KMFDM: Explosion Skull Bomb Swirlie Fist

That the title of this new recording by the industrial hit-men in KMFDM is not composed of actual words, but rather a series of symbols, could be interpreted as a conscious effort to transcend the literal, to shuck the rigid structures imposed on us since our birth, to joyously embrace the sub-lingual. The more likely interpretation, however, is that a bunch of German dumbasses thought the symbols (an explosion, a skull-and-crossbones, a bomb, a hypno-swirl, and a pounding fist) looked cool. So do most high-school metalheads. The album, henceforth referred to as Snuggles!, provides more of the same tepid chest-beating we have come to expect from KMFDM. Thin dance beats dominate the sound, thin synthesizers augment it, and tinny lyrics—which are given the old robot-monster distortion treatment, and are full of macho bravado—inadequately patch the remaining holes. Snuggles! winds up with one pathetic, underwrought, overdone sound. Pack it in, fellas. Your train left six years ago.