Der Blutharsch

Der Blutharsch ("snow drenched in blood", "dried blood" or "scab" -- but really a reference to a Swiss mercenary company circa 1600 AD) was the primary musical project of Austrian musician Albin Julius. In their early career, Der Blutharsch used neo-nazi and military aesthetics such as the Sig rune, Iron Cross and uniforms in covers, merchandise and concerts. The sound of the project uses heavily layered and textured neoclassical and martial themes which usually unfold over the course of a whole album. Individual tracks are almost always untitled. In its later days, Julius had moved on to psychadelic rock, oficially disbanding in 2010 and reforming as Der Blutharsch and the Infinite Church of the Leading Hand. Julius co-founded The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud along with his then-partner Alzbeth. This project produced more neofolk-based music, based around themes drawn from European history and folklore. Julius has also worked with Douglas P. on the Death In June albums Operation Hummingbird and Take Care & control, and with Boyd Rice on the NON album Children Of The Black Sun. He was also together with Douglas P. part of Boyd Rice and Fiends and has a techno-style project named La Maison Moderne. Despite denying any claims of neo-fascim in Der Blutharsch's music by Julius, a preliminary injunction against the weekly newspaper "Jungle World" calling the project a "Neo-Nazi Band" was denied by the regional court in Frankenthal, Germany. Arguing that the symbolism used in the project's concerts, merchandise and covers substantiated objective evidence of fascist and national socialist views, Julius' claim was officially dropped. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.