Itä-Saksa (Finnish for East Germany) is an obscure Finnish industrial rock / metal band. It was born at the end of 1980s as a small project by Kai Hiilesmaa and Jarkko Soikkeli. Their first album, Kontrol is a rarity and said to be so strange and obscure that you can't listen through it in one go. The newer albums are widely available, though I doubt their availability outside Finland...

Itä-Saksa's lyrics are a strange combination of gay porn, humor, Elvis, sci-fi and miscellaneous strangeness. They sing in English and German. Some of the songs are heavy, almost "normal" metal, some are more techno style and others are just strange without melody, but they still have a distinct style.

Their gigs are even stranger. They have a tradition of showing a short film at the beginning of their gigs. For example, once they showed an old Finnish documentary (from the 1960s if I remember right) about electricity and magnetism. It was incredibly boring and quite long, but at the same time hilarious. Another time there was a Western movie they had made themselves, featuring a giant rabbit. (Their latest album, Man the Machines, also includes a short sci-fi movie by them).

I can recommend Itä-Saksa to any non-homophobic heavy music fans not afraid of strangeness. The home page can be found at http://www.xydox.org/

Line-up

Discography

Sources:
http://shop.emma.fm/musiikki/Artisti_sivu.asp?Author=35

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