Schkeuditzer Kreuz unleashes the new single and video, ‘Sirens of Death’, from the forthcoming album, Swan Grinder.
Australian ‘Industrial Synth Crust’ outfit Schkeuditzer Kreuz a.k.a. Kieren Hills has this week premiered the new video for ‘Sirens of Death’, the lead single from the forthcoming third album, Swan Grinder. The new video is shot and edited by David Xuereb at Sydney, Australia’s Grim Reflections, who also created the previous Schkeuditzer Kreuz video for ‘Ratchet’. Kieren says:
“Sirens is a relatively slow and heavy song, almost a synth version of industrial metal, albeit with some weirdness thrown in. Lyrically it takes a bleak and blunt look at the eternal war we have been a party to for as long as anyone can remember. The video tells that story with equally harsh and ugly visuals interspersed with my own vocal howls of rage.”
Kieren is meanwhile gearing up to embark on the second Schkeuditzer Kreuz tour across Europe, from September to October 2025, in support of the new Swan Grinder album. Tour dates are currently booked through Central Europe, South Caucasus, Spain, and UK, with more to be confirmed. Released on 30 August 2025, Bandcamp presales for the forthcoming Swan Grinder album also come with a bonus remix CD and denim patch. Kieren says of the album and tour:
“I’ve taken everything I have learned from previous records, and from previous tours, and put it all together to take Swan Grinder on the road across as much of Europe as I possibly can.”
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 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 tour dates together in 2025 including shows in Thailand, Hong Kong, and England.
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.