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  In 1996, guitarist, Michi, had a dream of combining space and brachial sounds and founded Niederschlag. Though it was simple enough to form a band, the hardest part was finding musicians who shared the dream, heart and soul. Michi's dream was to have two bassists and a space guitar with barchial/apocolyptic space sound. He enlisted Mauer and Battermann with whom he'd played in Warpath and Head Meets Wall, respectively. The result was a sound both brutal and melancholy. Their drummer, Kanth, was sometime later replaced by Natzky who the band members had known from the Head Meets Wall days and Gork, an old friend, was brought on as singer. The line-up was now complete and work began on writing songs, or rather, refining songs that had been written before. In the middle of 1997, Michi was approached by der Dicke, singer for Richthofen, and was asked if he'd like to accompany them as guitarrist on a tour with Kreator and Dimnu Borgir. Michi agreed and was now a member of 2 bands. Although Richthofen demanded much more time than had been thought at first, Niederschlag was Michi's number one project and in the summer of 1998, Niederschlag recorded their first demo, "Scrotum" in Stage One Studio with Andy Classen. The reviews were excellent. As time went on, however, it was decided that Gork was not the right singer for this project and a new front man was needed. By chance, Battermannn met Miro in the beginning of 1999, both having mutual friends. His experience ranged from punk to stoner rock to hardcore and he fit the bill nicely. They ignited in the practice room with a completely new musical impulse. Though the sound wasn't quite perfect, the potential for greatness was there and Miro wrote lyrics that grasped well the emotion of the music and the band at large. In July 1999, the second demo, "Stereo" was recorded in Jam Town Studio, this time produced by Peter Struck, who'd also produced "Helden der Zeit" by Richthofen in 1998. As with the first demo, it was met with very good press reviews. It was also in this month that Michi decided to leave Richthofen in order to dedicate more time to Niederschlag. Somewhat dissatisfied with their last demo recording, "Stereo" was reworked in Dec. 1999 and they tried to get a deal going. In June 2000, they took their "Proberaum CD" into the studio and under the leadership of their drummer Natzky, four new songs were mixed and recorded. About this time Battermann discovered that he had a greater love for Gutbucket for whom he also played bass and with heavy hearts all around he left Niederschlag in Aug. 2000. The dream seemed shattered but they carried forth. In fact, with their next demo, they realized that the loss of the second bass made more room for electronics and they could now better realize their preference for electronic sound. Their first appearance with only one bass was at Hamburg's Headbanger's Ballroom and it was explosive. Erti from Moonstorm was present and a deal was offered and accepted. The band then went back to Jam Town Studio, their producer, Peter, aka Peter Pantera, taking on the roll of fifth band member as mixer. From Nov. 2000 - Feb 2001 they worked in the studio and the end result was "Mehr als Sterben", an album everyone was very pleased with. Natzky left the band in the beginning of 2002 & their last release thus far, "Two Tribes", a maxi, used a drummer named MOCEF, who has now joined the band for good. Though the original plan didn't go quite as expected, the dream was fulfilled as events and experiences molded a band that has developed into something even surpassing Michi's original thoughts... Now that this dream has been realized, more are in the making... Mikki 06/03 Side note: Niederschlag is no more but the newest incarnation is called: Endhammer. More at: |
