KMFDM - HYËNA

Nearly four decades into their run, KMFDM has never been shy about turning the world's chaos into fuel, and Hyëna, the band's twenty second studio album, might be the most fitting title they've ever landed on. Released in 2022 and pressed to vinyl the following year, the record finds founder Sascha "Käpt'n K" Konietzko and Lucia Cifarelli laughing straight at the frayed state of world affairs, backed by the angular guitar work of Andee Blacksugar and the driving percussion of Andy Selway.

The album refuses to sit in one lane. "Black Hole" swaggers with rock and roll bravado, "Liquor Fish and Cigarettes" leans into blunt industrial rock, and "Rock'n'Roll Monster" pulls in funky hip hop overtones, while "Blindface" tears through with punk thrash fury and "Deluded Desperate Dangerous and Dumb" takes a sardonic, blackgrass inflected turn. The title track closes things out with an electro groove built for the dancefloor. Returning KMFDM family members add their own stamps throughout, including guitarist Jules Hodgson, rapper Andrew "Ocelot" Lindsley, and Bruce Breckenfeld on Hammond B3, with Sissy Misfit bringing a digital hardcore edge to "All Wrong But Alright" and Kumar Bent closing the record with a dub rework of a KMFDM classic on "In Dub We Trust."

Clocking in at a tight, lean runtime with a clear A side and B side structure, Hyëna was mastered with vinyl specifically in mind, and this LP pressing captures the record exactly as intended, one of the band's leanest and meanest outings on wax.