"Work or riot!" - This is the motto of Pascal Z, vocalist, machinist and programmer of the one-man commando ELITE!. This is why he, a Frenchman who was raised in Dⁿsseldorf, has done mainly one thing during the past few months: hard electronic work. His third album with the powerful title "Totenkopf" supplies twelve slices of tough-minded EBM, the roots of which reach back deep into the 80s and extract pure energy from the glorious times of NITZER EBB, DIE KRUPPS and especially DAF. The steel-armoured, straight and rough ELITE! sound hammers out of the equipment and adds up to clear and solely German-language lyrics about the favoured topics of love, sex, work and muscles. Now and then, something sounds familiar, which is totally intended. The track "Der Eisentanz" for example is a great "Mussolini"-adaptation and the musical declaration of war "Volle Kraft Zurⁿck" has to be taken as a sign of solidarity - not only regarding the title - with the above-mentioned cult band from the former neighbourhood of Dusseldorf. Despite all hardness, ELITE! maintains a healthy dose of humour and shares it with his EBM colleagues FRONTAL and EKOBROTTSMYNDIGHETEN, who contributed two remixes to the third ELITE! album.
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