Der Blutharsch, Gone
"You'll find me in the unborn child you have not beget / You'll find me in the blood that has not been let."
During my fanatical Neofolk / Martial Industrial phase (ca. 2003 bis 2006), Viennese Martial combo Der Blutharsch was one of the most important scene projects to me. The sole constant member of Der Blutharsch and the creative mind behind it all, Albin Julius, passed away on May 4.
In April 2006, it was a Der Blutharsch show that led me to pay my first visit to Vienna. I stayed at a (then) good friend’s place, who lived in a suburb and had helped open up the whole musical genre to me back then; we visited the Museum of Military History, of course, and eventually went to see Der Blutharsch at the legendary underground club „Monastery“ (now „Viper Room“). At this former air-raid shelter, Der Blutharsch had recorded their “folkish” live album „Live at the Monastery“ in 2005. This time though, in 2006, with sleazy Australian Bain Wolfkind and Swedish Noise project Deutsch Nepal opening, the sound was way more “rocky,” pretty much the same as on their second live album „Live in Copenhagen.“
A pretty different sound than the original martial noise that made Albin Julius & Co. famous and notorious after the break-up of Der Blutharsch’s rather medieval-folky forerunner project The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud (TMLHBAC). Not that odd for Der Blutharsch, though, considering the immense influence early Neofolk and Martial Industrial took from (Post-)Punk. Yet, I was not willing to follow them on their new way towards Krautrock und Acid (both with and without Rock …) that kicked in with their 2007 album „The Philosopher’s Stone.“ Being a purist back then, with “When All Else Fails!” being my favorite Der Blutharsch album, I considered the new way degeneracy and perversion of an extremely—and unironically—elitist subculture. Accordingly, it took little time to sell off all of my collected Der Blutharsch digipaks via eBay. A real shame, in hindsight, but it’s history now.
I had little personal contact with Albin Julius. Only remotely, via MySpace (back in the day …), where we shared some both witty and trivial stories now and then. When I wrote an essay on heroic realism in music for the Austrian quarterly Neue Ordnung in 2009, I did not care about Der Blutharsch that much anymore. I was rather feeling my oats when I unceremoniously sent Albin an email, requesting a few statements about the subculture. His reply was short and upfront—he asserted that he had nothing to do with Neofolk and demanded to be left out of any such context. It took me some time to understand the blunder I had committed by referencing an older, similar Neue Ordnung text by some „Brynhild Amann“ in my request—none other than a former girlfriend and bandmate of his.
Now, all of this makes me smile. Albin Julius would certainly never have become one of the few real friends I met inside the scene. But those are personal sensitivities. The news of his death hit home, to my surprise. I am thankful not only for many, many hours of wonderful music with both Der Blutharsch and TMLHBAC, not to mention his numerous contributions to works of other artists like Death in June. I am also grateful for various interesting (and often strange) projects he helped to make famous as a producer and as the label executive of Wir Kapitulieren Niemals (WKN) and Hau Ruck!, first and foremost Dernière Volonté.
Farewell, old weirdo! Der Blutharsch lives on—no matter which creative phase.