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Oomph! - Biography


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1999-

Biography

Constant reinvention embracing styles beyond the scene - only one German band has such a rigorously ambitious and artistic approach. We're talking about Oomph!. For almost 15 years now, the musical creations of the threesome from Lower Saxony have been shaped by their pioneering spirit. Critics, fans as well as colleagues unanimously say that these three guys rank among "the most revolutionary figures of the German scene". Rammstein, for instance, openly confess that they have been massively inspired by this band. Their songs have nothing to do with what became known as "Neue Deutsche Härte" - staccato riffs and military march rhythms - towards the end of the Nineties.

OOMPH! know how to combine the cool electronic world with earthy Rock: a kind of human music machine with powerful and extremely varied arrangements.

Since the band was founded in 1989, Dero (vocals, drums), Crap (guitar, keyboards) and Flux (guitar, sampling) have been scouting the musical landscape never coming up against limiting factors. Their self-titled, very electronic debut album was released in 1992; for their following records SPERM (1993) as well as DEFEKT (1995), the industry tried to find new categorizations which alternated between "Electro Metal", "Industrial" and "Metal Dance" - though no term could completely explain what this band was about. Since the success of the concept album WUNSCHKIND (1996) at the latest, together with extensive tours and festivals all over Europe, major companies began to take an interest in this extraordinary combination of styles. UNREIN (1998) featured a real club hit ("Gekreuzigt") smoothing the way for PLASTIK in 1999 (including hit singles "Das weisse Licht" and "Fieber" feat. Nina Hagen) which finally took their vision up the German charts and which caused Skunk Anansie to invite OOMPH! as support on their European tour. The seventh and latest opus EGO released in 2001 was OOMPH!'s career highlight so far: the album entered the German Top 20, which was followed by extensive touring throughout Europe along with Finnish Rock grandmasters HIM. The response of the concert audience and the reactions in the forums of the band's own homepage are proof of the enormous popularity that OOMPH!enjoy by now. In 2002, they played festivals such as Ozzfest, With Full Force and Mera Luna.

While other bands try to stay alive in the shadow of successful acts OOMPH! follow new ways. "If you just follow in footsteps of others you won't leave any traces!" According to this credo, they have submitted themselves to the principle of change even in 2003. At the end of this year, OOMPH! are part of GUN RECORDS . The reason for this choice according to the band: "We have been looking for a strong and competent partner who understands OOMPH!'s music, who has a well-functioning distribution department and who - over the last few years - has offered proof that good results can be achieved in Germany and in Europe with this kind of music. GUN have been interested in us since 1996 and therefore know OOMPH! like the back of their hand!"

In 2004 OOMPH! released their single "Augen auf!" which quickly launched them into the charts. The single even took the boys home a gold record! After three long years OOMPH! released their new album "Wahrheit oder Pflicht" Which also brought them home a gold record. A very noticeable difference was Wahrheit oder Pflicht contained exclusively German-text tracks (apart from the limited edition digipak.) After the album two more singles were released. The first was Brennende Liebe which featured L'Ame Immortelle. A video was shot for this single which featured OOMPH! is a horror-esque type setting! The second single was a revised version of Sex hat keine Macht that a video was released with.

2006 is starting the ball rolling again with news of a new OOMPH! single and album coming very soon. The single will be titled "Gott ist ein Popstar" which is set to release on February 24th in Germany. The album is slated shortly after that.