Die Kreuzen - "Die Kreuzen"

If the world was a fair and just place, the following might just have been true:

A) File sharing wouldn't be a problem because everyone who downloaded tracks they enjoyed would immediately run out and buy an album or two by the artist who created the work in question. This, of course, would alleviate tension on both sides of the mixing board.

B) The people elected to run democracies would be more interested in what the general public wants (for better or worse), and less receptive to the cloying hands of wealthy lobbying corporations.

C) Britney and K-Fed would have filed for divorce much sooner, and absolutely no one would have cared.

D) Die Kreuzen (German for "the Crosses") would be as oft-cited an influence on modern bands as, say, Black Flag.

Today's file is DK's first full-length LP, produced by the legendary Corey Rusk and originally released on Touch 'n' Go in 1984. This manic debut is cleverly titled Die Kreuzen. You'll have to pardon my sarcasm there; the thing about this record is, it's very easy to be sarcastic about. The lyrics are borderline stoopid-- the kind of earnest observations comparing groups of jocks and hippies in school to the fragmented wider political spectrum that could only be produced by an angry,white,male teenage mind-- and the music is unsurprisingly fast and furious.

The thing is, it's faster and furiouser than the work of almost any other band of the era, and the vocals are screamed in a way that essentially predicts the future of hardcore/emocore: all articulation of the actual words goes out the window in favor of stark, howled emotion. And this, my friends, is what elevates Die Kreuzen above their station and makes them innovators.

Even with the embarassing lyrics/worldview made painfully clear, DK pushed things further along than Black Flag ever did by playing crazy, chromatic riffs at a remarkable speed, but their musicianship rarely ever faltered. (This is, of course, not to say that being a better guitar player will make you write better songs; but sometimes it helps.) These guys really helped draw up the blueprints for thrash, speed-metal, and hardcore as we know them today. And while I dislike about 90% of the extant records in each of those genres, I'd be lying if I said Die Kreuzen wasn't a compelling thrillride of a record.

So download the file, and then go buy the CD remaster (which, in point of fact, includes their second record October File where DK had the guts to vary up their successful sound quite considerably) either here, here, or here.