der blutharsch

austria-born albin julius is der blutharsch from the very first. it was originally a side project of the moon lay hidden beneath a cloud, but soon became julius’ main musical occupation. following the traditions of laibach and autopsia, julius developed a music of symphonic intensity and wagnerian drama, driven by martial aesthetics and funeral melodies. soon der blutharsch gets 3 more members (they perform now as a band with acoustic instruments and female vocals), and in 1998 julius even became a member of  death in june.

what started as a secondary dark ambient project in 1996 is nowadays one of europe's most important martial industrial acts, while recently  der blutharsch moves more towards psychedelic rock. this passage from martial  to psychedelic sounds is very noticeable on the here presented albums: "time is the enemy" is completely military, while "the philisopher's stone" includes the other forementioned components.

julius runs his own label called wkn (wir kapitulieren niemals – german for "we will never surrender"). on wkn there's an especially interesting sublabel – hau ruck!, which released a lot from  novy svet and dernière volonté, but is also open for talented newcommers.

critics label der blutharsch often as a neofascist band, mostly because of the highly militant and third-reich material being used in their songs. der blutharsch is indeed a very controversial band, since there were collaborations with both neofascist and anarchistic leftwing bands. and because of this highly discussed topic, i feel like i have to round up this post with something meaningful and plausible. lucky me, some guy already did a great job:

"julius is great for one thing, and that is not his "ideology" whatever that may be (nobody can be sure about that, after all his works are a fuzzy fascism that venerates julius evola and d’annunzio) but for his creations, his music. loathing? great? that’s the listener choice, if you don’t like the content… then don’t buy it."  (some very intelligent user on discogs.com)