Crack Up

Crack Up, a German metal quartet, is advancing into the American marketplace through an alliance with Nuclear Blast Records. The group fuses humorous touches with an appetite for dark, rapid tracks marked by aggressive vocals and pounding beats. Their initial breakthrough arrived via the 1994 demo Forsaken Dreams, scheduled for reissue in 1998, which moved more than a thousand copies through live shows and informal promotion. We Bite released Blood Is Life in 1996. A subsequent association with Nuclear Blast and EastWest led to the 1997 appearance of From the Ground. Guitarist Helvin Pour sat out early 1998 concerts amid mounting personal issues. Torben Voigt of Crestfallen filled the role for those performances, though Crack Up is expected to continue as a trio through much of 1998 because of Voigt's obligations to his primary band.