"In the past couple of years, Hanzel und Gretyl has quickly become one of my favorite bands in the industrial genre. Their brand of industrial music is very aggressive between the searing guitar riffs and the ferocious vocals by Vas Kallas. The band's first two albums are out of print because the band's previous record label went under. I was fortunate to have a friend burn me a copy of the classic "Transmission From Uranus" but I felt a bit incomplete without their first album "Augseflippt". It wasn't until this weekend when I found a used copy of the band's first album "Augseflippt" and I now have all four of HuG's albums.
While "Uber Alles" and "Scheissmessiah" has an industrial/metal sound going, the band's first two albums is more industrial/techno. I loved "Transmissions From Uranus". It may have sounded different from what I used to hear on "Uber Alles" and "Scheissmessiah" but that album definitely rocked in its own right. Like "Transmissions From Uranus", "Augseflippt" has more of a techno influence mixed in with the abrasive industrial beats. Unfortunately I felt that this album was not nearly as good as its predecessors. I was not big on "Dementia Solaris" which I found to be a slow, boring song. I also didn't like the intro to "Meisterfrau", thankfully it all changes when Vas Kallas begins singing in her typical death metal-like vocals. I much prefer it when HuG starts off a song with loud guitars and not with some dull ambient samples. The production on this album is pretty shoddy which didn't do a huge favor for the songs. The overall sound on "Augseflippt" didn't have that same in your face sound that "Transmissions From Uranus", "Uber Alles" and "Scheissmessiah" has. I did like most of the songs but unfortunately they didn't grab me like the other HuG albums did."
Brilliant!
Erica Anderson | 07/26/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
".. "X-Ray Delta 1, This is Mission Control." .. Take a trip through space and time with Gretyl, and the lead vocalist, Hanzel! Psychedelic rhythm changes, surreal lyrics, and mentally divergent sound effects adorn this masterful work. Intellectually, it is brilliant. Musically, it is astounding! Yeah, you can say I enjoyed this album. "Ausgeflippt" is by far the better of the two H&G albums, for I felt that altough "Transmissions from Uranus" was a more polished album, it's contents were lacking the fundamental aura of space-trance, and bordered on commercialism.Buy it! Listen to it! Pass it on!xxP! [APC]"
This CD is great. A very cool techno-industrial sound
Erica Anderson | 05/01/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This Cd is great. It combines heavy bass with techno beats and heavy guitars. The CD changes pace on almost every track, from fast paced to spacey interludes. HuG also sings some of the songs in German and other various languages (different). HuG's second CD, transmissions from uranus, has less language changes and rocks just as hard. I recommend both for anyone into techno-industrial metal music."
Where angels fear to tread
Erica Anderson | 06/19/1999
(4 out of 5 stars)
"A cross between KMFDM's brand of industro-metal, Mr. Bungle's schizophrenic stylistic shifts, and Sow's random multilingualism. Vibe on this band is either that they are the greatest band of all time or that they are lame bandwagoning ripoff artists. I would be hard pressed to agree with either of these statements. A good album overall."