Abwärts - Rod era CD collection

[originally posted May 10th 2024 on cohost]

Abwärts are an old underground post-punk band from the early 1980s Germany, who made a lasting impact during that time with the song Computerstaat and their albums AmokKoma and Der Westen ist einsam. During their early days, they shared some members with Einstürzende Neubauten, but the main guy behind the band has always been singer and guitarist Frank Z., who continued the project through a series of different lineup throughout the years. Although being generally considered a post-punk band, during the 90s, their music started to develop a much heavier edge, putting them at times closer to industrial metal than their post-punk origins, and on a similar sonic trajectory that their British post-punk contemporaries Killing Joke would go through. Many songs were based around heavy, cold and mechanical guitar riffs and continuous drum beats, that combined with Frank Z.'s flat and aggressive vocal delivery create a claustrophobic sense of bleakness.

After having called quits already once in the mid 80s and a second time in the late 90s, the final reunion of the band came in 2004, initiated by Rodrigo Gonzalez, most well known as the bassist of Die Ärzte, who in Abwärts took over the guitar. Together with drummer Martin Kessler, this was the first time the band would have a consistent lineup for an extended period of time (although with different bassists), lasting nearly 20 years, until the unfortunate death of Frank Z. in early 2024. Although to my knowledge no official announcement was made from the rest of the band, given that Frank Z. was the only consistent member throughout their history, I think it is safe to assume that this is it.

The albums of the Rod era largely continue the sound they developed in the 90s, from the brutal NuProp comeback in 2004 to the final, more gentle but still deeply cynical Superfucker in 2023, my personal favourite being 2007's Rom. I was able to catch them live in 2023, where I also picked up the 3 signed albums. By now I have most of their albums, only missing Comic-Krieg and their high demand low supply debut AmokKoma, which, if I ever will get a copy of at all, will certainly cost me a good chunk of money, but a complete Rod era I think for now is good enough for a post.

Although Frank Z. is a very highly regarded name in the German punk scene and the band got a new boost of attention in the 2000s through Rod's prominence in Die Ärzte, I feel like the more recent output is often not getting the recognition it deserves, which I think is a shame.