Feature Menu:
Part One: Deathrock OverView
Part Two: GhoulSchool
Part Three: San
Francisco Deathrock
Part Four: Deathrock
in Germany
Part
Five: Pagan Love Songs Goes to LA
Part
Six: Funeral Drive in Dallas
Part
4: Boneshaker Babies, Vibrant Madness
&
Undead Tunes all over Germany
An Article on the Deathrock scene in
Germany
~by Thomas Thyssen
(photos property and
courtesy: club photos by Thomas Thyssen/Pagan Love Songs
Cinema Strange photos by
Krissy James (Cinema
Stranger))
What the fuck is Deathrock? This was the headlining
question for a new monthly column I am writing for Orkus Magazine in
Germany. What the fuck is Deathrock in Germany? This seems to be the
question I will try to answer within the following essay. I would like to
point the main-focus of this article on the new developments in Germany.
No more whining about the old heroes is needed. Treat their heritage with
respect and try your best in order to keep a scene alive, which – some
years ago – was in fact more than dead.
In times in which German mainstream
gothic-clubs are ruled by poppy techno dancefloor-artists like VNV Nation
and Apoptygma Berzerk, it seemed obvious that the underground, or as
Rocketom of Germany´s most underestimated Deathrock band Murder At The
Registry likes to call it, the sub-subculture was in desperate need of
their own infrastructure. There were obviously no places for old school
goths to party, where they could dance to their old classic tunes and
where they were able to discover exciting new bands. When looking back
now, it seems to me that there were so many coincidences in the years of
1998 and 1999, that it seems unreal nowadays.
Pagan Love Songs
My brother Ralf and I started our own
“Pagan Love Songs” club in late summer 1999, after many months of
preparing the event. Our opening ball was a huge success and from this day
on, every fourth Friday of the month is dedicated to all the undead
boneshakers that love to dance their asses off to some ghoulish tunes. The
Zwischenfall venue in Bochum, in which Pagan Love Songs is located, is
Germany´s oldest and most traditional Goth-club. I remember seeing Forty
Five Frank of Antiworld standing in the backstage area, his jaw dropped to
the floor while looking at all the band posters there were pinned to the
walls. It seemed unreal to him that so many artists that he adored
personally played that very venue, in which he and his band were going to
give their debut on European soil. Due to the fact that Zwischenfall has
only got one floor and is not as huge as many of the more modern
Electro/Industrial oriented venues in Germany´s Ruhrarea, the whole
atmosphere seems to be more punk-like as Granny Fiendish, Queen of the
Antiworld mic, pointed out.
Back in November 1999 we did our first concert
at Pagan Love Songs, and we were extremely honoured and happy to have
Gitane DeMone playing live alongside Paris of E.X.P.
and Shadow Project on Keyboards. Although their gig was more electronic,
the place was packed with Deathrock people who went nuts during their
performance. A couple of months later we had the pleasure to welcome Faith
& The Muse, who played a special Rozz Williams Memorial Show at
our club, since they played from 23pm on the 31st of March to 1am of April
1st, the day of Rozz Williams death. It was a really 
touching moment to hear the first
bass chords of “Romeo´s Distress”. I definitely won’t forget this. It
was only two months later that Malochia, an extremely talented goth outfit
from Amsterdam, in the Netherlands played Pagan Love Songs. Unfortunately
it wasn’t much heard of them afterwards, since their original record company
went bankrupt. But the real highlight of our personal Pagan history has
to be the 22nd of September 2000. The day Cinema Strange played their
first and only European show.
I still got the first emails Lucas Lanthier of
Cinema Strange and I exchanged in mid-1999 when I discovered the
strange cineasts by chance while browsing through the web. He sent me
their 7”-singles and I was completely blown away. Shortly afterwards I was
the one to write the first article ever in Europe about them and their
record deal with [trisol] was finalised within a short amount of time,
too. It was Ralf’s idea while hearing their first compilation-like cd to
make them the offer to come across the pond and rock at Zwischenfall. We
negotiated with the band, their label and our club and as soon as possible
we set up the rough surroundings for the event.
The result of our work blew us
away. More than 500 people from all over Europe, including Austria, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and England, attended Pagan Love Songs on
that very special day in order to witness the vibrant madness of the
Ribiat brothers and Mister Luc Lanther live on stage. Murder at the
Registry, as I already told you – in my humble opinion – Germany’s most
awesome Deathrock band, supported Cinema Strange that night and they had a
blast, too. It was only seven months later when the infamous trio returned
to Pagan Love Songs during their first “Kittens In The Catacomb” European
tour, making themselves the first band to play twice at our party. That
time we invited the promising German UK-Goth oriented trio New Days Delay
as special guests. Again, the place was packed, again Cinema Strange and
their support gave everything they had, making it a wonderful evening for
everyone.
July 2001 saw the European debut (you seem
to recognise our special interest in doing those kind of “first time
events” ;-) of the Hollywood based Diva Destruction. Debra Fogarty
and her band definitely left a mark at Pagan Love Songs. Although summer
had reached its peak with subtropical temperatures, the Zwischenfall was
packed again. After their performance – they were supported by the local
Gothic Rock trio Cadra Ash by the way – the band really celebrated their
premiere. With that in mind it doesn´t seem too strange that their song
“The Broken Ones” now has even made it into the playlists of the more
mainstream-oriented Goth DJs.
Only two months later, Pagan Love Songs had the next
major attraction for every Deathrock-lovin´ freak in its pockets:
Antiworld from Portland, Oregon made it to Bochum and they blew the
roof off Zwischenfall with their post punk sound. We had the pleasure to
accompany Antiworld and Cinema Strange after that special gig to the huge
“Herbstnaechte (means Autumn Nights)” festival on Castle Raben in eastern
Germany. The Sunday line-up saw a terrific mixture of Germany´s Death- and
Goth-Rock créme de la crème combined with Antiworld and Cinema Strange as
headlining bands. William Faith of Faith & The Muse, who played a
special acoustic set the day before, stood beside me when Cinema Strange
entered the stage and I remember him smiling with pleasure as he witnessed
their performance. Rumours say that he may be involved with the production
of Cinema Strange third album. I guess only Bonzo von Ecke knows more
details about it. I had the pleasure to do the aftershowparty on this
fabulous festival with Mark Splatter of deathrock.com. I guess if I say we
had lots of fun spinning together, it would be an underestimation.
Pagan Love Songs of
course still exists. Currently, Ralf and I are putting the finishing
touches on our first double-cd compilation which tries to cover the wide
range of all the stuff that we play at our party. It took us nearly two
years to compile the tracklist. It is so fucking hard to get your hands on
many of those old heroes, that we were on the verge of throwing the towel
on more than one occasion. Hopefully the “Pagan Love Songs Compilation”
will be released later this year on the well-known German Schwarzrock
label.
Underground Party Scene
Another important fact which contributed a
lot to making the current German Deathrock scene stay healthy, is the very
good contact between all the party organisers and gig promoters in
Germany. One of my personal favourite clubs for instance, is the “under
cover of darkness” party which is located in the Triptychon in
Muenster, or Monster in Monsterland as Andi Sexgang pointed out on his gig
in that very special venue. The party is held every third Saturday in
January, March, May, July, September and November. The DJs Kerstin, Kanne
and Steven Cavity spin lots of real fun stuff. A good mixture of Batcave,
New Wave and Gothic-Rock sounds in a nice party atmosphere with a big
bunch of cool people. What do you want more? We had the pleasure as well
to do some cooperation parties with those guys, including a fabulous
celebration at the Wave Gotik Treffen in 2000 where I nearly broke my ribs
at the Sigue Sigue Sputnik concert! ;-)
One of Germany´s oldest Gothic-Rock parties
is the Nightstalkers Ballroom, which is located in the Honigfabrik
in Hamburg. The DJs René and Martin spin their records on every third
Saturday as well, but in the months when under cover of darkness is not
held. The venue, a closed honey factory contributes a lot to the unique
atmosphere. In Germany you see lots of the same people at all the clubs
across the country. Some of them drive hundreds of miles each month only
to party to their favoured tunes. There was also a special “Pagan Love
Songs meets Nightstalkers Ballroom” aftershow party at Cinema Strange´s
first Germany gig. Currently the next joint venture party is planned for
late 2002.
Of course there is a gothic-rock/wave specialised party in Germany´s capital city – Berlin – as well. The DJs chr-IST-ian P. and Franck E. open the doors of the K17 club on every first Saturday in February, April, June, August, October and December. The dynamic DJ duo also does lots of guest-dj jobs mostly in eastern Germany as well. If you’ve got the chance to visit one of their clubs, do not hesitate to dance the undead twist to some old spooky tunes. Of course a “Pagan Love Songs meets Artfuck” event has already been held! ;)
Last but not least, there’s the Sex Beat party which is the main attraction to all southern German Batcave and Deathrock fanatics. Held in the small Top Act club in Zapfendorf in Bavaria, the DJ team Juergen and Stefan try their best in order to fight against the tidal waves of Electro and Industrial in their region on every first Saturday of the month.
German Bands
After all the talk about German Deathrock parties,
now let’s move on to the new or still existing bands, which please our
ears with their superb tunes. At first I simply must mention Murder at
the Registry from Braunschweig again, who are Germany´s most
ass-kicking unsigned band, to my mind of course. Their songs “Pump”,
“Cupido” and “The Stolen Photograph” are dancefloor fillers all across the
country, although they are only available on very limited cd-r editions.
Currently the band is working on their new album, which will hopefully be
released in summer 2002. I can only recommend to check this f´n great band
out.
Next I want to draw your attention to Bloody Dead
And Sexy, a four piece band which seems to have listened a lot to old
Rozz Williams records ;) , but that´s not a bad thing, that´s a good
thing. Songs like “Bloody Rose” and “Hey-Ho Armageddon” are very
successful in several clubs, and their live-performances are equally
well-known. Frontman Rosa Iahn is driven by his personal demons that bring
out the insane monster in him. Their gig at the Herbstnaechte festival
last year ranks among my personal favourite performances. Currently Iahn
and his gang are working on new material, too. I’ll keep my ears
open.
New Days Delay from Oldenburg in northern
Germany is the next band I’d like to recommend. They are playing
fast-driven, very UK-oriented goth-rock which reminds me of Skeletal
Family and Ghost Dance amongst others. “Glass-Made Saviour” and “Selected
Sunrises” made it onto the DJ-playlists as well. Right now the band is
reorganising their line-up, because the original bass-player Matthias Dopp
left the band in order to start his new project which will be produced by
Justin of the UK-Goth outfit Passion Play. Alongside their new
bass-player, guitar-player Christoph told me to expect some new sides of
New Days Delay with their upcoming material.
Cadra Ash are veterans among the field
of up- and coming bands in Germany. Making music together since the early
90ies, the band was often compared to Mephisto Walz although their newer
material has a more electronic edge to it, without forgetting their goth-rock
roots. Their official debut-album “Everything´s Gone By” should be expected
in 2002. “Call To Remembrance” was definitely one of the biggest clubhits
from a rather unknown act back in the year 2000.
Morbid Poetry seems to be one of the
most traditional German goth-bands since their sounds reminds me a lot of
old Sisters Of Mercy and Fields Of The Nephilim stuff, although they never
forget to put their very own unique details into the mix. Their newest EP
“And The Dance Goes On!” contains their by far best material up to now.
“Babel Falls” and “Tomorrow” are regulars on the playlists, and they
deserve more recognition, without the shadow of a doubt. Morbid Poetry
even made it to the fourth place of a music-contest which was held by the
huge Sonic Seducer independent magazine.
Fallen Apart must be
considered as veterans as well. Two third of the band is also playing in
one of Germany´s most famous goth-bands, namely The House Of Usher.
Nevertheless the trio still puts a lot of effort into their old school
wave sound. Their latest release is the “Misereality EP” on 12” vinyl,
which can be considered as a real collectors item for fans of old post
punk and wave sounds like Joy Division, Sad Lovers & Giants and The
Church. Dirk and Ralf of Fallen Apart already played in a goth-rock band
in the late 80ies called Funeral Address. Their material was re-released
on cd-r a short while ago, and at that time their sound reminded me a lot
of old Red Lorry Yellow Lorry material. The band is hoping to release a
new piece of vinyl in 2002. Hopefully they can realise their
dreams.
Last but not least I want to give a short
introduction of one of the newest goth-rock bands in town. Burning In
Water hail from the ruhrarea and their music can be described as a
mixture of very rhythmic UK-Goth and crazy old Deathrock stuff. Female
singer Almerija has a very dominant voice, and their live-coverversion of
the Skeletal Family classic “She Cries Alone” is a true gem. Unfortunately
the band hasn’t released an official demo yet, but the band is working
hard to finish a cd-r within the next couple of months.
To cut a long story short: This was the first rough overview of the current state of the art of the German Gothic- and Deathrock scene. Please excuse spelling mistakes I made, I am still trying to improve day by day.
I really want to thank Blu and the whole Starvox-staff for giving me the space and the opportunity to give you a small view of what is going on in Europe.
If anyone of you guys is planning a trip across the pond, do not hesitate to contact me for detailed information on cool venues etc.
~Thomas Thyssen (thomas@nightmarezone.de)
Club Patrons - Click on the thumbnails for larger version:
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Photos by Ralf
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About the Author:
Thomas Thyssen is working as an editor for all of Germany´s
three big independent music magazines, namely Zillo, Sonic Seducer and
Orkus. Furthermore he and his brother Ralf are organising several party
events at the Zwischenfall in Bochum, Germany´s oldest and most traditional
goth-club. In addition to that the Thyssen Bros. were responsible for
lots of relatively fresh US bands coming overseas and playing their debuts
at their Pagan Love Songs event. For e.g. Cinema Strange, Antiworld and
Diva Destruction had the chance to walk in the footsteps of other American
artists like Faith & The Muse and Gitane DeMone who played at Zwischenfall,
too.
Click Here to Contine to Part Five: Pagan Love Songs Goes to LA
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