Mad cow disease (band)
| Mad cow disease | |
|---|---|
 Mad cow disease live at the Dietzenbach “Strange Noise” festival in 1995 |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Frankfurt am Main , Germany |
| Genre (s) | Metal |
| founding | 1993 |
| resolution | 2001 |
| Founding members | |
| Frank Simon | |
| Aren Emirze | |
| Chris Aidonopoulos | |
| Christian Gruhlke (until 1996) | |
| Last occupation | |
singing |
Frank Simon |
Guitar, vocals |
Aren Emirze |
bass |
Chris Aidonopoulos |
Drums |
Tim Stüben (from 1996) |
Mad cow disease was a music group from Frankfurt am Main that was active from 1993 to 2001 and played German-language metal .
The band's idiosyncratic and independent music was influenced by hardcore , German punk , alternative and noise rock .
history
Mad cow disease was founded in 1993 by Frank Simon, Christian Gruhlke and Aren Emirze and Chris Aidonopoulos, who also work for Harmful .
A year later, the band's debut album, BRETT, was released via ZYX Music . Grotesque lyrics like "Ich spuck Blut", "Gasoline" or "Auf dem Land" earned the band a certain amount of attention in the underground .
In 1996, the bulky second work Vorhof zur Hölle, mixed by Heinz Hess in the Frankfurt "Art of June" studio, followed via the Nuremberg record label Semaphore . This was followed by an extensive tour - including as the opening act for the up-and-coming Korn - after which drummer Gruhlke left the band. He was replaced by Tim Stüben, known from Humanimal Bunch , who had been part of the music group for a short time before it was named “ Mad Cow ” - the band was previously called Earblast .
In 1997, after a new recording in Heinz Hess' "Art of June" studio, the band released their third album, which was named after a "masterful" cover version of the ideal piece Herrscher . For the first time, mad cow disease was supported by a large-scale advertising campaign. However, the sales figures fell short of the record company's expectations. Two electronically shaped remixes , which were to be found as bonus tracks on the CD, caused some controversy among music critics.
After the bankruptcy of their old record company, the fourth and final album was finally released in 2000 via bluNoise with the Battle of the Worlds recorded in France . With “Telepathie” an ideal title was represented again, but this time only the text was adapted and the music was completely rewritten.
By the time they broke up in 2001, the band had played a total of around 200 concerts, including a. with the Melvins and Subway to Sally . Appearances by Mad Cow disease as the opening act for the Böhse Onkelz, which are controversial due to their past, led to disputes .
At the end of 2004 the band gave a reunion concert and on May 22, 2008 a joint concert with Fear of Clowns , a project by Gerd Knebel (including Flatsch , Badesalz ) and Aren Emirze, took place in Frankfurt's Batschkapp . A concert in Aschaffenburg followed in early 2009 .
In 2014 appeared on No Balls Records on vinyl with 1993-2001 a limited compilation featuring songs from all four studio albums, in addition, the publication is a bonus 7 " -Single at.
In 2015 mad cow disease went on a small tour under the motto Kuh Kern Live 2015 , this time with both drummers on the drum sets and played in Osnabrück (Bastard Club), Frankfurt (Zoom) and Munich (small Backstage Club).
Chris Aidonopoulos and Tim Stüben are still active as Duo Holon in the following years , Aidonopoulos makes music solo as Aidon . Aren Emirze publishes among other things with his solo project Emirsian Musik, as Taskete! he appears with Florian Weber ( Sportfreunde Stiller ).
style
Mad cow disease stood out from the crowd not least because of its "lyrical brutality". Simon used the German language and the “psychopathic speaking chant” as an additional instrument, whereby the content often remained unclear. The "texts are sometimes called, sometimes self-talk, sometimes they sound like a diary entry, but mostly they are impressively spoken stories, told in a sometimes depressing, sometimes sick, sometimes stimulating way", which offers the listener plenty of room for interpretation. On the one hand, the singer shone "with intelligent lyrics and an extremely high recognition value", on the other hand, "the cumbersome choice of words and the resulting non-rhythmic phrasing disrupted the flow of the music", according to a reviewer for Rock Hard .
Musically, the pieces by Rinderwahnsinn, composed almost without exception by Emirze, stood for “modern metal , a little alternative and HC fragments”. Further roots were to be found in the 80s German punk , which were supplemented by noise elements. The “highly dramatic songs ... completely independent of commercial thinking and calculation”.
Overall, the non-conforming, "difficult to access and extremely nerve-wracking" band was confronted with strongly opposing perceptions. While on the one hand it was stated that mad cow disease never ran the risk of “getting stuck in mediocrity [and] being sweaty, danceable, contagiously moshbar ”, the band was accused of “extremely boring and extremely embarrassing” “beating of the simplest kind”: “ You know every riff, every beat of the drums is predictable, no original breaks ... simply nothing that stays in your memory! ”The supposed“ predictability of the songs ”is disputed elsewhere; Mad cow disease “[makes] head music and [wants] to be listened to carefully. … [The band is] difficult to consume, but [remains] interesting in the long run as soon as you have found access ”.
Live the band members made a name for themselves with their “completely schizophrenic singer, the two beefy string pickers and the naked drummer [Gruhlke]”.
Discography
- 1994: BRETT (CD; ZYX Music )
- 1996: Forecourt to Hell (CD / MC ; Semaphore)
- 1997: Ruler (CD; semaphore)
- 2000: Battle of the Worlds (CD; BluNoise Records)
- 2014: 1993–2001 ( LP / LP + 7 ″ ; No Balls Records)
Music videos
- 1994: I spit blood
- 1996: I'll get you (Director: Andreas Marschall )
Web links
- Mad cow disease in Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Rock Hard: Review of the Battle of the Worlds , No. 161
- ↑ a b c Rock Hard: Review of Vorhof zum Hölle , No. 112
- ↑ a b c d e Self-portrait of the band on myspace.com, January 2008
- ↑ a b c vampster.com: Review of the Battle of the Worlds , 2000
- ↑ a b c d e Rock Hard: Review zu Herrscher , No. 125
- ↑ a b c d e discover.de: CD review on rulers
- ↑ Rock Hard: Review of BRETT , No. 92
- ↑ a b mucke-und-mehr.de: Interview with Rinderwahnsinn, 2001 ( Memento of the original from November 17, 2007 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.
- ↑ VISIONS: Review of Vorhof zum Hölle , Issue No. 52
- ↑ a b c Ox-Fanzine: Review of 1993-2001 , Issue # 115 (August / September 2014)
- ↑ newcomer.tv: broadcast of November 29, 2004 ( memento of the original of September 28, 2015 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.
- ↑ Pressing info: NBR 078 mad cow disease / 1993-2001 LP & Bonus 7 "
- ↑ VISIONS: Review of the Battle of the Worlds , Issue No. 91
- ↑ a b plattentests.de: Review of the Battle of the Worlds
- ↑ a b metalinside.de: Review of the Battle of the Worlds
