Kollaps

Oh fuck yeah, now we're talking. Wait no, I swear I'm not being pretentious. This is the lowest rated album on this site because I guess mostly people aren't very fond of German people smashing metal plates together - who would have guessed. But halle-fucking-lujah, this is something this list needs more of. Albums that make you go "well, that was an experience and now I'm a changed man". Nobody is lying on their deathbed wishing they heard more crappy 80s post-punk or late 60s psychedelic rock. THIS is what we all deserve to be listening to as we embrace eternal oblivion. I'm giving this a high rating not only because I genuinely really love it, but also to help Kid Rock move to his rightful place as the actual worst album on this list. Together we can make a difference. Save the turtles.

My god what will this do to my Spotify recommendations???

This is a joke, right? No way this is real. These guys took mics to Haus Depöt and started recording everything on the plumbing aisle. This shit sounds like a “10 HOUR INDUSTRIAL BLACKSMITH FACTORY AMBIENCE” youtube video. Honestly though, I can dig abstraction and distorted electronica, but you always need something for the audience to latch on to. At times this is cool, but if this plays at the discotheque, I’m leaving because you can’t even try to dance to this shit

Around 1990-91, I was a volunteer at 2SER student radio. Mostly, I did technical work helping my mate, Tim. Panelling, editing, that kind of thing. In 1991, Einsturzende Neubauten were touring Australia and there was an offer to do a radio interview with 2SER. I could actually pronounce “Einsturzende Neubauten” and knew a little bit about the band, so it was decided that I would do the interview. Which was not really my thing. But it came with perks; tickets to their show at the Phoenician Club and a copy of the Strategies Against Architecture LP, so I said OK. I knew the legendary Blixa Bargeld has a reputation for not suffering fools, so I tried to prep questions that were interesting. So, on the day of the show the plan was to go down to the club after soundcheck and interview Blixa. It was a bit intimidating. I mean, EN were one of the world’s most dangerous bands, and Blixa also played in the Bad Seeds, which made him an underground legend. Tim and I were in the equipment room gathering up a portapack and mics and whatever else we needed, when someone comes running in the room whispering “There’s a vampire in the lobby, and he’s looking for you!” And sure enough, there in the lobby, stands Blixa, in full stage outfit, pale as death, six foot six in cuban heels and his hair teased up, and 100lbs wringing wet. He has a bottle of schnapps and a filthy look in his eye. He’s staring death at everyone. And then I hear my name called. Standing next to this imperious vision in black is a smiling Japanese man in bright green overalls with a flower appliqued on the front. His voice is oddly familiar; it is Rick Tanaka, former presenter of the Nippy Rock Shop, a collage-like radio show from Triple J in the 80s. I was a fan. Turns out, he is the road manager for this EN tour, and he is asking for me. He hands me his business card: Rick Tanaka, Private Guy. We hurriedly shuffle Rick and Blixa into a meeting room and turn on the recorder, and I attempt an interview. It did not go well. Blixa did not want to be there, was much smarter than me, and was not very patient with my attempts at questions that were more engaging than the usual stereotypical “who gets to go to the junk yard for your stage show?”. Eventually, he just started ignoring me and chatted to Rick. Tim and I kept the tape rolling for their conversation, and afterwards edited it up into something resembling proper radio. And then they left. Tim and I packed up, and then walked down the road to the Phoenician Club. (En route, we bumped into the Beasts of Bourbon, who were playing support. They were intensely focussed. They clearly knew what was coming, and determined to put on a good show. They were the best I ever saw them play that night; tight, ferocious and angry, showcasing material from their Low Road album, that was not yet released). And then on came Einsturzende Neubauten. It was possibly the most intense, frightening show I ever seen. I confess I was a little freaked out by my encounter with Blixa, and not really prepared for the experience of an EN show. By the end, I was pressed up against a wall with my fists clenched and my eyes shut. The sound from the stage was so brutal and overwhelming. I can’t recall much of what went on, except for a bit with shopping carts with contact mikes crashing into each other repeatedly. It was really loud. I know I left the venue about 11.30pm. At 2am, I turned up at my girlfriend’s house, tapping on her window. I assume I spent the intervening hours walking the streets in a daze, but not really sure of what I did in that time. Before you ask, no, there were no drugs involved. She yelled at my for waking her up for a good 15 minutes, but I was unable to put a sentence together, let alone explain what had just happened to me. It was a heavy, really heavy, performance. Ok, so given that background of my relationship with EN, what do I think about this album? I have listened to it once or twice before. EN is really influential on me. I love noisy things, really noisy things. I played in industrial bands through most of the 1990s. And this is like the ur-text for much of what industrial music became. It still sounds frightening and surprising now. That said, this is a massively difficult listening experience. I am reminded of Brian Eno talking about Steve Reich (I think), and how hearing one of his early tape pieces was massively influential, but he never listened to it again. Early EN (and this album in particular) is like that for me. It opened up a world of possibilities to explore, but I don’t need (or probably even want) to listen to it much. I certainly was much more enamoured of their early 1990s material, which contains actual songs, rather than just this scary barrage of crashing rhythms and screaming. Kollaps is an important record for me, but I would not recommend it.

Not bad background music except for it feeling like I was being shouted at by Hitler the entire time

If you have a headache and would like to worsen your headache, this is the perfect album for you. Let's just say...interesting does not equal listenable.

A band and album that is so hard to properly describe. I got into Neubauten through listening to the Bad Seeds and I was lucky enough to see the play in 1991. It was like visiting hell, am I mean that as a compliment to the unabashed fury on display that night. Cut pieces of shopping trolley raining over the audience and sparks from angle grinders adding a sense of danger that they may just set the venue alight. This album doesn't even come ose to capturing that but it still gets five stars as it is still on a whole other level to most of the albums on this list

What the hell is this? Power tools and someone screaming in German? This is absolute garbage. If I could give negative stars, I would. I thought Limp Bizkit was the worst this list had to offer, but boy was I wrong. I owe Mr. Durst a heartfelt apology. This is literally the worst thing I have ever heard. Imagine you're outside on a busy street standing next to someone jackhammering the sidewalk, so you're wearing headphones that are just playing static to try and cover up the construction sounds, but you can't quite get the volume high enough. Then out of nowhere an angry German dentist tackles you and starts giving you a root canal while yelling in your face. Then someone in the building next door sees what's going on and starts throwing random drums and chains out the window onto the street. Now imagine that but worse. That's the kind of thing we're dealing with here. So I say to you, Mr. Einstürzende Neubauten, BOOO! BOOOOO!!!

This should be everyone's selection on April 1st, because it being included on the list has to be a joke. Worse than awful.

It’s like when you visit an art gallery and there’s a video instillation. The video is shot on Super 8, and features broken mirrors, religious imagery, and a good deal of nudity. This album would be the soundtrack. You stand at the back of the darkened gallery just long enough to prove you aren’t scared/confused/shocked by it, then politely edge your way out to go and find something by Banksy, whose book you have on the coffee table at home. Giving it 2 stars. If you gave it 1 star, it would mean you didn’t ‘get it’ … and I definitely ‘get it’. 100% ‘get it’. It’s just I prefer stuff by Radiohead, or Banksy.

Really solid creatively and certainly the most deserving of the label industrial, but not the EN album I would’ve picked for a “must listen.”

Not my thing. Awful

There sure is a lot of hate for this record, so much that it's the lowest rated song on the entire list. I think that's a bit overstated as this isn't a "bad" record per se, it's definitely challenging though and it will necessitate that you adjust your expectations of what "music" is. IMO there are a lot of more unlistenable albums on this list, eg Black Death Metal. I found the second side with the instrumental songs without any vocals to be the most interesting. Particularly the 7 songs that end in "dub", with the best being Gastarbeiterdub with some very interesting percussive beats. I probably wouldn't seek this out to listen to it but I found it to be quite interesting.

epic noise

Among the “1 Star Album Club,” some space must be reserved for bold, exciting ideas which have been ruined by their execution. I actually enjoy a lot of the experimentalism on this album, and I want reward any and all artists willing to go out on a limb. You can hear some nightmarish— but somewhat enticing— sounds on the second half of this record. Almost a more homespun, industrial version of the Raymond Scott/Manhattan Research tapes. Little ideas made from experiments, and some are pretty neat. That’s the instrumental second half of the album. Unfortunately for Eunsturzrnde Neubauten, most of us start our albums at the beginning, and the beginning of this album is absolutely unlistenable, and it is entirely up to the screaming, frightening vocals. Comparisons have been made to the sound of Hitler screaming one of his speeches while giving you a root canal. I think that’s not at all unfair. I can’t hear anything redeeming in those first three tracks, and that’s a lot of time to lose someone. If Neubauten was really going for this, and they actually want me to turn my mind to the dark, repressed memories of my last dentist appointment, then “Steh Auf Berlin” is a stunning achievement. And so it is with all of the good ideas on this album: ruined by horrific vocals. I’m so repulsed by them that anything else redeeming on this album is forgotten. I was going to write an unserious review, but halfway through my second go-round I realized that this band is actually deadly serious, and so they deserve to be more than just slagged off. 1 star for me.

I've got no hope of being neutral about Einstürzende. They're one of my husband's favorites. I hear them whether I like it or not. So I might as well find reasons to like them. This album's noisy and rather unpleasant, but it's not chaotic, not just loud noodling and screaming. I couldn't tell you what their intention is, but I can tell they've got one. It's hard to tell from this album but there are songs on later albums where Blixa's voice is actually soothing. On Kollaps, we only hear the stuff of nightmares. Still, this is different! I would much rather listen to something that disturbs me with noise than to something that disturbs me with boredom. So, thumbs up!

Music is context specific right. And my current context is really jarring with this. This ISN'T work background music. But, there's something that's made me curious. I like the textures. The drums on Steh auf Berlin sound similar to a Woodkid track (you know the one trending on TT right now). There must be some techno remixes of these songs playing at Berghain right? U-Haft-Muzak has a really interesting intro, and not surprised to read one of the band members joined Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Can hear how Nine Inch Nails have been influenced by them. Apparently the band threw fire at their audiences and damaged venues. Hmmm, that sounds like really shitty behaviour IMHO.

Gotta be honest it takes a lot of balls to record something like this and release it. The whole time listening to it all I could think about was them in the studio recording it and it made it a little easier to listen to. The back half of Helga was my favorite part. This album would make a great horror movie soundtrack. Terrible music though I recognize they perfectly executed what they were going for

The real thing! 1ste wave of industrial music. Neubauten, Test Department, Sans, Coil, Foetus. All sound can be music. And German brilliant language for this noise. 5 stars of course. Later made e.g. Tabula Rasa, beautiful album.

I appreciate the use of tools and building materials, it sounds like a demented construction site. For an album that they were trying to make unlistenable, it has quite a bit going for it. The rhythms are entrancing at times, and they leave a lot of space in many of the tracks, which invites then listener in before they are eventually jolted out of the trance with a primal scream. Would listen again.

Som experimental, não muito agradável

Unlistenable…but that’s probably the point.

If Doodle Bob had a band, this would be the album. Perfect for any haunted house, artsy horror film or torturing your neighbor. Have a Godzilla like monster? Mikrobendub. Deranged dentist turned torturer? Steh auf Berlin. Scene with a NY street performer? Rohrbombe. Doodle Bob does the Bubble Bowl? Vorm Krieg. For house security, play Gasterbeiterdub on repeat while you’re away from home. Passerby will think you’re jamming out and building your new IKEA furniture. The weak hearted should skip the first seven songs and head to the more palatable second act starting with Kollaps. Sado-Masodub is an absolute banger that ends just as it’s getting good. A marvel for its time that is now blended into whacky sound effects on keyboards and Ableton push sound packs.

Dannati geni.

Look, this album is not something you listen to while you dust your living room, all right? It is an early work of industrial and drone sound to create nightmarish landscapes. There are certainly better guitarists than Blixa Bargeld on a technical level but few people in music use their instrument to create proper soundscapes like that. In that respect, he is closer to Robert Fripp and his Frippertronics than Eric Claption or Jimmy Page. Compare that with Unruh's and Einheit's percussion work you have something extraordinary.

An album full of literal bangers. Hahaha, I made myself laugh. This is fascinating. And yes, obviously better than Kid Rock. I mean, obviously. Are you mad? Of course it is. And Ryan Adams, both of them. Anyway I like krautrock and I like industrial. And I like experimental stuff, and people smashing shit together while screaming in German. So yeah, high score. Tempted to rate it higher than I rate Sgt Peppers for the lols.

This noisy assault had me glued to the listen for at least half the album, then became a bit tiring. This is at times incredibly raw and dark, but also humorous in its audacity. Definitely unique and for a record created to be the “most unlistenable album ever”, Ein came pretty close. Actually, there was enough rhythm and beat to keep me listening. I’ve had much harder times listening to more conventional albums I just didn’t like. I suppose ‘unlistenable’ is very subjective.

This album was certainly interesting in a "German guy is yelling at me while hitting pots and pans" kind of way. With titles like "Schmerzen Hören," at least you knew this wasn't gonna be Easy Listening. The title track was quite long, but I got through it smiling as I imagined it as a karaoke choice. I would enjoy that. I was intrigued and engaged, and I appreciated the experience as an exploration of sound, and that's how I rated it. The question of whether I "liked" it or not seems irrelevant.

Weird

Though this isn't something I'd put into my daily rotation, it resonates with me on a personal level far more than a great deal of other albums on this list. I know where the impulse to make something like this comes from, and you can hear how it gave permission to others that followed to go further down the trail they blazed here.

Wow, impressive industrial and Experimental. It toes the line without falling into a trap of being unlistenable.

Honest to god, hearing the angle grinder tear through sheet metal kind of won me over.

The word angst is Germanic in its origin, so it's of no surprise that this music did too. It's horrible, but in the best way. They find emotion in power tools and destruction. It's difficult. But brilliantly so. It could only be done once, but it's amazing it was done at all. While normally I sneer at the people giving low ratings, this is an album you have to be in exactly the right mood for. Amazing Serge Gainsbourg cover too!

I have a soft spot for weird music and this certainly fits the bill

I've known about this band for a while thanks to Henry Rollins' tattoo, but had never really given them a listen. I really enjoyed the industrial chaos sound.

Hello, welcome to the reviews page for the lowest-rated album on this website! Take a seat, dive into the horror of Industrial music. Pure industrial music (none of this industrial metal or industrial techno stuff) is content exploring dark, noisy soundscapes that sound, well, industrial. More metal than metal, more raw than punk. There's a specific fascination with the mechanical, rhythmic chaos of the factories. It aims to capture the bleak nature of the artist's realities, the world around them. Kollaps is a true, German reflection of the industrial genre. It is a monstrous experience and one that is delightfully disturbing. Wails from vocalist Blixa Bargeld, as if crying out for release. Unrelenting noise from things that simply cannot be instruments. Kollaps is, for lack of a better term, wrong, but it's execution is oh so right. What a messed up and uncomfortable album this is. Einstürzende Neubauten must have known the power of something like this, and how goddamn unpleasant it was. It's beautiful.

Everyone who voted this 2 or lower is a coward. This album rules, absolutely unlistenable stuff double thumbs up 👍 👍

So, this is my first time hearing this album and… I have a lot of thoughts. First though, I have a question for my fellow reviewers out there. How many times in your life have you uttered some version of the sentence, "I listen to all kinds of music," or "My tastes are diverse," or "I like everything"? So today we have Einstürzende Neubauten, here to call all of us to the carpet and really make us examine what we consider to be music. What do we even consider to be music? How far can that line be pushed? Are we all full of shit? At almost 900 albums into this little project, I kind of love that. It's why we're here, right? When we hear a piece of "music" for the first time, it's instinctual to look for what feels familiar, to orient us into whatever it is we're about to experience. We unconsciously look for structure when we listen to music just to comprehend what we're experiencing. EN is consistent in their refusal to provide that structure for us, so as a listener you're kind of on your own to figure it out. On an essential level, this album is pretty disorienting and unsettling from the get-go because of this. I mean, the boundaries you expect from music are completely gone here, and you just have to strap in and let it take you wherever it's going. There is nary a hook nor a bridge nor a melody to be found, so be prepared. This is the purest, most stripped-down representation of industrial music that exists out there. It's gritty and noisy and minimalist in ways that are incredibly daring. As you work through this 1001 albums project, you will find pieces of this music in the DNA of dozens of albums from artists that came after it - industrial, post-punk, goth, alternative, metal, electronica. It's not a particularly easy listen, but it's not a hard listen either. It's not the kind of album I would just want to hear on the regular, but this is pretty compelling, primal stuff. The "Dub" songs probably are the most listenable of the bunch, but across the board, the album is never boring. I was planning for a 3 with this album, but this is a 4. Truly mind bending, fascinating stuff. I'll also add, EN is still out there making music today, 40+ years later. Sleep well. Fave Songs: Rivieradub, Kollaps, Sado-Masodub, Spionagedub, Lünebest, Jet'm, Sehnsucht, Rohrbombe, Liebesdub

Grew on me. Not sure I'd listen again though.

I didn’t listen to this album because I’m not into German music.

this is frustrating stuff. they've got the sounds, they've clearly got some sort of ethos/attitude, but they don't have anything close to a song. a bit of a hook or something resembling a purpose for each track is completely missing. so it ends up sounding like something you'd stumble across in an art gallery or museum that you just clearly aren't arty enough to understand.

Knowing German did not make this any better, honestly might've been more tolerable if I didn't know it.

If I was being charitable I could say that these creepy soundscapes and industrial rhythms helped lay the groundwork for Burial, Nine Inch Nails and others to build upon, or that the extreme experimentation and complete disregard for pleasant sounds is way more punk than anything else on this list. I could also say that this album would make an ideal soundtrack to a horror film, or horror video game, or horrifying mental breakdown. But I can't in all conscience call it good music. 1.5

It's strangely comforting to know that this sounded exactly as insane as I thought it would upon reading the description

I don't even know what the hell im listening to or how to even rate this thing, it sounds like someone going crazy and if a homeless man was trying to perform music with random things he found at a junkyard for spare change but was on drugs, I cannot even understand what was even trying to be portrayed it's so horrible and my ear needs help. Abomination

From Wikipedia: One of their trademarks is the use of custom-built instruments, predominantly made out of scrap metal and building tools, and noises, in addition to standard musical instruments. Their early albums were unremittingly harsh, with Bargeld's vocals shouted and screamed above a din of banging and scraping metal percussion. Need I say more? This album is a cruel joke to see how horrifically bad these noises can get for people to consider it as music. This is beyond torture music, this is the music that greets you at the gates of hell, clicking 1 star pains me as this is a complete 0/10.

Lord have mercy on us all, this sounds like WWII the Musical

This is not music it is noise and it's not meant to be enjoyed and you won't find it on Spotify. There are lots of other bands who I prefer over them: Nurse with wound, Coil, Zoviet France, Stockhausen and of course Throbbing Gristle. My vote is for the genre although this this album. Some tracks are more accessible- like Kollaps and Sehnsucht, others are pure noise.

cool

The start of the end. Fucking brutal.

Amazing 🤩

Strong start; intense, at once shamanistic and mechanical. Second half not as entertaining. Well done.

my kind of noise.

Genau so wie ein Kollaps von paar Leuten, die sich einstürzende neubauten nennen, tönen muss! Pure love

Das gut!

10/10 filthy fucking garbage - anti-music - ART

AAA

This record is way funnier while high. Just imagining the band at a construction sight just doing whatever they feel like. This is a fucking awesome record, far from the worst record in the list. So cool how these guys can make songs with random construction equipment

das fehlte mir noch

By turns disturbing, charming, thought-provoking and both musical and non-musical - often simultaneously. Ground-breaking at the time and still relevant.

KOLLAPS I always forget I like industrial, because I will say things like, "This music is just monotonous yelling and jarring noises; I don't like it." But then I do like it when it's dark+spooky yelling and machine noises. I thought it was very cool. Though I listened to the whole 56-minute album twice, I can't pick a favourite because it was all German singing/talking and dark, driving music with some whirring and clanking. There were some songs with no vocals or very limited vocals that I liked.

It's pots and pans and plenty of challenge-via-being-just-bad. These Germans are not so much anti-Kraftwerk and not-Kraftwerk, the early material shows; The dance they demand is different but also compelling. Baffling in outness.

Was het fijn om aan te horen? Nee. Heb ik het naar mijn zin gehad? Zeker weten!

It's spelled collapse

3.14...zdec

Det här är nog dope... de gör mycket med ganska lite. Gnarly sound

All the people giving this a low score is unfortunate. This is classic stuff! Industrial music in it’s purest form. Maybe one of their later albums could’ve been included for easier digestability, but that’s not the case.

"Kollaps" is the first official album by German experimental group Einstürzende Neubauten. Industrial and experimental are the genres. I'll say. The music is a mixture of rough punk tunes and industrial noises from music machines, electronics and metal plates. Lots of metal on metal in this one. Einstürzende Neubauten members included Blixa Bargeld (lead vocals, guitar, noises), N.U. Unruh (percussion, vocals) and F.M. Einheit (percussion, vocals). "Tanz Debil" (Debility Dance) has a buzzsaw in the background. Pounding metal and percussion. Blixa yelling in the background. Wow, this is a harrowing sound. "Negativ Nein" (Negative No) starts out with someone walking in water. Strings plucking. Screaming. Exasperation. Horrifying. "Schmerzen Hören (Hören mit Schmerzen)" (Hearing Pain (Listen with Pain)) has echoing metal sounds. Lots of guitar feedback. Blixa sounds like he's dying. "Kollaps" (Collapse) has a prancing, eerie guitar, sort of Velvet Underground sounding. The pounding is repetitive. Screaming, dramatic, the vocals are very similar to Suicide. "Bitte, Bitte, Bitte" ends the song. Ah, Bitte equals please. "Abstieg & Zerfall" (Descent & Decay) adds a sound like metal getting cut by a wheel blade. There's pounding on tin cans, motor sounds and a guitar sounding like it's been playing backwards. This was quite an experience. I never knew so many sounds could be made by pounding metal on metal. This album is stark, harsh, horrifying and at the same time intriguing, creative and avant garde. There is a connection between the starkness of Suicide through this album to what would become the industrial music of Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. I'm only going to recommend this to anyone who is both Suicide and Ministry fans. And, that would be me too.

Aware of them (due to Blixa being in the Bad Seeds), seen the t-shirt, never listened to them much before. I dug it, experimental in the best sense. Another album that justifies this project.

I was oddly excited when I saw that I got a German experimental album today. Say what you will about German music, but they are not afraid to take chances when trying to make cool music. This album is certainly abrasive, which makes it hard to give it a very positive review, but at the same time, it's easy to see how this album would have been a hugely influential for artists like Trent Reznor and Ministry. Despite the fact that it is intentionally hard to listen to, it has that special something that sets good experimental music apart from dumb noise 4/5, though this might be the least pleasant 4 I've given out so far

I usually listen to my album of the day early in the morning before the rest of the family awake and whilst I potter around. That wasn't possible with Einstürzende Neubauten. This album completely challenges perceptions of what music is and what makes music and what music can be. Whilst it is generally unlistenable, there are aspects and sequences and elements which are and despite few instruments and lots of noise from found objects. Is this music or just sound? Is our brain making patterns in order to make sense of it? Are we trying to understand this in a coherent way? Why are some elements melodic and others just freaking smashing plates? Informing and influencing other styles, such as hardcore, industrial and even (surely?) techno, there is no doubt this is an important and significant album and way more meritorious of its spot as an album you must listen to before you die than countless others on the list.

This is to NiN what Chuck Berry was to the Beatles. Industrial isn't always my thing, but I can appreciate this for what it is.

Unpopular opinion on this site, but I really enjoyed this album. It is abrasive, confrontational, and experimental. It feels like abstracted industrial music and for whatever reason that appeals to me. The shout sung lyrics along with the noises create a claustrophobic and uneasy feeling which feels very appropriate for this album.

This is one of the most important bands to my teenage years. These guys directly inspired every band I loved from 89-95. They created industrial music and were influential in house music and edm. That being said its not something i would put on at a party. I haven't personally listened to one of their records since 1995, but still rightly deserve a place on this list.

I love finding new (to me) artists like this. I had no idea what I was about to hear, but found it surprisingly engaging. I would definitely listen again, and have already looked for more of their work.

Without this band, bands like Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein, Ministry & a whole lot of others wouldn't exist. EN are Industrial pioneers. There's a YouTube video of them in an industrial complex literally banging on pipes & discarded metal. This album isn't for everyone, but I appreciate their abrasiveness & fuck you attitude. A big shout out to EN & Kraftwerk for birthing some of my all-time favorite music.

Some angry German guy yearling stuff on an active construction site Overall decently enjoyable apart from the high pitched screeching

Don’t think this deserves the absolute hate it gets. It’s for sure a challenging listen, but it’s at least something different and provokes a reaction. Do much of this list has already been of the “oh god, more of this?” type that something genuinely different really stands out.

Everybody's favorite genre: evil noise. I've made mental note of this album based on seeing it on the global Worst Rated Albums list on this site, and I always look forward to finding out why. What we get here is an industrial noise album from the early '80s, and wouldn't you know it, I really dig it. I know I've mentioned Pharmarkon's Bestial Burden in another review, and I mentioned it to Alex as we talked about this album, but it's a reference point for me as this sort of vile, bitter noise that represents really harsh, negative emotion. You'd think it would be unpleasant for me, and in a literal sense it definitely is, but it's also an expression that I really respect and feel like I understand, to the point that I geniunely have grown to love albums like this. Most would say it's not even music, and I don't know if I can make a case to the contrary, but damn I love this stuff. Albums like this ABSOLUTELY belong on a list of things you must hear before you die, even if it literally kills you. I'm keeping a good handful of bangers. I think the album got a little tame and same-y on the back end, but overall a great ride. Favorite tracks: Tanz Debil, Steh Auf Berlin, U-Haft-Muzak, Draussen Ist Feindlich, Schmerzen Horen, Kollaps, Vorm Krieg, Spionagedub. Album art: What the hell am I looking at? A little cyclops freak? Is that even supposed to be a person, or just a symbol? Not much to it, but it's kind of memorable for that same reason. 4/5

Wow!, This fully deserves to be on the list. What an experience. One I'll probably not repeat but worth it once. Seriously hard sounds but seriously impressive commitment to that sound. Brutal and possibly beautiful.

No idea what they saying but it was cool

Was about as enjoyable as as group of people shouting in German while banging various metal things together could be. My first impression was that it was going to be difficult listening, but it slowly grew on me, peaked with the cover of Je t'aime and the great Kollaps, then faded back to more subdued sounds with no vocals that gradually faded away until the album ended. I felt a lot of different musical vibes here, from The Fall, Bauhaus, NiN, even some electronica. Using my rating system, I'm interested enough to listen to this again, so it gets four stars from me.

Listened before? N What a wild album! For being such an early industrial work, it sure is more complex and layered than most modern industrial stuff (which seems to just be metal for people who can't play string instruments). It ranges from songs that are a few seconds long, to the monster 8-minutes Kollaps. What a roller coaster. An absolute pioneer in their field. Added to Library? N Songs added to playlist: Sado-Masodub

Well.i got more feeling from this than i dod the stevie wonder i had yesterday... but equally, it was a hard listen. Quite a tricky one to rate.

To be fair, you do need an incredibly high IQ to understand the nuance and depth to this album

Cold, harsh and anxiety inducing. Don’t think I’d listen again soon but deffo an experience. Would deffo listen over U2

This took an extra day for me to get through. It wasn't because I found it too difficult to listen to...I just found it too difficult to find an appropriate place in my day to listen. I thought about listening while doing some home remodel demo, but I was afraid that it might all just blend together with the demo sounds. Later, as I tried to listen, I found myself nodding off, so I guess I found it somewhat soothing... It was interesting (when I made it through while awake) at the very least!

Actually kinda vibed with this one. My receptiveness would definitely depend on my mood at the time, but yesterday I was in the zone for something a little different and this delivered. Interesting to see the raw, unfiltered emergence of some industrial textures that still define the genre today and listen to some semi-improvisational discovery along the way. Not every experiment lands, but kudos to these guys for pushing the envelope a little.

i mean i still have a fondness for unbridled creativity but in retrospect so much of the "avant-garde" is just one ugly thing after another

Very much not my thing but nonetheless interesting

Didn't excite me. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood...

Hey kids, ever wonder why the call it industrial music? Man, this album is brutal. I enjoyed some of it as a one-time listen, but I couldn’t see myself playing it often, except perhaps to drive out houseguest that I think have stayed too long. This is more noise-focused and percussive than the industrial music that I am a fan of, but I can hear this band’s influence in a lot of the music that I love. The percussive rhythm of the first track, “Tanz Debil”, made me think of the guitar in King Crimson’s “Larks’ Tongues in Apsic Pt II”. I see that this band is still around and am actually curious to hear how their sound has changed since 1981. As easy as it is to dismiss this as just useless noise, it is experimental music like this that keeps music fresh and motivates new generations of musicians to add certain sounds to their own. I give it a 3 just for sounding like nothing else in 1981.

"all this modern music is boom bang-a-bang noise" - my dad, 1981

So this album is clearly somewhat unpopular here, given it is currently the lowest rated album on the site. I listened to it three times. I feel like the more I listened to it the more I grew to like it. Its obviously a very rough around the edges kind of album and very raw. The production is harsh and the instrumentation is grating. The vocals are filled with a strange, intense raw kind of passion. That is the highlight of the album for me. Though I have no idea what the singer is talking about, it feels relatable when going through pain (not sure if that's a good thing or not). I don't think this album is that bad, although obviously not for everyone. FAVORITE SONGS - Kollaps 3.5/5

Interesting

Ok

I don’t get the hate. Definitely not worth the lowest rating on the site.

As with them it goes.

i’m interested in industrial generally but this felt a bit lackluster? like there’s something interesting here, but i just can’t get at it. giving it a default 3 because i dont think i understand it

I lack the mental model to adequately appreciate industrial music like this. Really good music can give you chills. The use of feedback, dissonance, and strange timbre also gives me chills. It’s more similar to chills from nails on a chalkboard though, but not in a bad way? I doubt that this is the level that Einstürzende Neubauten wanted me to appreciate the music on. But in terms of magnitude of physiological response, it’s way up there. A little long though.