Die Krupps
Copenhell - 2024
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
Let me take you back with me for a moment. Back to 1994.
Two years prior, Die Krupps had released their Metallica tribute EP. At the time, young Tobias was the world’s greatest Metallica fan, which was the fashion at the time, so naturally I had been all over that one.
One year prior, Die Krupps released the full length album II - The Final Option, following which the single To The Hilt was released in 1994.
This single contained three versions of its title track and two live tracks, The Dawning Of Doom and Bloodsuckers, both recorded at Hultsfredsfestivalen -93 in Sweden. Being a Swede who was too young to go at the time, I listened to these songs constantly, imagining how cool the whole show must have been. These are, to this day, possibly the live recordings I’ve listened to the most of all.
Fast forward 30 years, and Die Krupps were announced to play Copenhell. At this point, I still had not seen the band live, and with this opportunity finally falling into my lap, I couldn’t be happier!
“Are you ready for some real metal noise? Not wood on wood, this is the real deal!”
- Jürgen Engler (vocals, percussion)
Die Krupps were set to play on the Pandæmonium stage early Thursday, and because of a rearrangement of times shortly before the festival, they were now set to play at the same time that Mr. Bungle played the Hades stage. It worried me a bit, as I had no idea how well known Die Krupps would be in this place and time, and when walking up to the stage prior to the show, there were extremely few people waiting with me. Luckily, more came rushing in as soon as the show got started, and while the crowd was still not exactly packed, there were a respectable number of people there to see the Germans.
And apparently the Germans were ready to deliver a show, it turned out! On stage we saw the founding members Jürgen Engler and Ralf Dörper together with longtime collaborator Paul Keller on drums, and brand new guitarist Dylan Chrisford Smith, fresh in from The Sisters Of Mercy. They were all smiles, well with the exception of Dörper who maintained an impressive stoneface throughout the show, and I was highly impressed by the energy especially the two men in the front, Engler and Smith, were delivering. Both were giving lively performances and kept a great contact with the crowd. Especially Engler was wild, going from standing on his metal pipe construction to sitting down on his knees, when not (nearly) constantly walking from side to side of the stage, pulling everyone he could into the show.
“I love all the girls crowdsurfing here! They’ve got you guys beat! The women are in charge here in Denmark, I love it!”
- Engler (vocals, percussion)
Engler’s and the others’ efforts bore fruit, as the growing crowd got more and more into the show. It started out with some raised arms, swaying and nodding along, to soon erupting into headbanging, screaming along, and a good flow of crowdsurfers - predominantly female of all ages, as Engler noticed and commented on several times during the show.
There was also a bit of moshing going on, but this really grew towards the latter part of the show, being large and wild enough to kick up a considerable dust cloud, something I especially noticed in Robo Sapien.
Die Krupps turned out to be so popular in fact, that after the last song was done, there was a loud and persistent call for an encore from the crowd, so long in fact that Engler had to address it by excusing that they simply didn’t have more time scheduled for the show.
So, as you can gather, this was a good show, but 30 years of anticipation is a hard thing to beat.
But goddamnit, Die Krupps did not only deliver, but exceeded any and all my expectations for them! All that listening to their Hultsfred show, and now I finally got to experience it for myself, and I couldn’t be happier! There were more great shows at Copenhell than normal this year, but Die Krupps had them all beat, in this reporter’s mind! The one thing I can think of that would have pushed it even further, was if they could have had Evan Seinfeld and Billy Graziadei of Biohazard to guest on Bloodsuckers - they did play the festival on the same day after all - but even without that, I couldn’t be happier.
Setlist:
Blick Zurück Im Zorn
The Dawning Of Doom
Crossfire
Scent
Black Beauty White Heat
Metal Machine Music
Nazis Auf Speed
Vision 2020 Vision
Robo Sapien
To The Hilt
Fatherland
Bloodsuckers
Two years prior, Die Krupps had released their Metallica tribute EP. At the time, young Tobias was the world’s greatest Metallica fan, which was the fashion at the time, so naturally I had been all over that one.
One year prior, Die Krupps released the full length album II - The Final Option, following which the single To The Hilt was released in 1994.
This single contained three versions of its title track and two live tracks, The Dawning Of Doom and Bloodsuckers, both recorded at Hultsfredsfestivalen -93 in Sweden. Being a Swede who was too young to go at the time, I listened to these songs constantly, imagining how cool the whole show must have been. These are, to this day, possibly the live recordings I’ve listened to the most of all.
Fast forward 30 years, and Die Krupps were announced to play Copenhell. At this point, I still had not seen the band live, and with this opportunity finally falling into my lap, I couldn’t be happier!
“Are you ready for some real metal noise? Not wood on wood, this is the real deal!”
- Jürgen Engler (vocals, percussion)
Die Krupps were set to play on the Pandæmonium stage early Thursday, and because of a rearrangement of times shortly before the festival, they were now set to play at the same time that Mr. Bungle played the Hades stage. It worried me a bit, as I had no idea how well known Die Krupps would be in this place and time, and when walking up to the stage prior to the show, there were extremely few people waiting with me. Luckily, more came rushing in as soon as the show got started, and while the crowd was still not exactly packed, there were a respectable number of people there to see the Germans.
And apparently the Germans were ready to deliver a show, it turned out! On stage we saw the founding members Jürgen Engler and Ralf Dörper together with longtime collaborator Paul Keller on drums, and brand new guitarist Dylan Chrisford Smith, fresh in from The Sisters Of Mercy. They were all smiles, well with the exception of Dörper who maintained an impressive stoneface throughout the show, and I was highly impressed by the energy especially the two men in the front, Engler and Smith, were delivering. Both were giving lively performances and kept a great contact with the crowd. Especially Engler was wild, going from standing on his metal pipe construction to sitting down on his knees, when not (nearly) constantly walking from side to side of the stage, pulling everyone he could into the show.
“I love all the girls crowdsurfing here! They’ve got you guys beat! The women are in charge here in Denmark, I love it!”
- Engler (vocals, percussion)
Engler’s and the others’ efforts bore fruit, as the growing crowd got more and more into the show. It started out with some raised arms, swaying and nodding along, to soon erupting into headbanging, screaming along, and a good flow of crowdsurfers - predominantly female of all ages, as Engler noticed and commented on several times during the show.
There was also a bit of moshing going on, but this really grew towards the latter part of the show, being large and wild enough to kick up a considerable dust cloud, something I especially noticed in Robo Sapien.
Die Krupps turned out to be so popular in fact, that after the last song was done, there was a loud and persistent call for an encore from the crowd, so long in fact that Engler had to address it by excusing that they simply didn’t have more time scheduled for the show.
So, as you can gather, this was a good show, but 30 years of anticipation is a hard thing to beat.
But goddamnit, Die Krupps did not only deliver, but exceeded any and all my expectations for them! All that listening to their Hultsfred show, and now I finally got to experience it for myself, and I couldn’t be happier! There were more great shows at Copenhell than normal this year, but Die Krupps had them all beat, in this reporter’s mind! The one thing I can think of that would have pushed it even further, was if they could have had Evan Seinfeld and Billy Graziadei of Biohazard to guest on Bloodsuckers - they did play the festival on the same day after all - but even without that, I couldn’t be happier.
Setlist:
Blick Zurück Im Zorn
The Dawning Of Doom
Crossfire
Scent
Black Beauty White Heat
Metal Machine Music
Nazis Auf Speed
Vision 2020 Vision
Robo Sapien
To The Hilt
Fatherland
Bloodsuckers
Die Krupps
