ASP is a German gothic rock band from Frankfurt am Main which was formed in 1999 by Alexander Frank Spreng (a.k.a. “Asp”) and Matthias Ambré (a.k.a. “Matze”). The band’s label Trisol is now reissuing some of the band’s material.

ASP’s 2013 album “Maskenhaft” gets a 10th anniversary vinyl treatment on April 28th. The album is being re-released in 3 different vinyl editions – of which two very special deluxe versions which are exclusively available from the scene’s leading distributor Audioglobe and from ASP’s label Trisol. Also to be re-released is “Freed”, out-of-print album from 2011 album. It now comes in a digipak version with a 28-page booklet. The tracklist remains the same.

The tracklist for all 3 “Maskenhaft” vinyl versions is the same:

1. Augenaufschlag
2. Die Kreatur mit der stählernen Maske
3. Aufbruchstimmung
4. Wanderer
5. Schneefall in der Hölle
6. Die Löcher in der Menge
7. Reflexionen
8. Das Märchen vom Wildfang-Windfang (Schlüpftanz)
9. Panzerhaus
10. Per aspera ad aspera
11. Die Klippe Teil 1 – Stimmen im Nebel
12. Die Klippe Teil 2 – Hang

The 3 versions are:

• Deluxe fog version 2x180g 12” vinyl, limited to 300 copies
• Deluxe smoke & mirrors version 2x180g 12” vinyl, limited to 300 copies
• Regular Deep Black version, limited to 400 copies

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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The last year it has been very calm in the OOMPH!-camp. No online concerts during corona, no rescheduled festival-dates, no new album news at all. The sudden announcement that OOMPH!’s lead singer Dero Goi has left the band, after 32 years being the frontman, reached us today via the official facebook-page of the band. At this moment it is unclear if Dero will start a new project or stops with singing completely. OOMPH! however continues to exist under the same name with composers Crap and Flux and a new singer, who hasn’t been announced yet.

Some time ago Dero posted on social media that he got baptised and also announced that he’s against Covid-vaccinations. His last side-project DIE KREATUR also suddenly stopped after disagreements with Chris Harms (Lord Of The Lost) who wrote on 31st December 2020 on facebook: “Not to forget, I have released an album with a side project called Die Kreatur, which I was looking forward to so much, which I have been proud about big time, but sadly short after its release, some circumstances have rendered a continuation of the project impossible. This year I have made new friends. This year I have lost friends – some to death, some to a world of insanity, where I can’t possibly follow them to. Once more I have learned that prejudices are so damn misleading and I still can’t entirely free myself from them. Some people that I liked in the beginning turned out to be real jerks, and some others that really made me shake my head in the beginning became brothers.”

OOMPH! was originally founded in 1989 in Wolfsburg (Germany) by Crap, Dero Goi and Robert Flux. They released their first single “Ich Bin Du” in 1991, followed by the single “Der Neue Gott” and their first (self-titled) album in 1992. The band played in 1993 in the legendary Limelight club in New-York and became “crossover”-pioneers in mixing elements of EBM with groovy metal guitar-riffs, or as Billboard magazine said “Sepultura meets DAF”. Unwillingly they created the “Tanz-Metal” (Dance-Metal) or “Neue Deutsche Haerte” (New German Hardness) genre, which was the German answer on American Industrial-Metal bands as Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Prong, etc. There is no doubt that OOMPH! has paved the way for many later bands as Rammstein, Eisbrecher and many others.

In 2004 the band received a platinum award for the single “Augen Auf!”, in 2015 a golden award for the album “GlaubeLiebeTod” and in 2018 a platinum award for the album “Wahrheit Oder Pflicht”. The last album “Ritual” reached in 2019, for the first time ever in the history of the band, the number 1 position in the German album charts. OOMPH! (featuring Marta Jandova) won the German “Bundesvision”-contest in 2007 and their music was also used in games (“FIFA”), movies (“Alien vs. Predator”) and tv-trailers (“The Walking Dead”). The band did remixes for bands as Korn, And One, Joachim Witt, De/Vision and others and worked together with artists as Nina Hagen and Apocalyptica. OOMPH! released 13 studio-albums in total and also played as support-act for Metallica, Marilyn Manson, HIM, Skunk Anansie, …

The last years the band was especially very popular in Russia although it’s not sure if the live-dvd with symphonic orchestra, recorded in 2018, will ever see the daylight.

Genre/Influences: Gothic-metal, Neue Deutsche Haerte, Industrial-metal

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Dero Goi (singer/drummer of OOMPH!) and Chris Harms (singer/guitarist of Lord of the Lost) are two well-known names in German rock music. Both artists met each other in Leipzig in 2015 during a common dj-set and worked already previously together on the songs “Europa” of OOMPH! and “Abracadabra” of Lord of the Lost.

Content: This debut-album contains 15 songs and opens with “Die Kreatur”, an uptempo song that unleashes hell and hits you straight in the face! “Kälter Als Der Tod” was released as the second single and sounds more like a romantic rock-ballad followed by the third track “Unzertrennlich”, a dark song in the more general rock-genre. The dreamy tunes of “Durch Die Nacht” are luckily quickly alternated with “Zwei 100%”, a song that has some typical staccato-riffs and electronic tunes reminding me on older work of Rammstein. “Schlafes Braut” sounds like some kind of dark atmospheric sad waltz. “Untergang” is the highlight of “Panoptikum”, very nice guitar-riffs combined with deep dark voices and a very explosive harsh chorus to bang your head on! The very danceable electronic “Mensch/Maschine” could be a song from an old OOMPH!-album and the piano-parts on “Was Mir Am Wichtigsten Ist” reminded me a bit on Nine Inch Nails. Track 10 “Benutz Mich” is another cool uptempo song with an explosive chorus and tight drums! The calm folky miner-song “Glück Auf!” is undoubtedly one of the better songs because of the nice combination of the deep voices of Dero and Chris, the deep backing vocals and the catchy accordeon-melody. “Gott Verdammt” is one of the lesser songs while the first bonus-track, the very danceable Joachim Witt-cover “Goldener Reiter”, reminded me somehow a bit on And One and on “Algorithmus” of D.A.F. This limited digipak edition contains also two more remix bonus-tracks by Solar Fake and Faderhead.

+ + + : “Panoptikum” brings a variety of different styles including two calm sing-a-long songs, lots of uptempo Neue Deutsche Haerte parts and three danceable electronic songs. The album goes from very explosive to very calm and the lyrics are very well articulated. It also has splendid artwork and was also released as limited edition earbook and deluxe box-set.

– – – : The song “Durch Die Nacht” sounds too much pop/soft-romantic and is in (too) hard contrast with all the other songs.

Conclusion: A perfect first collaboration in darkness between two very talented frontmen. This stuff will please all fans of OOMPH!, Lord of the Lost, Eisbrecher and Rammstein for sure!

Best songs: “Die Kreatur”, “Kälter Als Der Tod”, “Untergang”, “Benutz Mich”, “Glück Auf!”, “Goldener Reiter”.

Rate: (8½) WH.

Artist: www.diekreaturband.de / www.facebook.com/diekreaturband
Label: label.napalmrecords.com / www.facebook.com/napalmrecords

The German band Die Kreatur, a collaboration of OOMPH!-frontman Dero Goi and Lord Of The Lost singer Chris Harms has released its debut album via Napalm Records. ‘Panoptikum’ is the name of this first album. It was released digitally, as digipak-cd, limited edition deluxe box, 3-cd earbook and 2-lp. The limited edition deluxe box contains the exclusive ‘Panoptikum 1920’ cd, featuring recordings of all songs in the style of the swinging 1920’s, recorded on an authentic piano, as well as two vocal microphones.

Both artists met each other in Leipzig (2015) during a common dj-set and worked already previously together on the songs ‘Europa’ of OOMPH! and ‘Abracadabra’ of Lord of the Lost. On ‘Panoptikum’ the Neue Deutsche Härte style is also strongly and clearly present.

Die Kreatur: “Panoptikum comes up with a dark arc of suspense that takes the listener into the gloomy, winding alleys of the 1920s, where they meet freaks and creatures of all kinds. However, true evil awaits them not in the hideous creatures on display at Panoptikum, but behind the stuffy façade of the normal, respectable citizen that delights in their gruesome appearance. Panoptikum is the ruthless reflection of a decadent, self-indulgent and sated society. Will we be able to bear our own cruel face?”

Tracklist:

1. DIE KREATUR
2. Kälter Als Der Tod
3. Unzertrennlich
4. Durch Die Nacht
5. Zwei 100%
6. Schlafes Braut
7. Untergang
8. Mensch/Maschine
9. Was Mir Am Wichtigsten Ist
10. Benutz Mich
11. Glück Auf!
12. Gott Verdammt

Bonustracks:

13. Goldener Reiter
14. DIE KREATUR (Faderhead Remix)
15. Kälter Als Der Tod (Solar Fake Remix)

The third videoclip ‘Untergang’ (‘Downfall’) was also released today and describes the third and last phase of a falling apart interpersonal relationship.

The band can be seen live on following locations, if the corona-virus finally will stop annoying us at least:

• 18.09.20 DE – Köln / Luxor
• 19.09.20 DE – Essen / Turock
• 25.09.20 DE – Hannover / Musikzentrum
• 26.09.20 DE – Hamburg / Gruenspan
• 02.10.20 DE – Berlin / Columbia Theater
• 03.10.20 DE – München / Backstage Halle