PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
It’s times like these I realise I should have learned German instead of French at school. 9MM, like Rammstein, shove their music in your face in without any English language alternative and, just like Rammstein, you wouldn’t really want the tracks to sound any other way because the language sits so perfectly within the music. 9MM’s Volle Kraft Voraus may well carry the same name as the 1982 Die Krupps album but there’s little electronica, less doom and gloom, more punk and just a whole lot of fun and partying going on.
I’m going to direct you to a paragraph from their press release for the album that, to be honest, just fits this album and the band perfectly (I suppose that’s the point of a press release but you know what I mean).
“If you think that bandleader Rock Rotten and his crew got rusty and lazy after numerous chart entries and well received gigs at Europe’s biggest festivals, you couldn’t be more wrong! With their latest studio effort “Volle Kraft Voraus” (“Full speed ahead”), the band continues their path of all-out, loud and dirty German Rock, filled with so much testosterone that an explosion is imminent. With an honest and hungry attitude, 9MM rocks through all the songs in which authenticity and uncensored messages stand in the focus of attention. In the lyrics of “Geh mir aus den Augen”, “Popstars 2015” or “Mainstream”, Rock Rotten talks about things that have to be expressed and he does not shy away from uncomfortable truths. The heavy production serves as the perfect basis for the excellent riffs and catchy refrains. “Volle Kraft Voraus” is the perfect soundtrack for rebellion, freedom and debauchery!”
Yep, captured perfectly, and I could quite happily end the review here and say “buy the album and enjoy your own little slice of anarchistic punk-laden Germanic rock”. However, I’m not THAT lazy (well, only sometimes).
It’s good to see bands such as 9MM out there in metal because at times we can take this music of ours awfully seriously. Don’t get me wrong, there’s an anger and aggression behind each of the tracks but at the same time the band manage to tread that line with a wonderful humour and excitability that is conveyed wonderfully throughout the album making it carry a pretty damn infectious rock groove. The music isn’t complex by any stretch of the imagination but it doesn’t have to be when it has such wonderful hooks running throughout, be it in the party atmosphere of Jetzt Feiern wir mit Freunden (now we celebrate with friends), the power of title track Volle Kraft Voraus or industrial-metal Rammstein influenced grind of Libertad o Muerte and Nacht der Werwolfe.
You can’t help get caught up in this album. As you listen along you find your head nodding, your feet tapping and you just know these songs would whip a crowd up into a frenzy and then some. Favourite track for me has to be Popstars 2015 as it has that wonderful staccato groove that I always always love, coupled with an anthemic chorus. If I could understand German I’m sure I’d hear the guys singing about the cookie-cutter manufactured nature of all this kind of nonsense. Seriously good stuff.
The party ends with the superbly fast paced and I’m sure live ripper, Ich Will Hier Raus, that does not stop for breath until its conclusion and then a rabble rousing encore almost with Prosit. It treads into the 70s glam styled rock era deliciously with punk undertones.
9MM have shown us with this album that there’s still plenty of room to have fun in the world of metal. Prosit indeed!
Volle Kraft Voraus is available now across Europe through Napalm Records
Rating: 8/10
Track Listing:
Geh mir aus den Augen
Jetzt feiern wir mit Freunden
Volle Kraft Voraus
Libertad o Muerte
Nacht der Werwölfe
Mainstream
Dem Freund die Hand – Dem Feind die Stirn
Im Namen des Herrn
Meine Kinder
Popstars 2015
Ich will hier raus
Prosit
9MM are:
Rock Rotten – Vocals
Maubi – Guitar
Ritchie – Bass
Angel – Drums
LINKS:
www.facebook.com/9mmAssiRock
www.9mm-rock.com
