In Extremo


In Extremo is a German medieval metal band originating from Berlin. The band's musical style combines metal with medieval traditional songs, blending the sound of the standard rock/metal instruments with historical instruments. Versions of well-known traditional/medieval ballads make up the main part of their repertoire, but the band has written an increasing share of original material in recent years. Their own material is written in German, whilst the traditional songs are in a variety of languages, including Gaelic, Spanish, English, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, French, Estonian, Galician, Hebrew, Latin, Ladino, Occitan, Old High German and Middle High German.

Band history

In Extremo began as two projects: a nameless, purely medieval band, and a rock band. They became known at that time through frequent appearances at medieval market meetings, at which they performed their acoustic pieces and sold CDs of their renditions of traditional songs. On April 11, 1995, during the recording for that year's season, Michael Rhein found the project name "In Extremo, "Latin for "At The Edge".
Most of the band members perform under stage names. The initial members of the medieval band were Das letzte Einhorn, Flex der Biegsame, Dr. Pymonte, Conny Fuchs and Sen Pusterbalg. The rock band originally consisted of Thomas der Münzer, Der Morgenstern, and Die Lutter. Der Münzer subsequently left the band and,, the band's guitarist is Van Lange. As noted below, almost all of the band members play multiple instruments.
The increasing number of visitors, success of their CDs, and the popular interest, as well as cross-pollination from groups such as Corvus Corax and Bathory, encouraged In Extremo in 1995 to attempt to start a band combining bagpipes and other traditional instruments with rock guitars. The result was the current incarnation of In Extremo, a rock group that integrates modern instruments like the drum set, electric bass and guitar with the acoustic elements previously used for the medieval songs, and which plays both types of music as well as a hybrid of the two.
In August 1996, they began work on the first In Extremo album, which already contained two tracks of the new rock project. Because the album had no official name, it became known as Gold because of the golden cover. In February 1997, like the single Der Galgen, it quickly sold out in Medieval markets.
In Extremo played separately as a medieval and a rock band, until on March 29, 1997, when they played their first live rock concert. Since that time, they have given this date as their date of establishment. The two projects were officially merged on January 11, 1998. April 1998 saw the first "high occupancy" In Extremo concert in the Rabenstein castle in Brandenburg.
Over the years, their music became more heavy metal based, while at the same time becoming increasingly commercially successful. The classical instruments, however – bagpipes, shawms, and lutes – still play a large role. The band is likewise noted for their conspicuous stage costumes and known for using pyrotechnics in their concerts, including Der Morgenstern playing cymbals which have been set on fire.
On 26 February 2010 In Extremo announced that Der Morgenstern left the band because of musical differences via their homepage. On June 11, Florian "Specki T.D." Speckardt was announced as his replacement on drums. Since then, they have proceeded to release 3 albums: Sterneneisen, Kunstraub, and Quid Pro Quo, all of which have reached the top 10 in the German charts, with Sterneneisen and Quid Pro Quo both having number 1 positions for a time. Their 13th album, Kompass zur Sonne was released in May 2020, also topping the German charts, and is to come with a tour with openers such as Lacuna Coil, Russkaja, and Fiddler's Green. This tour was also originally planned for May, but it was delayed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On July 30th, 2020, they played an online livestream concert for Wacken World Wide.

Instruments

Besides the electric guitar, bass, and drum set, In Extremo defines itself by unconventional instruments mainly of medieval origin. They include hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, Uilleann Pipes, shawm, nyckelharpa, harp, cittern, tromba marina, hammered dulcimer, Klangbaum, and various types of drums and percussion. Bagpipes are the most conspicuous of these instruments, as Dr. Pymonte, Yellow Pfeiffer, and Flex der Biegsame all play bagpipes, sometimes all three at once. All of the band members play multiple instruments, and frequently rotate instruments between songs; Das letzte Einhorn frequently plays a cittern during certain songs, such as Ai Vis A Lo Lop.
Their bagpipes were partially made by Dr. Pymonte, but are also partially built by a well-known pipe builder. The band also uses a custom-built frame drum covered in zebra skin, called Das Pferd. Most of the other acoustic instruments, such as their shawms, are only made by a few other instrument builders.

Style and lyrics

Some lyrics are not written by the band, but some – like the instruments – from traditional songs written during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Many of the lyrics to the band's repertoire of medieval songs come from church writings, Benedictine writings, or are "trad. arr.", meaning traditional songs with unknown authors, rearranged by the band. The band also frequently uses songs from the Carmina Burana, a medieval collection of songs, as well as lyrics written as poetry by the 15th-century French poet François Villon.
The band also uses poems from later writers such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Ludwig Uhland, who wrote Des Sängers Fluch – which In Extremo changed to be called Spielmannsfluch. For the album Mein Rasend Herz, In Extremo originally wrote the lyrics to the song "Liam" in German, after which it was translated into Irish by Rea Garvey, who was also a guest singer on the song.

Appearances

Their first major appearance was in the first part of the computer game Gothic. Some time in the game, a group of traveling musicians called 'In-Extremo' plays their version of the song "Herr Mannelig", from the album Verehrt und Angespien; by the gallows outside the Old Camp Castle.
With their success, the music programs also began to pay attention to In Extremo. They were invited on the television program Viva Interactive, where they gave a fifteen-minute call-and-response and played two songs. They rejected at that time an invitation to Top of the Pops to play Küss Mich, because it was, according to Das letzte Einhorn, not their environment. Nevertheless, they did accept a further invitation to TotP in 2005 and played Nur Ihr Allein.
At the same time, their audience grew with live appearances, from marketplaces to festivals like Rock Am Ring, the Taubertal Festival, and the Nova Rock in Austria. Their largest public appearance however, had In Extremo opening for the farewell tour of Böhse Onkelz in June 2005, with about 120,000 spectators.
In Extremo last participated on February 9, 2006, in the Bundesvision Song Contest of Stefan Raab for the Free State of Thuringia; Das letzte Einhorn was born in Dingelstädt, and grew up in Leinefelde. Both cities lie in North Thuringia. The group occupied the third spot with "Liam ". Before, they had introduced themselves on February 2 on the TV show TV Total.
In Extremo played further in 2006 at the Wacken Open Air, as well as on the M'era Luna Festival in Hildesheim. At the end of 2006 they played in the framework their "10 Year Anniversary Tour" in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Success

The first In Extremo album that attracted attention was Verehrt und Angespien. It achieved an at the time sensational 11th place in the German album charts. The subsequent album, Sünder ohne Zügel, got to the 10th place.
The band had much success with the album "7"; it came in 3rd place on the German charts. The video of the single Küss Mich was frequently shown on German music television. The singles reached high chart placements.
The eighth album Mein Rasend Herz achieved third place on the album charts in 2005. Three singles were published from this album: Nur Ihr Allein on May 17, 2005, Horizont on September 12, 2005, and "Liam " on February 3, 2006. On February 10, 2006, the second live CD/DVD, "Raue Spree", was published, coming in at 4th place of the German charts. In addition, the CD "7" and the DVD "Raue Spree" achieved gold status at the beginning of 2007.
The ninth album Sängerkrieg went first place on the album charts of Germany on May 23, 2008. In Austria it reached the thirteenth and in Switzerland the twenty-second place. In Germany it was the 41st best-selling album of the year in 2008.

Band members

Current members
Former members

Albums

Singles