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eisbrecher11FZW, Dortmund, Germany
29th February 2012
Eisbrecher & Lord of the Lost

After the release if the current album ‘Die Hölle muss warten’ was delayed, also the tour was postponed to this year’s February/ March, offering the possibility to add additional dates, like the one on Dortmund. And additional dates were needed since several shows of the tour sold out fast, especially after the chart success of the current album - ‘Die Hölle muss warten’ entered the German charts on position 3! Today, we were finally here to find out how the new songs would work out live on stage.


Lord of the Lost

Before starting his own band with LORD OF THE LOST in 2008, initiator Chris Harms has been involved in various musical activities already. He started as vocalist for PHILLIAE, played live guitar for BIG BOY and worked with THE PLEASURES as well. Nearly instantly after its inception, LORD OF THE LOST locked themselves up in the studio, spending most of 2008 working on their debut album. The album’s called ‘Fears’ and has been released in February 2010, followed by the sophomore ‘Antagony’ in April 2011 via Out of Line. The new release ‘Beside & Beyond’ was out mid February. LORD OF THE LOST is Chris Harms (vocals, guitar, cello), Bo Six (guitar), Class Grenayde (bass), Gared Dirge (piano, synthesizer, percussion, guitar) and Disco (drums). http://www.lordofthelost.de / https://www.facebook.com/lordofthelost / http://www.myspace.com/lordofthelost

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Music & Performance
A few weeks ago, we saw the band already when supporting STAHLMANN, EISBRECHER’s support band from the previous tour. Now, the band of Chris Harms – who is btw befriended with Alexx – is supporting EISBRECHER, having a new EP in stock to promote during their tour. It was 15 minutes earlier than announced when suddenly the music from taped stopped and Alexx entered the stage to announce his support band, not forgetting to mention that the hall is much better filled than during the previous tour. After the into ‘Live Today Die Tomorrow’, Hamburg based LORD OF THE LOST entered the stage with ‘Black Lolita’. Even though Chris lived in Dortmund for about ten years, this was the first ever show on Dortmund for the band and they obviously liked it. When ‘Prison’ was played, LORD OF THE LOST even included some words from EISBRECHER’s ‘Miststück’, but the audience reactions still were hesitant.

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Different to other shows, as I heard, the audience reactions were indeed calmer though and it was not before the second last song, ‘Dry the Rain’ out off the recent release, until people finally woke up and clapped along. With a German version of ‘Your Victories’, a song that was written by Chris and Alexx together showing obvious EISBRECHER reminiscences, a good support show ended, even though I must say I liked the band’s performance a few weeks before more.

Setlist
01. Live Today Die Tomorrow (Just Intro)
02. Black Lolita
03. Sex on Legs
04. Do You Wanna Die Without A Scar
05. Heart For Sale
06. Bad Romance (Lady Gaga cover)
07. Epiphany
08. Prison
09. Break Your Heart (With "Prologue" Interlude)
10. Dry the Rain
11. Your Victories (sung in German: Eure Siege)

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7.3 / 10

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Eisbrecher

After leaving his former band MEGAHERZ, vocalist Alexander Wesselsky founded EISBRECHER together with producer and guitarist Noel Pix, which he knew already from several MEGAHERZ productions. Similarly to MEGAHERZ Wesselsky's new outlet combined simple but heavy guitars, some electronics, straight and commanding rhythms, dark male vocals and lyrics about the dark side of love and life, including many references to military and naval themes and puns on “ice” terms, quite aptly for a band whose name translates to “icebreaker”. The genre is “Neue Deutsche Härte” again, see STAHLMANN above. With their second album, 'Antikörper' from 2006, EISBRECHER managed to enter the German Top 100 and since then the band glories in increasing national success. Internationally EISBRECHER is also building up a reputation, as successful tours in Austria, Russia, the Netherlands and Switzerland proved. Their latest album, 'Eiszeit', peaked at #5 in the German chart and reached a noticeable #25 in the Euro Charts. The fifth studio album ‘Die Hölle muss warten’ was released on 3rd February 2012 via Sony Music. EISBRECHER is Alexx Wesselsky (vocals), Noel Pix (lead guitar), Jürgen Plangger (rhythm guitar), Dominik Palmer (bass guitar), and Achim Färber (drums and percussion). https://www.facebook.com/eisbrecher / http://www.eis-brecher.com / www.myspace.com/eisbrecherkommando

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Music & Performance
The current album of EISBRECHER is critically discussed by press and fans, also here on our magazine. Comparisons with UNHEILIG are appearing here and there, especially since they are signed on a major label now. Are those comparisons profound? Are EISBRECHER doing Schlager now, like several people think? Or are they only doing the “Schlager “they always did in their career? Anyone has to judge himself but the success of their recent albums proves that they must have done something right. Anyway, it was time for me now to judge myself about the live realization of the new songs… The “A-Team” series theme announced the close start of the show. Anyone was moving closer to stage to be part of the celebration. Right with the first song, the new ‘Exzess Express’, EISBRECHER were teaching anyone the ins and outs. Perfectly integrating into the older output, the band rocked and people were with them from the very start. A big bang, an explosion and raining paper garlands finally opened the play, moving on with ‘Willkommen in Nichts’ and ‘Angst’. The guitar play was powerful, mixed pretty well, and Achim Färber on drums was flourishing; I rarely saw him visibly having so much fun on stage.

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Like you know it from EISBRECHER, there was always a lot of interaction with the audience. Not only that a little plush Ice bear or alcohol was given to the audience, Alexx as always was not getting tired playing the entertainer, telling jokes and mentioning several times the Schlager and Unheilig comparisons. For ‘Amok’, the well-known barrels were placed on stage again. It is always a pleasure to see the whole band hitting on them. Looks and sounds great! From ‘Amok’ back to Schlager: except Alexx and Jürgen, the band left the stage and both musicians took place on barstools with their acoustic guitars, first presenting – like they did before – ‘Tränen lügen nicht’. It is always funny that the all-so-black audience can sing every line of those Schlager songs. EISBRECHER also had a special Schlager for every city they visit. Dortmund got Wolfgang Petri’s ‘Wahnsinn’ and I laughed tears when the whole hall was screaming “Hölle, Hölle, Hölle” (hell, hell, hell). Since both guys on stage are so nice people, they hugged and kissed each other after this little funny intermezzo before the whole band was back with ‘Die Engel’.

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Presenting a nice mixture of new and old songs, ‘Prototyp’ was the last new one for a while making room for a lot of classics being celebrated by the audience. ‘Schwarze Witwe’ brought a lot of kinky spanking onto stage - once more the audience was integrated into the show - while last song of the main set, ‘This is Deutsch’, showed the band once more in “typical” German outfit and behaviour. Always a fantastic part of the show. The first encore bloc presented some more classics and especially traditional “last” song ‘Miststück’ was celebrated to the extend, offering a first-class Rap performance of Alexx. And of course, the audience had to scream “Miststück” over and over again. Another bang and paper rain ended the show… well, not completely since there was one more song being offered, the title track of the current album ‘Die Hölle muss warten’. The goodbye was the last present to the audience. All band members were giving red roses to the audience and Noel Pix had the honour to throw the last remaining plush ice bear into the audience. Bowing altogether to the audience, the band finally left releasing a satisfied audience entering the foyer to catch one or another autograph.

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So, what’s left to say after the show. Are EISBRECHER really swimming on the UNHEILIG wave? In their life show, definitely not! They are still doing what they can best: offering great amusement and an entertaining powerful show. Concerts of the band are highly recommended!

Setlist
01. Intro
02. Exzess Express
03. Willkommen im Nichts
04. Angst
05. Abgrund
06. Verrückt
07. Antikörper
08. Leider
09. Herz aus Eis
10. Amok
11. Schlager: Tränen lügen nicht (Michael Holm) + Wahnsinn (Wolfgang Petri) (acoustic)
12. Die Engel
13. Prototyp
14. Vergissmeinnicht
15. Schwarze Witwe
16. Heilig
17. This is Deutsch
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18. Kann denn Liebe Sünde sein
19. Ohne Dich
20. Miststück
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21. Die Hölle muss warten

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 10
Total: 9 / 10

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All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)


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