A chance meeting between a New Jersey drummer turned Los Angeles musical transplant and a Stuttgart, Germany guitarist turned into a musical project that you could say was just meant to be. I am talking about the metal/alternative duo KrashKarma.
If you’ve never heard of this band before, you need to check them out. The group is made up of Nicole Skistimas (drums, vocals) and Ralf Dietel (guitar, vocals). Both artists were involved with different projects when they initially met, but a need came along for a drummer in Dietel’s former band and Skistimas was asked to join their tour. The rest is now just history as the duo decided to join forces to break out and do their own project together as KrashKarma (or if you see them in an acoustic show they jokingly will reverse it to KarmaKrash lol). They have a really great metal sound and with the ability to have alternating lead male and female vocals you get songs that truly shakes up their sound.
KrashKarma is out on tour with fellow rockers Vajra and just made a stop in Seattle for two shows, one full power, the other completely stripped down and acoustic. I wasn’t able to catch the first show but I caught their intimate acoustic show at the Columbia City Theater last night and what a really cool show to see them do. In their acoustic show they break out cool mix up of covers and just have fun. They had a mix from Cheap Trick to Billy Idol to a mash up of Bon Jovi and Rammstein. I mean really, you can’t have a German metal musician not cover Rammstein at some point! The audience got involved during “I Want You to Want Me” and chatted in between songs as well. After their set the band hung out with the fans for the evening. What a really cool way to experience a KrashKarma show.
If you get a chance to catch them full power or acoustic, do it. This duo not only has great music but are just really nice people that make the fans feel welcome at their shows. Get out and support them. Check out some of their music below and some photos from the acoustic show too.
KrashKarma Discography:
2009 EP SEVEN DEADLY SOUNDS
(independent)
2011 CD STRAIGHT TO THE BLOOD
(Splitnail/Sony/EMI)
2015 CD PAINT THE DEVIL
(ESR/Membran/Code7)
