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"With The Final Option we tried to broaden the horizons of our music by combining different musical styles, such as Industrial, Metal, Techno, EBM, Gothic, and even Hip Hop."
This is how Jürgen Engler, the singer of the German band, introduced the then newly released II - The Final Option. The album in question was released in 1993 under the Rough Trade label and represents the fifth endeavor of the group. The line-up consists of five members, Engler himself on vocals and keyboards, Lee Altus on guitar, Darren Minter on drums, Rüdiger Esch on bass, and Ralf Dörper tasked with additional electronic inputs. Musically, the album is varied and well-executed, thanks to Engler's versatile vocal lines (also involved in the production), which are never aimless and always remain at very high levels. Pounding and repetitive guitars, raw bass, hard and massive drums, and invasive and peculiar electronic or keyboard inserts; these are the elements that make up the backbone of the record, which, however, never becomes boring. Moreover, throughout the album, there is room for solo guitar and keyboard virtuosity, with guitar solos being not very common in the genre.
The full-length album begins with the opener "Crossfire"; a delicate guitar arpeggio introduces us to the sonic journey, with hammering synthesizers interrupting the calm and a granite riff breaking in to truly start the track. It is followed by "Language Of Reality", the song maintains the same rhythm and tempo throughout its duration, as Engler delivers a text as bitter as it is sharp. More accessible is undoubtedly "Bloodsuckers", where a long instrumental part, marked by an acidic riff, flows quickly and without hesitation. "Fatherland" is a half-surprise: the guitar takes a back seat in favor of the keyboard, and Engler's singing becomes more powerful and expressive. "To The Hilt" is truly a surprise; almost oriental keyboard inserts accompany a decisive rap. Catchy and easy to grasp is the subsequent "Iron Man", where the sound becomes more enjoyable and the electronics less edgy.
At this point, a track-by-track analysis is unnecessary since the following tracks do not present anything particularly innovative. Worth noting is the Techno outburst (complete with filtered vocals) of "Paradise Of Sin" and the electronic ballad "New Temptation".
The lyrics deserve particular attention. Die Krupps has always been a band characterized by protest and disapproval lyrics, never politicized but always alternative. In this album, the lyrics generally discuss discontent and censorship of reality: "Anger, boredom, conformity, danger, exhaustion, falsification, hunger, kill – crazy, this is not poetry this is the language of reality, you have learned your ABC, your orientation guide to reality" (Language Of Reality). Sometimes this denunciation is associated with war, especially concerning current conflicts, as can be seen from the initial "Crossfire" or "To The Hilt". Moreover, there is the usual confrontation between man and machines, highlighted in "Iron Man": "A machine to give your life to a new dimension".
Ultimately, the album is the band's most successful to date, and a masterpiece of the Industrial Metal genre, due to the original and eclectic solutions experimented within.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Crossfire (04:42)
Gunshots fill the air - salute our bliss
Night bursts into flames - greets the final kiss
Death comes without a sound - rings the wedding bell
Target hits the ground - honeymoon in hell
Shot - shot by both sides
In a war that won't cease
They give their lives
Unheard cry for peace
Cities under siege - where the snipers strike
Lovers out of reach - yearning out in the night
Take your lovers hand - meet your destiny
Down in noone's land - for eternity
...
CROSSFIRE! CROSSFIRE!
02 Language of Reality (04:08)
Do you know the ABC
Survival guide in real life
Put it down in your dictionary
Anger, boredom, conformity
Danger, exhaustion, fake
Greed, hunger, injury
Killings, lootings, mad
This isn't poetry
This is the language of reality
Did you learn your ABC
Survival guide in real life
Gotta learn your vocabulary
Nothing, obscene, pain
Queers, rampage, shame
Terror, useless, vanity
Wounded, x-rated, why?
04 Fatherland (04:09)
I see houses burning
I'm ashamed
Before you close your eyes denyingly
You better ask yourself
Did I choose something I could regret
Did I do something
I should regret
Is this the place I used to call -
Fatherland
Is this the place I used to know -
As fatherland
The silence is illusion
Stay awake
I hear children crying in fear and pain
Do cowards ask themselves?
05 To the Hilt (04:48)
Woke up - still in a dream
Nothing's the same
Con't pronounce my name
I open my mouth
Words come out
That make no sense
For a stranger's ear
In a foreign language
In a foreign land
Now I'm a alien
On a different planet
It makes it clear - I understand
We are all strangers - in a foreign land
Burn the bridges
Forge ahead
To the hilt
Back home I feel insane
Nothing's the same
Except for my name
I open my mouth
Words come out
That makes no sense
For my lover's ear
In my native language
In my native land
I'm still the alien
On a different planet
It make it clear - I understand
I am a stranger - in my own land
Burn the bridges
Forge ahead
To the hilt
09 Worst Case Scenario (04:19)
What is happening to me
No one could foresee
I was living on the edge
Of catastrophe
Thrown off the system
Nailed and bare
Fish out of water
Jumping for air
Stranded with no help
Outlawed and shunned
Luck turned against me
Thousand to one
Some call it fate
What's my reality
World allied against me
Fatal conspiracy
I can't take it, I can't take it
I can't take it no more
Worst case scenario
In the elevator to heaven I'm stuck
On the lowest level run out of luck
A downward spiral
Is sucking me in
My plans for the future
A case for the bin
No glimmering hope
Brightens my night
At the end of the tunnel
There is no light
Some call it fate
What's my reality
World allied against me
Fatal conspiracy
10 Shellshocked (03:33)
Like a hermit-unfounded
Solitary but proud
I was hiding-behind fences
Shutting myself out
Crossed my arm-disarmed
Loss of self-defence
Wouldn't fight off-haunting memories
Crimes without a sense
Closed my eyes-blind folded
Images of hell
Caught inside a vicious circle
Retired in my shell
Shut my mouth-lips sealed
There's no need to tell
Wouldn't share with you the secret
That could break the shell
Shellshocked-no escape from dreaming
Shellshocked-there's no escape from dreaming
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