Die Krupps
| Die Krupps | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Düsseldorf, Germany |
| Genres | Post-industrial, EBM, industrial metal |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Labels | Zickzack, Synthetic Symphony, Hollywood |
| Associated acts | Dkay.com, Heathen, Male, Propaganda |
| Website | https://www.diekrupps.com |
| Members | Jürgen Engler Ralf Dörper Marcel Zürcher Volker Borchert Nils Finkeisen |
| Past members | Rüdiger Esch Christoph "Nook" Michelfeit Bernward Malaka Frank Köllges Eva-Maria Gößling Christina Schnekenburger Walter Jaeger Christopher Lietz Lee Altus Darren Minter George Lewis Oliver Röhl Achim Färber |
Die Krupps (German pronunciation: [diː ˈkʁʊps]) is a German industrial metal/EBM band, formed in 1980 by Jürgen Engler and Bernward Malaka in Düsseldorf.
The band's name translates as "The Krupps" and comes from the Krupp dynasty, one of Germany's main industrial families before and during World War II. In some interviews the band stated that Visconti's 1969 movie The Damned — a depiction of the fictitious German industrial dynasty of the Essenbecks — was the main inspiration.
Critics worldwide hail them alongside Kraftwerk and Einstürzende Neubauten as pioneers of Electronic and Industrial music, bands like Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb called them their inspiration, and their musical ideas found their way into the sound of a wide spectrum of music, from Depeche Mode to the innovative pioneers of Detroit Techno.
Ralf Dörper who was part of the initial line-up which created the highly acclaimed early recordings "Stahlwerksynfonie" and "Wahre Arbeit Wahrer Lohn" in 1981 left the band in 1982 to found the band Propaganda. Propaganda became one of the few German bands which were internationally successful in the 80s. In 1989 Ralf Dörper initiated a collaboration with Nitzer Ebb on an old Die Krupps track (i.e. Machineries of Joy, a newer version of their early '80s track Wahre Arbeit Wahrer Lohn) which he produced together with Jürgen Engler. The chart-success of the record (Billboard-Charts) led to the reactivation of Die Krupps fronted by Engler and Dörper.
The initial Die Krupps sound throughout the 1980s combined synthesizers with metallic percussion. Die Krupps were key in the Europe wide progression of Electronic Body Music culminating with the collaboration in 1989 with British band Nitzer Ebb. In 1992, they began to utilize guitars and more sounds derived from heavy metal music, with the release of their album I and the EP Tribute To Metallica, which consisted of covers of Metallica songs. Combining electronic and metal elements was a pioneering move which led to a number of other bands using the electronic/metal combo as a template in keeping with a deeper industrial sound. The band continued in this vein through the 1990s, releasing II - The Final Option (with a cover influenced by Deep Purple's Machine Head) in 1993. A more experimental and pensive III - Odyssey of the Mind followed in 1995. After the release of the heavily metal-influenced album Paradise Now in 1997, the band disbanded.
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