edits + Tags 23
Album Edits 20
Album Ratings 1249
Objectivity 66%
Last Active 05-12-22 12:43 am
Joined 04-15-14
Review Comments 1,245
| Die Kreuzen rules
Die Kreuzen are an excellent group that were a major influence to Voivod, who are relatively well known to fans of progressive metal, to the point that one of their albums cracked the Billboard Top 200. Die Kreuzen are not a well known band at all, but they deserve more recognition. (Yeah, there's already a list that has a bunch of Die Kreuzen releases on it, but you know what, there are also like a million lists that rank Metallica albums.) | | 1 |  | Die Kreuzen
Cows and Beer
Six cuts of blistering 80s hardcore in exactly seven minutes! All the songs from this are on their self-titled LP, but I personally think they sound a bit better here. | | 2 |  | Die Kreuzen
Die Kreuzen
If there's any album that this band is known for, it would be this one, which Steve Albini really loved and which is sometimes considered a midwestern hardcore classic. In about twenty tracks, this album doesn't let up. When it's not at full speed, the atmosphere remains tense, thanks largely to Dan Kubinski's shrieking, incredibly harsh vocals. He's really pissed off, anxious, or both. What really makes this record (and arguably the band's as a whole) is Brian Egeness' guitar playing. He has this angular, kinda dissonant style that really anticipated Piggy from Voivod a few years later. (Well, Voivod's first album came out the same year as this, but the Die Kreuzen influences weren't especially clear until Killing Technology.) | | 3 |  | Die Kreuzen
October File
On October File, Die Kreuzen slowed down some and got a bit more melodic, but they're still ominous, and the guitars generally stay loud and distorted. The songs now have more textures to them. The vocals are mostly still wild and screechy, but Dan throws in some singing every now and then, like on Cool Breeze (the most gentle song Die Kreuzen had yet put out) and Hide and Seek. But even his melodic singing still has a certain eeriness to it. Like on the last album, Keith Brammer's bass playing interacts well with Brian's riffs and Dan's singing, and though Erik Tunison's drumming is for the most part less manic than before, his performance remains as competent as the rest of the band. The post-hardcore direction they took here is for the better, in my opinion, as this is my favorite album by them. | | 4 |  | Die Kreuzen
Century Days
This is a really polarizing record. Someone on RYM called it "lame alt rock with scream vocals", and to a lot of people that's what it is, but I love it. They changed even further as a band after October File, to the point that this is an alternative rock album! A couple songs are more uptempo, but there aren't any that are really what I'd call "fast". Blistering hardcore this ain't, but Dan's unique vocals and Brian's atmospheric guitar playing, although tamed and more melodic than before, are enough to keep this recognizably a Die Kreuzen album. This has the most wide-ranging sound palette and variety of moods out of all their records, with songs like Different Ways, Number Three, and Dream Sky being wonderfully moody and atmospheric, even if the latter two are overlong. They even incorporate brass instruments in a few songs (Different Ways, Stomp, and Bitch Magnet), and those are the best songs on here. Some songs drag on, but it's still my second favorite Die Kreuzen album. | | 5 |  | Die Kreuzen
Gone Away EP
Good little EP. I like the title track, and it reminds me of the moodier cuts off Century Days, and the Seasons of Wither cover is good too. The live tracks also sound fantastic, though Stomp and Bitch Magnet aren't as good without the extra instrumentation like on Century Days. | | 6 |  | Die Kreuzen
Cement
This isn't as good as Die Kreuzen's other efforts, but even then I wouldn't call it bad. In fact, there are some pretty great moments on here. On this album, they were deliberately trying to be more accessible, so the production is genuinely sleak and the vocals are even more restrained than on Century Days (not that he doesn't still wail sometimes; it's still Dan Kubinski on the mic), and the actually tend to sound pretty normal. They sound sorta like Century Days sometimes, but overall, the things that make Die Kreuzen...well, Die Kreuzen, aren't that much on display. Still some good songs on here though, like overall it's an alright album. One trait of this album I do find pretty pleasing is that the magic of studio dubbing lets Dan pull off some nice sounding vocal harmonies with himself. There's also an acoustic version of Gone Away hidden at the end, which I personally find to be a nice addition. It's lacking for what Die Kreuzen are capable of, but for what it is it's not bad. | |
FirstStrikeIsDeadly
10.15.16 | Favorites off each album:
Die Kreuzen - Rumors, In School (also on Cows and Beer), Not Anymore, Dirt and Decay
October File - It's Been So Long, Imagine a Light, Counting Cracks, Open Lines
Century Days - Different Ways, So Many Times, Stomp, Bitch Magnet
Cement - Shine, Best Goodbye, Gone Away [acoustic] | jagride
10.15.16 | don't care about voivod but i'll co-sign on the list title and your takes on cows n beer and s/t
good shit | NeroCorleone80
10.15.16 | great band. S/t is one of my favorite hardcore albums |
|
