The band changed name from THIS DYING AGE to KISS THE BLADE in 1992, which proves maturity; from THE FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM to THE SISTERS OF MERCY; from fantasy to reality. Since 1988 Paul Cuska has been writing songs, some of which still are in the band's repertoire (e.g. "WARD", even if only as a joke ... the humourside of KTB). But it was not until 1991 that he convinced his former schoolmates Florian Neyer (bass) and Berndt Stalzer (guitar) to pick up instruments and got THIS DYING AGE ready to gig. But soon it was no longer justifiable for Paul to release his most precious musical and lyrical output under a name coming from a band dealing with ancient gods, Crowley-magickal terms and other unreal things (waste of time), and the perfect suitable replacement was found very quickly: KISS THE BLADE (from "Blood Money" - THE SISTERS OF MERCY). Also as a sign of a certain respect for A. Eldritch, but never crossing the line between respect and hero-worshipping.
THIS
DYING AGE, Jan. 1 1992
Berndt Stalzer, Paul Cuska, Florian Neyer
Berndt Stalzer left for university-work and was soon replaced by Andreas Hausbacher on guitars. For a short time Florian Juen joined the band as a second guitarist, but was replaced again quite soon by a never failing tapemachine, which also started to do the live-drums, which formerly had come from the drum machine. Without much stage experience but with constant rehersals KTB established themselves as a powerful, professional live steam- machine. 1993 they released their first demo on the independent tape- label TROST in Vienna, simply called "KISS THE BLADE", with six songs and a multicoloured cover. The soundquality was quite clean already, but the recordings were not self confident enough to express the big amount of anger lying in their material.
KISS
THE BLADE 1994
Paul Cuska, Florian Neyer, Andreas Hausbacher
This changed with the second demo called "DAY X" recorded in 1994, totally produced by Paul himself. It also contained 6 songs, but with a special band live-photography enclosed. 300 copies of each tape were made and got KISS THE BLADE a big positive reputation all over the world to stand out amongst the mass of new guitar-based Goth bands. Everyone of the first 12 released songs got used on some compilation, be it tape or CD, except the instrumental "AFTER THE PHANTOM KISS", which became the opener of a goth radio show in France. Both tapes sold out quite quickly before the release of the band's debut CD, the mini-album "WALK THE KNIFE'S EDGE" on Nottingham's NIGHTBREED label, home of EVERY NEW DEAD GHOST, RESTORATION, MIDNIGHT CONFIGURATION, SUSPIRIA and others. For the recordings Paul decided to book a studio in Goth's home country England and was not disappointed, nor was the public. Already the demos had got immensely praised in fanzines all over the world, but the CD's reviews topped all former feedbacks. After a few one-off gigs KISS THE BLADE toured England in December 1994 with three other bands (VENDEMMIAN, England and INTO THE ABYSS and SWEET WILLIAM, both Germany), during which KTB co-headlined the final gig at the famous Marquee-club in London.
GOTHS
UNITED at the Marquee, London, Dec. 11 1994
The tour was a big success, still a few weeks later Andreas decided to leave the band for various reasons, discontent with the band's musical style being the biggest of them, and left as a pal together with Flo, who surprisingly decided the same another few weeks later (for the same reasons and under the same friendly circumstances) after two gigs in Germany and the impressive "goodbye"-gig in Innsbruck's Utopia on April 27th 1995. The CD sold very well, the first edition of 500 copies (with white background, later editions with grey) sold out 2 months after release, and before putting together a live-line up Paul decided to record the material for the fulltime album and booked some weeks in London's River Recording studios (former St. Marks) again for July/August 1995 (including two cover versions: "The Drowning" by CHRISTIAN DEATH and the massive, out-of-this-world version of "Deadly Sins" by the glorious VIRGIN PRUNES).
River
Recordings Studio, London, July 1995
Due to personal problems and difficulties with labels it was not until February 1996 that Paul/KISS THE BLADE signed to ALICE IN ... records in Germany. The album got called "BLACK AS DISILLUSION" and it contains 14 songs (including 2 cover versions and 2 hidden tracks). Not too satisfied with neither the London-mixes nor the following mixes in Austria Paul went to Thommy Hein's Studio in Berlin for 2 weeks (Hein produced various albums for DREADFUL SHADOWS, also one for GITANE DEMONE amongst others), where the CD got its today's sound. It got released in Winter '97/'98 and received extremely respectful and encouraging reviews from all over the world. But before that Paul recorded the required cover version "A Wing And A Prayer" for the "Forevermore"-Tribute To THE MISSION compilation put out by Equinoxe-Records in Germany, which was rejected by the people in charge (see interviews for details).
Judgement
Day 1 Festival, May 9 1998
On May 9 1998 the three-year-lasting absence from the stage ended with a storming "we're back"-performance at the first JUDGEMENT DAY Festival in Dornbirn / Austria (put up by Paul himself and his long-time-pal Jürgen Jakob / SOLACE Promotion, who helped out at every single KISS THE BLADE gig in various functions since he first saw the band in 1994). Carsten Girke from DARC ENTRIES, a befriended band for several years, and the band Paul joined on guitars in 1996, kindly accepted to overtake the bass part for future KISS THE BLADE gigs. For that particular year's concerts intermediate D.E. guitarist Gerrit Schilling helped out on guitars.
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 Gerrit Schilling, Carsten Girke, Paul Cuska having a jolly time in Strasbourg |
After the 3 festival gigs (J-Day 1, Strasbourg Goth-Meeting & the final Sacrosanct) and in spite of the overwhelming reactions of the crowds it has been decided not to continue performing with this line-up.
Strasbourg
Gothic Meeting, Aug. 1 1998
The following months were not entirely used up by KISS THE BLADE related matters, but nevertheless after the German distributor SEMAPHORE to which the label ALICE IN... and "Black As Disillusion" were tied to had hit financial buffers at the time of the album's release (and consequently the album did not SELL ALL TOO WELL...) Paul started writing new songs and in young German label HÖLLENFEUER he found a new partner to put out the next album.
As some sort of "sign of life" the new song "Carrigan" was released on the "Abby club hits compilation vol.2" in 1999 and it received fabulous reviews from the press as well as from DJs around the globe. The 2nd full length album "Headcrash - A Romance" was recorded in October 1999 and released in February 2000, earning praise like "logical successor of 'First And Last And Always'" (see interviews and reviews for further details). Like its predecessor it features 2 cover versions, the first being "Final Chapter" by one of Paul's favourite bands ever (if not the favourite band) ALTERED STATES, the second being the before-mentioned "A Wing And A Prayer".
To support the album with some live gigs, while on the other hand being hindered by the lack of a somewhat constant and reliable line-up, KISS THE BLADE agreed to perform at festivals only, playing in front of enthusiastic fans from all over Europe both at the J-Day in Dornbirn again as well as at the Leipzig Wave-Gotik-Treffen on saturday (before it went bust). Live guitars were provided by Gerhard Hutter, who also kindly agreed to help out, and to a much more satisfying extent than his predecessor.
Gerhard
Hutter, Leipzig June 10 2000
"Headcrash" went into 2nd pressing even before Leipzig, which made the album the best selling album for KISS THE BLADE up to then as well as the one of two selling ones of HÖLLENFEUER / STURMHÖHE Label. The Label management rethought their policy and decided to back off a little concerning advertising and other public relation strategies, as well as reducing the output down to the two selling ones: FLIEHENDE STÜRME and KISS THE BLADE.
Alone, KISS THE BLADE's public relation policy differed somewhat to the label's, especially with the new and 3rd album that was about to be developed in 2001. Understanding and respecting each other's point of view, KISS THE BLADE parted from HÖLLENFEUER and found a new home in UpSolution Recordings, the home of DARC ENTRIES and KAINS KINDER amongst others.
UpSolution Recordings immediately d'accorded to release this upcoming stomper of an album as soon as possible, and even agreed to push interest by releasing a limited edition DVD-box with special goodies like bonus tracks, a multimedia part, autographed fotos and a sticker.
 regular album CD |
 limited edition DVD-box |
"Heartbeat Amplified" saw the light of day in September 2001 and got fantastic reviews everywhere. It is regarded as the strongest and truest KISS THE BLADE album to date.
To support the new release KISS THE BLADE went on "Amplified-Tour" through Europe, including gigs in London, Vienna and the famous "Herbstnächte"-Festival, playing with acts like FAITH AND THE MUSE and KILLING MIRANDA.
Both the label as well as the distributor SPV were so satisfied with the sales of both the regular album and the limited edition box ("Heartbeat Amplified" is the best selling KISS THE BLADE release to date), that everybody agreed to the following:
The re-release of the first 2 KISS THE BLADE albums "Black As Disillusion" and "Headcrash - A Romance" as well as the release of yet another CD only a few months after the "Heartbeat Amplified" album: "The Third Smile E.P.", release date May 2002.
The gig at the 11. Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig on Saturday, May 18th 2002 got confirmed in march 2002, further festival dates are being negotiated at the same time. Some distant grey approaching...?
"the
story is old - I KNOW
but it goes on" (S.P.M.)