Apoptygma Berzerk

A Norwegian EBM band. Basically only one man (Stephen Groth), although the live band seems to be more a part of the overall creative process lately.

Discography:
Ashes to Ashes, 1991, 400 copy limited 12" single on Tatra.
The Second Manifesto single, 1992, on Tatra.
Soli Deo Gloria, 1993, on Tatra.
Bitch single, 1993, on Tatra.
Deep Red single, 1994, on Tatra.
Non-Stop Violence single, 1995, on Tatra.
7, 1996, on Tatra.
Mourn EP, 1997, on Tatra.
The Apocalyptic Manifesto, 1998, on Tatra. Rerelease of singles and rarities.
Paranoia single, 1998, on Tatra.
APBL98, 1999, on Tatra. Live.
Eclipse single, 1999, on Tatra.
Welcome to Earth, 2000, on Tatra.
Kathy's Song (Come Lie Next to Me) single, 2001, on ? (Tatra, I think, but they could have switched to hard:drive before then).
ABL2000 (cd, vhs, and dvd), 2001, on hard:drive. Live.
Until the End of the World single, January 2002, on hard:drive. A a one minute sample of the demo of this song is available at their web page, http://www.apoptygma.eu.org/ .
Harmonizer, 19 February, 2002, on hard:drive.
Kathy's Song, Welcome to Earth, APBL2000, 7, and The Apocalyptic Manifesto have all been released on Metropolis Records in North America.

APB (as the name is abbreviated) have done lots of covers - Metallica ("Fade to Black", "Nothing Else Matters"), Depeche Mode ("Enjoy the Silence"), Kraftwerk ('{Ohm Sweet Ohm]"), The Velvet Underground ("All Tomorrow's Parties"), and a sort-of cover of the theme from Twin Peaks, "Moment of Tranquility".

Despite being almost completely electronic on their albums, live, APB is a rock band. They use guitars. Half of the music is still played from DAT, though, as is often the case with live electronic shows. Sometimes these guitars work beautifully ("Starsign", "Non-Stop Violence", "Fade to Black"), and sometimes they sound like shit ("Love Never Dies" pt 1, quite possibly their best song). Even so, they put on a great show, with lots of jumping around and pretty flashing lights.

Stephan Groth, who pretty much IS this insanely popular EBM act, was born in Denmark in 1971. Groth grew up in a musical family -- his father was a popular blues musician in the Norwegian band Aunt Mary, and his mother a DJ. Taking influences from early electro acts such as Kraftwerk and New Order, Groth began making music as Grothesk with friend Jon Erik Martensen in the late 80's, releasing a popular demo Victims of Mutilation in 1989. After parting ways with Martensen, Groth changed the project name to Apoptygma Berzerk in 1991. Under this name, the first single Ashes to Ashes was released by the label Tatra. Two years later, Soli Deo Gloria, the first full-length album, was released.

In 1996, after much controversy over Stephan's refusal to serve his country in battle, the second album 7 was released. Yielding huge dancefloor hits such as mourn, Non-stop Violence, and the ever-popular Love Never Dies, 7 put APB on the goth/industrial map. Unfortunately, Stephan was unable to tour in support of the album as a result of his refusal to join the service -- instead he was stuck doing community service at a mental healthcare facility for 14 months.

In 1998 Groth kicked off his well-recieved european tour, in which the band was supported by fellow electro act Spahn Ranch. Later in the year, Metropolis Records released The Apocalyptic Manifesto, a compilation of APB's earlier work, shortly followed by the US release of 7 to coincide with the band's US tour.

With the band's third full-length major release Welcome to Earth in 2002, Groth established himself as one of the biggest acts of the goth/industrial and electro scene. Their US tour with VNV Nation was sold out in many cities, and the album itself has sold, what, like a buhgillion copies or something? With Groth's catchy industrial-trance crossovers, he'd won fans of several different genres with this hugely popular release, which yielded at least four dancefloor hits (not counting remixes). Moving right along...

Groth delves even further into the realm of trance with his latest album, Harmonizer. While losing a few fans from the goth/industrial scene, the direction that Groth takes his sound with this new full-length makes APB's work so easily digestible that it's earned him more club play both overseas and in the states, and has even gotten some air time as well (on cool radio stations at least).

In addition to his work with Apoptygma Berzerk, Stephan Groth has released a fair amount of work under different project titles. The project Total Transformation was promoted as a sort of supplemental release to the album 7, and contains tracks originally intended for the EBM album that sounded too much like techno/house to make the cut. Additional projects include TB-MOONchild and H2O, released on Groth(esk)'s own label, Space Echo.