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Knorkator
"Germany's most band in the world"
"Germany's most band in the world"
Background information
Origin Flag of Germany Berlin, Germany
Genre(s) Comedy-Industrial metal
Years active 1994-present
Label(s) Megaforce Records
Elektra Records
Warner Bros. Records
Nuclear Blast Records
Website http://www.knorkator.de/
Members
Stumpen (voc)
Buzz Dee (guit)
Alf Ator (voc, keys)
Nick Daniels (dr)
Tim Beam (bass)
Former members
Kirk Thiele (guit)
Chrish Chrash (dr)

Knorkator is a German band from Berlin that combines heavy metal with comical elements. They proclaim themselves to be "Germany's most band in the world" (German: "Deutschlands meiste Band der Welt"), as the title "The best band in the world" was already taken by Die Ärzte. The band was founded in 1994 but only played in the Berlin / Brandenburg area until 1998.

Knorkator gained further fame (and some notoriety) in 2000 with their performance of Ick wer zum Schwein (sic; literally, in Berlin dialect, "I'm turning into a pig") in the German national qualification for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Knorkator announced the end of the band in a MySpace-Bulletin on June 14th.

Contents

Style

Knorkator's music can be largely classified as industrial metal, somewhat akin to White Zombie and Ministry; Knorkator, however, strongly features a comedic element. Most songs escalate into falsetto vocals and bombastic, over-the-top anthemic choruses, with crushing guitars and subtle samplers. Due to the amusing message, however, the band's considerable technical and artistic merit is sometimes overlooked.

Knorkator's lyrics are somewhat explicit, but always very humorous:

  • "Ich lass mich klonen" deals with the advantages of cloning oneself, hence sparing the effort of masturbation
  • "VIVA Buzz Dee" is a worship-anthem towards guitarist Buzz Dee
  • "Wie weit ist es bis zum Horizont" wonders about the metaphor of the distance to the horizon, but continues to calculate it with equations
  • "Komm wieder her" compares life's grayness without a former lover to "the grayness of the liver sausage under the bed"
  • "Weg nach unten" describes a depressed person digging himself into the earth; what appears to be metaphorical at first is in the end revealed to be meant literally: "Dann kommt Licht und ein Känguruh, und ich weiß ich bin zu weit" ("Then there's light and a kangaroo, and I know I've gone too far")
  • "Nur mal Angenommen" is a monologue inside the singer's head, where he wonders what would happen if he was flexible enough to stick his head up into his anus. The main question he deals with are "Where would I come out?"
  • The aptly named "A" only contains the lyrics "A / A / A / A", which are in fact four choruses of a lengthy distorted scream.

Most of Knorkator's lyrics are in German; however, some songs also feature English ("beating around the bush", "Ma Baker", etc.), Thai ("Mai khao djai", "Khid tyng baan"), Latin ("Aeger sum"), or French ("Ma belle fêmme", "Franz Hose") lyrics - these songs are often extreme covers of previously well-known hit songs.

Knorkator's wild stage shows and appearance are analogously chaotic: half of Stumpen's body is tattooed black, and he usually performs in his goofy underpants; Buzz Dee's appearance is often cited as being a clone of "Big" Jim Martin.

Origin of the name

The name "Knorkator" is, so it is generally assumed, derived from "knorke", a word used in Berlin and the Ruhr basin meaning "great" or "fabulous" that has, however, fallen into disuse and is somewhat dated (similar to the English slang word "swell"). The suffix -ator alludes to the endings of powerful and muscular superheroes like "terminator", "gladiator", "predator", etc. Thus an appropriate translation would be "Swellinator". As Knorkator state: "We wanted to become the best and finest music superheroes" (German: „Wir wollten also die besten und tollsten Musiksupermänner werden.“ - „Tarebuch“, January 15, 2006).

Members

  • Stumpen (or Stumpennsylvania) - vocals
  • Buzz Dee (or Buzz Deenemark) - guitar
  • Alf Ator (or Alf Ghanistan) - vocals, keyboards, songwriting, arrangement
  • Nick Aragua (or Nick Daniels) - drums
  • Tim Buktu (or Tim Beam) - bass

Former members

Discography

Filmography

Literature

External links
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