Oomph!
Wunschkind

"I was born in the cold December, I was born and I still remember, I was born and my eyes were swollen, I was born and my future stolen... pinned alive, whipped alive, slashed alive and the wheels were turning, skinned alive, smashed alive, ripped alive and the sheets were burning... born-praised-kissed-torn-raped-pissed-scorn-hate-fist-lorn-blade-wrist - Suck-my-dick - I like It!"

This is how "Wunsckind" begins: twenty seconds marked by the sweet sound of a music box, brutally cut off by the violence of the guitars; "Born-Praised:Kissed", an arrogant yet desperate statement of intent, a white-knuckle assault that culminates in a cadenced and alienating instrumental ending, a march with dark and gothic reflections, solemn and anguished. In this song, there is all the essence of "Wunschkind", the fourth album by Oomph!: the only one from which no single was extracted, nor any promotional videos made, because there's very little, practically nothing, radio-friendly here. "Wunschkind" marks a definite step forward for the band: along the lines of "Born-Praised-Kissed", the songs are more elaborate and complex than before: a more conscious use of the alternation between guitars and electronic effects, compositions filled with tempo changes and slow interludes, and Dero finally unleashes all the potential of his voice, no longer just as a screamer. All these components, combined with inspiration running powerfully through the German trio, create something unrepeatable: "Wunschkind", probably the darkest album in the entire Neue Deutsche Härte scene; uncompromising, claustrophobic, dark, sick, and cathartic, and it is precisely the artistic maturity of the trio, the greater care of the sound, arrangements, and lyrics, that made such a result possible.

Each song is rich in nuances, gothic and crossover shades that graft onto the original industrial matrix creating an atmosphere of palpable tension, with the edge of the abyss just a step away, each song is a little journey into the infernos of the mind: one of the clearest examples is a gem like "You've Got It", just a tad more "catchy" and accessible than the rest of the album, behind which lies an overwhelming sense of impotence and a desperate cry for help, or the frustration of "My Soubrette", a portrait of a toxic and degraded love masterfully expressed by the frontman's intense and suffering voice, at times submissive and imploring, or the frenetic turmoil of "Down In This Hole", from which a vision of an impending abyss emerges mercilessly, "I know it's much too late, I feel so unafraid, and now it's time I guess to concentrate on death".

In the title track "Wunschkind", Dero's singing is venomous, insane, morbid, while in more crossover and rap-oriented episodes like "Mind Over Matter" and the explosive "Song For Whoever", a revisited "Ice-Coffin" following the canons of the new stylistic course, it's anger that rules, repressed and creeping in the first case, wielded as a weapon against hypocrisy in the second; finally, a majestic and desecrating "I.N.R.I. vs Jahwe" presents itself as the only rhythmic and danceable episode of the album and one of the sharpest and most explicit in its simple and arrogant groove, although it does not deviate from the album's mannerisms but rather constitutes a further variation on the theme because "Wunschkind" is structured in a much more complex and less naive way compared to the previous "Sperm" and "Defekt": its strength also lies in its cohesion, in meticulous work that acts as a glue for songs that propose rather heterogeneous styles, for which credit goes to Flux, whose work as a bassist is highlighted much more than the group's average and to Crap, in his role as guitarist but above all keyboardist/arranger. It is precisely this latter aspect that makes the difference, that gives further charm and richness to the sound of "Wunschkind"; the arrangements, which for the first time also make use of choirs with a gothic flavor, are of the highest level, worthy of the soundtrack of a psycho-thriller; instrumentals like "Walsungenblut", the deadly "Der Alptraum Der Kindheit", and especially "Filthy Playground" are proof of that.

"Wunschkind" is also a limit, a boundary line: impossible to proceed further in this direction after such an album, the most abrupt and sudden turn in Oomph!'s entire career is not that far off.