KMFDM - HAU RUCK 2025
'HAU RUCK 2025' is a 20th anniversary remixed and remastered edition of the classic album 'HAU RUCK', the fourteenth album by celebrated industrial rock band KMFDM. The original record had been recorded in Seattle and issued via Metropolis Records in 2005.
After waging a slaughterous industrial/metal campaign with 2003's ‘WWIII’, KMFDM was a unified and solidified unit ready for new musical challenges. "What we can all agree on, and I'm not saying we disagree on any other things, but everybody was pointing out that it should be really different”, band leader Sascha Konietzko had stated as KMFDM mapped out the creative strategy. Naturally, the military acronym of FUBAR - ‘Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition/Repair’ - seemed appropriate as the band sought to create an album that was “more noisy, more dance-y, more electronic, and less butt rock.”
From the politically charged anthems of ‘Free Your Hate’ and ‘New American Century’, to the grimly emotional grooves of ‘Real Thing’, to the confrontational dancefloor venom of ‘Ready to Blow’ and ‘Professional Killer’; and from the swinging cover of Jacques Dutronc's ‘Mini Mini Mini’ to the self-effacing snark of ‘Feed Our Fame’, the album proved to be anything but FUBAR. It was KMFDM at its most concentrated, most sharply focused, most aggressive, screaming to the audience to fight corruption and embrace individuality, ready to push back against any and all adversity. What better title than the powerful ‘Heave Ho’ of German engineering and conceptual continuity - ‘HAU RUCK’!!!
KMFDM biography
Hamburg-based industrial rock pioneers KMFDM have forged their own singular path since being founded by Sascha ‘Käpt’n K’ Konietzko in 1984, continually refining and redefining the parameters of modern music while also never missing an opportunity to address the social and political zeitgeist in brazen, belligerent and boisterous fashion. Their early albums were recorded in Germany before a move to the US, where they found success with the Chicago-based record label Wax Trax!
The 1990s saw KMFDM become a household name in the worldwide industrial rock scene, with their 1995 hit ‘Juke Joint Jezebel’ catapulting the band into the Billboard charts Stateside and helping to earn them placements on a plethora of film soundtracks that included ‘Bad Boys’ and ‘Mortal Kombat’. Future icons such as Rammstein and Korn had their humble beginnings opening on KMFDM tours.
The band took a hiatus in 1999 after recording their 10th album for Wax Trax!, but Konietzko resurrected KMFDM three years later and signed to Metropolis Records with a line-up that featured American singer Lucia Cifarelli (from Drill) and Tim Skold (who later joined Marilyn Manson). Releasing studio albums and touring frequently, Konietzko and Cifarelli returned to Germany in 2008 and have continued to record and tour regularly. Their most recent album was ‘LET GO’ (2024), a year that marked the group's 40th anniversary.
