Knorkator

Knorkator
Stumpen, Buzz Dee, Alf Ator (from left)
Background information
Origin	Berlin, Germany
Genres	Heavy metal, Neue Deutsche Härte, Comedy Rock
Years active	1994–2008; 2011-present
Labels	Tubareckorz, Nuclear Blast Records
Website	http://www.knorkator.de/
Members	Stumpen (Gero Ivers) Alf Ator (Alexander Thomas) Buzz Dee (Sebastian Baur) (since 1996) Rajko Gohlke (since 2010) Nick Aragua (Nicolaj Gogow) (2003–2012, since 2014)
Past members	J. Kirk Thiele (until 1997) Thomas Görsch (until 1998) Chrish Chrash (Christian Gerlach) (1998-2003) Tim Buktu (Tim Schallenberg) (2003-2008) Sebhead Emm (Sebastian Meyer) (2012-2014)

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 name "Knorkator" is a personification of "knorke", a dated adjective used in Berlin and the Ruhr basin meaning "great" or "fabulous" (similar to the English slang word "swell"). 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 zun Schwein (sic; literally, in Berlin dialect, "I'm turning into a pig") in the German national qualification for the Eurovision Song Contest. After the qualification show, German tabloid BILD notoriously headlined "Wer ließ diese Irren ins Fernsehen?" ("Who let these lunatics on TV?").

Knorkator announced the end of the band in a MySpace bulletin on June 14, 2008, the last concert was played on December 5 that year in Berlin. The official reason given for the band's breakup was that Alf Ator wanted to leave Germany to start a new life in Thailand. In autumn 2010 a bulletin by Stumpen announced the bands' reunion. A first "small" tour followed in April 2011 as well as some concerts at well-known festivals like Wacken Open Air. The tour was called the "77 minutes tour", as the setlist was planned to be exactly 77 minutes long. A digital clock that counted down the minutes was placed on stage to make sure the time limit was not exceeded. Their new album "Es werde Nicht" (translates to "Let there be Not" or "Let Not Be", a pun on "Es werde Licht" - "Let there be Light") has been released in September 2011, followed by a big tour with concerts of regular length.

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.