Wednesday, October 13, 2010

My Next Act: The Nekromantix

                                                          Albums in chronological order

So, as you know, I have a broad range in musical tastes. One of my favorite genres would have to be... Pyshcobilly. A form of Rockabilly semi-mixed with Punk and often Blues. So here's one of my favorites of the genre, The Nekromantix.

The band was formed in 1989 in Copenhagen, Denmark by Kim Nekroman. Fun Fact! Kim Nekroman is married to Patricia Day, the bassist/vocalist of The HorrorPops. He plays lead guitar, and sings backing vocals for them.

After 8 years in the Royal Danish Navy, Nekroman decided to leave, and start a career in music. I'd have done the same thing. He formed the band with Paolo Molinari (guitar), and Jens Brygman (drums), though Molinary and Brygman can't be heard on any of the albums. If you couldn't tell by now, the band was named after Nekroman himself.

After 2 local shows in Denmark, a mere 6 months after their first rehearsal session, The Nekromantix were billed for a huge psychobilly festival in Hamburg, Germany in 1989. This resulted in a recording contract with Tombstone Records, and the release of their first album, "Hellbound". The lineup on this album consists of Peter Sandorff on guitar, and Peek (Sebastion) on drums. I'm leaving out Kim, because he's in on every album on Bass and vocals.

Fun Fact!

Kim Nekroman's first "Coffinbass" was handcrafted from an actual child-size coffin. The more you know...

Their second album, "Curse of The Coffin" consisted of the same lineup, released in 1991 on Nervous Records. It was produced by Mickey Mutant and recorded at Madhouse Studio in London, England.

Their third album, "Brought Back to Life", had a change of lineup in the band. A new guitarist, Ian Dawn and drummer Grim Tim Handsome were added to the band. It was recorded in 1992, and released in 1993 under Intermusic Records, produced by Kim Nekroman himself. The album earned itself a Grammy award for "Best Heavy Metal Album". This was one of my favorite albums, but there will be a list at the end with my 10 most recommended songs, which will obviously turn out to be more than 10.

In other news, in between these 2 albums, I was born and Kurt Cobain died. A pretty tragic year, if you ask me.

1995 brought us a new album, and a new lineup to the band. "Demons Are A Girl's Best Friend" was released in 1996 back again on Nervous Records, and once more, it was produced by Kim Nekroman, recorded at  Here, we find ourselves with a new guitarist, Søren Munk Petersen.

But wait... What's this?

Undead 'N Live! The live album by The Nekromantix, recorded in 1999 brings back to us a familiar name... None other than Peter Sandorff, ladies and gentlemen! The guitarist for their first album "Hellbound" comes back for an exquisite return. The concert was recorded at Stengade 30, where their first 2 shows were played before the festival in Hamburg. The song "Nice Day For A Resurrection" was played, previously unreleased until their 2002 album "Return of The Loving Dead".

Peter and Kristian Sandorff remained in the lineup for the next 2 albums, "Return of The Loving Dead" (2002), and "Dead Girls Don't Cry" (2004), both released on Hellcat Records. This was sadly the last time they've been in the lineup since then.

2007 brought us once again, a new lineup and a brand-spankin' new album, "Life is A Grave & Dig It!", with Tröy Deströy on guitar, and Andy DeMize on drums. This is their most recent album. However, Tröy decided to leave and seek out a solo career. Tragically, on January 11th, 2009, DeMize was killed in a car crash. Nekroman got together with a new lineup for performing, starting in 2009. The new lineup is now Franc on guitar, and Lux on drums. And in 2009, the Nekromantix toured both with The Reverend Horton Heat, and a different tour with Rob Zombie.

The Nekromantix have been located in L.A, California since the release of "Return of The Loving Dead", touring and recording 2 albums with The Horrorpops. Actually, The Nekromantix recently came to my town, Seattle, but I was sadly away overnight. I would have killed for a ticket.

So, why on earth would this lowly teenager from Washington like a band like this?


Well, incredibly rude personal Q&A participant, I've got an answer so amazing, your head will literally fall apart.

So, I'm a big fan of rockabilly. You'll find more about that next time, but I am. I find psychobilly in general to be an amazing work of art, ranging from bands like The Koffin Kats, to The Nekromantix, to Elvis Hitler. But the reason I like THESE guys so much, is that they bring a new brand of psychobilly to the table. They really put the psycho in it. Songs like Monster Movie Fan (Brought Back to Life) and Who Killed The Cheerleader? (Brought Back to Life Again) will show you this much.

The guitar, no matter the lineup is always mindblowing. Personally, I favor Return of The Loving Dead, but I do have more listening to do. The vocals are a classic voice, kind of crunchy, but sometimes cleaned up. I think these guys really define psychobilly by themselves. Their tunes still have that kind of a 1950's swing to it sometimes, but other times, it's a downright fast-paced rocking song, but that doesn't make them rock any less.


Included in my finale, as the curtains draw, and the crappy "GET OFF THE STAGE" music plays in my head, I leave you with a list of my favorite songs of theirs I think you should listen to.

1. Nekrofelia - Brought Back to Life
2. Dial 666 - Brought Back to Life
3. Devil Smile - Curse of The Coffin
4. S/M - Curse of The Coffin
5. Subcultural Girl - Return of The Loving Dead
6. Return of The Loving Dead - Return of The Loving Dead
7. Haunted Cathouse - Return of The Loving Dead
8. Brought Back to Life - Brought Back to Life


Goodnight, folks, and thanks for stopping by.

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the post! I'm gonna check some of this out!

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  2. subcultural girls sounds interesting.

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  3. little to hardcore for me but i respect all music

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  4. they have an interesting choice of hair O.o

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  5. will listen to them someday. tldr. but i got halfway through.
    will be supporting daily.
    Help support me support you, check out my blogs sometime.

    ReplyDelete