PRISTINE // Support: TAME THE ABYS

In the organizer's words:

Saturday, 27.09.25
PRISTINE
Support: TAME THE ABYSS

Admission: 18 / start 19

Pristine (2022) Photo by Sverre Simonsen

PRISTINE
THE LINES WE CROSS
Album release: January 23


Classic rock, vintage rock or retro rock. Whatever you want to call this bluesy, occasionally psychedelic variant of hard rock inspired by the great acts of the late sixties and seventies, the best representatives of the subject have always come from northern Europe. The further north their origins, the better they are - or so it seems. And it doesn't get much further north than Tromsø, the hometown of the Norwegians Pristine, located over 300 kilometers beyond the Arctic Circle ...

Pristine are one of the most inspiring and convincing live bands in the genre. The group has played hundreds of concerts - from intimate club shows to slots at major festivals across our continent. "We live for our gigs. It's only up there that I feel like the best possible version of myself," admits Heidi Solheim, founder, singer and main songwriter of the group. If you haven't seen Pristine live yet, you should definitely do so. The "Rockpalast" performance from 2019, which is available on YouTube, should be convincing enough.

And Heidi and her colleagues can hardly wait for exactly this situation, their return to the stages of the world. Her followers are guaranteed to feel the same. "It was a very tough time for us," says the front lady about the sudden suspension of all live activities in spring 2020 due to the coronavirus. "After we played a short tour in Spain in January, we prepared for the open-air season. But then suddenly everything came to an end. A real shock for the boys and me," explains the passionate performer, who also makes very successful children's music alongside Pristine. She has already released three albums, some of which have won awards, and is also busy touring live with this project - mainly in large schools, but also in regular concert halls.

Heidi is now looking forward to finally being able to go on tour again with the new Pristine album THE LINES WE CROSS. "We played a handful of smaller shows in Norway last year when it was possible again for a short time. The government had lifted all restrictions before the Omikron wave came and everything was over again. These far too few evenings were wonderful for us, but obviously also for the fans. You could really feel how hungry both sides were for live music. It almost felt like when we started the band and gave our first concerts."

Back in 2006, Heidi was attending the music conservatory in Tromsø, where she was studying singing, when she launched the first incarnation of Pristine. After a few years of finding a sound and members and two albums released exclusively in Norway, the band went international in 2016 with REBOOT. This was followed by extensive European concert tours with stylistically similar acts such as The Brew and Blues Pills. The following year, Pristine followed up with NINJA and in 2019, the Scandinavians cracked the German album charts for the first time thanks to ROAD BACK TO RUIN. With THE LINES WE CROSS, album number six is coming our way in early 2023.

"Ariel Joshua Sivertsen certainly made the biggest difference," says Solheim. Previously, we always had producers who simply recorded everything first and then worked on the sound of the album as a whole. Ariel is the first to produce each song for himself while we played it in the studio - almost like the man at the mixing desk at our concerts. As a result, the songs not only come across much more intensely, but they also all have their own identity. Of course, you can hear and feel that they were recorded on the same day, in the same place; nevertheless, each track has a slightly different sound, a different vibe. This gives the longplayer a touch of unpredictability. I think that's great."

Otherwise - despite the global COVID-19 pandemic - everything went as usual when the band decided to create their latest work. It started with the songwriting phase: "Every year in early fall, I retreat to my family's cabin in the woods for a while to gather ideas. I'm then in the middle of nowhere and can work in peace and quiet or simply switch off completely," reports the artist. This time, a lot of very good ideas apparently came about during this voluntary self-isolation.

"The first drafts are always very rudimentary," laughs Heidi. "I can't really play the guitar very well. So I do a lot of things with my voice. For example, to capture melodies or indicate chord changes. I then use the GarageBand app on my laptop for rhythm loops and so on. When I've got enough of these ideas together, I pass them on to our guitarist Espen Elverum Jakobsen and we make real songs out of them together. Espen is a brilliant instrumentalist, but he is also an excellent composer. He and I know each other so well after all these years, the album productions, the many shows together, that he knows exactly what I have in mind. I don't have to say much more about it. The two of us are now a very well-rehearsed team."

Back in Tromsø, under Sivertsen's supervision, they set about realizing the tracks for THE LINES WE CROSS in the studio in the best possible way. As usual for Pristine, the basic tracks were recorded directly in one room with all the musicians plus Heidi on the mic. "I know that most of our colleagues take a completely different approach and record their instruments and vocals individually," explains Heidi. "But we are a live band through and through. You can and should hear that on our records."

Of course, a few additional recordings were made afterwards, such as guitar solos, backing vocals or the parts of the Arktisk Filharmoni (The Arctic Philharmonic), a 24-piece orchestra that supported Pristine on the power ballad "Carnival". Tracks like the earthy, powerful "Devil You Know", the atmospheric "Valencia", which plays with psychedelic elements, or the driving anthem "Stepping Into The Breach" immediately reveal the band's affinity for the stage. Even in the studio versions, all of these songs sound as if they were made for live performance.








TAME THE ABYSS

They combine a 50s B-movie horror self-irony with an instantly gripping 60s band attitude, a powerful 70s rock sound and an eye-catching 80s neon look to create their own signature style: with two highly acclaimed EPs and their highly acclaimed live shows, Tame The Abyss have earned themselves the status of one of southern Germany's best-kept insider tips over the past four years. After things had gone a little quiet around the Munich trio recently, Tame The Abyss are now back in renewed strength and are releasing their eagerly awaited debut album "They Live Again!"!

They are back! With their first full-length album "They Live Again!", Tame The Abyss are successfully fighting their way back from the abyss that opened up for the three-piece from southern Germany shortly after the pandemic. Founded in March 2020, the trio released their first sign of life in January 2021 with their debut EP "They Came In The Night!", which took singer/guitarist Georg Raig, drummer Peter Schertel and bassist Jan Szymanski from the rehearsal room straight to the "summer stage" of Munich's Olympic Stadium that same year. After further local gigs, the second EP "They Vanished At Dawn!" is released in March 2022, after which the band itself disappears involuntarily from the face of the earth. After numerous problems such as a record deal falling through and canceled concerts, the Bavarian rockers joined forces again and launched their own label, Plastic Fang Records, on which the first official release, the debut album "They Live Again!", is now being released.

Tame The Abyss don't want to limit themselves to one genre, but combine a wide variety of rock styles such as hard rock, classic rock, alternative, prog and stoner to create a highly infectious kick-ass sound. A mix of styles with which the band may not be reinventing the musical wheel, but is still a little more elegant than the competition, as frontman Georg Raig explains with a grin. Instead of vainly posing, Tame The Abyss fuse technical finesse with a clearly visible and audible joy of playing and their penchant for trashy B-movie clichés to create an exciting and absolutely unique experience on stage.

A gripping atmosphere that Tame The Abyss have also authentically captured on their debut album. All of the songs on "They Live Again!" were recorded in a real live situation without many subsequent overdubs or post-production tricks, after the trio had gone off to one of their infamous songwriting sessions in the Bavarian Forest. Including traditional log cabin romanticism with cuckoo clocks, deer antlers and schnapps for breakfast. The result is a balancing act between catchiness and musical sophistication, headbanging and technical skill, which Tame The Abyss have definitely achieved.

After the new songs were already being celebrated by their fans at concerts before the album release, the tracks are now finally being released as official studio versions. First and foremost is the energetic opener "Loaded Gun", with which Tame The Abyss set the tone for "They Live Again!" right from the start: Forward!

The album's catchy groove monster is a little more abstract: "On 'This Is The Love' we deal with the influence of social media and ask the question of whether likes and clicks can replace real interpersonal affirmation, closeness and affection."

The driving blues rock smash "Black Mold" is the oldest number on the album, with which Tame The Abyss once again pull out all the stops. Alongside the release of their new album "They Live Again!" next November, the Bavarian trio can also be seen live again on a headlining tour throughout Germany.