ArtistInfo

Capital Hell

Band,
Rock and Electronic

It was back in 1989 when Capital Hell's mastermind, Marc Heppener, founded his first band. Schizophrenia Simplex was born. With the support of several friends Marc was able to showcase his love of early Goth Rock tunes. It was a classic line-up of vox, guitars, and drums. The first songs were quickly recorded, but the band disappeared as quickly as it was born. For the first time after the split of Schizophrenia Simplex, Marc began experimenting with his newly bought synthesizer. He was inspired by great artists such as The Klinik, Psyche, The Neon Judgement and Click Click. During this time Marc composed his first pure electronic tracks. In 1990 Marc befriended Andreas Schnödewind, who was also steadily composing songs with his equipment. Together they formed Capital Hell, the name Marc had already picked for his first solo project, as a pure electronic duo. Within a short amount of time Marc and Andreas released their first two official Capital Hell demo tapes. "Capital Hell" was put out in 1991 and in 1992 the greatly improved "Geometric Circle" followed. The latter contained several rough mixes of Capital Hell songs which were later re-recorded and re-released on their first cd album. In 1992, Capital Hell played their first concert. They played as special support for the EBM duo Page 12 in a local club. Due to good demo tape sales and some nice articles in the local press, Capital Hell was offered to be the support for the French cult electronic erotique band Die Form at the legendary eXX in Moers. Shortly thereafter, Marc and Andreas argued about their different visions concerning Capital Hell's future, which led to another split. Again, Capital Hell was put on hold. In 1994 Marc met guitar player Thomas Ehmann at a Secret Discovery concert in the Far Out club in Emmerich. Thomas had already played in several punk and hardcore bands. Marc's long time dream of combining Gothic Rock elements with old school electronics finally seemed to be coming true. Thomas Thyssen, another good friend of Marc's, had followed Capital Hell's history with great interest and he learned about the reunion of the band. Marc soon offered Thomas a place in Capital Hell and asked him for further support. Thomas took the place behind the keyboards, wrote lyrics and took care of the backing vocals as well as the band's management. In this trio line-up the next Capital Hell demo tape, "Morbit", was recorded. Thanks to that demo, Alfred Kaenders of Celtic Circle Productions showed interest and Capital Hell was signed. The future would show that this relationship was not necessarily the best. In January 1996, the three-piece played their first warm-up gig as support for the Berlin based Electro Wave band The Dust of Basement. Soon thereafter their first compilation and appearance "Moonchild" (which is _not_ a Fields of the Nephilim cover!) occurred when participating on a "The Torturer" tape sampler, compiled by Wolfgang Scholz (2) of No Control Torture and Scarlet Harbour, which was put out by the back then very active and highly influential s/t Goth fanzine. A couple of weeks later Séba Dolimont of the Belgian Side-Line magazine contacted Capital Hell's HQ. He wanted to use the song "Leaving Love" for his new compilation "Gothic Enigma Vol. 1". In addition to that Jörg Kleudgen from The House of Usher and then editor in chief of the German Gothic Grimoire magazine, did an in depth interview with the band and even offered them a spot on the magazine's "The Gothic Grimoire - Compilation 2/1996". Everyone agreed on using the heavily US Goth inspired "Pray" on this sampler. Together with Peter Jutz (Page 12) Capital Hell recorded their first maxi-cd "Vow Of Tension" at Yellow Edge Studios in Krefeld, Germany. This EP was a special limited edition of 1000 copies. It contained exclusive material, which was not put on the first album. The very electronic 12" mixes of "Moonchild" and "No Shame" were frequently seen on DJ playlists. Meanwhile, the acoustic version of "Rabella" and the exclusive "Your Beauty" were headed into more of the gothy direction. At Pop.Komm 1996 in Cologne, "My God" was released on the V.A. "Celtic Circle Sampler Part IV". It gained a lot of interest from the well known Zillo magazine. Zillo editor Sven Freuen then did an interview with the band. A couple of months later "My God" was put onto the first ever "Zillo Club-Hits" compilation. It made that very song the most popular Capital Hell track ever. The official debut album "Stories Of Passion And Seriousness" was released several weeks later. Its release party was held on May 31st in 1997 at the eXX in Moers. Capital Hell's special guests for the evening were their friends of In Mitra Medusa Inri. Sadly enough Capital Hell's story ended in early 1998. Alhough the band played a lot of very successful concerts (i.e. E-dry in Geldern, downtown in Voerde, Pop.komm Festival in Rhenania, Cologne) it was mainly due to their label's extremely unprofessional approach that the band chose to split up. These days Marc Heppener is still producing songs on his own. Thomas Ehmann went back to his roots and has played with several Rock bands. Thomas Thyssen is the only one who remained a steady part of the "scene" throughout the years. He is still working as a music journalist, DJ, and concert promoter.

Members

	Thomas Thyssen syn, dr, bvoc *1978 DE
	Thomas Ehmann g
	Marc Heppener voc, dr, syn