Die Allergie

Formed in 1993, Die Allergie emerged from the masses of local bands with their absolute belief in German lyrics and Metal-Core. Through countless shows with bands such as Kreator, Schweisser, Laibach, Totenmond, and Subway to Sally, amongst others, the band's reputation as an excellent live act and carrier of hope for the German music scene even pentrated the walls of EMI. In 1995, EMI/Spin Records immediately took Die Allergie under contract and the debut, "Psalm in Blei", came out on the market in the same year.

Reactions by the press went only two ways, love or hate. This was exactly Die Allergie's intention because there is no middle ground for them. This was followed by tours with Napalm Death, Crowbar, Fleischmann, KindTot and Rinderwahnsinn, which introduced the band to the entire Republic and solidly established a core fanbase for themselves.

In 1996, EMI decided to place Die Allergie under contract with their industrial sublabel, Spin Records. After an intensive 2 years of working together, the band decided to go their own way and leave Spin Records, which dissolved a short time later anyway.

In the beginning of 1998, the band released their self-produced MCD, "Demokratie", which was well received by fans and press alike, and resulted in many labels showing an interest in the band. It takes time to do something well, so Die Allergie took plenty of time to examine the numerous offers in depth. In July of 1998, the decision was made in favor of Rise Up, a sublabel of Last Episode Productions founded especially for Die Allergie.

Rise Up offered the up and coming quintet act, through keyboarder Danny B?hm, every possibility to resume their own path. In February of 1999, the label released Die Allergie's second album, "Dunkelgraue Lieder f?r das N?chste Jahrtausend", which, through aggressively ironic lyrics and the brutal, painfilled dark wall of music, held a mirror up to humanity showing the ugly face of daily reality. 10,000 copies were sold across Europe.

In the beginning of 2000, the band spent 3 months in the Roth Recordings Studio in order to produce their album "Virus III" under the direction of Dieter Roth. Musically, the band had lost none of their hardness, and the song material also appeared more mature and tighter than ever before. Various journalists showed euphoric "allergic" reactions based on the band's studio report in March 2000.

After the recording of "Virus III", bassist Markus Knapp (ex-Atrocity) left the band due to personal reasons. Die Allergie found a new comrade in arms with Jan Beckmann, but due to his professional career, he had to leave a short time later. Markus Knapp decided to take the bass in hand once again with Die Allergie, and he has been a solid component of the band ever since.

Die Allergie parted ways with Rise Up because the sales numbers of "Virus III" did not meet the expectations that the label had imagined. The band also felt that they did not have full support from the label which should have recognized that "Virus III" was a first class album from the start!

The singer, Albi, was arrested by the police due to false evidence and sat in jail until September 2001. Because he had drug problems at this time, he had to go through a drug rehab program which he successfully completed.

The members close to Albi were unsettled and brought to a halt. No one quite knew what would happen next. Once again, they found themselves without a label or tour. Once it was known how long they would be without a front man, they decided to use the time as creatively as possible in order to have some new songs to work on after his return. Albi is again walking free and clean!

In their lyrics, Die Allergie deals with the deviancies that exist in all of us such as egotism, megalomania, greed, obsession, and destructive urges even as far as necrophilia. Musically, Die Allergie is hard to categorize. The wide range goes from Pantera or Pro Pain (with whom Die Allergie completed a successful 4-week European tour in the Spring of 1999, along with Temple of the Absurd) to Fear Factory and Crowbar, through all shades of the extreme, without allowing themselves to fit into a definitive classification. The term Industrial Metal-Core is the most fitting category that comes straight to mind.