Metal Reviews

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http://www.myspace.com/diekur
Tracks there...

I didn't notice even the slightest hint at this being remotely avant-garde, but can you explain what you mean with the whole limitless creativity thing, can you make it more clear?

Btw, I thought it to be funny how they threw in a Jungle style Amen Break every now and then. They seem to lend more elements from Jungle.

Industrial to me is something that is reliant on heavy guitar samples along with additional sampled sounds to create a certain feel. However, to me, Die Kur is a group that has created certain sounds, especially with acoustic guitar, to create something I personally haven't heard much of with this type of music. Maybe you could classify all of Industrial as one big experimental piece of music, but to me, this just seemed a bit out of the norm.

Well, in a way all genres of music have limitless creativity, but with Industrial there are so many different variations in sounds and samples that can be combined to create something that sounds completely different from the last. I dunno, to me it seems like there is much to work with within this genre.

Big thanks for doing a more industrial-tinged review- Rivet-heads unite!

Onto the music, though... how is the rest of the album compared to the samples they have on their myspace page? I thought "17 Seconds of Pure..." was really good, though a little more 'club-y' (in a Darkwave sorta way) than industrial. Does the rest of the album tend to stay mellow, or does it get heavy?

Uhh. Either one of us has a very distorted view of the Industrial genre. What you've described here is Industrial Metal in my eyes, the Metal addition means it's uses distorted guitars and leans to pop. Industrial itself is actually not so much younger than metal and does not origin in popular music, like metal does. Sounds Collage, Musique Concrète, Krautrock and Experimental music (like Fluxus music) would stand at the cradle of Industrial if you'd ask me. Now I'm by no means an expert on Industrial, but this record (judging from the songs on myspace) is not Avant-Garde in a million years. When I'm thinking of Industrial bands that started the movement (in the mid 70s), I'd mention Throbbing Gristle and Nurse With Wound. They were infinitely more free and experimental than Die Kur, for example. Industrial has some defined subgenres, of which Industrial Metal is one, I'm not sure if you have heard records outside that fusion.

hi cody, I think the main problem with your viewpoint on this album is thinking of bands like Rammstein, KMFDM, Ministry and Nine Inch Nails as standard industrial bands. In the late 80s they, along with Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly (great bands btw), could have been called industrial, but now they all play vastly different music that's closer to metal with industrial influences.

The original idea of industrial was sampling machine noises, then you got harsh, distorted vocals, metal guitars, synths, and drum machines because they fit the post-apocalyptic feeling of the music very well (my favourite album of this type is Skinny Puppy's VIVIsectVI). Trent Reznor came along and took all of these ideas and organized them into melodic songy songs on Pretty Hate Machine and this sort of spawned everyone nowadays's view of industrial, because even though it was still part of the industrial scene and used elements from the genre it was vastly different from even Skinny Puppy. Also Ministry, Front Line Assembly and KMFDM both lost most of their industrial elements in the 90s and became dancey-metal-punk-whatever, so that helped the confusing aong.

I'm probably wrong about a lot of stuff since I'm trying to remember what someone from rateyourmusic explained to me like a year and a half ago, but the general point is that the bands you compared Die Kur to are industrial rock/metal, not straight up industrial, and that in comparison to actual industrial bands Die Kur are extremely tame experimentation-wise, so the term avant garde doesn't apply to them at all.

I do agree with you that electronic artists have a huge palette to work from though - listen to The Sound of Animals Fighting - Lover, The Lord has Left Us or DJ Shadow's The Outside are much more applicable to this than Die Kur.

noodles and Misha,

I understand what you are saying and it indeed does make sense, and I am aware that "true" Industrial if you will, originated with the intention to not make it metal or punk or anything but its own little niche. I am sure alot of fans, such as those who I have recieved responses from in this thread, are more versed in the ways of Industrial than I, I will be the first to admit that, however, when an Industrial band submits material for review on a metal site, comparisons to the bands you mentioned such as Rammstein, NIN and KMFDM are going to naturally come up as most metal fans can relate to them. Perhaps I was off base in calling this band avant garde, but personally I haven't heard much like this in the genre it feels like *shrugs*.

When I get home from work, I can change it to standard Industrial as this seems like it would suit the music better.

Thanks for the input.

Yeah, I totally hear where you're coming from man, Industrial Rock (or maybe Industrial Metal) would be better indeed.