MARCO'S ALBUMS OF 2012 - #4 (Part 20 of 23)

At #4 we find one of the bands I love the most, as most of you know already: it's ALTER DER RUINE, with the latest album ever of their career (...maybe?), 'There's Always One More Son Of A Bitch'.
I did review this release for Brutal Resonance already some months ago, and here's what I wrote back then:

"Once upon a time, listening to industrial music meant never really knowing what you were going to hear once the album started to play. Before the dictatorship of the Powers That Be behind the trends imposed by the German scene told us that industrial and EBM rhymed with fake rave music and a cheap "evil" attitude, you could find literally everything in an industrial music record: metal riffs, melodic or screaming vocals, soft electronics and anthemic acid 303 synth-lines."

And this is exactly what you are going to find in this last Alter Der Ruine album - well, all of that, minus the metal riffs, even if I swear a song or two could have abused those too and they would have sit in the mix perfectly.

Electro, Noise, EBM, Techno, all flawlessly mixed together, and all sustained by Michael Treveloni's instantly-recognizable vocal style, which gives the songs their true soul, defining the core of Alter Der Ruine's soundscapes. Long gone are the days of the relentless noise assault of "Relax And Ride It", but I for one don't miss it in the slightest if the combo graces us with pure gems like "Bury It" and my all-time personal favorite, "Shit-Disco Stunner": a song that I have been listening religiously for over three years now, since I managed to get my hands on an early demo version.

'There's Always One More Son Of A Bitch' is a complex construction that find its very solid foundation in the collective and coherent effort of four top class musicians that without being scared of pushing every possible boundary delivered their best release to date.

Too bad it's only going to be their last, as the Arizona combo announced a while back on their website that the Alter Der Ruine adventure was to be considered over: one creative, intelligent, catchy band disappear, leaving us with countless clones of the various Wave Gotik Festival's fads. This is the nice world we live in: at least, you all will be able to catch their final performance in a few months, at the 2013's Resistanz Festival in Sheffield, UK.

Suggested listening: "Shit-Disco Stunner", "Bury It", "Crackshack", "Doom Patrol".