After more than 25 years of silence, Black Blood returns.
Emerging from the underground of 1990s Dresden — from illegal factory parties, air-raid shelter clubs and hand-pressed vinyl — Black Blood carved out a sound that stood apart. Dark, melodic, uncompromising, and emotionally charged, it sat alongside the likes of Brutal Chud and Rage while never quite sounding like anyone else.
Now, in 2026(66), the project resurfaces — not through nostalgia, but through rediscovery. Found again by a new generation and reactivated after decades of dormancy, in this interview, Steffen opens up about the early days of East German rave culture, hardware-only production, Frontline Of Sound, lost pressings, underground tunnels, and why melody has always mattered more than noise.
HCBX: Alright Steffen — how the hell are you? Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. Looking forward to you bringing out some new (old) music. Black Blood has been out of the picture for a while. Personally I have been very happy to say the name and online presence pop up again over the last while, and great to see that you are picking up musical projects again. Do we call it a comeback? Or have you been here for years? What's bringing you back?
BB: Thank you, Andrew, for your interest in me and my music! I'm doing very well and I'm thrilled to finally release my Black Blood project after 25 years of stagnation! My comeback wasn't my own idea. Lars (Pardonax) found me some time ago on Discogs after a long search and contacted me. I was amazed by his persistence in his research, especially since he was only just born when the last Black Blood album was released. The fact that my music still resonates with a young person of today's generation has deeply impressed me! Lars is the archaeologist of hardcore.
HCBX: How did you first get into Hardcore Techno and the harder styles of electronic music? Was it a specific track, event or DJ that lit the spark for you?
BB: In 1992, Dresden's first techno club, the "Dance Fabrik," opened its dark basement rooms on Hamburger Straße, welcoming countless dance-crazed clubbers. Every Saturday from 10 PM to 5 AM, we were there. I still vividly remember the first time we, as 15-year-old kids, descended the stairs and pushed open a heavy sliding door. A deafening sound assaulted our ears, accompanied by strobe lights and fog. You couldn't see a thing! (A nightmare for today's "I film everything" smartphone generation!) The Dance Fabrik also regularly hosted hardcore events featuring local DJs and the Hakke Crew from Chemnitz. DJ BA (later a member of BORSCHTSCH) was dedicated to the Dutch gabber sound, and so Euromasters' "Alles Naar de Kl--te" inevitably found its way into our lives. Mescalinum United's "We have arrived" and Program 1's "Louder than a Bomb EP" also left a lasting impression on me with their extremely nasty sounds, and the path deep into hardcore had become irreversible.
HCBX: Tell us about your early days producing — when did you start making tracks and what was that learning curve like for you? Was it a gradual thing or straightaway something you got obsessed with?
BB: Before I started producing my own music, DJing was, of course, another thing I did. Until the political changes of 1989, Dresden was part of East Germany, a socialist dictatorship with state-owned enterprises that barely allowed any private business. When history abruptly changed in 1989, the political and economic restructuring left most of these state-owned enterprises empty. This suddenly created a lot of unregulated space for the subculture. People simply went into abandoned factories and threw illegal parties. At one of these parties in the long-forgotten "Steamboiler" in 1994, I met my good friend Stefan/Noize Creator. Since then, we've DJed together more often and met up at Hardwax Dresden to buy records. He would drive to Hardwax in a small Ford Fiesta, where he would always play me his latest productions on cassette. He once said to me during one of these sessions: "If you can tap your foot to the beat, then it's a good track!"
This was the time shortly before his first release on JUNCALOR RECORDS and shortly before the founding of BRUTAL CHUD by Stefan and Mirko Rotzsch (co-owners of Hardwax Dresden). This development sparked my decision to also start producing, but my sonic standards were somewhat higher. Making music with a computer was out of the question for me. It all began on February 21, 1996, with the delivery of the QUASIMIDI RAVEN, a synthesizer with an integrated pattern-based sequencer. I quickly realized that this alone wasn't enough. So, the QUASIMIDI QUASAR and the QUASIMIDI 309 followed shortly after. With this equipment, I created my first track, "The Number," that same year, which was also released on the BRUTAL CHUD 06 Cannibalistic Underground sampler. The famous 666 sample, which others had also borrowed from Iron Maiden before me, was played live using a Roland MS-1 sampler whose MIDI function was unfortunately broken. This setup also produced the tracks that were originally intended for BRUTAL CHUD 12, which, as we all know, never came to fruition. In 1997, I expanded my equipment with a YAMAHA Promix 01 digital mixer, a YAMAHA A3000 sampler, and a KAWAI K5000 workstation synthesizer. The only change to this setup to this day has been the addition of the NATIVE INSTRUMENTS MASCHINE in the 2010s. I still don't use any sequencer software to create and edit tracks. Everything happens in the 40-track sequencer of the KAWAI K5000W. All the equipment is functional and currently in use.
HCBX: Which producers at the time inspired you and why? What other hardcore music were you into?
BB: I was very inspired back then by the Frankfurt sound of labels like Kotzaak, Super Special Corp., and Cold Rush... Their consistently excellent productions with their dark atmosphere were right up my alley! The Australian Heutling brothers with their unmistakable Rage Records sound, as well as Mark Newlands and his Bloody Fist Gang, were also unrivalled! All the records by the Danish acid god Lasse Steen have also found their way into my collection. I DJed with him and Noize Creator on one of the floats at the first Fuckparade in Berlin in 1998. I'm sure I played Simon Underground's Crapshoot 666 there. Probably the record I've played most ever! "Diiiiiiiiiiie"
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HCBX: What memories do you have of that period? Where there any parties or gigs that you have been to/appeared in the you'd class as a highlight?
BB: There are so many great memories from that time! I once DJed with S37 and Noize Creator in an underground tunnel somewhere in Dresden. Imagine the location like the tunnel from The Prodigy's "Firestarter" video, only much bigger! It was truly underground! Unfortunately, I'd never find the place again. Another great party was with the guys in an abandoned dairy. The whole room was filled with metal, which made for a very powerful and memorable sound! On April 12, 1996, our first and only Brutal Chud label party, "Trashdance," took place in Chemnitz, as this picture (below) shows! From left to right: Noize Creator, S37, DJ IMP, Black Blood, AKA.ST-14. Re.Pete must have taken the photo. DJ IMP ran the REPHLEX club in Dresden for a while, where Cannibalistic Underground often played as residents. REPHLEX was a windowless air-raid shelter beneath a former kindergarten and really not easy to find, or so we thought. But for some young men from Australia, it was apparently no problem to locate our club in those days when the only navigational aid was a map.
Bloody Fist were touring Europe in 1997 and were in Leipzig on October 24th, 1997. That was a Friday. Since the guys wanted to do something on Saturday, they asked if there was a hardcore party happening anywhere. Someone gave them a tip about our party at REPHLEX in Dresden. Without further ado, they borrowed an East German car (a Trabant or Wartburg) and drove even further east on their own to show up at our door as a kind of "raid squad." Everyone was speechless with astonishment, and it took a while for the last person to realize who was making their way behind the turntables. Naturally, they were immediately allowed to take over the controls, and Mark N. played one of his amazing sets, which I still have on cassette and will release on the Black Blood YouTube channel in the near future. Lasse Steen also visited us at REPHLEX with his Roland collection in tow and played a fantastic live set, which will also be available on my channel at some point.
HCBX: You make music under a few aliases, obviously Black Blood but also Steven Sick and Lilo where you've have an EP on each. What made you decide to release under a few different names?
BB: On Frontline Of Sound, I only released my own music. My Steven Sick project was a bit more experimental and not as dark as the Black Blood sound. The LILO EP on Noize Creator's Suburban Trash Industries was created under the immediate impression of the untimely death of my art teacher. Her nickname was Lilo. She died a slow death in a hospice. That affected me deeply at the time.
HCBX: The Black Blood sound is a fairly unique one in my opinion. It fit in with more darker industrial and terror releases on the likes of Brutal Chud and Rage, but your sound always felt more melodic (but still darker as feck!) than some of the other music in those styles coming out at the time which was very interesting. How did you develop your sound?
BB: It has always been my ambition to stand out from the crowd. Even in hardcore, there's mainstream, and many people feel the need to tell you that only the sounds are cool, only the speed is right...blah, blah... I don't think in categories and I agree with a quote from Björk: "Music isn't a cabinet with many drawers, but a large pot where everything belongs and you have to stir it vigorously!" Especially with heavy music, you have so much boundless freedom! You don't have to please anyone or meet any expectations. You can basically do whatever you want. I had and still have an abstract idea of how music should sound to me. It can't be put into words, but a melody is always part of it. You can't remember drums, noise sounds! Only the structure of a melody sticks in your mind. And especially dark, powerful, euphoric melodic progressions are much more enduring and, under certain circumstances, evoke genuine emotions. Personally, I also always like a sense of tension in a track. Don't rush straight on from the first second; feel free to take a breather now and then. I enjoy making films with an audio track.
HCBX: Do you think there are specific influences from other hardcore or other genres that shaped this sound?
BB: My whole life shapes my sound. Everything I see and hear. I have a heightened awareness of things, or sounds, that others might overlook, and I find answers within them. Inspiration can be found everywhere!
HCBX: Your label Frontline of Sound - what made you decide to go down this path? It was a platform for your music like a few producers at the time ended up doing, but what was your original plan for FOS?
BB: My primary goal with Frontline Of Sound was to meet my own high standards. I was thrilled to have a track on each of Rage Records issues 4 and 7, because the first three Rage releases were distributed by PCD, who pressed their records in Germany, a guarantee of excellent quality. The Brutal Chud records, on the other hand, were all cheap pressings from the Czech pressing plant GZ Vinyl. The irony is that starting with Rage 04, Steffen Kuschel of Sound Base took over distribution and production, and he too favoured the cheap Czech pressings. We were quite annoyed, and that's how I decided to start my own label. FOS 01 was a Pallas pressing, while FOS 02 and 03 were from Optimal. Both are very good German pressing plants.
HCBX: Have you called it a day on FOS, or is this something you would like to get back into?
BB: Glad you asked! The new FOS 04 will be released in May after 26 years of silence.
In collaboration with Simon Underground, who was also aware of my Black Blood comeback and has described himself as a big fan of my music, the mysterious Black Blood Exitus 02 "Phase One" EP is being re-released on Frontline Of Sound.
It includes the original EP plus the previously unreleased track "Avalanche of Fear," which was created during the same period. Limited and numbered to 150 copies. All sleeves are hand-printed by me in two colors, based on the original lettering. This makes each record unique. I've also created nine different Black Blood art cards, which I'll randomly include in nine sleeves. Let's see who the lucky finders will be!
HCBX: Out of all you have been involved in in your musical endeavours what has been your proudest moment? Also which of all the tracks you have released is your favourite?
BB: I'm proud that my track "UTA" is featured on the only release by the sadly deceased DJane Sextoy, aka Delphine Palatsi. Her iconic grave in the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris is now more well-known than she was during her lifetime. It features a bronze sculpture in the shape of a record player with the SEXTOY logo. Being included on Bloody Fist founder Mark Newland's "Stuck in Stallis" mixtape also undoubtedly makes me proud, as does being part of the Rage Records catalog. I don't have a favourite track. I've invested a lot of time in every single piece, and I'm all the more pleased today that there are still people around the world who appreciate my music.
HCBX: Can you talk about your 2026(66) projects coming up? You've talked about releasing "brand old music" - some unreleased stuff from back in the day? Any plans for newer stuff?
BB: 202666 is the bridge from the beginning in 1996 with the 666 song on Brutal Chud, to the year 2026, when in my first sign of life after over 20 years the sample appears again. I also have a great desire to produce new music again, especially since there are two requests from Germany and Sweden for one release each. Frontline Of Sound 05 will also be able to feature new sounds. The creativity level is still at 100%, and I myself am curious how Black Blood will sound in 2026.
HCBX: You've very kindly offered to throw together a Black Blood vinyl set for HCBXCast. Do you do much mixing these days? And any plans to ramp this up?
BB: I haven't mixed in a long time. Let's see if it still works? I don't know if I would DJ anywhere these days. At most at a self-curated event. When I watch videos of some parties on various channels, there are always lots of colorful lights flashing. It looks like a completely normal disco. Terrible! Strobe lights and plenty of fog, that's all you need for the visual accompaniment to brutal music! Everything else is child’s play and only serves so that everyone can film the amazing 'hands up in the air' DJ doing his 'job.' Back then, we simply didn’t have the time during a set to take our hands off the turntables/mixer just to keep waving! But oh well, that’s just how it is.
HCBX: What's your take on hardcore techno and the harder styles these days? There seems to be a sub genre for everything!
BB: Yes, the inventiveness in coming up with new names for more and more categories seems to be limitless! Very funny! First and foremost, I’m glad that 'Hardcore will never die' was not just a catchphrase, and that it still seems to be very alive worldwide. But basically, there hasn’t been any development in this area since the early 2000s, which I find a shame.
HCBX: What music are you enjoying these days?
BB: I have a very wide range! I listen to a lot of classical music! At the top of my list is Johann Sebastian Bach with his chamber music solo works for piano and cello! I have also been engaging with the compositions of Niccolò Paganini for years. I am also very fond of jazz with its many possibilities. Furthermore, I listen to a lot of Icelandic music, especially BJÖRK, of course! She is one of my greatest sources of inspiration! I go to concerts by very diverse artists such as Portishead, CocoRosie, MÚM, Einstürzende Neubauten, Flying Lotus, Sufjan Stevens, Son Lux, Bohren und der Club of Gore, Portico Quartet, Den Sorte Skole, The Cinematic Orchestra, Nils Frahm, Benjamin Clementine, Högni, Aphex Twin, Alfa Mist, Hania Rani, Asaf Avidan, to name just a few. Since 2001, I have attended over 250 shows, not counting classical concerts. Music has always been a very important part of my life!
HCBX: Finally anything else you want to get off your chest?
BB: I would like to mention that good films and good art are very important as inspiration for me! Watch all the films by the following directors: David Lynch, Béla Tarr, Gaspar Noe, Lars von Trier, Nicolas Winding Refn, Giuseppe Tornatore, Denis Villeneuve, Anders Thomas Jensen! Look at all the paintings by the following artists: Johannes Vermeer, Hieronymus Bosch, David Schnell, Jonas Burgert, Martin Kobe, Pierre Soulages! Thank you very much, Andrew, for your questions! I hope my answers were insightful!
A massive thanks to Black Blood for taking the time to answer some questions (And also thank you to Low Entropy, who helped check over my translation of the interview). Very good to see him back, and releasing music again. The Black Blood special on HCBXCast will be coming soon...
