Band:	Oomph!
Album:	Unrein
Style:	Industrial metal
Release date:	February 27, 1998
Guest review by:	Diabolos

01. Mutters Schoß
02. Unsere Rettung
03. Die Maske
04. My Hell
05. Gekreuzigt
06. Zero Endorphine
07. Willst du mein Leben entern?
08. (Why I'll Never Be) Clean Again
09. Unrein
10. Anniversary
11. Foil
12. Bastard
13. Another Disease
14. Meine Wunden

Unrein is the fifth release of German industrial metallers Oomph!, and after releasing 4 albums which were all between solid and really good, this album was highly anticipated from most of the industrial metal fans. Now the question is, did they deliver what they promised? Yes they did!

The first things that attract attention on this album are Dero's dark and rough vocals, which are more screamed than sung, and the interesting (and from time to time quite strange) keyboard melodies. Together they create an unique atmosphere with a mix of heaviness and energy which I've never felt before while listening to an album. Songs like "Unsere Rettung" and "Bastard" are the perfect examples for that, and especially "Unsere Rettung" has a chorus that creates goose bumps on your whole body. Also the harsh and speedy guitar riffs fit the style of the music perfectly and are furthermore a good counterpart to the keyboard because they are just straight forward without any experiments.

Of course there are not only fast and heavy songs on that album, some songs like for example the title track "Unrein" and "Foil" are at least partially pretty slow, but nevertheless really good. I would even say that "Unrein" is one of the best tracks they have ever written, it has so much energy and emotion in it, although it is one of their slower songs.

Another interesting aspect of the album are the lyrics. Like in all their previous works Oomph! are mostly singing in German and the lyrics are pretty equivocal. Of course many of you will now think that Oomph! is only a Rammstein rip-off, but actually it is the other way round, because Oomph! highly influenced Rammstein. Moreover, "Unrein" is a concept album about faith and the church.

The only slightly negative thing that comes to my mind is that the songs are a bit repetitive, probably because Dero has not much variation in his voice, but at least his voice fits the music perfectly, and honestly, isn't nearly everything in that genre a bit repetitive?

All in all this record is so heavy and dark, but at the same time catchy as hell, that listening to it is definitely an interesting experience. And if you want to check out Oomph! because you don't know them yet, this is probably the best album to start with!