Schkeuditzer Kreuz

Variously termed “Industrial Synth Crust”, “D-beat Raw Synth Punk”, “Trans-Positive Anti-Fascist Synth Crust”, and “One human and some machines making noise, in the face of it all”, Schkeuditzer Kreuz is a mutant post-apocalyptic hybrid: an intersection between harsh, confronting, mechanical noise and the comparatively raw, organic materials of hardcore, crust, and d-beat punk. It is a noise wrought from the anguish and despair of New Zealand-born itinerant punk veteran Kieren Hills, from a cabin that he built in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia.

Playing in bands for a little over 35 years, Kieren Hills began his journey into underground music in New Zealand during the late 1980s, before relocating to Australia with riotous Wellington NZ punk rock group, S*M*U*T, in 1993. He turned up a few years later in Stuttgart, Germany’s Murder Disco X; followed by countless Sydney underground bands, including crust punk / d-beat merchants Vae Victis; hardcore legends Dark Horse; and deathrock / gothic punk outfit Death Church, among others.

Beyond punk, Kieren traces his discovery of noisy industrial and experimental electronic music to his youth in New Zealand, influenced by a previous generation of punk musicians who had begun to explore different possibilities: Skeptics, Gordons, Headless Chickens, Froit Head, Lung, CeLL, Invisible Dead, and Children’s Television Workshop among them. These local groups in turn led Kieren to the music of Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire; Laibach and Einstürzende Neubauten; Ministry, Big Black, Godflesh, Pitch Shifter and Butthole Surfers. In later years, Kieren also became a fan of Australia’s Knife, Religious Observance, and Kollaps; and Kubine from Yokohama, Japan. Following “the wreck of the plague year twenty-twenty”, Kieren says, there was a “greater affinity with machines, making the creation of Schkeuditzer Kreuz inevitable.”

Since 2020, Schkeuditzer Kreuz has released three full-length studio albums: Isolated and Alone (2021), No Life Left (2023), and Swan Grinder (2025); in amongst a raft of singles, videos, EPs, split-releases, compilation tracks, and remix collaborations. As a live act, Schkeuditzer Kreuz remains in constant demand worldwide: touring extensively across the UK and mainland Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, with Hills becoming a live member of UK industrial-darkwave innovators Attrition in the process.

In the press, Schkeuditzer Kreuz has garnered high praise from Louder Than War (UK), CVLT Nation (US), Sonic Seducer Musikmagazin (Germany), Side-Line Magazine (Belgium), Discipline Mag (Australia), Vive Le Rock (UK), ReGen Magazine (US), Orkus! Magazin (Germany), Industrial Complexx (Spain), Onyx Music Reviews (Australia), Aural Aggravation (UK), Cave Dweller Music (US), Humans vs. Robots (Italy), The Devil’s Mouth (Portugal), Undertheradar (New Zealand), Outsideleft (UK), The Big Takeover (US), Slam Magazine (Austria), Devil’s Horns Zine (Australia), Fighting Boredom (UK), Auxiliary Magazine (US) and untold others. The latest album, Swan Grinder, is the most widely acclaimed Schkeuditzer Kreuz release yet, with comparisons ranging from Discharge and Napalm Death to Ministry, Pitch Shifter, Atari Teenage Riot, JG Thirlwell, Godflesh and Test Dept.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Belinfante