Fury in the Slaughterhouse – a rock band from Hannover, Germany, founded in 1987.

A rock band from Hannover, Germany, founded in 1987.

In December 1986 the brothers Kai (vocals) and Thorsten Wingenfelder (guitar/vocals) founded the band Fury in the Slaughterhouse together with drummer Rainer Schumann, guitarist Christof Stein-Schneider and bassist Hannes Schäfer in Hanover. Keyboardist Gero Drnek joined in 1989. The band name means riot in the slaughterhouse, but according to another source it refers to the US children’s series from the 1950s about a horse named Fury, which was shown on German television in the mid-1980s. Fury in the Slaughterhouse was supposed to be a pure rock band, which differed significantly from the Neue Deutsche Welle, which was ending at the time, so all song lyrics were written in English. In 1988 the band played sold-out concerts and their first albums made it into the top 50 of the German album charts.

In 1992 their record company SPV and BMG Ariola founded the music label Slaughterhouse Music. The band now ventured live to Europe and the Anglo-American region, where they made their breakthrough in 1993 with the hits “Radio Orchid” and “Every Generation Got Its Own Disease” and the album Mono. The band opened for Meatloaf on his 1994 tour. The albums Mono and The Hearing And The Sense Of Balance were released in the US with altered track lists.

In 1996, Hannes Schäfer left the band and the music industry, and was replaced by bassist Christian Decker. In 2005 the band founded the record label Kick It Out. Their earlier albums have been reissued in revised versions with additional unreleased tracks. In 2006 the band signed the city of Hanover’s Golden Book.

Fury in the Slaughterhouse sold over four million albums and played at more than 1000 concerts and festivals worldwide during the band’s first run.

A farewell tour through Germany took place from March until the band’s planned breakup at the end of August 2008. All concerts were recorded and could be purchased on USB sticks immediately after the concert. The band’s final performance in Hanover was also published as a double DVD (director: Marc Schütrumpf ) and on CD under the name Farewell & Goodbye.

In 2011 the band reunited briefly and played their hit “Won’t Forget These Days” in the stadium after a home game at Hannover 96.

On June 8, 2013 the band (with guests) performed a one-off concert in Hanover ( Expo-Plaza / Messe) under the motto One City – One Band ; 25,000 visitors saw the concert.

On March 10, 11 and 12, 2017, the band celebrated their 30th anniversary with three reunion concerts in the TUI-Arena in Hanover. For the first time since the dissolution in 2008, Fury recorded a new song (“30 (It’s not easy)”), which was presented on March 10, 2017 on Radio ffn and played as the opener at these concerts. They also released a new 2 CD best of called 30 – The Ultimate Best Of, which also featured an EP with “30 (It’s Not Easy)” and five other new songs. Due to the successful advance sales of these three concerts, the band decided to play more concerts in Germany over the summer of 2017. According to the band’s website, however, this was not the beginning of a reunion, just a show of respect to the fans.

They went on to play an acoustic tour in the fall of 2017, which was released as a double live album called Little Big World – Live & Acoustic. For this album/tour, they were joined by pedal steel guitarist Martin Huch and cellist Anne De Wolff. The band continued their performances at large festivals in the following years, but had to cancel tour dates in spring 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In Hanover that year, however, they played two concerts on the Schützenplatz on May 14 and 15, 2020 in front of around 2000 spectators sitting in their cars as part of the so-called car culture series.

On October 22nd, 2020 the officially reunited band announced a new studio album titled NOW, the first in 13 years for release in April of 2021. All of the band’s studio albums are now available in the US, as the result of the band changing record labels to Starwatch. NOW was released on April 23, 2021, and the band will be doing outdoor shows over the coming year.

Discography

Fury in the Slaughterhouse

• 1988 Fury in the Slaughterhouse
• 1990 Jau!
• 1991 Hook a Hey
• 1992 Pure Live!
• 1993 Mono (Fury in the Slaughterhouse album)
• 1994 Mono (US version with altered track list)
• 1994 Dead and Gone (EP)
• 1995 The Hearing and the Sense of Balance
• 1995 The Hearing and the Sense of Balance (US version with altered track list)
• 1997 Brilliant Thieves
• 1998 Nowhere…Fast!
• 1998 Super Fury (The Best of Fury in the Slaughterhouse)
• 2000 Home inside
• 2002 The Color Fury
• 2002 Monochrome (Live)
• 2004 Nimby
• 2005 Acoustic Grand Cru Classé
• 2006 Every Heart is a Revolutionary Cell
• 2008 Don’t look back
• 2017 30
• 2017 Little Big World – Live & Acoustic
• 2021 NOW

Videos / DVDs

• 1991 – Clicksongs & Peppermint Stories (Video)
• 1997 – Especially Ordinary (Video)
• 2002 – Monochrome (Live-DVD and -Album)
• 2004 – Welcome to the other World – Nimby Live (DVD)

Side projects

Kai Wingenfelder (English language solo project)

• 2005 – Home (Benefit album for School for Life in favor of the tsunami victims in Thailand , participation of Wingenfelder and Jens Krause )
• 2006 – Won’t Forget These Days ’06 World Cup song premiered as part of Music Team Germany for the television station
• 2007 – Wingenfelder “Alone” (CD)

Little Red Riding Hood (English language side project from Kai and Thorsten Wingenfelder with producer Jens Krause )

• 1996 – Little Red Riding Hood (CD)

Wohnraumhelden (Living space heroes) (German language solo project Christof Stein-Schneider )

• 2003 – Welthits (Album)
• 2005 – Die Rückkehr der Wohnraumhelden (Album)
• 2006 – Jetzt mal im Ernst (Split-CD-Album) – Die Wohnraumhelden vs. Mirco Buchwitz
• 2008 – Tourlaub (Live-Album)
• 2009 – Kung-Fu Schule (Album) – Die Wohnraumhelden
• 2009 – Das BESTE der Wohnraumhelden (Live-Album)
• 2011 – Rock’n’Roll Puppentheater
• 2012 – wirklich evil
• 2014 – Rettung naht (Nur echt mit dem gelben, veganen Gummiband)

Driftland (English language solo project Thorsten Wingenfelder )

• 2003 – Songs Of Love And Hope (CD)

Thorsten Wingenfelder (German-speaking solo project)

• 2006 – 360 ° Heimat (CD)

wingenfelder: Wingenfelder (German-speaking project by Kai and Thorsten Wingenfelder )

• 2011 – Besser zu zweit (CD)
• 2012 – Besser zu zweit (CD+DVD)
• 2012 – Off the Record (CD) (mostly English album)
• 2012 – Wenn die Zeit kommt (When the time comes) (Christmas donation project with radio ffn to help children with cancer)
• 2013 – Selbstauslöser (Self-timer) (CD & double vinyl) under the project name “wingenfelder”
• 2015 – 22814 Live Akustisch Unperfekt (CD) under the project name “wingenfelder”
• 2015 – Retro (CD) under the project name “wingenfelder”
• 2018 – Sieben Himmel Hoch (Seven Skies High)(CD) under the project name “wingenfelder”
• 2020 – SendeschlussTestbild (End of Transmission Test Pattern) (CD) under the project name “wingenfelder”

Balticseachild (English language project by Kai Wingenfelder )

• 2015 – Balticseachild (CD)

SCHUMANN (English language solo project by Rainer Schumann )

• 2013 – SUNSHINE, LOVE, MUSIC AND FOOTBALL (CD)

Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify