Eisbrecher

Eisbrecher, whose name translates to “Icebreaker,” originated in 2003 as an offshoot of Megaherz, a leading outfit in the Neue Deutsche Härte movement. Vocalist and songwriter Alexx Wesselsky left that group over creative disagreements and teamed with Noel Pix—who had already contributed keyboards to two Megaherz releases—to craft a more electronically driven variant of the style they called trip-rock. The project surfaced that same year via the singles “Mein Blut” and “Fanatica.” Their self-titled debut album arrived in 2004 and addressed what the band termed the “criminalization of the fans” by including a blank CD and duplication rights with the first 5,000 units of its initial 20,000-copy pressing; the record failed to chart. Its 2006 successor, Antikörper, tilted the sound toward industrial metal and reached number 85 in Germany. From the follow-up Sünde, the 2008 single “Kann die Liebe Sünde Sein” peaked at number three on the German Alternative Charts, while the album itself attained number 18 domestically and registered on the European Top 100. Live bassist Olli Pohl, another Megaherz alumnus, joined the lineup for an extensive European trek that included Austria, the Netherlands, Russia, and Switzerland. In 2009 the band signed with Metropolis Records in the United States, where Wesselsky voiced hopes of becoming the next German breakthrough act after Rammstein, yet U.S. sales of Sünde disappointed. The 2010 single “Eiszeit” nevertheless marked Eisbrecher’s first appearance on the German singles chart, and the accompanying album of the same name climbed to number five at home while entering the Top 100 in both Austria and Switzerland. Following its release, the group supported Alice Cooper on his 2010 European dates. January 2012 brought the single “Verrückt,” previewing the February arrival of Die Hölle Muss Warten; the album charted strongly in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and was later certified gold. Schock appeared in 2015, and the ensuing tour yielded the concert album and DVD Schock Live. The band’s seventh studio release, Sturmfahrt, followed in 2017.