New South Wales Industrial Synth Crust outfit Schkeuditzer Kreuz a.k.a. Kieren Hills is about to embark on the second Schkeuditzer Kreuz tour across Europe, from September to October 2025, in support of the third album, Swan Grinder. Tour dates are currently booked through Central Europe, South Caucasus, Spain, and UK, with more to be confirmed. Released next month (August 2025), Bandcamp presales for the forthcoming Swan Grinder album are available from 15 July, with all presale orders also receiving a bonus remix CD and denim patch.
“Like with the last album, I have some of my favourite electronic artists from around the world remixing the songs from the album – so there will be a bonus CD with the preorders called Reinventing Axel F, with remixes by Attrition, Her Noise is Violence, Hostile Architect, Subterranea, Decide Today, TOecUTTER, Distruster and more.”
Meanwhile, Sydney friends and supporters will be first in the world to experience Swan Grinder live, with a launch party at Monster Mouse on 30 August. Joined by Inebrious Bastard and The Limited, Kieren says there will be a bunch of special merch and giveaways exclusive to the show:
“I decided to make the release more of a party and less of a normal gig. I am holding it in a little warehouse, playing with my friends’ bands, and having giveaways and prizes through the night so people have something to remember it by. There is release-gig only merch and badges and patches for everyone who walks through the door that won’t be available anywhere else.
After that I go to Europe and play 30 shows in 39 days, then come home and start the release tour here. I’m hoping to keep the energy of that tour going when I get back and take it through every city I possibly can in Australia.”
Variously termed “Industrial Synth Crust”, “D-beat Raw Synth Punk”, 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 Antipodean punk veteran Kieren Hills, from a cabin that he built in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia.
Since 2020, Schkeuditzer Kreuz has released two full-length studio albums: Isolated and Alone (2021) and No Life Left (2023), alongside a raft of singles, videos, EPs, split-releases, compilation tracks, and remix collaborations. As a live act, Schkeuditzer Kreuz remains in constant live demand worldwide: touring extensively across the UK and mainland Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, and recently touring Australia with pioneering UK industrial legends ATTRITION (Oct-Nov 2024) and US anarcho-breakcore outfit, DECIDE TODAY (Dec 2024-Jan 2025). Kieren has since become a touring live member of ATTRITION, with ATTRITION / Schkeuditzer Kreuz tourdates together in 2025 including shows in Thailand, Hong Kong, and England. Critically acclaimed, Schkeuditzer Kreuz has received high praise from the likes of Louder Than War (UK), CVLT Nation (US), Sonic Seducer (Germany), Auxiliary Magazine (US), Side-Line (Belgium), Cave Dweller Music (US), ReGen Magazine (US) and untold others.
Swan Grinder is the third full-length Schkeuditzer Kreuz album, mastered at The Cage by ATTRITION‘s Martin Bowes, and scheduled for release in August, followed by the European tour in September and October 2025.
Decide Today and Schkeuditzer Kreuz will follow the release with a tour of southeast Australia together, from late December through early January 2025, playing 18 shows across 16 dates on the Digital Wolves Tour.