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Wumpscut
Jesus Antichristus/Die Liebe

Metropolis Records

Posted: Sunday, May 14, 2006
By: Matthew Johnson
Assistant Editor

With each album, it seems like Rudy Ratzinger loses another slice of the original :Wumpscut: market share. Fans hoping for a progression towards ever-heavier material were disappointed by the relatively low-key Bone Peeler in '04, and last year's Evoke was a bewildering mix of styles, incorporating everything from pseudo-Medieval female vocals on "Maiden" to made-up language on "Churist Churist." The new full-length album, Cannibal Anthem is a more consistent effort and should win back some of the fans that left the fold around the time of Boeses Junges Fleisch. This single, though, adds little to the material already present on the album. "Jesus Antichristus" is a club hit in the making, with growling German language vocals, stabbing orchestral bursts, and lush string pads layered over a slow sledgehammer of reverberating drum machines. The remix by military EBM favorites Feindflug sees the song's martial atmosphere brought to the forefront with more strings, choral effects, and bombast, but it doesn't pack quite the same punch as the original version. The second track, "Die Liebe" is built around an interesting retro synth progression that sounds a bit like those old '70s-era short films about the ocean that they used to show in grade school science class: otherworldly, but also a little campy. It contrasts nicely with the grim death march of the drum machine and Ratzinger's signature schnapps n' cigarettes vocal work; you'd expect the two conflicting styles to cancel each other out, but the cheesy synthesizer enhances the song's malevolence instead of detracting from it. Recently Deceased's remix ditches the retro appeal in favor of something more modern, offering something that has a bit more generic dance floor appeal but lacks the original's unique flavor. While all four tracks on this single have plenty of club potential, the remixes aren't quite enough to make this an essential purchase unless you're a DJ or an obsessive :Wumpscut: collector. If you're just interested in hearing some new Ratzinger tracks, skip this and spend the extra few bucks on Cannibal Anthem.