Photo: picture alliance/dpa, Alexander Prautzsch

After a two years break, due to Covid-19, the annual Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2022 (29th edition) will take place from 3rd-6th June in the Agra-Halle and surrounded area of Leipzig, Germany.

WGT focuses especially on the gothic, (steam)punk, new wave, electro, EBM, industrial and medieval music and (sub)culture. It is a total-concept world festival including concerts, renaissance fairs, viking and pagan markets, exhibitions, CD/DVD and film premieres, lectures, artist signing events, fetish events, and (late-night) parties.

Approximately 200 artists are on the list, spread over more than 50 locations and the festival has about 20.000 visitors. As usual a lot of names out of the dark scene will play WGT: Lacrimosa, IAMX, Clan of Xymox, Combichrist, Rabia Sorda, Corvus Corax, VNV Nation, Orange Sector, Tanzwut, Xotox, Eisfabrik, Unzucht, Nachtblut, NNHMN, Linea Aspera, Minuit Machine, Dark, Fïx8:Sëd8, Letzte Instanz, Nosferatu, …

Tickets for WGT soon can be ordered here (entrance tickets purchased in the years 2020 or 2021 remain valid for the WGT 2022).

Genre/Influences: Gothic, goth-metal, industrial, dark-rock.

Background/Info: Ten years after the first official release (cf. “Dry the Rain”) Lord Of The Lost the German band set up by Chris Harms unleashes this massive ‘best of’. There are different versions and format available, but we here get a fine selection of four discs.

Content: The first disc is the one and only ‘best of’ looking back at the band’s first decade of existence. Lord Of The Lost deals with goth-metal music, but sometimes move into a more electro/industrial sound. From heavy metal guitar assaults to melancholic ballads, this first disc will give you an interesting summarizes of this band.

The second disc features ‘rarities’ featuring 2 songs together with Hocico front man Erk Aicrag. This is an opportunity to (re)discover less familiar cuts.

We next get a disc with remixes by a much diversified list of artists active in different –although related, music genres. We here get 18 (!) remixes by bands such as Blutengel, Chrom, Formalin, Solar Fake, Subway To Sally, Mono Inc., Rabia Sorda ao.

Last, but not least the last disc features demo versions.

+ + + : No doubt about it, this is a real complete ‘anthology’-album and a must have for the fans. Speaking for myself, I think the first disc (cf. ‘best of’) brings an interesting view upon the past ten years of the band. From their legendary and totally funny “La Bomba” to the ballad like “See You Soon” to the “2019”-version of the title song this album reveals the diversity of Lord Of The Lost. Another interesting disc is the one featuring the remixes. You’ll hear a real eclectic selection of remixes from pure metal to electro to orchestral to rock a billy.

– – – : Lord Of The Lost are ‘big’ in their homeland, but outside Germany they’ve never reached a similar status. So in the end it mainly remains a German phenomenon!

Conclusion: This kind of albums is always interesting for die-hard fans, but also for music lovers who want to discover a band they aren’t really familiar with.

Best songs: “Drag Me To Hell”, “Till Death Us Do Part 2019”, “La Bomba”, “See You Soon”, “Raining Stars” + “The Most Radical Thing To Do”, “Morsal” + “ Afterlife Of Death -Afterlife Remix by Unzucht”, “Kill It With Fire – But Kill It Good – Rabia Sorda Version”.

Rate: (7½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/lordofthelost 

Label: www.outofline.de  / www.facebook.com/outoflinelabel Read the news on ‘Till Death Us Do Part’.

About Lord Of The Lost

Lord Of The Lost is a band from Hamburg, Germany, founded by vocalist and guitarist Chris Harms, who released the group’s debut album, “Dry The Rain”, in 2009. Ten years and several albums later, “Till Death Us Do Part” gathers a best-of disc, rarities including two songs recorded with Hocico’s Erk Aicrag, 18 remixes and a disc of demo versions.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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Coming up is the Lord Of The Lost best of compilation “Till Death us do part”. The 2CD version of this best of additionally contains a CD with rarities and B-sides (18 tracks in total) incl. guest features of Der Schulz (Unzucht) and Erk Aicrag (Hocico). A double LP is also planned and for the treasure hunter there is a 4CD-digibox-Version that features an exclusive remix CD and (on CD4) a series of demo versions, some of them more than 20 years old and written and recorded long before the band was found.

Lord of the Lost is a German dark rock band from Hamburg created by singer and frontman Chris Harms. Founded in mid-2007 by Chris Harms as a solo project, Harms originally called the project Lord, but changed the name of the band to Lord of the Lost to avoid possible name disputes with Lordi and The Lords. Before Lord of the Lost, Harms was a singer and guitarist of the rock band Philiae (1999-2004), a guitarist and second singer with the Glam-Metal-Band The Pleasures (2004-2007), as well as a musician on various projects like Big Boy or Unterart.

The debut single “Dry The Rain” was released in 2009 and the debut album “Fears” was released in 2010 with the independent label Out of Line. More albums followed: “Antagony” (2011), “Die Tomorrow” (2012), “From the Flame Into the Fire” (2014), “Empyrean” (2016) and “Thornstar” (2018). Next to that the band also released several DVD’s and compilations. Read the review of ‘Till Death Us Do Part’.

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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On 10th and 11th August 2019 the annual M’era-Luna festival takes place in the area of Hildesheim-Drispenstedt, Germany. M’era Luna exists since 2000 and is one of the biggest Gothic festivals in the European scene. Gothic, new wave, electro, EBM, industrial and medieval bands are featured on 2 stages.

The last years the festival was every time sold out and had about 25.000 visitors. This year some of the confirmed artists are: Fields Of The Nephilim, VNV Nation, Lacrimosa, OOMPH!, Deathstars, DIE KRUPPS, Within Temptation, ASP, Subway To Sally, Combichrist, Diary Of Dreams, Corvus Corax, Suicide Commando, Agonoize, Funker Vogt, Mono Inc., DE/VISION, Empathy Test, Joachim Witt, Spetsnaz, [:SITD:], Zeromancer, Melotron, …

DJ’s at the afterparties are: Der Schulz (Unzucht), Bruno Kramm (Das Ich), Chris L. (Funker Vogt and Agonoize), Andy Krüger (Melotron), Ronan Harris (VNV Nation), Mike Kanetzky (Matrix Bochum).

Besides watching concerts you can also visit markets, artist signing events, gothic fashion shows, readings by Axel Hildebrand, Markus Heitz and Christian von Aster. The Gothic Garden, an oasis of calm right in front of the festival infield, offers demanding festival-goers comfort, space and conveniences to make your stay more exclusive, pleasant and more relaxing. At the M’era Luna Academy you can follow special workshops which will be announced soon on the official renewed website.

The interactive M’era Luna app can be downloaded here and tickets can be ordered here.

The biggest distributor for the industrial electro scene, Audioglobe, has announced its Top 10 in best selling industrial music labels. The numbers were already out there for the labels to look at it, but here they are also for the regular fans. Note that with 2018, Audioglobe also enters it’s 25th year of existance as the distributor set up shop on 6 December 1993. We will of course have a big extended interview and more with Sebastian Koch regarding this great achievement in a very tough market.

But now the numbers many of you have been waiting for!

The Top 3

First the Top 3. The number 1 label in sales is Trisol which has bands such as Clan of Xymox, Rome, Project Pitchfork, Sopor Aeternus, Nachtmahr, Rotersand, Asp, Mantus etc. under contract. The second label in the list is the Belgian based Alfa Matrix which nurtures the talent of Front 242, Underviewer, Daniel B Prothèse, Metroland, Alien Vampires, Ayria, Leatherstrip, Psy’Aviah, Kant Kino and so many other acts. Note that this label also has a very strong e-shop presence (direct sales are not included in this Top 10 list). The 3rd label is Out Of Line with Blutengel, Combichrist, Hocico, Solar Fake, Heimataerde, Unzucht, Solitary Experiments. Also this label has an own e-shop.

The rest of the Top 10

The 4th label is Fabrika/Dead Scarlet (She Past Away, Lebanon Hanover, Selofan, Kaelan Mikla, M!R!M, Doric…) followed by ArtOfFact (Legend, Frontline Assembly, Haujobb, Psyche, Noise Unit, Dead When I found her, Pankow…) and Metropolis (Birthday Massacre, Aesthetic Perfection, God Module, Lords of Acid, Skinny Puppy, Delerium…). The 7th place is occupied by Rustblade (Morricone, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, Leaether Strip, Lydia Lunch, Legendary Pink Dots, Merzbow…). Also Dependent is still in the Top 10, namely on spot 8 with their label roster (Covenant, Mesh, Pride & Fall, Beborn Beton, Seabound, Encephalon, Frontline Assembly, Clicks..). Place 9 and 10 finally are for Manic Depression (Winter Severity Index, Ash Code, Schonwald, Box and the Twins, Sjoblom, Dear Deer…) and Undo (Marsheaux, Girl One and the Grease Guns, Mesh, Fotonovela, OMD, Nikonn, Mikro, Vienna, Liebe…).

And on spot 11 and 12…

2 labels didn’t make the Top 10, namely Hall Of Sermon (Lacrimosa, Snakeskin, Black Moon Secret, Eyes Shut Tight) and Infacted (NamNamBulu, Grendel, Torul, Reaper, Frozen Plasma, Ruined Conflict, Orange Sector, Syntec…). Both labels ended on place 11 and 12.

Here’s the complete list again. The bands next to the label are listed in order of sales results/total turnover per band in 2017 via Audioglobe.

01 TRISOL (Clan of Xymox, Rome, Project Pitchfork, Sopor Aeternus, Nachtmahr, Rotersand, Asp, Mantus…)
02 ALFA MATRIX (Front 242, Underviewer, Daniel B Prothèse, Metroland, Alien Vampires, Ayria, Leatherstrip…)
03 OUT OF LINE (Blutengel, Combichrist, Hocico, Solar Fake, Heimataerde, Unzucht, Solitary Experiments …)
04 FABRIKA/DEAD SCARLET (She Past Away, Lebanon Hanover, Selofan, Kaelan Mikla, M!R!M, Doric…)
05 ARTOFFACT (Legend, Frontline Assembly, Haujobb, Psyche, Noise Unit, Dead When I found her, Pankow…)
06 METROPOLIS (Birthday Massacre, Aesthetic Perfection, God Module, Lords of Acid, Skinny Puppy, Delerium…)
07 RUSTBLADE (Morricone, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, Leaether Strip, Lydia Lunch, Legendary Pink Dots, Merzbow…)
08 DEPENDENT (Covenant, Mesh, Pride & Fall, Beborn Beton, Seabound, Encephalon, Frontline Assembly, Clicks..)
09 MANIC DEPRESSION (Winter Severity Index, Ash Code, Schonwald, Box and the Twins, Sjoblom, Dear Deer…)
10 UNDO (Marsheaux, Girl One and the Grease Guns, Mesh, Fotonovela, OMD, Nikonn, Mikro, Vienna, Liebe…)
11 HALL OF SERMON (Lacrimosa, Snakeskin, Black Moon Secret, Eyes Shut Tight)
12 INFACTED (NamNamBulu, Grendel, Torul, Reaper, Frozen Plasma, Ruined Conflict, Orange Sector, Syntec…)

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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Genre/Influences: Dark-rock & metal-gothic.

Background/Info: After having released 3 albums on NoCut Unzucht signed to Out Of Line, probably becoming the ‘hardest’ band of this label. Alex Blaschke, Daniel De Clercq, Daniel Schulz and Toby Fuhrmann have launched their new opus, which can be translated into English as “red-backed shrike”. The idea behind this title is about ‘a harmless-looking bird of extraordinary beauty, it reveals itself as a merciless killer which impales its victims on thorns before devouring them.’ The limited edition of the album features the main album with 11 songs and a bonus disc with 6 extra cuts.

Content: Unzucht’s sound is dominated by very heavy guitar playing and mainly driven by a satanic cadence. They call it ‘dark-rock’, but it rapidly appears to be a violent sonic expression by metal riffs and even pure hard-core passages. A few and somewhat dreamy intermezzos will give you a few minutes to recover from this inferno, but Unzucht sounds like a machine that never stops and always moves forward.

The choruses are mostly characterized by melodious and carrying passages. It makes the album more accessible and refreshing. You now and then will notice some electronic arrangements, but that’s just a way to achieve the work, which is always getting back into sonic power. All the vocal parts have been sung in German by front man Daniel Schulz.

The bonus CD reveals a few more new songs plus 2 cuts originally featured on the main disc, but now sung by guest singers. The most noticeable artist is Chris Harms (Lord Of The Lost). There also is one remix by Andrew Boman.

+ + + : If you’re into power, Unzucht will give you full satisfaction. This album is a real sonic explosion, but which remains controlled by very accessible choruses and melody lines. The opening cuts will leave you breathless and especially “Lava” reaches a total climax.

– – – : The bonus disc doesn’t really add to the work. It might have been a better idea adding remixes by other formations and eventually some label mates.

Conclusion: Unzucht makes no compromises and sounds like a merciless assault on any eardrum.

Best songs: “Lava”, “Judas”, “Hinter Glas”, “Der Dunkle See”.

Rate: (7½).

Band: www.facebook.com/Unzucht

Label: www.outofline.de  / www.facebook.com/outoflinelabel

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com