Atrocity

Throughout their decades-spanning career, German heavy metal outfit Atrocity have proved themselves as one of the most versatile groups in the genre, effortlessly tackling everything from Gothic and industrial to symphonic metal. Led by singer and keyboardist Alexander Krull, the band began playing death metal in 1985 and made its official debut in 1989 with the EP Blue Blood. Their next two releases—1990's Hallucinations and 1992's Todessehnsucht—continued in the same vein, with the latter including a cover of Death's "Archangel." Over the next few years, Atrocity branched out into other genres, incorporating influences from literary horror (1994's Atrocity's Blut), industrial metal (1996's Willenskraft), and even recording a covers album of 1980s disco hits on 1997's Werk 80. The group continued to indulge their left-leaning tendencies on 2000's Gemini, a challenging album that included a cover of the classic German wartime song "Lili Marlene" as well as other ill-fated experiments. They would make a big comeback in 2004 with Atlantis, another concept album inspired by the mythological sunken continent. A second volume of the Work 80 series appeared in 2008 and peaked at Number 19 on the German charts, followed by the Yasmine Krull collaborative album After the Storm (2010). Released in 2013, Okkult found the group reconnecting with their death metal roots while experimenting with a more orchestral sound. The album would spawn two more volumes in 2018 and 2023 that entered the German charts at Number 37 and 32, respectively.