Oomph!


Oomph! is a German rock band from Wolfsburg, formed in 1989. The band pioneered the Neue Deutsche Härte movement. Since the band's formation there have been no line-up changes, except for temporary personnel for live performances. They use lyrics in both English and German with a shift from mainly English songs to more German ones on recent albums with the exception of their recent Compilation albums, Delikatessen and Truth or Dare..

History

Early years (1989–2002)

Oomph! incorporated many styles of music such as metal, industrial, alternative rock, electronica and gothic to create their sound. Their style changed between their self-titled debut, Oomph!, and its successor Sperm. Though they started with very much a dance-laden industrial sound, they quickly moved to a much more heavily guitar-driven metal sound, while still acknowledging their electronic roots. This guitar-driven and electronic accompanied sound inspired numerous musicians, most famously Rammstein, Megaherz, and Eisbrecher, to follow their lead.
Oomph! finally signed on Virgin Schallplatten. Between 1998 and 2001, they released three albums on the Virgin label. The first, Unrein, was released in 1998, which became their debut album in the Media Control Charts, peaking at No. 37, and the Austrian top 40 at No. 38. A single called "Gekreuzigt" was released in 1998 to promote Unrein and became the band's debut single on the German charts, peaking at No. 81.
The second Virgin album, Plastik, was released in 1999 and peaked in Germany at No. 23. The third, Ego, was released in 2001, peaking at No. 21 in the Media Control Charts. This fulfilled their contract with Virgin; the band did not continue with the record company, feeling that it never fully explored their potential. With the benefits of major-label status, however, Oomph! gained a larger following and toured with labelmates Skunk Anansie in 1999, later opening for the Finnish rock band HIM in fall 2001.
In 2002, Oomph! played at the Ozzfest in Germany, alongside Black Label Society, Tool and Ozzy Osbourne on 20 May. The band appeared at the With Full Force Festival on July 5, 2002. On December 19, 2002, Oomph! opened for Apoptygma Berzerk.

''Wahrheit oder Pflicht'' and ''GlaubeLiebeTod'' (2004–2007)

In 2004, Oomph! released their first single "Augen Auf!" on a new label, this time on Supersonic Records, part of the Sony BMG group of music companies, from their eighth album Wahrheit oder Pflicht. It marks their first number one hit in Germany, thus eventually bringing forth their major commercial breakthrough. The album hit number 2 in the Media Control Charts.
In June 2004, Oomph! played at two major European music festivals: the Dynamo Open Air Festival on June 5, in the Netherlands and on June 25 at the Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium.
"Augen auf!" became part of the FIFA 2005 soundtrack. Oomph! appeared for the first time at Wacken Open Air on August 4, 2005.
The band's ninth album, GlaubeLiebeTod was released in March 2006, including the controversial single Gott ist ein Popstar!, its follow-up Das letzte Streichholz, Die Schlinge and Träumst Du?.
In August 2006, Virgin released the compilation album . It contains tracks from Oomph!'s three Virgin albums as well as a few unreleased tracks. The band distanced itself from this best-of release and asked that fans not buy it, as the band's current label GUN had scheduled a best-of compilation as well.
On June 15, 2006, Oomph! played at the Nova Rock Festival in Austria.
On December 1, 2006, Oomph!'s official best-of album, Delikatessen was released under the GUN label. The songs on it were hand-picked by the band itself. It contains tracks from all nine Oomph! albums, b-sides, remixes and never-heard before tracks like "The Power of Love" and "Gekreuzigt 2006". By November 17, 2006, Oomph! released those two songs in a form of double single to promote the new compilation release.
On February 9, 2007, the band released their final GlaubeLiebeTod single – "Träumst Du?", featuring the female vocalist from Die Happy, Marta Jandová. The single peaked at number 9 in the media control charts. Oomph! performed the song live the same day at the 2007 edition of Bundesvision Song Contest, representing Lower Saxony in the competition, coming in first place.
On July 6, 2007, Oomph! opened for Metallica in Vienna, Austria.
Oomph!'s first DVD was Rohstoff, which contains live footage consisting of 23 songs, most of the videos the band has created, making-of videos, and an exclusive interview. The DVD was released on July 20, 2007.

''Monster'' and ''Truth or Dare'' (2008–2010)

A new song called "Wach Auf!" appeared in the film ; the single was released on January 4, 2008.
Oomph! made their first appearances at the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park Festivals on June 6, 2008.
Oomph! released their tenth album, Monster, on August 22, 2008, which peaked in the Media Control Charts at number 8. The band's most successful single from the new album is "Labyrinth", released in September 2008, which peaked at number 26 in the Media Control Charts. The remaining tracks were to be released as B-sides on the upcoming singles. The first and only was "Sandmann", released in February 2009. Monster was reissued in June 2009 to include "Sandmann".
Oomph! opened for Marilyn Manson on June 24, 2009 in Linz, Austria.
Oomph! recorded a version of "Entern was wir säen" by Die Fantastischen Vier for the 2009 compilation album A Tribute to Die Fantastischen Vier.
On February 26, 2010, the band released their fourth compilation album, Truth or Dare, with their German songs re-recorded in English. Then, from April 24 to October 22, the band toured Europe to promote the new compilation album.
On September 10, 2010, Oomph! debuted the song "Sieger", which was written for the ESL Pro Series 17, to a worldwide audience. The song had previously only been heard at the Gamescom 2010 trade fair.

''Des Wahnsinns fette Beute and XXV'' (2011–2018)

Flux announced on October 8, 2011, on the official Oomph! Facebook page, that recording of a new album would be finished by the end of November. Dero also said that after so much time, only 20 tracks would be chosen and then they would select 12 or 14 of the best of them.
Announced on the band's official website, the new album is titled Des Wahnsinns fette Beute. The first single, "Zwei Schritte vor", was released on May 4, 2012. The album was released on May 18, 2012.
Oomph! then went on a European tour starting on 24 May in Russia and will continue into October. Countries confirmed so far are Russia, Ukraine, Switzerland,, Austria, Lithuania, Netherlands, Spain and France. Festivals confirmed so far are Nova Rock Festival, Wacken Open Air and the Summer Breeze Open Air festivals.
The band gained two new live members in 2012: Okusa and El Friede.
Announced via the band's official Facebook page on August 29, 2012, live drummer, Leo departed Oomph! to take on new musical challenges. Leo's last show with the band was at the KRock U Maibutne Festival in Kherson, Ukraine on September 1, 2012. The band also announced that Leo's replacement will be announced soon and that the European tour in September and October will go ahead as scheduled. Oomph!'s new drummer, Sylvestri, was announced on the band's official Facebook page on September 14, 2012.
On May 16, 2014 Dero mentioned in a recent interview with Global Metal Apocalypse that the band has been working on a new album slated for an early 2015 release and that the band does have plans to tour the UK in 2015 as well.
Oomph! announced via their official Facebook page on May 23, 2014 that they have a new live drummer, Martin Bode, and will perform with the band for the first time in June at the Wave Gotik Treffen Festival.
The band announced on their official website on April 17, 2015 that their upcoming studio album would be released on July 31, 2015. On 17 May, the band announced that their album will be named XXV.
The first single from XXV is Alles aus Liebe and was released on July 17, 2015. In September 2015 Oomph! announced that their album GlaubLiebeTod attained Gold status after selling more than 100,000 copies in Germany, 9 years after its initial release. This is the band's first album to achieve gold and the band's second release to achieve it after their single Augen Auf.
On December 5, Oomph! had announced that they have been nominated for 3 GMA awards. GMA Vocalist of the Year 2015, GMA Music Video of the Year and GMA ALbum of the Year.
Oomph! embarked on their European tour in April,2016 to promote "XXV".
Oomph! performed a concert in Mexico on December 3, 2016. This was the band's first show in North America.
Oomph! remained quiet throughout 2017, only going on a small tour in Russia early in the year, and Gothic Meets Klassik festival in Leipzig in November.

''Ritual'' (2018–present)

Oomph! announced a string of festival appearances for 2018, incl. Greenfield Festival, Wacken Open Air and the 2nd edition of the Volle Kraft Voraus Festival with NDH band Eisbrecher.
Oomph! signed a worldwide deal with their new record Label Napalm Records in April 2018. Oomph! also announced plans to release their 13th studio album in 2019.
On the 12th of November 2018, Oomph! teased some artwork for the new album with the caption "Achtung! Achtung!", as well as another post announcing a number of radio interviews in Berlin and an expected release date for the new album of 18th of January 2019. On the 13th, another picture captioned "Seid ihr bereit?" was posted. On the 15th of November, a picture of the album artwork and its title Ritual was posted. The album's first single, "Kein Liebeslied", was released on November 30th, 2018 with an accompanying lyric video.
Ritual was released on January 18th and went on to become the bands first ever album to debut at #1 on the German charts. The band then went on a month long European tour in March, 2019 to support the album.

Members

;Current
;Live
;Former live
Albums