The diehard fans of KMFDM had to be crying in their Red Bull energy drinks last year when Sascha Konietzko and crew announced they were calling it a day... only to return shortly thereafter as MDFMK.

Confused yet? I don't think you should be. The, aah, "new" band's debut release MDFMK still stays loyal to its industrial roots, while daring to focus on actual songwriting. While I never was into KMFDM, I will say this much about MDFMK: If all their work is this good, I'll be hitting the used CD store post haste.

The band - Konietzko, Lucia Cifarelli and Tim Skold - still dare to sing about darker subjects, but they do so in a way that they make the listener think for themselves, which isn't a bad thing at all. Wrap this around a powerful industrial music core that dares to get you up and moving while blowing out the bass cones of your speakers, and you have an album that is absolutely enjoyable.

Cifarelli is an excellent addition to the lineup, proven by her vocals on "Get Out Of My Head," a track that should damn well be added to every "alternative" station around. You'll still probably have someone trying to psychoanalyze the lyrics of this one - but why can't the listener just enjoy the song for what it is and take what they want to away from it?

The same goes for "Witch Hunt," a song which seemingly answers the critics who slammed the late KMFDM after their ties to a nationwide tragedy. If this isn't a stinging damnation of those who slammed Konietzko and crew, I don't know what is. Sample lyric: "It doesn't matter what you say or do / There is no justice - no future for you / Because you're the scapegoat, you are to blame / This is your life - 15 minutes of shame." Ka-pow.

MDFMK contains plenty of industrial power to convince the band's longtime fans that they haven't abandoned the roots that made them so popular. Tracks like "Torpedoes," "Transmutation," "Rabblerouser" and "Now" all show that MDFMK isn't going anywhere for the forseeable future - and that's absolutely fine with me.

The only negative thing I can say about MDFMK is that the formula starts to wear a little thin at the end, but it's not so frayed as to take away from the overall enjoyment of the album. Tracks like "Hydroelectric" are still good, but they don't quite measure up to the masterworks at the front end of the disc. Still, I'm not complaining.

No matter what name they go by, MDFMK is an album that proves that the worlds of industrial and alternative can merge together to create actual songs that are more than enjoyable. There's enough on this album that should make everyone happy - and will undoubtedly be one of the discs that will be hard to get out of your CD changer.

Rating: B+

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