Letzte Instanz
Encyclopedia
Letzte Instanz, founded in Dresden, Germany
in 1996, is a German
metal
band particularly noted for their use of the violin
and cello
. The founding members included Hörbi, Tin Whistle, Muttis Stolz, Kaspar Wichman, Holly D. and Markus G-Punkt. Benni Cellini and Robin Sohn entered the group a year later. To date, they have released eight studio albums, two live albums, two live DVDs, three singles and have appeared on a number of mix CDs.
and Tanzwut
, despite objections from the band that this was not an accurate expression of their sound or style. Shortly before the album's release, the singer Hörbi left the band to pursue other projects, and the band was left unsure of themselves and faltering with the public taking little interest in their record.
Enter Robin Sohn and a new era for the band. With sharp, complex German lyrics, the new singer arrived and helped shape a new sound. The result was the critically acclaimed "Das Spiel" (The Game), a stark departure from the sound of their previous effort. The strings were drawn more into the background and the focus shifted to the conventional band instruments, making room also for electronics. Also, two of the new songs ("Das Ist Der Tag"/"That is the Day", "Das Spiel") let Robin take a break from the microphone and introduced background vocalist Holly D's rap stylings. This album also demonstrates Robin's linguistic versatility, featuring a remake of Camouflage
's "Love is a Shield." Shortly after the release, Kaspar departed the band, and the introduction of Rasta F. marked the first in a series of changes in the bass player position.
With their third album, 2001's "Kalter Glanz," Letzte Instanz showed their fans and critics that trying to classify their music was a fruitless endeavor, yet again introducing a record with a sound different from either of its predecessors.
The strings were pulled slightly more into the background, and the sound had begun to mature as a kind of string-assisted form of modern heavy metal
in songs like "Ganz oder gar nicht"/"Completely or not at all" and the title track, and with a continued dedication to their folk music
roots in songs like "Oh Fortuna" and "Mein Todestag"/"My dying day." The result is a powerful combination of musical genres, occurring both integrated and drawn into sections, but never completely pulled from one another. Also appearing on the album were two well-known German singers: Marta Jandová from Die Happy
and Sven Friedrich from Dreadful Shadows
accompanied the septet on 3 songs.
With the introduction of an additional guitarist (Oli), another bass change (FX), and a new drummer (Specki T.D.), the band followed up in September 2003 with "Götter Auf Abruf" ("Gods on Call") and it became abundantly clear that the band was simply incapable of releasing two CDs that sound the same. Though the new sound was not quite as significant a departure from "Kalter Glanz" as that album had been from its predecessor, the progression toward a heavier, complex blend of modern rock and classical/folk instruments and themes was audible. While the Letzte Instanz of "Das Spiel" had sounded like a folky horror-themed group with rock instruments thrown in, the band of the latest album has shifted much further to the metal end of the spectrum, with the strings nevertheless always present and keeping the previous albums' collective promise of a unique and incomparable sound. The resurgence of Holly D's rap vocals also appears on two tracks. With a more radio-friendly sound, the band was even able to climb into the German album charts, a place rarely frequented by rock bands with German lyrics.
Their latest releases have included a live CD and DVD, featuring tracks from the three most recent albums plus the track "Kopf oder Zahl"/"Heads or Tails," which first appeared on the German mix "Nachtschwärmer Vol.7" in July 2004 after having served well as a closing song for their previous tour.
The band did, however, hit a snag in March 2004 when three integral members (vocalist Robin Sohn, founding guitarist Tin Whistle, and bassist FX) decided to leave the band simultaneously for personal reasons. Many of the band's fans feared that they had heard the last of Letzte Instanz. The remaining members decided not to abandon their eight-year project and actively sought to rebuild their lineup. In the meantime, the two strings players M. Stolz and Benni Cellini took advantage of the break to cooperate with the new band Angelzoom on four songs for their self-titled debut, including the single "Fairyland," and joined them briefly for their Tiefenrausch Tour 2005.
December 2004 saw the introduction of new bass player Michael Ende and, three months later, the band became complete once more, finding a new lead singer in Holly. In June 2005, the band debuted live for the first time with their new lineup, playing new songs for a new era. With a new album in production and a dedicated fanbase, Letzte Instanz refuses to give up and continues to share their unique blend of music with Germany and the world.
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
in 1996, is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band particularly noted for their use of the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
. The founding members included Hörbi, Tin Whistle, Muttis Stolz, Kaspar Wichman, Holly D. and Markus G-Punkt. Benni Cellini and Robin Sohn entered the group a year later. To date, they have released eight studio albums, two live albums, two live DVDs, three singles and have appeared on a number of mix CDs.
Biography
When the band's first album, "Brachialromantik" (Brute Romance), they earned swift comparisons to the giants of the popular German medieval metal genre like Subway to SallySubway to Sally
Subway to Sally was founded in Potsdam, Germany, in the early 1990s. It is a rock band with clear folk and medieval influences, later also with gothic and metal elements added to the mix...
and Tanzwut
Tanzwut
Tanzwut is a German Neue Deutsche Härte and medieval metal band which originated as a sideproject of Corvus Corax-members.- History :Their name is the German term for "dancing mania", but is directly translated with "dance-rage". Tanzwut are known for their heavy use of bagpipes, an unusual...
, despite objections from the band that this was not an accurate expression of their sound or style. Shortly before the album's release, the singer Hörbi left the band to pursue other projects, and the band was left unsure of themselves and faltering with the public taking little interest in their record.
Enter Robin Sohn and a new era for the band. With sharp, complex German lyrics, the new singer arrived and helped shape a new sound. The result was the critically acclaimed "Das Spiel" (The Game), a stark departure from the sound of their previous effort. The strings were drawn more into the background and the focus shifted to the conventional band instruments, making room also for electronics. Also, two of the new songs ("Das Ist Der Tag"/"That is the Day", "Das Spiel") let Robin take a break from the microphone and introduced background vocalist Holly D's rap stylings. This album also demonstrates Robin's linguistic versatility, featuring a remake of Camouflage
Camouflage (band)
Camouflage is a German New Wave trio consisting of Marcus Meyn, Heiko Maile and Oliver Kreyssig. Their only Billboard Hot 100 hit was "The Great Commandment" which climbed to #59 in 1988, though it did spend three weeks at #1 on the US dance chart...
's "Love is a Shield." Shortly after the release, Kaspar departed the band, and the introduction of Rasta F. marked the first in a series of changes in the bass player position.
With their third album, 2001's "Kalter Glanz," Letzte Instanz showed their fans and critics that trying to classify their music was a fruitless endeavor, yet again introducing a record with a sound different from either of its predecessors.
The strings were pulled slightly more into the background, and the sound had begun to mature as a kind of string-assisted form of modern heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
in songs like "Ganz oder gar nicht"/"Completely or not at all" and the title track, and with a continued dedication to their folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
roots in songs like "Oh Fortuna" and "Mein Todestag"/"My dying day." The result is a powerful combination of musical genres, occurring both integrated and drawn into sections, but never completely pulled from one another. Also appearing on the album were two well-known German singers: Marta Jandová from Die Happy
Die Happy
Die Happy is a German alternative metal band from Ulm.-History:The group was founded in 1993 by Czech singer Marta Jandová and Thorsten Mewes...
and Sven Friedrich from Dreadful Shadows
Dreadful Shadows
Dreadful Shadows is a German Gothic metal band, formed in 1993 in Berlin. Initially part of the Gothic rock and Dark Wave movement, the band had developed considerably by the time of the release of their debut album, incorporating metal elements and modern electronics, causing the band to be...
accompanied the septet on 3 songs.
With the introduction of an additional guitarist (Oli), another bass change (FX), and a new drummer (Specki T.D.), the band followed up in September 2003 with "Götter Auf Abruf" ("Gods on Call") and it became abundantly clear that the band was simply incapable of releasing two CDs that sound the same. Though the new sound was not quite as significant a departure from "Kalter Glanz" as that album had been from its predecessor, the progression toward a heavier, complex blend of modern rock and classical/folk instruments and themes was audible. While the Letzte Instanz of "Das Spiel" had sounded like a folky horror-themed group with rock instruments thrown in, the band of the latest album has shifted much further to the metal end of the spectrum, with the strings nevertheless always present and keeping the previous albums' collective promise of a unique and incomparable sound. The resurgence of Holly D's rap vocals also appears on two tracks. With a more radio-friendly sound, the band was even able to climb into the German album charts, a place rarely frequented by rock bands with German lyrics.
Their latest releases have included a live CD and DVD, featuring tracks from the three most recent albums plus the track "Kopf oder Zahl"/"Heads or Tails," which first appeared on the German mix "Nachtschwärmer Vol.7" in July 2004 after having served well as a closing song for their previous tour.
The band did, however, hit a snag in March 2004 when three integral members (vocalist Robin Sohn, founding guitarist Tin Whistle, and bassist FX) decided to leave the band simultaneously for personal reasons. Many of the band's fans feared that they had heard the last of Letzte Instanz. The remaining members decided not to abandon their eight-year project and actively sought to rebuild their lineup. In the meantime, the two strings players M. Stolz and Benni Cellini took advantage of the break to cooperate with the new band Angelzoom on four songs for their self-titled debut, including the single "Fairyland," and joined them briefly for their Tiefenrausch Tour 2005.
December 2004 saw the introduction of new bass player Michael Ende and, three months later, the band became complete once more, finding a new lead singer in Holly. In June 2005, the band debuted live for the first time with their new lineup, playing new songs for a new era. With a new album in production and a dedicated fanbase, Letzte Instanz refuses to give up and continues to share their unique blend of music with Germany and the world.
Vocals
- Hörbi (1996–1997)
- Holly D. -background, rap- (1996–present)
- Robin Sohn (1997–2004)
- Holly (2005–present)
Bass
- Kaspar Wichman (1996–1999)
- Rasta F./FX (1999–2004)
- Michael Ende (2004–present)
Drums
- Markus G-Punkt (1996–2001)
- Specki T.D. (2001–2009)
- David Pätsch (2010–present)
Albums
- 1998 - Brachialromantik (Brute Romance)
- 1999 - Das Spiel (The Game)
- 2001 - Kalter Glanz (Cold Luster)
- 2003 - Götter Auf AbrufGötter Auf AbrufGötter auf Abruf is the fourth album released by the German medieval metal/industrial rock band Letzte Instanz.-Overview:As one of the most stylistically diverse albums of all time, Götter auf Abruf follows Letzte Instanz's trend of releasing virtually unclassifiable music...
(Gods on Call) - 2004 - Live
- 2006 - Ins Licht (Into the Light)
- 2007 - Wir Sind Gold (We are Gold)
- 2007 - Das weisse Lied (The white Song)
- 2009 - Schuldig (Guilty)
- 2010 - Heilig (Holy)
DVDs
- 2004 - Live
- 2008 - Weißgold (White Gold), featuring Anna KatharinaAnna Katharina KränzleinAnna Katharina Kränzlein, also known as Anna Katharina, is a German violinist. She is most known for her quick and varied technique...
.
Projects & Individual Songs
- 2002 - Vision Thing on the sampler Thank you Sisters Of MercyThe Sisters of MercyThe Sisters of Mercy are an English rock band that formed in 1980. After achieving early underground fame in UK, the band had their commercial breakthrough in mid-1980s and sustained it until the early 1990s, when they stopped releasing new recorded output in protest against their record company...
- 2004 - The strings players (M. Stolz und Benni Cellini) collaborate on the single "Fairyland" and three other songs from Angelzoom's self-titled album.
- 2005 - Oli's second Band FROGSTAR BATTLE MACHINE releases their third album Lez Go Cropcircling
- 2006 - FROGSTAR BATTLE MACHINE releases their fourth CD, an EP called Duck & Cover, including a funny video clip to the song Sex Bubbles
External links
- http://www.letzte-instanz.de/ - The official site of Letzte Instanz
- http://www.folkmetal.de/letzte_instanz/index.html - Further information and material on Letzte Instanz
- http://www.frogstar-battle-machine.de/ - The official site of FROGSTAR BATTLE MACHINE, guitarist Oli's second band.