Wynardtage serves as the project name for Kai Arnold, a producer of dark electro material from Germany whose work appears on the X-Cem and Rupal Records imprints devoted to dark electro, EMB, and industrial sounds. Residing in Chemnitz, Saxony, Arnold first entered the local club circuit as a DJ, an activity he pursued for several years prior to establishing X-Cem Records. That imprint issued the two-volume Lost in Darkness series of compilations, which gathered tracks by like-minded acts including May-Fly and Acylum; the Arnold cut “Sterbehilfe” from the opening volume gained immediate traction in dark electro venues and prompted the release of Wynardtage’s debut album, Waste of Time, in 2005. During the same year Arnold contributed to Acylum’s full-length Your Pain and to the May-Fly EP Sturmfront. In 2006 he joined Acylum for the X-Cem EP Lords of Darkness, issued under the joint billing Wynardtage Meets Acylum.
Activity on X-Cem then ceased, prompting Arnold to sign with the Dresden label Rupal Records. Rupal issued the follow-up Wynardtage album Evil Mind in 2006, which entered the Top Five of the German alternative albums chart, and also put out the 2007 EP The Face in the Mirror, credited to May-Fly Featuring Wynardtage. Later the same year Rupal released Wynardtage’s third album, Praise the Fallen, which likewise reached the Top Five of that chart. The album later appeared in multiple “redux” editions, while Rupal additionally issued the 2008 retrospective compilation The Forgotten Sins 2002-2005, drawn largely from previously unreleased recordings.
