Blackmail
Ii
There are bands who always stick at what they do. Bands who know the quality that lies within them and who fight for presenting their qualities in a different light. File under: Blackmail - one of the most consistent German rock-bands. They exist for twenty years and maybe they are even the most consistent German rock-bands of all. Blackmail from Koblenz went through a lot of different cycles. Once they were a highly celebrated and greatly noted major band and played all the huge festivals every two years. They appeared with one album within Visions' "150 records for eternity". They had their place in the canon of values by willed listeners of rock music. Three years ago there was a caesura: Former singer Aydo Abay has split from the band. With Mathias Reetz came a new singer who wasn't fresh to the business, but wasn't discovered. And then he turned out as a total joker. In May 2011 the first album, "Anima Now!", when he appeared as the front singer, turned out as a pumping multi-layered piece with a novel cachet. Blackmail absolutely convinced from the spot with an album that followed the spirit of DIY from first note to last promotion. Recorded, produced and released on the bands' own label "45 Records" and brought to the people from the first video snippet to the last show. Okay, there were fans which needed to be convinced that Blackmail haven't lacked any of their former power and urgency. "In the beginning it was difficult noticing that the size of the clubs where we played had changed" Mathias Reetz says, "But we haven't hung loose and just kept going. We finished work that results out of a new constellation and the level of acceptance is back to the fullest." Kurt Ebelhuser, who's behind the most parts of composition and produced every album except one, adds: "On 'Anima Now!' we had loosely sniffed at each other. "II" stands for the final arriving. It's Mathias' second album, but it's also the flourishing of Blackmail with different methods and lots of fresh colours."