Preview - M´era Luna Festival 2005

Fall 2004: Combichrist took you to new dimensions with the EP-release; "Sex, Drogen Und Industrial", topping the German Alternative Charts at number 1 for 7 weeks. Previously, the name stood synonymous for electronic industrial sounds in their most brutal incarnation. Where as “Sex, Drogen und Industrial” at first continues on this path with the opening track, “Blut Royale”, the listener soon begins to grasp as to where LaPlegua will take him on his journey: more electro, less distortion, yet nonetheless energetic and aggressive.

February 2005: "Everybody Hates You" the full-length album, not only released by Out Of Line, but USA's Metropolis Records as well. This new hard-hitting album takes you in a new direction: TBM | Techno Body Music: A journey through hell and high water, through the eyes of a serial killer, sex, violence and plenty of Jack Daniels on ice. www.combichrist.com


DEINE LAKAIEN

Deine Lakaien are an exceptional appearance in Germany's music landscape. Their music, which tastefully and self-assuredly balances between classic, folk, techno, rock, industrial, goth, wave and ambient soundscapes, does not follow any current trends and is not oriented on any commercial guidelines whatsoever. And yet, the charismatic vocalist Alexander Veljanov and the classically trained composer, pianist and drummer Ernst Horn together experience a huge success with their concept of ignoring the borders set by genres and cultures. Three years after their last release "White Lies", the duet is now ready to open a fascinating new chapter in their career, with their eighth studio album, "April Skies", which also celebrates the artists' start with Capitol. The story of Deine Lakaien began a good 20 years ago in the classifieds of a city magazine ("Vocalist wanted who enjoys experimenting").

The man who was responsible for the add was musical man of all trades Ernst Horn, who had studied classical music in Freiburg and Hamburg and was working in Munich as conductor and pianist. The man to react to the add was Alexander Veljanov, who was attending a film and theatre class in Germany's southern capital. They soon detected a kindred spirit as well as shared musical preferences and in 1985 founded Deine Lakaien. The name they took from a verse out of a song by Einstürzende Neubauten. www.deine-lakaien.com


DIARY OF DREAMS

The German gothic/darkwave group Diary Of Dreams began in the late '80s as the side-project of singer/songwriter Aidan Hates, who at the time was also a member of the similarly-minded Garden Of Delight. Hates collaborated with guitarist Alistair Kane on Diary Of Dreams' first album, 1994's Cholymelan. Two years later, the duo returned with End Of Flowers, which they released on Hates' Accession label. 1997 saw the release of Bird Without Wings and increasing popularity for the group; by 1998 they had released another album Psychoma? and added two band members, Olaf Schaning and Christian Berghoff. A best-of collection, Moments Of Bloom, arrived the following year and became Diary Of Dream's first domestically released album in the US; One of 18 Angels followed in early 2000. (by Heather Phares, All Music Guide) www.diaryofdreams.de

FLESH FIELD

Formed in 1996, Flesh Field has released two albums on Inception Records. Now ready to release their third and most ground breaking album to date, Flesh Field has found a new home on Metropolis Records. Much like its predecessors, Strain features heavy electronics mixed with powerful guitar hooks, only now the guitars have been moved up in the mix and are more utilized. Strain will breathe new life into the today's electro-industrial scene by bringing back the guitars which historically help to establish it. No more will guitars be forgotten in industrial music. Strain will rediscover this lost instrument and recreate electro-industrial rock. The past is catching up, will you be ready? (Taken from Metropolis records) www.flesh-field.com

LACUNA COIL

With the debut of their self-titled 1998 EP, Lacuna Coil turned a lot of head in Italy's ambient/ goth scene thanks in part to Cristina Scabbia's haunting, but mesmerizing vocals. Additional recognition was followed after a European tour with Moonspell and later with The Gathering and Seigmen. With the rest of Lacuna Coil's line-up in place -courtesy of Andrea Ferro (male vocals), Cristiano Migliore (guitars), Marco Coti Zelati (bass) and Cristiano Mozzati (drums)-the bands first full-length In A Reverie was issued in 1999. Unleashed Memories followed in spring 2001. (by Mike DaRonco, All Music Guide) www.lacunacoil.it

LEAVES EYES

World history set to music, seasoned with legends, love and passion – no less could be said about the second Leaves’ Eyes album Vinland Saga. Vocalist Liv Kristine and Co. (a.k.a Atrocity) embark on a mystic journey. Leif Erikson’s legendary voyage to Greenland in 1000 A.D., which consequently ended in America according most historians, is depicted by Leaves’ Eyes through atmospheric Metal, Rock and sensual ballads. It is a story marked by powerful riffs, melody and string arrangements, which represent a colorful bandwidth of musical styles, truly adequate to the very concept of the album itself and never concealing the Nordic origins of the singer. "I found my inspiration for many of the pieces in the Norwegian art and folk music, as well as in Celtic melodies," explains Liv Kristine. She knew from the very beginning that a special approach was needed for such an ambitious musical enterprise: "I absolutely wanted to work with actual classical instruments for Vinland Saga to do this great story justice."

Classic rock compositions ensnared in strings and kettledrums, loving flowing harmonies, and hammering metal arrangements, can all be found on Vinland Saga. In the midst of it all stands Liv Kristine with her unique vocals, made recognizable from her past work with Theatre of Tragedy, skillfully navigating through the story. The will to create something great in a musical sense does not take a back seat in the ubiquitous epic Vinland Saga. "In comparison to the debut Lovelorn (2004), the harmonies of the guitars, violins and chellos are notably more complex," explains Liv and adds that the recordings took approximately twice as much time to complete: "The mood of both albums is very comparable however. Vinland Saga is a further development of Lovelorn where both sides of the band’s music were upgraded – the hard parts are now harder and the sentimental parts are more sentimental." www.leaveseyes.de


QNTAL

The band name QNTAL is a fantasy word that appeared to vocalist Syrah in her sleep, but the group's music could equally have been conceived in a dream. Light and floating, well-thought-out and at the same time free. Powerful compositions that emanate an overwhelming charisma with their infectious dramatics. Sonic images that reflect past, present and future. A fascinating, unique atmosphere that invites listeners to dream along, including them in the world of QNTAL. QNTAL's music and vocals form a harmonic, self-contained whole. Anthemnic, almost mythical tones fascinate the listener, who is only too happy to acquiesce to these living sounds. Despite all that harmony and lightness, QNTAL create their own individual sonic world full of contrasts that mesh harmonically with each other in their own way, each complementing the other. The result seems like a big jigsaw puzzle spread out in front of you, all confusing colours and shapes at first, coming together piece by piece to form a coherent picture – while a new image of unexpected colour and beauty appears every time you go to the trouble again. (Taken from Drakkar Records) www.qntal.de


SKINNY PUPPY

Drawing from the pioneering work of artists like Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, and Suicide, the dark avant-industrial group Skinny Puppy formed in 1982 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Originally a duo comprised of former Images in Vogue drummer cEvin Key (born Kevin Crompton) and Nivek Ogre (aka Kevin Ogilvie), Skinny Puppy followed their debut cassette, Back and Forth, with the EP Remission, the first of many recordings with producer David "Rave" Ogilvie, in 1984. Keyboardist Wilhelm Schroeder joined the group for 1985's full-length debut, Bites, but was replaced the next year by Dwayne Goettel, whose sampling and synth work proved significant in the development of the Skinny Puppy aesthetic from ominous dance music into a distinct fusion of industrial, goth, and electronic sounds. Subsequent releases like 1986's Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse, 1987's Cleanse, Fold and Manipulate, and 1988's VIVIsectVI further honed the trio's style, as well as introducing the outspoken lyrical agenda that remained a thematic constant throughout much of the group's work.

In 1989, Ministry's Al Jourgensen added vocals, guitars, and production work to Rabies; later, he joined Ogre in the side project Pigface. Ultimately, the members' interest in pursuing similar outside projects began to unravel Skinny Puppy: in 1987, Key and Edward Ka-Spel of the Legendary Pink Dots recorded the album Their Eyes Slowly Burning under the name Tear Garden, and in 1990, he and friend Alan Nelson worked as Hilt. A major rift began splitting the band apart, and Key and Goettel often sided against Ogre, whom they felt was more interested in pursuing solo work than in keeping the trio intact; drugs had also become a serious problem, but Skinny Puppy nonetheless signed to American Recordings in 1993 and relocated to Los Angeles to begin production work.

The sessions for the album, titled The Process, proved disastrous; for the first time in nearly a decade, David Ogilvie did not oversee production duties, and the group went through several producers, including former Swan Roli Mosimann and Martin Atkins. Flooding and earthquakes further hampered the sessions, and Key was severely injured in a film shoot. After months of recording, Key and Goettel, dissatisfied with Atkins' work, absconded with the master tapes and returned to Vancouver in mid-1994 to finish production. Ogre remained in California, and later announced he was leaving Skinny Puppy to form W.E.L.T. A few months later, on August 23, 1995, Goettel was found dead of a heroin overdose in his parents' home; in his honor, Key and Ogilvie finally completed the album, and The Process was released in 1996. A multimedia history of the band, Brap: Back and Forth, Series 3 & 4, followed a few months later, while Key returned to his new project, Download. Released in 1998, Remix Dys Temper featured Skinny Puppy reworkings by Autechre, Neotropic, and Adrian Sherwood in addition to industrial groups like KMFDM and God Lives Underwater.

By 2000 the word was out that Key and Ogre had buried the hatchet, reactivated Skinny Puppy, and recording was underway. A 1994 jam between Skinny Puppy and Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV member Genesis P-Orridge was released under the title Puppy Gristle in 2002 on Key's subCON label. The SPV label (who had long been the distributor of the band's albums in Europe) signed the band in late 2003. Skinny Puppy's Greater Wrong of the Right hit the streets in 2004 with members of Tool, Collide, and Static-X making guest appearances. (by Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide)  www.skinnypuppy.com


THE 69 EYES

15 fucking years and the corpse still looks so fresh! What started as a horror influenced glam garage act, became years later a chart topping Goth rock band and at least according to themselves "saved European Gothic scene by bringing back Rock'n'Roll for the black lipped generation", still shows no mercy or forgiveness - The 69 EYES are back with the vengeance: they're back with DEVILS!

Since the last three albums (Wasting The Dawn (1999), Blessed Be (2000), Paris Kills (2002)) on which they introduced the world the term of Goth’n’Roll, The 69 Eyes released a best of-compilation (or actually in their case “The Very Blessed Of...”) in their home country Finland, a live-DVD “Helsinki Vampires” (on Nuclear Blast) and left Roadrunner Records to sign with EMI/Virgin to “start a new chapter and finally get into the major label, mind you – in Finland we’re a Gold-selling main stream band!” as the singer Jyrki puts it.

DEVILS is the name of this new chapter – a very strong name yes, but wait until you hear the actual album: “We dug up some old bones and simply got back to the basics – our basics, basics of The 69 Eyes which were ever since the beginning original rock’n’roll, horror movies and comics and so on. You know, with our very first 7” vinyl single came a comics sheet in which we were drawn as a rock’n’roll vampires! 50’s rock’n’roll, psychobilly, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Marvel Comics –all that felt so fresh again!” Jyrki’s enthusiasm seems endless. The first single LOST BOYS was released in the beginning of summer in Finland and immediately became a radio channels’ choice for a summer hit there – not bad for a song about 17-year old vampire movie under the same title! www.69eyes.com


THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE

THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE, an audio/visual project  that has been in development since 1999.based out of Toronto, offers up a lot of healthy experimentation in concept musicianship. The variation of artistic and multimedia talents possessed by the band members, has made for a unique overall presence, while still maintaining a cohesive theme. In their development, the band have discovered a very neutral and compromising ground between the light and dark facets of music - blending fantasy with dark realism, and the paradoxes of horror with humor, love with irony etc. Parallel imagery aside, the bands character development plays a crucial role in the project. All founding and current members of the outfit have assumed monikers that play into the dark elements of fantasy and childhood, the core foundation of the band. THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE went into development in 1999 - under their original name Imagica in London, Ontario. At the time of its inception, the band was comprised of four founding members Chibi (vocals), Michael Falcore (Lead Guitar), Rainbow (Rhythm Guitar) and Aslan (Bass Guitar). In addition, live drummers were thrown into the mix, to accompany the outfit on stage.

The bands short existence in London offered them the fortuity to establish a solid live show and material, and in 2001, after recognizing the potential success of the project, the band made the unanimous decision to relocate to Toronto, and began professionally recording material. At this time, to avoid a legal conflict with the name "Imagica", the band adopted the name THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE, which derived from the song now known as Happy Birthday. After initial recording came to a close, the band released a limited edition LP entitled “Nothing and Nowhere” to accommodate a wide scope of listeners within the Toronto music circuit, as well as the popularity the band was gaining en masse with their potent internet presence. Shortly after the release of “Nothing and Nowhere”, the band inducted Rhim as the bands live drummer. With confidence in the bands live performance solidified (consistently playing shows in Ontario and Quebec to build presence) and their Internet recognition in place, the band began to focus on the recording of their first official release. Now in completion, "Violet" is set for release on July 20th, 2004 online, with in-store distribution commencing shortly thereafter. The attention and successful marketing objectives carried through by the band in the past two years are already demonstrating the high sales potential of the release, and with the additional accessibility of in-store materials, the band are now preparing to enter the world of the global niche. While having time to mature their patent sound and technique, the band still follow the same conceptual format that drew people in en masse to "Nothing and Nowhere", establishing itself in the ranks of an alternative cult classic. With the added draw and support rallied behind the release of "Violet", THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE are prepared to follow the continuum of success in 2004. (Taken from www.capture-music.com) www.thebirthdaymassacre.com


THE CRÜXSHADOWS

One of the most popular Darkwave bands on the planet, the Crüxshadows started in the early 1990's in a little town in North Florida. Numerous lineup changes over the years have not slowed them down. Touring the United States extensively from coast to coast, they have played hundreds of shows to North American audiences in the last few years. In the Spring of 2001, the Crüxshadows began touring Europe and have since played over 175 shows abroad, in countries like Norway, Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, England, Belgium, The Netherlands, Poland, France, The Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, and Spain. They continue expanding the band's fan-base, slowly moving eastward into a variety of new markets. Two albums and two singles (Wishfire, Ethernaut, Tears, & Winterborn) have all reached #2 on the Deutsch Alternative Charts (aka DAC), and their European festival shows have drawn audiences as large as 18,000+ people to a Crüxshadows performance.

In the summer of 2002 they released their 5th full length recording, Wishfire. Its unprecedented success in the Gothic genre paved the way for the EP Frozen Embers (the first run was SOLD OUT two days after release) as well as their highly anticipated new album Ethernaut. The former became the best preselling album EVER in the History of Isotank.com (a popular gothic/industrial/EBM online distributor), and looks to soon outpace Wishfire in a fraction of the time! A blend of new wave, gothic, and electronica, the band's unique and often catchy songs have become staples of the darkwave, ebm, and electro-alternative scene. Their song Leave Me Alone is the all time highest charting "goth" song on mp3.com, having moved into the mainstream top 10 for a short time. Eurydice spent over 2 years in the top 40 New Wave charts of mp3.com. Their song Deception, originally part of the Vampire the Masquerade - Music from the Succubus club disc, has been recorded in both English and German, and has earned the band much attention worldwide. But it is the song Marilyn, My Bitterness that stands as CXS best known song. And likely there biggest underground hit to date. www.cruxshadows.com


THE KLINIK

The Klinik is an industrial music band from Belgium, formed in 1984 by EBM, electro-synthpop practitioners Marc Verhaeghen, Dirk Ivens, Eric van Wonterghem and Sandy Nys. Nys soon left to form Hybryds, followed by van Wonterghem who later played in the bands Insekt, Monolith and Sonar. The Klinik is just one of Ivens' musical projects. He has been in bands such as Absolute Body Control, Dive, Sonar, and Blok 57. Outside Klinik, Verhaeghen has collaborated with numerous musicians, including Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly on the Noise Unit project, and Philippe and Eliane Fichot of Die Form on the D.Sign project.

Ivens left due to musical differences after the recording of 'Time', and Verhaeghen carried on with various collaborators. Today (2004), Klinik is Verhaeghen's solo project, making mostly instrumental dark ambient techno. The "classic" Ivens/Verhaeghen lineup briefly reformed for a few concerts in 2003/2004, one of which was released as a CD in September 2004. Now they are back together on stage again.

They combine harsh bass lines and beats in a faster tempo with a slow tempo background and sometimes horns, not only sampled but mostly real time horns played by Marc Verhaeghen, this is one of the unique caracteristics they have. Besides they have the habit to use more than one bass line, a very innovative thing for the mid eighties. Dirk Ivens had a very raw way to sing with a not too distorted voice, his way to sing developed greatly through the years. Through all the years The Klinik kept all its most interesting aspects and changed its way to show it through the various ages. In the early years it was very cold and harsh, in the Zoth Ommog era it was an even more beat driven era as you may notice the more complex beats, To the Knife featured tribal rhythms and two singers, while Stitch featured a more danceable way.  In the Off Beat years it was the dawn of a new way to sound with a much higher quality production. www.dirkivens.com