Listen & Buy
In the summer of 2003, Icon of Coil lead singer Andy LaPlegua released the first album from his latest side-project, Combichrist. Titled The Joy of Gunz, the album contained an EBM/industrial, hard-edge sound, and proved to be the beginning of a hot new endeavor for LaPlegua.
That fall saw the release of a special Halloween album, Kiss the Blade, which limited to 667 copies sold out within days. The colossal response to this album brought Combichrist to the live stage, with shows in several countries, including: Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and the United States as well as festivals such as WGT, Summer Darkness, and Infest.
In the fall of 2004, Combichrist released the EP, Sex, Drogen Und Industrial, which topped the German Alternative Charts at number one for seven weeks. This album took on a more electronic, energetic, and aggressive twist by combining straight techno with EBM.
In amongst two albums for Icon of Coil, one for his side project PanzerAG and an Icon of Coil North American tour, he found time to work on his Combichrist project. The fruits of his labor were revealed with the release of Everybody Hates You in 2005. The album featured aggressive EBM grafted to power noise electronics with floor shattering beats, crunchy synths, catchy melodies, and plenty of well placed samples. Everybody Hates You became an instant club classic.
After playing over 80 shows and doing countless guest DJ spots in support of Everybody Hates You in 2005, Combichrist decided once again not to rest. This time with the inclusion of his live members, Combichrist released the Get Your Body Beat EP on 06/06/06 and that fall embarked on a North American tour with KMFDM, which earned them even more notoriety among fans of industrial rock who had previously never heard of them.
With an ever growing army of fans, Combichrist released What The Fuck Is Wrong With You People?, in 2007. Featuring 2006’s break out single, “Get Your Body Beat,” the album was an explosive barrage of corrosive beats, leering vocals, and acidic melodies. WTFIWWYP? was a high energy, adrenaline charged piece of sonic battery.
For 2008 Combichrist released the Frost EP: Sent To Destroy, which featured three brand new tracks and six remixes as a prelude to the upcoming album, Today We Are All Demons. The EP garnered much enthusiasm from his eager fans who impatiently awaited his nnext album.
After spending much of the past two years touring the world, Combichrist unleashed Today We Are All Demons in 2009 upon his devoted followers. Combichrist mastermind Andy LaPlegua expanded on the beat driven, hook-laden evil electro found on WTFIWWYP?. Combichrist immediately went on a highly successfully North American tour with Black Light Burns (featuring Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit) and an extensive European tour with Rammstein. Additionally, the companion EPs Heat EP: All Pain Is Beat and Scarred proved that Combichrist is a force to be reckoned with.
Combichrist has returned with the crushing new album Making Monsters. With the new album, LaPlegua emerges a more vital beast, stripped of all pretentions. The new album is raw, visceral, and seething with uncompromising urgency. In pushing forward, Combichrist’s playfully sinister facade is torn away. What is exposed underneath is an uncompromising expression of lust, anger, pain, and hate personified. Making Monsters is laden with hook heavy choruses, speaker crushing beats, and dark, aggressive vocals. The first single “Never Surrender” is bound to rule the dance floors along with other floor stompers “They” and “Throat Full of Glass”. The song “Follow the Trail of Blood” (featuring Brandan Schiepatti of Bleeding Through) is an anthem of aggression, and will immediately become a crowd favorite. The brooding “Reclamation” and “Through These Eyes of Pain” show us another side of Combichrist, that of the man inside the monster. With Making Monsters, Combichrist evolves beyond the demon it was, into an unrelenting, malevolent force in music.
