Bethlehem

Having grown sick and tired of their previous joint task, Dark Tempest’s thrash-based aggressions, and united by way of a morbid, almost pathological desire for suicide and death, bassist Jürgen Bartsch and guitarist Klaus Matton (who like a boy dropped his pops to suicide and mother to cancer) founded Bethlehem in 1991. Alongside vocalist Andreas Classen and drummer Chris Steinhoff, the duo proceeded to route their rampant negativity in to the moody, atmospheric make of dark/dark metallic (punctuated by tortured shrieking) offered on 1994’s Thy Pale Dominion 7″ E.P., and 1995’s aptly called full-length debut Dark Metallic. Their spirits didn’t improve on following, despair-drenched outings like 1996’s Dictus Te Necare (translation: “Destroy Yourself”), 1997’s S.U.We.Z.We.D. (complete name: Sardonischer Untergang Im Zeichen Irreliogiosen Darbietung) and 1998’s Reflektionen Auf’s Sterben E.P., and different vocalists, drummers, and key pad players sifted through their rates aswell. Bethlehem also went into a substantial amount of problems with German government bodies over their recognized glorification of loss of life, and, among many, tasteless self-promotion stunts, declaring that former vocalist Classen experienced ‘offed’ himself! The music group were able to stay several steps prior to the legislation, however, and also endured the departure of leader-in-misery Matton to accomplish 2001’s ambitiously avant-garde, industrial-tinged double-disc arranged Schatten Aus der Alexander Welt. Going into 2002, the Bethlehem lineup contains creator Bartsch, Guido Meyer de Voltaire (vocals), Olaf Eckharst (acoustic guitar), Reiner Tiedemann (keyboards), and Steve Wolz (drums), and was hard at the job with an interactive CD-ROM beneath the troubling name Suicide Radio.