Scream Silence Band Biography english - updated 01/2006

The German Gothic scene would not be at such a high level of recognition on the European scale, if it was not for bands like Scream Silence.

Ever since the band came on to the scene in 1998 it built on their fine legacy they enjoy today. All of their three albums so far ( „To die for“ (1999); „The 2nd“ (2001); “Seven Tears” (2002) ) enjoyed an enthusiastic welcome, not only in the gothic community. Music Magazine institution Orkus valued the bands debut work as “Album of the month” – straight out. Following their debut impact the band engaged in extensive live tours and during that joined up with bands such as “Christian Death”, “Dreadful Shadows” and others.

Quality time on the road and exposure to a wider scope of their music scene soon brought the band into a position to put their hands around their next project: “The 2nd” .

The bands producer and mastermind Hardy Fieting made sure that his band would not rest on its laurels – and the result speaks for itself. The album was immediately regarded by the critics as a showpiece of “Gothic Rock of the New Millennium“ and subsequently entered all relevant European genre charts. It even hit some of the Eastern European charts.

Almost over night the band found itself headlining tours and festivals such as the renown Wave Gothic Treffen at Leipzig, Germany, and extended their fan-base to considerable numbers. But holding true to their deeply grounded roots, the band never lost their footing and kept concentrating on their creative forthcoming. Success, at best, was the fuel for relentless energy and the recognition, that they were on the right way with what they were doing. They would soon need that energy more than they thought.

Early 2002 saw Bass player Rene Schulze and guitar player Joerg Rennewald leave the surprised band to pursue own projects and careers. It took quite a thorough search to successfully produce two new artists, that could be considered as rightful successors for Rene and Joerg and would have the skills to help carry the band. Guitarist Robert Klausch and Bass Player Cornel Otto, interestingly two “good fellows” to the band, left their locally well known band project “Scroon” and joined Scream Silence. Together with founding members mastermind Hardy Fieting and state-of-the-art drummer Heiko Wolf they would build the new creative core for the remarkable results that would soon follow. As always when change is brought about, circumstances will redefine and it soon became apparent how well the band mastered that inevitable change.

When they presented their next milestone Masterpiece “Seven Tears” one year later in 2003, fans and critics felt, that they were witnessing history in the making: an extensive, emotional and compound album of that make, was no less than groundbreaking to their musical genre and an absolute first of its kind. Renown Music Magazines such as Zillo immediately rewarded the work with “Album of the month” merits and Orkus prompted with staggering 10 out of 10 possible points in their album ratings – and all of that occurred despite the fact, that the bands record company Moonstorm Records, Berlin; Germany, never promoted the album, due to a curious lack of funding. Obviously and for unknown reasons they had not been willing to invest in a clear-cut success story. Regardless of that unfortunate circumstance the album soared to sales that more than doubled the success of the predecessor “The 2nd” anyway. But the year was not over yet.

Due to the magnificent impact Scream Silence has had on the international gothic scene in 2003, the band was invited to co-headline the prestigious “Herbstnächte Festival” at ancient Castle Rabenstein, south of the German capital Berlin in early fall. The band was thrilled to be a part of that legacy and prepared well for the event. A string duet (violin and cello) and a multi-media show was incorporated into the live-set. A set-list was put together that would leave no wishes. But that was not the end of the preparations: through the contacts of a close friend to the band no one less than the legendary Sisters of Mercy guitarist Adam Pearson from Leeds, England, was flown in for the evening of the concert.

When the gothic night fell dark on Castle Rabenstein, Scream Silence entered the stage in front of an exited vast crowd and performed in a manner, that wrapped up their best year ever so far. When Adam Pearson joined the band on stage in thick flooding deep-blue lights and fog, as THE surprise guest of the festival, the crowd was stunned and for the rest of the set the band and Adam had an easy job working the thrilled crowd seamlessly into the ancient castle ground.

In the dying days of 2003 the band realised, that all they had worked for and all they had set their minds on in regards to their artistic work, had fallen in place. Despite the fact that Bass player Cornell Otto had decided during the winter to leave the band at the beginning of the 2004 for personal reasons, the band did not miss a beat in preparing a mindset for the new year 2004.

It was a lucky coincidence that brought Bass player Hagen Schneevoigt from the goth-metal quartet “Tunes of Dawn” to the amplifiers of Scream Silence just in time. Hardy Fieting, Heiko Wolf and Robert Klausch were more than pleased to see, how well Hagen blended in with their aura and their musical concept. Once again they had mastered a difficult situation well.
So they decided that now was the time to take the next big step:

In early 2004 they set out to found their own record label Plainsong Records and started work on their fourth Album “Elegy”. It is without doubt due to the extraordinary ability for sustainability that allows this band time and time again to bear specialities such as “Elegy” quickly turned out to be: the to this point best selling album in band history, gathering numerous “Album of the Month” titles in nearly all relevant German top music scene magazines, delivering to the band Big Ticket live gigs across Western and Eastern Europe. Even their newly founded label was able to acquire literally “over night” an interesting portfolio of bands from the broad Indie-Rock genre.

During this period Scream Silence seems to be scooping from a sheer endless creative stream and marks some important accents for themselves as well as for their area, especially and finally also on the commercial sector.
While viewing all the singular successes in this perspective, it feels good somehow to notice, that everyone grants it to the band from the bottom of the heart, to have arrived just there.

To be the opener on main stage for one of the most renowned Open Air festivals in Europe, the Mera Luna Festival 2005 in Hildesheim, near Hannover / Germany, or to be the headliner of the largest North Eastern European Gothic Festival (Halloween Festival 2005, Vilnius / Lithuania), as well as co-headlining the biggest Gothic Festival in Central Middle Europe (Castle Rock, Bolkow / Poland) is not only an exquisite invitation record. It is a statement. Even more so it is a clear recognition for the extraordinary and up-to-date creative production of this musical think tank.

The thoroughly enthusiastic fans in the overcrowded Agrra Hall during the Wave & Gothic Treffen 2005 (WGT) in Leipzig / Germany can sing their own song about the fulminate aura this band has performing live, while they were witnessing one fine piece of Gothic Rock history.

In the light of it all, it does not really come as a surprise that the band made another qualitative discovery while going along during this period. Due to the short-noticed illness of guitarist Robert Klausch during fall 2004, the band was facing the uncomfortable situation, possibly having to cancel already confirmed live gigs because of their missing guitarist. It was Hagen Schneevoigt that produced the idea to address the excellent guitarist of his own band project “Tunes of Dawn” , in order to convince him to jump in for Robert and the band.

The bulls eye by the name of Rene Gödde turned out not only to be an excellent substitute for Robert Klausch for the time being, but also to add such a significant additional presence to the live act of the band after a fully healthy Robert had returned to the band, that it was already unthinkable to imagine it all without him.

Rene gives the band not only the opportunity to develop a much more powerful live sound, he also adds a so fitting physical presence to it. Apart from that he fits perfectly into the concept to create a new, clearly more guitar lasted album.

While the summer of 2004 was extensively used for turning the numerous requests for live performances that had been addressed to the band into reality, the band had started quietly in the background to lay the foundations for this new and clearly accentuated album project.

Hardy Fieting and his creative ensemble from Berlin, Germany, again went through their metamorphosis to turn into night-crawlers and gathered in their band-typical bonding intensive connection in their Plainsong Records Studio, to spend more than eight months working on their next milestone product almost every night, until the wee hours of the morning. The commercial blessings of the ending year was a welcomed godfather in the shape of new and improved technical equipment, that was so helpful in the realisation of even more challenging sound ideas.

As a side product of this technical reinforcement, connected to the meanwhile quiet-tip status that Hardy Fieting has acquired not only in this specific music genre as a very experienced sound engineer, quite some big music names such as Blixa Bargeld, Wolfsheims´ Heppner and others are to be seen around his studio. The influences from the experiences of the post- “Elegy” time, as well as the many new musical contacts and experiences drawn from the exchange with other musicians, as well as countless inner streams of feelings and emotions, impressions and observations, have all found their way into this new album – and it shows! “Saviourine” is released in Germany on February 1st, 2006 and shortly thereafter also in Eastern Europe via the new distribution partners. The Single Release “Creed” took the stage on December 12th, 2005.

It may sound drastic, but one does not have to worry about the success of this album – it is again in a uniqueness of its own and will undoubtedly touch the fan community positively. It is even more likely, that this community will grow even more in number due to this fine piece of art. Special attention was dedicated to the video production of the single “Creed” .

In the surrounding countryside of Berlin was filmed with substantial effort and very sensitively composed creativity, what comes through the door now as a final cut of a highly interesting musically and artistically sophisticated product. Without doubt the long anticipated and long overdue statement for the MTV´s and Viva´s of this world. In the meanwhile noticeable collection of radio stations with an affinity to Scream Silence the famous cult-station “Radio Fritz” in Potsdam / Germany, took note of the never-tired creative from the German capital and presented their new album “Saviourine” on November 20th in their high profile programme „Stahlwerk“ – of course under live participation of the band.

Starting with the first rays of sunlight in 2006 Scream Silence kicks of an extended Germany and Eastern Europe tour.
More than ever it is recommended to catch one of the tour dates of these last true pioneers of Gothic Rock and use the occasion to burn them into the audio-visual
databanks …

… make sure you don´t miss your dose of “Saviourine”!

FMG 12/2005