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Studio album by 
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Virgin Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP, MC |
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Title (number) |
13 |
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running time |
64:19 |
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| occupation | Singing: Kevin Russell Drums: Peter Schorowsky |
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Studio (s) |
Dropzone Studios, Frankfurt |
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EINS is the eleventh studio album by the German rock band Böhse Onkelz . It was released on October 23, 1996 on the Virgin Records label .
Album title
According to the Onkelz, EINS is intended to underline the feeling of unity between the band and fans, which the cover motif is intended to make clear. However, some journalists interpret the title as an abbreviation for “Actually still skins” (see also: Enie Tfahcstob rüf Ediona-RAP (A Message for Paranoids) ).
Cover design
The cover is kept in black and white and shows a morphed face made up of the four band members. The mouth is from Stephan Weidner, the nose from Peter Schorowsky, the ear from Kevin Russell and the eye from Matthias "Gonzo" Röhr. Above the picture is Böhse Onkelz in white letters and at the bottom of the picture the title EINS Die Tour 1996 was nicknamed “Under the Eye of Gonz” , an oversized eye was attached to the rear wall of the stage. The cover comes from the Frankfurt graphic designer Christoph Schnee, who used to be the singer of the punk band Middle Class Fantasies .
Track list
| # | title | length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Give thanks to the Lord | 4:05 |
| 2 | Nothing is as hard as life | 3:44 |
| 3 | How deep do you want to sink | 5:14 |
| 4th | You should not praise the day before evening | 4:20 |
| 5 | Too close to the truth | 6:19 |
| 6th | Master of lies | 4:22 |
| 7th | church | 5:37 |
| 8th | Flames | 4:14 |
| 9 | Coma - a night that never ends | 4:57 |
| 10 | To good friends | 5:18 |
| 11 | rain | 8:41 |
| 12 | Time to go | 3:47 |
| 13 | Enie Tfahcstob call Ediona-rap | 3:48 |
Background information on individual songs
- Give thanks to the Lord
In the opening song, in which the band celebrates themselves and their fans, Bible quotes appear in some places. The song says “fragrant flowers in fields full of shit” (Book of Isaiah : “All flesh is grass, and all its goodness is like a flower in the field”). The "pearls before swine" comes from Matthew - Gospel , "We the heart is on the tongue" is a modified quote from Job ( "My heart speaks the sincere words"). The self-designation "fantastische Vier" comes from the song Onkelz like us from the album of the same name from 1987. The band Böhse Onkelz speaks in this song of the quality as opposed to the quantity of friends. The downside of this song is: "You don't have many friends with this band, but those you have share your dreams, those you have share everything with you!"
- Nothing is as hard as life
The basic message of this song is that it is not important that you live, but how you live - even when it is difficult. Suicide is portrayed as a coward and courage is demanded.
- How deep do you want to sink
This song is directed against spineless opportunists .
- You should not praise the day before evening
This song is aimed directly at Die Toten Hosen and the Doctors , who often received very strong criticism in songs and interviews during the 1990s. For Weidner, the song "closed the subject", but there was a "war" between the fans - according to their own statements, unwanted by the band , for example with the "Scheiß Tote Hosen" chants at the live in Dortmund - Album from 1997 can be heard. In the meantime, Campino, the singer of the Toten Hosen, has distanced himself from his earlier statements about the Onkelz. He said in an interview on his band's website in 2003: “You should finally treat the Onkelz like any other hard rock band. [...] I'm more relaxed about this topic now. "
- Too close to the truth
Here the band describes their exceptional position and their closeness to the fans.
- Master of lies
The song is a media scolding referring to the band's negative experiences with poorly or not at all researching journalists and tendentious reporting. At the same time, it is doubted that such a thing could harm the band, since they have achieved sufficient popularity even without positive media presence.
- church
The song is directed against the church, especially the Catholic , which wants to distinguish the band from the believers. Weidner is of the opinion that "the church should distribute its money to the poor instead of its stupid compassion" and that "organized religion is the greatest obstacle on the way to peace and unity" . The sentence “He who is not afraid of the devil does not need God” comes from “ The Name of the Rose ” ( Umberto Eco , 1980 ).
- Flames
Flammen is a song that probably reflects the band's eventful, extreme past. However, there is no precise naming of the topic.
- Coma - a night that never ends
This song describes the state shortly before entering a coma.
- To good friends
The song addresses the band's past and their experiences. Furthermore, the piece draws a line under the past and turns the view towards the future. The text passage "The grass was greener" is based on the song High Hopes by Pink Floyd and the part "The lines faster" is an allusion to the former sometimes excessive use of drugs, such as. B. " Speed ". The refrain "I drink to good friends, lost love, to old gods and to new goals" is reminiscent of a toast by a character from the comic book Sandman : "To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists" . The line "... in the quicksand of my soul" could also refer to the comic.
- rain
In Regen the band criticizes a sluggish, lazy society, whose bellies are full and which will destroy itself. This song is sung by bassist Stephan Weidner alone.
- Time to go
The key message here is that it is sometimes better to part with friends than to hold on to them, even though you have developed in different directions.
- Enie Tfahcstob rüf Ediona-RAP (A message for PARanoids)
In the comment What is a youthful sin? In the Darmstädter Echo daily newspaper on November 28, 1992, the journalist Bert Hensel believed to have deciphered a song name that read backwards as “Arier on” , quote: “... New texts are so claused that they undercut the index. The Onkelz already give instructions for use for their most recent discharge. In the booklet to the record: 'If you try to read between the lines, you will learn more about us.' As you know, there is nothing between the lines. In a song title that sounds harmless like a girl's name, it is known. It's called: 'Noreira'. Deciphered from behind, it reads like this: 'Aryan On'. Also in the direction of Darmstadt? "
In fact, the song that appeared on the album Heilige Lieder is not called Noreira , but Noreia , named after the Celtic deity of the same name . However, there was a misprint on early editions and due to the use of the original printing foil on the re-release of the LP cover, on which Noreira is written. As a reaction to the meticulous search for backward messages in music, the song Enie Tfahcstob rüf Ediona-RAP (for: 'A message for paranoids') was created, on which a text spoken by Stephan Weidner is played backwards that reads correctly: “ Congratulations. Must have been a lot of work playing this song backwards. Either you're one of those paranoid assholes we made this song for, or you're just curious. The former should be said: Anyone who suspects backward spoken satanist or fascist messages on our records must be downright stupid and also suffer from extreme paranoia. Poor pig, we're really sorry for you. Lock yourself in and throw away the key. "
Chart successes and awards
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The album entered the German album charts at number 52 in the 45th calendar week of 1996 and reached number 4 in the following two weeks. In the 1996 German annual charts, the record was ranked 87th. In the course of the band's comeback announcement, EINS rose entered the charts again in February 2014 and reached number 58. Overall, the record stayed in the top 100 for 21 weeks with interruptions.
EINS was awarded a gold record for more than 250,000 units sold in the year of publication and was awarded platinum in 2006 for over 500,000 units sold . In Austria, too, the album was awarded gold in 1998 for more than 25,000 units sold. This makes it the band's most commercially successful album.
The album EINS could not reach the top of the media control charts at the time of its first release , because in the same week in October 1996 the Kelly Family released the album Almost Heaven , the Toten Hosen the live album On behalf of the Lord and Phil Collins the album Dance into the Light released at the same time, pushing the Böhsen Onkelz to fourth place. Regarding the release policy of their record company Virgin Records at the time, Onkelz guitarist Matthias "Gonzo" Röhr, looking back in his autobiography published in 2019, describes the chosen date for the first release of the album as unhappy.
reception
| Professional reviews | |
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| source | rating |
| Rock hard |
  
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| Metal hammer |
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Frank Albrecht from the music magazine Rock Hard rated the album in 1996 in issue no. 115 with 8.5 out of ten possible points. He wrote:
“You could take it easy and simply claim that the new ONKELZ record sounds exactly like the last three, but that wouldn't do it justice. Okay, of course there are no great experiments - the guys had already announced that in the interview in the last issue. And so the first six pieces on "EINS" are simply typical ONKELZ songs with everything that you appreciate or hate about them - depending on your point of view. With 'Kirche', track number seven, the first musical highlight appears (even if the chorus somehow reminds of a piece by a Dortmund band that starts with "R" and ends with "a"), 'Koma' is again an extraordinarily successful ballad. My personal favorite follows in tenth place with 'Auf gute Freunde'. The song is equipped with great melodies and has a thoroughly positive text, which the ONKELZ don't get too often. 'Regen' (with Weidner vocals) and the final track 'Enie Tfahcstob Rüf Ediona-Rap' (read it backwards and you understand the title) then shows the Fab Four from Frankfurt from their brave side, they go musically with the numbers unfamiliar ways. Otherwise there is of course a lot of pathos, the ONKELZ celebrate themselves and their fans properly again, and with the pants and the doctors they will never become friends, as 'You shouldn't praise the day before the evening' documents. But nobody seriously expects that either. The bottom line is that "EINS" is a successful album, with which ONKELZ will hardly gain new fans, but will not lose any old ones either. "
EINS is considered by many fans to be the band's best album.
Cover band of the same name
A cover band called EINS , named after this album, has existed since 2006 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Album cover on amazon.de
- ↑ Gonzo: The official and authorized biography of Matthias Röhr . Autobiography of the Böhse-Onkelz guitarist written with co-authors Dennis Diel and Marco Matthes, Hannibal Verlag , Höfen , 1st edition, November 2019. p. 88
- ↑ The big summer interview 2003 ( Memento of the original from October 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: dietotenhosen.de. Retrieved July 4, 2011.
- ↑ Booklet of the best-of compilation " Yesterday was still tomorrow "
- ↑ Bert Hensel: What is a youthful sin? . In: Darmstädter Echo . November 28, 1992.
- ↑ Holy Songs Version: Misprint Noreira ( Memento of the original from June 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On onkelzvinyl.de. Retrieved May 17, 2012.
- ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH
- ↑ DE: Annual charts # 87
- ↑ Chart tracking ONE at musicline.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Gold / platinum database on musikindustrie.de. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
- ↑ Gold & Platinum at ifpi.at. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
- ↑ Gonzo: The official and authorized biography of Matthias Röhr . Autobiography written with co-authors Dennis Diel and Marco Matthes, Hannibal Verlag , Höfen , 1st edition, November 2019. p. 184
- ↑ a b c Frank Albrecht: Album review: Black & White On: rockhard.de. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
- ↑ Matthias Mineur: Album review: EINS Auf: metal-hammer.de. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
- ↑ onkelz.de - twenty years of EINS
