Apoptygma Berzerk. How can a Norwegian band from the small town of Fredrikstad, with such a tongue twisting name, become one of the leading EBM acts in Scandinavia and Europe? Many nowadays seem to think of Apop as a band, but whether it is a band or just an artist has always been unclear. Stephan Groth has always been the driving force between Apop, and therefore, it should be natural to begin with Stephan’s story.

Stephan Leonard Groth was born in Odense, Denmark 10th of August 1971, and is son of Jan Groth, a well known blues musician, and Lise Groth, a former DJ. With such a musical heritage, it is not hard to understand that Stephan and his brother Jonas had lots of musical influences during their childhood. In 1986 the groth family moved to Fredrikstad, Norway. And it was here, in this small town next to Oslo that Stephan and his friend Jon-Erik Martinsen would start Apoptygma Berzerk, the first EBM project in the history of Norway. And one can believe that it was very fortunate that Stephan would choose his own way and not follow in his fathers’ footprints of blue music. Instead, Stephan would choose the electronic way, inspired by the many electronic acts from Europe.

In 1990, a demo tape saw the light of day. Being sold in only 500 copies, this demo tape is now a rare collector’s item. The tape was released on an underground, possibly self-established label called Slusk Records. The demo, which was entitled “Victims of Mutilation”, was an instant hit among electro-fans in Norway and helped Apoptygma Berzerk gain a reputation, and it also secured a record deal with Norwegian underground label Tatra Records. In 1991, Tatra Records was proud to announce the first ever official Apoptygma Berzerk release. The 12” single “Ashes to Ashes”, limited to 500 copies only. This rare collector’s item also gave Apoptygma a wider reputation, and all through Europe people could be seen dancing to something different, something new, something strange and they wanted more. But at the time, there was a struggle within the project. Jon-Erik wasn’t pleased with the direction of the band as the material slowly became a lot more melodic. Stephan wanted to try new things and therefore was left on his own. Apoptygma Berzerk was now only in the hands of this strange 22 year old EBM-lover from Denmark. But Apop lived on. A new track was released on the compilation “Sex, Drugs and EBM” by Tatra and Apoptygma’s submission was the floorfiller “Burning Heretic” which instantly became one of the biggest EBM hits of the early 90’s in the underground clubs all over Europe. In 1992 Tatra Records released another Apop EP, “The 2nd Manifesto”. The biggest hit from this EP was definitely the dark and strange-sounding “Spiritual Reality”. The EP also included another version of “Burning Heretic” which was calmer and different to its previous version which was far more upbeat. Also the EP had an intro and outro, a rarity at its time, and it definitely makes it an outstanding piece of music history.

In 1993, Apoptygma Berzerk would make it’s first debut full length album, entitled “Soli Deo Gloria”, which means “To God’s Honor”. It is now regarded an EBM classic and included a lot of other hits in addition to the previous masterpieces. Among the most memorable pieces from this enigmatic album, is the cover of Velvet Underground’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties”, the first Apop cover song. It was quite different to its original and gave APB a reputation of certainly being something out of the ordinary.

In 1994 another single was released, entitled “Deep Red” and showed some techno influences. Apop would move in another direction, and Stephan worked with Geir Bratland on their techno sideproject h2o which was more techno-oriented than APB ever was. Stephan also released another sideproject entitled Total Transformation – In Thru Out, another techno/trance masterpiece. This work with other electronic genres was maybe the largest reason to Apoptygma’s gradually more techno-oriented sound and style. But after the release of Apop’s major classic “7” in 1996, the project met a conflict.

Stephan, not willing to be in the army because of being a pacifist, was forced to work at a mental hospital, doing community service. Naturally, this would mean no work on his music. But in 1997, Apop was ready to come back and in early 1998, Apop was introduced to the US, with great success. In 1998 Apop would also make their first tour around Europe. Stephan gathered Geir Bratland, his good friend and co-worker and Anders Odden, a guitarist he had worked with before on Soli Deo Gloria, and they would form the live-version of Apoptygma Berzerk. Ready to blow audiences away in Germany, France and Sweden, Apop now started the 1998 Europe tour. Luckily for those who weren’t able to be there, the APB crew recorded most of the songs and even stuff that went on during the tour inside the nightliner. In 1999, the live album APBL98 was released, limited to 10,000 copies only. It was released with a media disc that featured footage from the tour and other rarities for the fans, including the Deep Red music video.

During the release of this album, Apoptygma was already working on material for a new album and in 1998 they had already released its first single, Paranoia. They released a second single in 99, entitled Eclipse, which was more techno and dance oriented than any previous APB work. It featured lyrics that grasped popular American belief in alien existence and was a major club hit in Europe. In 2000 “Welcome to Earth” was released and it completely stunned the fans, having a lot more dance-oriented style as made clear by the hit single Eclipse. It still had some experimental tracks and continued Apop’s use of samples from movies. Most recognizable is the samples from Blair Witch Project in Untitled 3. But something was written on the cover. “This is the end of the first phase… now it’s time to move on”. What would Stephan mean by that? Maybe this was referring to Apop’s far more electronic style in the future works.

Stephan gathered Rico Darum, Geir Bratland and Ted Skogmann, and joined by support acts VNV Nation and Carpe Diem, Apop went on another tour, namely the “Welcome to Earth” tour which sent Apop not only across Europe, but also to the US. Footage from this tour was released on the DVD + CD set APBL2000.

In 2001, Apoptygma’s most commercially successful single so far would be released. The synthpop classic “Kathy’s Song” which featured a duet between Stephan and a Mac voice synthesizer is probably one of the best Apop songs made to this date and is by many fans considered a live favorite. This also marked the new direction for the band. In 2002 another single was released entitled “Until the End of the World” and it was the first single from the forthcoming Harmonizer album. The single was an immidate club hit and the album itself was released later. Harmonizer left many fans disappointed while some loved the new direction.

Harmonizer was mainly collaboration between Stephan Groth and Alon Cohen, an American producer that usually worked with hiphop and other mainstream music. Stephan has stated though that this didn’t matter to him as he had known Alon from before that and that Alon actually had many of the same influences. “Harmonizer” was and still is the most electro-oriented Apop album to this date and was mostly a very personal album for Stephan. Stephan claimed that the album is about being positive and optimistic, because that was how he would get himself out of tricky situations at the time. Another hit single, Suffer in Silence was released and Apop recorded two music videos for their hit singles in the Nevada desert.

Harmonizer was released on Hard:Drive, Stephan’s own new label as he had moved away from former Tatra Records which in 2004 went bankrupt. Harmonizer was released by Warner Music in the US and sold more copies than any Apop album to that date. Meanwhile Stephan would go together with two females and work on the sideproject Fairlight Chidlren which continued the synthpop oriented sound from Harmonizer. This was released in 2003. In 2003 Apoptygma Berzerk would then begin the “World Harmony” tour. Most of the footage from the tour was released on the “Harmonizer DVD” which also included an entire concert, as the first Apoptygma DVD ever to do so. The DVD included the Unicorn EP which featured a new version of Unicorn with a now more guitar oriented sound. This would point the new direction of Apoptygma, relying more on guitars and live drums than sequencers and synthesizers as in the past.

The future of Apoptygma Berzerk is very unclear, but it’s very likely to continue in other directions and maybe end up as something completely different, or it may go back to its roots one day, who knows. One thing is for sure though, love is forever.


Author: Qwayke101