Oomph!
Monster

The Oomph! wanted their 10th album to be something memorable, a worthy celebration of such an important milestone, and with this "Monster" they prove that sometimes where there's a will there's a way; not that the previous "Wahrheit Oder Pflicht" and "GlaubeLiebeTod" were bad records, quite the opposite, but this one surpasses them by far, it's an extraordinarily successful album in every respect, meticulously crafted like never before in the history of the Lower Saxony trio; you can tell from even the most marginal aspects like the cover, undoubtedly Oomph!'s best, chosen through a contest among the band’s fans.

Change has always been inherent in the nature of Oomph!, and once again they did not fail to amaze: if "GlaubeLiebeTod" was notable for a return to harder sounds, "Monster" puts all its chips on impact and catchiness, hitting the jackpot: it's Dero and co.'s most pop and accessible album, a smooth, inspired, flashy enough and above all fun album that turns out to be exciting. Great lyrics, catchy choruses, powerful and well-balanced sound with some tantalizing innovations and, something entirely new, there is no trace of fillers, no drop in tension, no empty moments. The album enters the bloodstream instantly, you fall in love at first sight, and it holds up well over time, thanks to songs like "Labyrinth", which is probably the best single in Oomph!'s history, effectively a new "Augen Auf!" even more explosive and convincing, or the rockish opener "Beim Erste Mal Tut Immer Weh"; the formidable refrains of "Bis Zum Schluss" and "Wer Schon Sein Will Muss Leiden" stand out for their power, denoting great inspiration in the not-so-easy search for the perfect melody, as do the EBM reminiscences of "Revolution" and "Die Leiter" or the great surge of energy emanating from perfect concert anthems like "Lass Mich Raus", "Brich Aus", and the intense "Sandmann", originally released as a standalone single and subsequently included in the album.

Just like "GlaubeLiebeTod," "Monster" is enriched, completed, and made even more successful and interesting by refinements and variations on the theme; "In Deine Hüften", the hardest song on the album, even in the text which sees desire and death clash clamorously, has a chorus that is an ungraceful and heavy tango, complete with accordion, while the grand "Gebom Zu Sterben" is imbued with a retro sound, a '30s vaudeville cabaret atmosphere that masks like a trick but abundantly hints at the text's decadent and ruthless irony. As if not to miss anything, "Monster" also features a ballad, the second in the trio's entire history after "The World Is Yours," originally released as a B-side of "Sex Hat Keine Macht" and later in the "Delikatessen" collection; on "Auf Kurs", the Oomph! invested a lot to the point of making a raw and poignant video clip, and it's a well-placed trust because it's a beautiful song, perfectly orchestrated and ideal to highlight Dero's powerful and empathetic vocals, an excellent result for a band that has never had a culture of ballads.

Paradoxically, the only small misstep is marked by the first single "Wach Auf!", slightly below the album's average, but this does not in any way affect the final outcome of this extraordinary record, which represents Oomph!'s masterpiece from 1999 to today; it deserves top marks just like "Wunschkind" to which it stands at the opposite end of Our friends' stylistic range; curiously, Dero, Crap, and Flux declare themselves great admirers of ABBA, and in my opinion, if the legendary Swedish quartet had ever made a metal album it wouldn't have been much different from "Monster," which demonstrates extraordinary mastery in the art of shaping melodies, creating great expectations for the album that will be called to inherit its heavy legacy, "Des Wahnsinns Fette Beute," expected by the end of March 2012. Will Oomph! hit the target once again?