In September 2007, Nachtmahr had its first release, "Kunst ist Krieg ". The album's song "BoomBoomBoom", quickly became popular in industrial clubs around the world. The band was used for the soundtrack of the Americanblockbuster movie, Saw IV. In 2008 Nachtmahr released its first full-length album entitled "Feuer frei". Like "Kunst Ist Krieg", it quickly gained popularity in industrial clubs. The single "Katharsis" joined "BoomBoomBoom" as a worldwide club hit, and helped the album stay in the top 10 of the German Deutsche Alternative Charts for more than 6 weeks. The German magazine Orkus called "Feuer frei" was “the new standard for the electro industrial genre”. However, the album did fall under criticism for being too repetitive. While reviewers agreed it was a great album for the dancefloor, some felt it did little more than such, pointing out a lack of variation and originality between songs. Of particular note, both the album "Alle Lust will Ewigkeit" and its single Tanzdiktator reached No. 1 in the Deutsche Alternative Charts. In 2010, Nachtmahr's third album "Semper Fidelis" was released, again placing highly in the German charts. In 2011, Nachtmahr announced plans to expand their live touring scope, landing gigs in Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Later in 2014 Rainer launched his "Operation America" tour where he would play across 20 states in less than one month. Just 2 months prior to the tour, Rainer's latest album "Feindbild" was released to great success. 2015 the band is now done with the festival season and on a short two show tour in Russia.
Controversy
During the Kinetik Festival of 2012, Nachtmahr was criticized on stage by its opening act Ad·ver·sary , who showed, during its last five minutes of its set, a multimedia presentation with examples illustrating sexist and fascist imagery in the music videos and album covers of Nachtmahr. The showing ended with a call to reject those notions, and to demand better. Rainer denied the allegations in an interview with industrial magazine I Die: You Die, instead characterizing his stage persona as "militaristic", though he acknowledged Nachtmahr's potential for misinterpretation and controversy. He also invited the female stage performers from his act to the interview, who likewise rejected the claims of sexism.
