History
In 1991, Umbra et Imago were created as a side-project of The Electric Avantgarde. In the following year, the two bands were still existing alongside. There were plans for The Electric Avantgarde to change its style to Death Metal, but those were soon dropped. The band dissolved and was later reformed as Dracul so that Umbra et Imago became Mozart's main project.
In 1992 Umbra et Imago played their first stage shows, where visual effects played an important role. While the band's style was still dominated by electronic influences, there were frequent appearances of guest musicians such as Peter Heppner of Wolfsheim. The band began to develop an eccentric image and they were known for their fancy concerts . Umbra et Imago polarized critics and were even publicly criticized. In the same year, their album Träume, Sex und Tod was published, one year later Infantile Spiele was released.
As their album tracks often exceeded lengths of 10 minutes, they were unsuited for play in discothèques and were not included to DJs' programs. Because of that, Umbra et Imago created a remix of their song "Erotica" which they called ZöllerMussEsSpielen Mix (Zöller Must Play It Mix), referring to Michael Zöller, a resident DJ of Bochum's Zwischenfall discothèque. Despite its length, "Gothic Erotic" from the 1993 album Infantile Spiele remained the band's best known song.
In 1995, Michael Gillian and Torsten B. left the band, followed by Nail soon after. They were replaced by Lutz Demmler und Alex Perin. With the change in the line-up came a change in style. The music shifted towards guitar sounds and was expanded by hard rock elements on the album Gedanken eines Vampirs. This change was completed in 1996 with the album Mystica Sexualis, which was now Gothic metal. During live shows, the band would cooperate with models, founding their current stage concept. The 1997 maxi single Kein Gott und keine Liebe saw an increase in Neue Deutsche Härte elements and Umbra et Imago were compared to bands such as Rammstein.
In 2003, guitarist Freddy Stürze left the band but joined them in 2011 again.
According to their official website, Opus Magnus, published in 2010, was Umbra and Imago's final studio album while a new DVD with live material and old songs will be released in 2011.
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