Combichrist

Combichrist
Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist performing in 2010
Background information
Origin	Norway Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Genres	Aggrotech, EBM
Years active	2003–present
Labels	Metropolis Records (North America) Out of Line (Europe)
Associated acts	Icon of Coil, Scandy, Panzer AG, Eighteen Visions, Imperative Reaction, Scandinavian Cock, Rammstein
Members	Andy LaPlegua Joe Letz Z Marr Abbey Nex
Past members	Wes Borland Jon Horton Shaun F Kourtney Klein Mr. Bjoern Petersen Syn M Trevor Friedrich

Combichrist is a Norwegian aggrotech band formed in 2003 by Norwegian Andy LaPlegua, who also founded the bands Icon of Coil, Panzer AG, Scandinavian Cock and Scandy. Combichrist is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The band consist of only LaPlegua in the studio with Joe Letz, Z_Marr, and Abbey Nex for live performances. Releases by the band have been very successful in terms of sales and charted in top positions for dance and alternative charts worldwide, a few releases have even sold out completely.^{[citation needed]}

History

Formation

The first material LaPlegua wrote for the project was a powernoise/techno crossover track Thanx to my Buddies under the moniker D.r.i.v.E for the Advanced Electronics Vol. 2 compilation.^[1] The song was later remade into Like to Thank My Buddies on Combichrist's album Everybody Hates You. The project's name was later changed to Hudlager and then finally to Combichrist before the debut album The Joy of Gunz was released on the German record label Out of Line.^[2] The band name came from a fanzine of Andy's in the 1990s, with Combichrist being a character in it that was a "punk-rock messiah." The character would go on drug and alcohol fueled rampages, later healing those whom he had beaten.^[3]

A few years after the band's conception, LaPlegua departed Norway for the United States, which is now the current home-base for Combichrist and his other projects Scandy, Panzer AG, and Scandinavian Cock.^[4]

Success

Combichrist performing in 2008

Combichrist's first LP The Joy of Gunz was released in 2003. On Halloween of the same year, the limited edition EP Kiss The Blade was released with 667 pressings which sold out in less than a week.^[5]

In 2004, the second EP, Sex, Drogen Und Industrial, spent several weeks at number one in the DAC charts. At the same time that Sex, Drogen Und Industrial was released, a limited edition of 666 white-vinyl 12" pressings for Blut Royale were produced, and sold out quickly.^[5]

The year 2005 saw the release of Everybody Hates You and it was at this time that Andy began labeling the music as "Techno Body Music" or TBM.^[6] The band released a song called "This is TBM" on the Out-of-Line compilation Techno Body Music volume 1.^[7] They played this song live during their 2005 shows, adding vocals to it. No vocal version of the instrumental track was ever released, and the lyrics were instead later reworked for the track "Electrohead." After this release, Andy stopped referring to their music as TBM. Shortly after the release of the album, Army On The Dance Floor producer Kourtney Klein was added as alternating keyboardist and drummer to the band.^[8]

Their 2006 single "Get Your Body Beat" was released to commercial success, debuting in the No. 14 slot for Billboard's Dance Singles on June 6.^[9] The music video for the single was included on the DVD release of the biopunk film The Gene Generation with the song also being used in the movie.^[10] The band embarked on a North American tour with KMFDM soon after the release of the single.^[5]

On March 6, 2007 What the Fuck is Wrong With You People? was released to some critical praise and popularity.^[11][12]

Pull Out Kings producer and songwriter Z Marr joined the band as keyboardist in January 2008 to begin work on the album Today We Are All Demons.^[13] According to an exchange with a fan, Trevor Friedrich of Imperative Reaction, he was asked to join the band as a drummer with Joe Letz (of Eighteen Visions and Wednesday 13) in October 2008.^[14] He replaced Kourtney Klein, who began full-time work with Nitzer Ebb.^[15]

Combichrist released Today We Are All Demons on Jan 20, 2009. For part the European tour that year, Trevor was temporarily replaced by Mark Jackson of VNV Nation.^[16] Combichrist's song "Shut Up and Bleed" featuring W.A.S.T.E was put on the soundtrack for the horror movie The Collector.^[17] Their song "Today We Are All Demons" (Beneath the World Mix) was put on the soundtrack for the movie Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.^[18]

Limp Bizkit's guitarist Wes Borland joined Combichrist briefly in October 2009 for their tour of North America and in the studio for recording of new material on Making Monsters.^[19]

Combichrist's latest album, Making Monsters, was released digitally on 31 August 2010 and on CD on 28 September 2010.^[20] Combichrist began a tour in support of the new album in late 2010, with Aesthetic Perfection and iVardensphere as the support bands.^[21][22] In 2011, after opening for Rammstein at Madison Square Garden in December 2010, both bands announced Combichrist would be supporting Rammstein on their North American tour and Andy announced the "Monsters on Tour Part II" taking place around the scheduled Rammstein shows. The "Monsters on Tour Part II" had the same support as the 2010 tour but with the additions of Angel Spit and God Module performing with them on select dates.^[23]

Combichrist's song Never Surrender was featured in a gameplay demo for the hack-n-slash style video game DmC Devil May Cry with Andy LaPlegua working on the soundtrack for the whole game. The song Throat Full of Glass is featured in the same game, played during the opening sequence.^[24] A new song called Bottle of Pain was released in January 2012 for the Underworld: Awakening movie soundtrack.^[25]

In October 2013, LaPlegua announced on Facebook that there would be a new album on the way in 2014.

On 10 December 2013, Combichrist announced the title of their 7th studio album, We Love You, with a March 2014 release date. As well as a 2014 promo tour, We Love You Tour, with support from William Control and New Years Day.

Criticism

At the 2012 Kinetik Festival, Combichrist were criticized from the stage by opening act Ad·ver·sary for "the use of misogynist and racist tropes in [the] band’s music and publicity materials.".^[26] The presentation specifically took issue with the band's use of the Confederate Flag, the video for their song "Throat Full of Glass", and the lyric "all you feminist cunts / you know that you want it / give head if you got it" from the song "Give Head If You Got It".^[27] To this Andy LaPlegua responded by saying "I have nothing negative to say to him [Jairus] at all. I have nothing to say in my defense for what I’ve done, I don’t feel like I should have to defend myself. It’s all fiction. Everybody who knows me knows that I am not the character. I am not pro or anti anything, really. I’m a realist, I know what’s wrong and I know what’s right, but I also believe in freedom of speech, and freedom of writing, about writing stuff I like to write about, if it’s fantasy or personal." He later added this statement on the subject of racism: "somebody stated that I was racist. Which is really funny, it's like “Based on what?” Oh, based on that you had a rebel flag shirt on. OK, I live in Atlanta, in Georgia. It's about 70% African American. If I were racist, first of all I probably wouldn't move to Atlanta. Second of all most of my friends there are African Americans. My studio complex, it's only hip-hop artists and I work with a lot of them including like, Ludacris and artists like that are in my building. The rebel flag was the Georgian state flag until 2001. It's just people are ignorant and they don't know what they're talking about and it just provokes me a little bit when people say...it doesn't provoke me that they state anything about me, it provokes me that they're ignorant enough to not know their history lesson when they're trying to be politically correct. At least know what you're talking about before you try to state something as political." ^[28]

Band members

Discography

• The Joy of Gunz (2003)
• Everybody Hates You (2005)
• What the Fuck is Wrong With You People? (2007)
• Today We Are All Demons (2009)
• Making Monsters (2010)
• No Redemption (Official DmC: Devil May Cry Soundtrack) (2013)
• We Love You (2014)

References

External links

• Official website