DIE KRUPPS TOO MUCH HISTORY DOUBLE COMPILATION PREMIUM, SOULFOOD, BORDER RELEASE: OCTOBER 26, 2007 REVIEW: DECEMBER 20, 2007

When you talk about classic EBM from the early 80:s people often seem to forget Die Krupps despite a number of great songs, especially from the 1982 album “Volle Kraft Voraus!”. This might have to do with the fact that the band left that sound behind during the 90:s and instead began to experiment with guitars and metal music.

Now they have decided to sum up their career with “Too Much History”, a double-CD compilation where the two different styles are divided on one disc called “The Electro Years” and one called “The Metal Years”. The two discs are also released individually. It’s the first disc that contains the good stuff here, no doubt about that. All the songs on the collection are re-recorded and sound great; songs like “Germaniac” and “Goldfinger” even sounds better than ever. The clean body music combined with a touch of modern electro is perfect dance music and I hope that we'll hear more of Die Krupps in the clubs from now on. Also included is a new recording of “Machineries of Joy” with new vocals from Douglas McCarthy. We also get their cover of the classic Visage song “Der Amboss”, with help from the girls in Client. This track is absolutely amazing and has been very hard to find before and I’m delighted that it’s finally available to the masses.

So why doesn’t the metal songs work then? Well most of them are OK, but when you compare Die Krupps to other metal bands they are quite ordinary and nothing really stands out. However “Fatherland” is on here; so the disc is worth getting anyway. But if you’re anything like me, you will play the electro stuff over and over.

This is a nice set of reworked songs from a classic band that maybe will start to rise again, since they started to play live when the band turned 25 some years back. If so, please focus on the electro sound because there you can be pioneers once again.

TOBIAS ELIASSON

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