I approached this solo album by guitarist Richard Kruspe of Rammstein fame with a certain amount of trepidation. It's not that I dislike his mother band, I just find much of their industrial music inaccessible, which may or may not be due to the fact that the majority of the guttural vocals are in German. Either way, Emigrate is simply a stunning release, which should be judged outside of the Rammstein umbrella, though in reality it's difficult to separate them.

Several years in the making and lavishly packaged, the first thing that should be mentioned is that this is sung in English completely removing any language barrier which had earlier blighted my ability to appreciate his music. Of course, it's still steeped in industrial metal though, dare I say it, with a more commercial, melodic approach. The opening 3 tracks Emigrate, Wake Up and My World are perhaps the heaviest on offer here, going off at a hell of a pace with the vocal delivery on the latter very much in the sneering style of 70's UK punk. Perhaps the closest he gets to Rammstein is on the track Let Me Break, certainly with the guitar sounding like it fell right off the Reisse Reisse album. New York City rather oddly brings to mind a Goth sound, similar to The Cult in places before moving off in a T-Rex direction. The Goth comparisons reappear on closing track Help Me, although with a more recent sound. Really catchy, this vocal melody will go around in your head for days.

Here he has taken everything that is good from his day job, added some Goth, Punk and traditional metal, packaging it up in a stonking album. Fans of Rammstein will certainly be divided on this, though it's one that as a stand-alone certainly warrants a listen.

***½

Review by Dave Hunter