Sid
Nuremberg
Antichrisis was founded by singer and songwriter Sid way back in 1995 in a small and godforsaken village near the German-Belgium border. Originally meant to be a solo-project, Sid was soon joined by guest-vocalist Willowcat and within a few months the legendary 80 minute demo-tape "Missa Depositum Custodi" got recorded. Its first and only edition of 500 copies received an amazing feedback within the underground community and was sold out soon after its release in early 1996. That success led to negotiations with various independent labels and Sid decided to sign to Ars Metalli.
September 1996 saw the beginning for Antichrisis' first studio session for their debut album "Cantara Anachoreta". Sid — by this time still known by his nom de plume Moonshadow — recorded the album within 14 days with Willowcat's vocal support. At this time Sid was in a very desolate situation concerning his private life — and the best way to express his feelings and to deal with an utterly fucked up relationship was to play that gloomy, melancholic but also furious and pushing kind of music. And that is exactly what Antichrisis is all about: to reflect Sid's feelings and emotions in the best possible way without any restrictions or musical limitations.
"Cantara Anachoreta", the band's striking debut, hit the audience by January '97 and was enthusiastically received by the press: only once in a blue moon had a newcomer's first album indicated such well-defined and incisive style aligned with an amazingly vast number of different musical influences with enormous implicitness and distinction.
Although Antichrisis' music was always inspired by Irish Folk, these influences weren’t that obvious due to the band's conventional instrumentation hitherto — until Alexander “Näx” May joined the project in 1997 adding a completely new timbre to Antichrisis' sound with his Irish bagpipes.
Meanwhile Antichrisis had signed to Napalm Records, and in Spring 1998 it was high time to record the debut's successor "A Legacy of Love" with new female vocalist Lisa. Though this album did bear a few Metal references again it primarily became a wonderful and brilliant Folk-Pop-album, containing songs that could have easily entered the charts like "Nightswan", "Our Last Show" or the smashing "Forever I Ride".
A year later Antichrisis was hitting the stage for the first time during an European tour with Tristania, The Sins Of Thy Beloved, Siebenbürgen and Trail of Tears, this time with new singer Dragonfly who had replaced Lisa for the time being. Not only did Antichrisis promote "A Legacy of Love" live on stage on that tour but the band also took the chance of introducing some new dancefloor-influenced stuff from their forthcoming album "Perfume" to an astonished audience.
Antichrisis entered the studio again in Summer 2000, this time reinforced by keyboarder Tilo Rockstroh, drummer Jens-Nils Kuge and guitarist Jens Bachmann, to forge their third album "Perfume”.
Though songs like "Like The Stars", "Goodbye to Jane", "Hole in My Head", "Carry Me Down" or "Wasteland" proved once more Antichrisis' claim for the charts, this venturous album lacked support by Antichrisis' former label Napalm Records who weren't too happy about the band's increasing pop-appeal due to being afraid of losing their Metal credibility.
But why that long period of silence after the release of "Perfume"? Some fans received the impression that Antichrisis hadn't survived the daring musical experiment. But the reason for this was that after a new studio session in Spring 2003, Sid suffered from some unexpected and serious emotional and physical drawbacks, hence Antichrisis was put on the back burner for quite a long time until Sid reformed the band in 2005.
So Antichrisis was ready again for recording a new album, but in the meantime they decided to re-record and re-produce “A Legacy of Love” again, as they wanted to show how the band’s new line-up would sound like.
This revised version of "A Legacy of Love" saw its release on Reartone Records in early 2006 as a digipack-edition titled "A Legacy of Love Mark II" and it definitely didn't sound at all like a simple re-issue.
But before Antichrisis could go on working on the production of "The Legacy Remains", Reartone Records decided to stop all further releases, which meant basically the end to the former band constellation, because the band was depending on rehearsing and recording in Reartone's own studio. But as Sid is not someone to easily throw in the towel, he decided to carry on together with his wife Ayuma (vocals). So Antichrisis was reduced to a duo again like in their early days, that line-up finally released the self-produced album “Not Fade Away” in 2012: this album is also the first album in Antichrisis’ history that is released as a digital download only and without an external record company or an external producer: everything was done by Sid & Ayuma themselves, from cover artwork to recording sessions as well as from production to mastering.
“Not Fade Away” is the perfect epitome of what Antichrisis 2012 is all about. Antichrisis is not longer the Doom/Metal/Goth-outfit that they have started with their debut album “Cantara Anachoreta” because the band has been embracing a lot of musical styles and influences on their way to this day and age. Of course you’ll still find Post Punk and Gothic elements in tracks like “Here Comes The Night” and “Adrenalin” but they’ve also developed further into the direction of Electronica and Dancefloor with songs like “Ocean’s Too Wide”, “The Point of No Return” and “Crossing The Line”.
Apart from that there’s still Antichrisis’ search for the perfect pop song that they’re keeping up with “The Fire Went Out”, “Creatures of a Jade Lagoon” or “Walking With Angels”, their love for Indie & Alternative guitar sounds that’s shimmering through “Who You Are” and “Shine”; the duo’s passion for Irish music that is reflected by songs like “Restless Years”, “Endless Flow” or “Lament for Kira” — and finally there are those in-betweeners like “Night Train” or “Have You Been Loved?” that simply don’t fit into any of the aforementioned categories.
To Ayuma and Sid “Not Fade Away” feels like a Greatest Hits Album because it really is a selection of their favourite songs — and the two are already working on some very promising new tracks.
Antichrisis’s tracks
published on
published on
published on
published on
published on
published on
published on
published on
published on
published on