Negative Gain Productions – 21st April 2025
James Wells
Sometimes, an album really slaps you round the face with its sheer force and brutal intensity. Boom! Sauerstoff, the latest from Hasswut is one of those albums. No two ways about it: this one is a real face-melter.
Technoindustrial acts in the vein of KMFDM are ten a penny, and while Europe has long been a hotbed for this kind of thing, it’s in the US that it really seems to have take off in the last decade, and something that was once predominantly the domain of the Wax Trax! label in the late 90s and early 90s is now ubiquitous. And that’s cool, but it’s no longer ‘edgy’ like it was, because it’s simply become so commonplace, an endless conveyor belt of bands with distorted vocals snarling over pumped-up techno and some gritty sampled-sounding guitars.
Then Hasswult come along and absolutely piss on the majority of their peers by taking it to the next level. It’s more metal, for a start, and less processed. And it’s brutal. Sure, there are beats you can go nuts to, but the abrasion is intense, and hits so hard you’ll see stars.
It’s overtly European to my ears – if I didn’t know they were Spanish I’d think they were German, and not just on account of the lyrics being in German, which presents an unexpected, unusual, and interesting twist – and proper, full-on aggressive, a complete melding of aggrotech, technoindustrial, and industrial metal. Sure, the obligatory KMFDM nods are on display, and in the mix there’s a whole load of Rammstein, and Ministry circa Psalm 69. It’s hard, it’s heavy, and it’s seriously potent.
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AA
Aural Aggravation 