Reviews

   They're back to appease fans with an interim EP featuring two new songs, and a tasty collection of live songs on the flip. One of the most puzzling and unpredictable bands to come out of the era of punk, Die Kreuzen thrives on change by making music that defies expectations and twists you like taffy. Buzzing guitars slice and thrash through the crowd during "Man In The Trees", encouraged by Dan Kubinski's fiery chants. Then they break off into dramatic waves of gloom by making a Sisters Of Mercy meets garage band event, and the apocalypse seems so close you can feel it. This might lead you to believe that Die Kreuzen has not decided which sound to pursue, but guess again. They're more consistent than most, with the ability to fill a room with coarse tension and electricity. The two new songs are as vivid and dramatic as autumn itself: "Gone Away" sways like a dead tree in the wind, whose branches are hanging on for dear life when a strong gust hits, and "Seasons Of Wither" segues with a more metallic edge, and serves up a burning chorus with swift guitar patterns. I've not heard a more compelling song this year. If the "Gone Away" EP isn't on your agenda, then pulling a fast one on you. Speaking of fast ones, Butch Vig of Fire Town is producing. After all, he's the one who tipped us off to Old Skull way back when. Nice job.

   This howler of a Die Kreuzen collection takes advantage of the CD format's longer playing to replace three seven inchers, an EP, and contributions to a long-unavailable Indianapolis-area hardcore compilation with one dense digital package.
   GONE AWAY is plotted in three sections, beginning with the title track and versions of Aerosmith, Wire, and Germs songs. These four, the latest recorded material from the Milwaukee-based quartet, express a big, dark sentiment which is solidly set in a traditional rock frame.
   The live songs that follow-originally available as the b-sides for GONE AWAY's 7" and 12" releases-are a selection of great hits harvested from the OCTOBER FILE and CENTURY DAYS albums, both of which are escapist experimental works marked strongly by the band's stark trademark sound.
   Last come the bands first two recorded works: COWS AND BEER EP, and three songs from THE MASTER TAPE-a 1982 compilation of midwestern hardcore that also featured Toxic Reasons, Articles of Faith, and Zero Boys. This is the raw, searing thrash that the last of the Mohicans still yell for at Die Kreuzen shows.
   Less straightforward, faster, and more violent than even DAMAGED-era Black Flag, COWS AND BEER is arguably the definitive early-80's American hardcore release. A Do-It-Yourself 7" expressing extreme dissatisfaction with adolescent norms in middle-America that the flannel-clad band sold for gas money as they toured the living rooms and basements of small college towns and fledgling urban punk scenes, there couldn't be six songs more deserving of digital resurrection and preservation.
   While scores of their contemporaries and adoring descendants have gone on to make flashes in the mainstream daylight, Die Kreuzen has remained a fixture of the independent underground. If they want a major deal, they'll surely have their pick, given the suitability of the melancholy metal they've been flirting with lately to the corporate music business' current appetite for aggressive guitar bands. This disk demonstrates that Die Kreuzen need that kind of legitimacy in order to ensure that they are acknowledged by the history books for their imprint on modern music.

   Die Kreuzen bow down to a couple of universal punk influences (Wire and The Germs), though they could have been just as historically relevant if they'd chosen to cover their own "On The Street" or "Hate Me" from that first LP. Anyhow, windmills with arms of righteous flame saw through both covers, monolith guitars filling every available cranny in the mix with on rushing volume. The fact that Die Kreuzen is able to add some bombast and Odin's wrath to songs by notoriously concise, straightforward bands just goes to show that they can out rock-star any Headbanger's pet.

   One of the most underrated post-Hardcore outfits in the known mutiverse. Die Kreuzen storm back with a stunning twin set of inspired cover versions. Seminal US Punksters The Germs have their 'Land Of Treason' Thrashed up while quirky doomsters Wire have their legendary 'Pink Flag' Rock out. Great stuff indeed.

   RABID'S CHOICE: Wisconsin's Die Kreuzen is an old favorite, and you have to like their choice of covers. Like Big Black before them ("The Model" 7") and also on Touch And Go Records, Die K release a double cover single Wire's "Pink Flag" on side A and, even better, The Germs' "Land Of Treason" on the back. Of course, "Pink Flag" is about the only song on Pink Flag we haven't heard covered a zillion times, but Die K add their metallic edge and an almost (early) Pink Floyd-like love of corrosive clutter that makes this stand out. Not as riveting as the martial mind-meld of the original, but solid. The Germs' cover is even more manic than the late Darby Crash and mates' version, and Crash's unsettled snarl is replaced with the trademark high-pitched screeching vocals that graces all their records. Very interesting, to say the least! More bands should do cover records! (Don't say that with the Soup Dragons on the loose.-ed.)

   A one-off covers single from these midwest kingpins. Their dark supersonic metal feel remains as they rework two classics by WIRE and the GERMS. Easily a shining moment for this band who continues to grow and shine. A limited colored vinyl pressing for the first 1,000.

   Milwaukee's Die Kreuzen could rightly claim to have influenced the likes of Voivod, Soundgarden and Jane's Addiction with their "smart metal", but they've never really been given the attention they deserve despite some excellent UK dates. Their forthcoming single on Touch & Go (which gave us Killdozer) could set the record straight. It's a double A-side featuring cover versions of Wire's classic Pink Flag and the Germs' Land Of Treason. Both songs benefit from Die Kreuzen's rhythmic approach, and should see the band getting a high indie chart placing.