Customer Reviews

Diamonds & Daggerz

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a pretty damn good industrial/glam/dance/rock cd. While it doesn't pack the full blown punch of 100% new material, it still is new music. I mean, I'm sorry but track nine, "Young Tongue" kicks ass. All too often when a group has been around for ten years plus and had many releases (which is no small feat), almost any new release is railed upon with criticism from fans in year ten that want music just like in year one. The problem is bands must evolve to survive. If they don't change they become boring and very early on get labelled as talentless one trick ponies. So, it's fine if you don't like the directions a band goes but lots of people like early TKK just as much as recent TKK. So, if you're one of the former, it's not that you're a die hard fan and TKK is letting you down and it isn't *really* My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult anymore. Fans of only old material don't possess the true identity of a band, the notion is absurd. The truth of the matter is TKK is TKK and you're just not a fan anymore. It's evolution at work. For those of you waving a fond farewell while clasping your Wax Trax copies of "I See Good Spirits..." there are new fans arriving. A number of my friends who haven't cared much about TKK love this CD and bought it after I played it for them. Besides, its a given that if they produced a new CD with an older, more familiar style tons of people would just bitch that they were falling back on their old sounds and being lazy and not trying to come up with anything new. It's a damned if you do and damned if you don't arrangement with fans. This disc uses old to make new. The sense of entitlement fans tend to feel amazes me. If you like a band's cd you like it and if you don't you don't but the band doesn't *owe* you anything. Make no mistake I am not saying you're wrong if you don't like this disc and I am right because I do, nothing of the sort. I'm saying don't wait for the next "Sexplosion!" because it already happened .

I've been a Kult follower from the beginning, and I love this album! They've taken some of their best-loved samples and hooks (most from the "Sexplosion" era, although actually spanning pretty much the whole saga) and reworked them into something just as good: a sleazy, disco soundtrack for a joyride to Hell! True, there's a little more sex and a little less Devil and drugs in this mixture, but who's complaining? Longtime fans wil love it, but so will neophytes--it's a great soundtrack for parties, and there's something for everyone. Note: since some reviewers seem unclear on the concept of the sound collages at the beginning and end of the CD: those are the intro and the outro. They're not songs, they don't care if you "like" them or not, they're just to set the mood... In-between is pure Kult mayhem: enjoy!

"Diamonds & Daggerz" is an interesting prospect; it's impossible to really say what it is. It's not exactly an album of original material, and yet it's not just a remix album, either. Each of the tracks incorporates elements from the best of TKK into entirely new 'songs'. Best listened to as a full-length release from start to finish, each of the tracks builds and builds in a non-stop megamix that covers all of TKK's style, moving from groovy lounge disco through giddy go-go and finishing with full-on aggressive stomp. The early tracks like "Devil Rider" and "Mz Disco" sample elements from more laid back tracks like "Blue Buddha" and "Mindcage"; the middle section of the album echoes "Hit & Run Holiday"; the final segment of the album gets darker until it climaxes in an orgasmic finale of "Dope Kult", which blends "Devil Does", "A Daisy Chain 4 Satan", and "Kooler than Jesus". TKK is probably the only band that could do this kind of a project; I can't imagine anybody else having the right material for it. Typically great artwork, too.

I've been a loyal fan for years now (thanks G) and their latest project is aptly named. The disc is full of Diamonds and Daggers. The first and last tracks are basically filler, in my opinion, but all the tracks in between are pure Thrill Kill Kult. Leave it to Buzz and Groovie to create a disc of new material using previously released material. "Young Tongue" alone is worth the price of this disc. Groovie Mann is my God!!! I hope the soon to be released "My Life Remixed" is just as awesome!

I gotta agree with StvC: "I wasn't expecting all that much, and I didn't get much."

TKK has been one of my favorite bands for over ten years. I missed their last Chicago show to be the best man at my best friend's wedding. But, I made sure to have their new album in my hands by the time he got back from his honeymoon.

The wedding was awesome. The album was disappointing.

Is this what has become of the almighty Thrill Kill Kult: reissues of their old albums with a few token remixes, and now THIS? Have they just gotten tired of the old band? Are they trying to milk it for every last penny its worth while they focus on their newer projects?

Anyways, about "Diamonds & Daggerz":

It's great music to listen to while driving or working. It has a lot of repetative techno/disco beats with familiar TKK samples and lyrics thrown in...and not always in time to the beat. There's no new songs, just a bunch of tracks blended together into one long mix. Imagine your local DJ spinning generic techno & disco beats for an hour, with TKK's sampler by his side, and you have this album. Mindless, repetative, familar. Great background music, but nothing to make me dance and sing along.

I honestly expected more. "The Reincarnation of Luna" convinced me that TKK was back with passion. Now I'm thinking that might have been a fluke. There may never be another "Sexplosion" for them, but that's no excuse to stoop to this. Don't get me wrong, I recommend the album if you're a TKK fan. Just don't expect too much and you wont be disappointed.

DIAMONDS AND DAGGERS is not just dance remixes of old material, it feels completely reproduced - familiar samples and lyrics within fresh dancefloor builds and breaks. Even an obsessive fan like me isn't sure which songs and eras have been thrown in the blender. But nothing here sounds random, production-wise this is probably *the* tightest TKK album ever. Each song flows into the next like a seamless partymix, and what a trip! Face-melting techno segues into honey-dripping disco followed by Euro-sleaze and serial-killer Devil worship. Overall this is a dance album, so there are piano solos and repetitive samples. This is not the industrial TKK, but builds on some of their best dance songs with improved production quality, putting *different* elements together from different albums. Everything is familiar but feels totally new. If you are a fan of TKK's forays into disco and funky-techno, DIAMONDS and DAGGERS is an album you will LOVE. 5-stars, not just because I'm a fan but because TKK has the balls to rebuild some of their best moments into a fresh updated sound. The beats are slammin' and their are no sexier samples on the planet.

The only somewhat interesting tracks on this album are the first and last, which are only there to set the mood. The awful music they're setting the mood for is the problem. Ever since Crime for All Seasons, TKK has been making AWFUL remixes. Seriously, I think that if I could actually have the patience to listen through any of them in their entirety, I'd be spending more time listening than they did making this crap!

If Groovie and Buzz want to start a charity fund to better TKK's financial situation, at least let them be honest about it; this is just insulting!

That said, this and GBM are the only albums by them I don't love.

I have been a fan of TKK as long as some of the posters on this site probably even a bit longer. I have been with them through all of there evolutions and live shows (13 and counting). And yes, like every fan I have been disappointed but more often blown away i.e. Hit & Run Holiday and 13 Above the Night among my most played.

My biggest complaint is that there label never seems to try and bring any new listeners on board when their sound evolves. Hit & Run would have been a perfect time to bring on the Sixties Soundtrack Revival that was going on i.e. Vampyros Lesbos and the loyal gay fanbase but they didn't.

Anyway, Diamonds & Daggerz is exactly where they have been moving to and I LOVE IT. Fantastic pulsing grooves, sexy samples, overall great dance music. More, more, more please and thank you.

LONG LIVE THE MINDWAY!!!!!

Having been a fan since the beginning,(BE ONE OF US!), i feel i am one of the only people that really "get" what TKK has done over the years...Live shows aside (hit or miss), I think Diamonds & Daggerz is a brave detour from not only a new release, but the "remix" formula everyone falls victim to. What Buzz has done here could have only been done by this band,,taking new material and infusing it with not only thier trademark samples, but simultaneously weaving lines from sometimes 2 or 3 completely different songs. Sure, id love for them to bust out new kick ass material, and i find releasing a "greatest hits" is redundant, but the dvd is sweet, and i look forward to future projects. Maybe this is there way of wrapping up an "era", making people aware of the thread that has run through all of their styles, and challenging us to SUCK THE WILD!

Unlike the uneven (but listenable) Golden Pillz remix CD, Diamonds and Daggerz is a seamless blend of musical hooks, percussion and thrill-kill-esque slogans. This release begins mellow (first three tracks) but then progressively, hypnotically grows harder and edgier. This is the result of one genius producer/musician Buzz McCoy - instead of Pillz's hodgepodge mix of remixers. Buzz really struts his stuff on this release and shows his mastery of industrial glam rock. Any TKK fan needs to have this in his collection. Any fan of industrial glam needs to, too. This is the first TKK CD since 13 Above the Night that I've been excited about - and its Ipod playlist has been stuck on "repeat" for a week now. I don't understand the negative reveiws because a true fan of this genre would kill for this long overdue comeback. It's brilliant.