Essen.
Mono Inc. made it from the Gothic scene to the top of the charts. Indoor concerts are followed by a large open-air festival in Gelsenkirchen.
Black as a raven, as the title of their current album suggests, was certainly not the mood at Mono Inc.’s headquarters at the beginning of February this year. “Ravenblack”, the twelfth studio LP by the dark rockers, shot like its predecessor “The Book of Fire” (2020) from zero to one in the German charts.
The group around singer Martin Engler remains true to their recipe for success. Dark lacquered, catchy rock, which reminds of the cult band The Sisters of Mercy in many moments. Mono Inc. accepts the fact that the few German-language songs on the albums tend to drift into the pop genre: “We are very happy with what we wanted ourselves. And as a band you don’t always want to do the same thing, try something,” emphasizes Kalle “Carl Fornia” Engler (photo on the right), in an interview with this newspaper. He is a guitarist and brother of frontman Martin – who was still on the drums when the band was founded in 2003, but replaced singer Miky Mono three years later.
Mono Inc. made their breakthrough after touring with Unheilig
Shortly thereafter, Mono Inc. brought it to the attention of the goth scene. Songs like “Get Some Sleep”, “Symphony of Pain” and above all “Voices of Doom” quickly established themselves in the relevant DJ playlists and are still an integral part of the concerts today. The commercial breakthrough followed after a joint tour with Unheilig. The album “After the War” was released in 2012 and climbed to number six in the German charts. Since then, no LP has gone lower in the hit list.
Gone are the days when Mono Inc. mostly acted as the opening act for larger acts. In the meantime, the quartet is keen to experiment when choosing their supports. On the tour, which starts next Friday evening in Cologne (see information at the end of the text), Mono Inc. will be accompanied by the pirate folk rockers Storm Seeker. Appropriately, they released their third album “Nautic Force” on the same day with the NoCut record company.
On tour with the label colleagues
Incidentally, the managing director of the label is none other than Kalle Engler, who now has around 30 different bands under contract on NoCut. “It’s very time consuming, but also very fulfilling because we have an artist base that gives back a lot. We can also be a role model for young bands to stick with it after their first failures, because nobody wanted to listen to our first two albums either,” he explains.
Meanwhile, Mono Inc. have grown so much that they not only play headlining tours, but also organize their own festival. On the first weekend in September, the band invites you to the “20 years” anniversary with five other groups in Gelsenkirchen – the evening before there is a special fan event.
>>> INFO: Mono Inc. live
Mono Inc. on “Ravenblack” tour: 28.4. Cologne (7 p.m., Carlswerk Victoria), 29.4. Oberhausen (7 p.m., turbine hall). Tickets around 53 euros. Anniversary concert: 2.9. Gelsenkirchen (amphitheater). Tickets from around 60 euros.
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