It’s been a couple of months since the release of their single “ASAP”, featuring Richie Ramone of The Ramones, Berlin-based rock duo CHAOS COMMUTE are back with the full stream of their new album “Fairytales and Nightmares“, out today on KROD Records. The new offering is a riveting display of modern rock steeped in its future while also embracing all the music the duo has consumed up until this point, including classic punk rock, hard rock, 90s alt rock, and more!
To celebrate, we have teamed up with the band to give you their top 10 influential albums behind “Fairytales and Nightmares”, including some eclectic alt rock and metal classics, from The Cure, through Rage Against The Machine, to Tom Waits.
1. Rage against the machine “Rage against the machine”
RATM were among the loudest voices of Alternative Rock in the 90s, both in terms of sheer energy and in terms of message. They were one of the blue prints for us. How to speak up, how to find the right words to point out what’s wrong with the world.
2. Foo Fighters – “The Colour and the Shape”
It’s fair to say that The Foos’ music, the songs, the chords, the melodies – have heavily shaped both of us. One of the initial goals was “Songs the Foo Fighters, words like Rage against the machine”. Stadium rock with a political message. We’re both instrumentalists just as much as we’re passionate song writers. And the way Dave Grohl writes chorus melodies is something we keep finding in our demos.
3. Queens of the Stone Age – “Songs for the deaf”
This one might seem more obvious to the listeners than us. The number of times some of our songs have been compared to QOTSA is staggering! We both definitely listened to it a lot, but it seems to pop up more in terms of atmosphere and drive than melodies or songwriting.
4. The Distillers – Coral Fang
This album is the itch AND the scratch! It makes you angry and tells you: you’re right to be angry! It never stays too busy with being angry, there is enough time to be in awe of the coolness and the sheer rock music aura that comes from Brody Dalle.
5. Beatsteaks – Smack Smash
Why the Beatsteaks never broke out of Germany is a mystery to us. So much energy! Such epic songs! Also a steady reference when we’re writing. Especially songs from this album.
6. The Cure – Disintegration/Kiss Me Kiss me Kiss me
The greatest melodies were written in the eighties. And no one did it better, was sadder AND happier AND angrier about everything than Robert Smith. It might not be directly The Cure but more overtly bands that followed them that influenced us, but the sweet spot of melancholic, cynic and gleeful lyrics and melodies that Smith perfected with these two albums is a giant we stand on.
7. Monster Magnet – PowerTrip
On the opposite side of the lyrical spectrum is one Dave Wyndorf, it is all kind of cryptic, easy to get lost in his abstract world. Both the songs are just so heavy! These riffs, the coolness, that voice!
8. Richie Ramone – “Cellophane”
To say we were surprised that Richie Ramone would take an unknown little punk rock duo like us for all of his European tour as a support act, would be the understatement of the decade. And hearing Richie and his band play “Fix this” was one of the highlights of every night. The tour was cut short because of the pandemic, so we came back and immediately started producing “Fairytales and Nightmares” with our producer Anfy.
9. Tom Waits – Closing Time
If a good friend of ours (shout-out to Batti!) hadn’t gotten the both of us into a rehearsal space and made us play a punk rock version of “Icecream man” endless times, Chaos Commute would not exist. Our former crossover rock band “Platzhalter” (actual name) came out of that meeting. And out of that came Chaos Commute.
10. KoRn – Path of Totality
This might seem like an odd one out, when “Path of Totality” came out, a couple of years before Chaos Commute even existed, we – Camilo and Julian – had a moment at a party where we both celebrated the album. The weird mix of nu-metal and banging dubstep was something we were both drawn to. And the rest is, as they say, history!
