Album a Day: Wumpscut - Schädling (Limited First Edition)

It can never be said that Rudy Ratzinger's :wumpscut: half-asses releases (especially after about a dozen releases, this falling in somewhere around number ten depending on what you or don't count in his massive discography as albums) as this Limited First Edition run of the album is content-wise no different than the regular release but the packaging is certainly something to behold with a beautiful parchment-style booklet and SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) packaging (though the CD is not an SACD). The music itself on the album really shows the evolution of where the Wumpscut project has gone. The vocals are distorted and scratchy as usual but the music has really solidified to a yin-yang-sort-of style with the harsh vocals complimented mostly by playful lighter synths (although there are still plenty of heavy industrial beats to go along with it). What I like better about Wumpscut's harsh electro-industrial vocals better than most others is that they feel motivated. Ratzinger vocals project a persona that he has developed which IS Wumpscut. Wumpscut also isn't afraid to give the listener a healthy mix of dancier tracks (though nothing that panders to a dance-floor crowd) and slower painful songs that allow the listener to really live within Wumpscut's almost gothic-industrial motif. Favorite Tracks: Rusty Nails From Hell, Oh How It Feels, Foretold, Rifki, and Hard To Bear