Variously tagged “Industrial Synth Crust”, “D-beat Raw Synth Punk”, or simply “One human and some machines making noise,” Schkeuditzer Kreuz is an intense experience. It feels like the sonic descendants of the likes of Cabaret Voltaire and Test Dept, but it is that sound on speed or sometimes ketamine or steroids, and sometimes all at the same time, often more metal-infused and incendiary, music searching for creative oblivion and sonic annihilation..
The opening, titular salvo asks those age old questions – where does music and noise meet, this is as much sonic art as it is musical artistry, a massive wave of searing walls of synth, and reminding us that the name “industrial,” for such music, is well chosen, “Swan Grinder” at times sounding like a steal plant gaining sentience and declaring war on the human world.
However, that is only one aspect of this truly experimental music. “Trips and Trepidation” leans more into the sound of the aforementioned 80s precursors, and “Present Eternal” plays with the same intense industrial-dance that KMFDM made their name on, and indeed continue to be known for.
And these roots from an earlier era are clearly on display with a cover of Crass’s “Systematic Death,” transformed into a dance-punk-electro soundclash, yet not a million miles away from the original.
“Swan Grinder” is not for the faint-hearted, but it is for the broad-minded, and those are the ones that matter to me.
