What started almost accidentally has grown into one of the more unpredictable voices in Cologne’s punk-thrash underground. Germany’s Anti Anti Anti emerged from musicians already active in other projects, but the chemistry inside the rehearsal room quickly turned a side idea into a real band: one built as much on friendship and shared chaos as on riffs and aggression.
Across releases like Burn Everything and Amor Anti, the band has expanded its sound beyond straightforward thrash-punk. Fast riffs, hardcore and beer-soaked intensity still define the foundation, but newer material has opened the door to stoner rock textures, twin guitar harmonies and more personal songwriting shaped by the emotional weight of the pandemic years.
At the same time, Anti Anti Anti’s music refuses to separate humor from frustration. Their songs move freely between self-destruction, political absurdity, sarcasm and uncomfortable self-awareness, often all within the same track. With a new split release alongside Dutch hardcore punk band Team Wasted already underway, and a third full-length album in progress, the band continues to push its sound in unexpected directions while holding tightly to the chaotic spirit that brought them together in the first place.
“in order to keep a band together, you need to create an atmosphere of friendship and trust.”
You started this band almost by accident. What made you keep going after those first rehearsals instead of leaving it as a one-off side project?
Anti Steff: I think we kept going because we felt we had the right mix of people in the rehearsal room. We had all been in projects where the music was cool and you could enjoy it on an artistic level, but then you realize that, in the end, in order to keep a band together, you need to create an atmosphere of friendship and trust.
We are all, on some level, messed-up existences, total nutjobs to a degree, but with our hearts in the right place. If you find people who are able to accept who you are, despite all your crazy quirks, you know you have found the foundation for a good band. In the end, bands are nothing other than relationships. Once that became clear to us, we just needed to find our own tune. Since we were all born and raised in the subcultural background of punk and metal, it became quite obvious which path we had to follow.
“All those first songs were designed to be energetic and aggressive.”
When you listen back to Amor Anti, what do you hear in it that you could not have done on the first demo?
[Laughs] Well, technically, I guess we would have been able to do everything on a musical level, but emotionally we had a little more courage than we did on our debut album. On Burn Everything, we tried to keep the idea of old-school thrash punk alive: high-energy, fast-paced riffs and rhythms, with almost no solos. All those first songs were designed to be energetic and aggressive.
On our second album, that attitude changed somewhat. Do not get me wrong, the songs still kick ass, but we are much more playful on Amor Anti than before. There are ZZ Top-like intros, twin guitar solos and even stoner rock sections. I guess we just found the courage to bring more of our individual musical preferences into it.
On a lyrical level, I must say that Amor Anti contains much more personal songs. Let’s simply say that most of the songs were written during the Covid pandemic, which took a big toll on me, and you can see that reflected in some of those lyrics.
Your songs can be funny, pissed off, “stupid” and political at the same time. How do those things sit together for you when you write?
That is easy: I am just pissed off when I see what those stupid, self-indulgent politicians are up to these days. Do not get me wrong, it would be much too simple to say everyone in politics is a total shithead. There are definitely people in that line of work who work their asses off for the common good and have real political credibility, and I am thankful for every one of them. But one cannot help but notice that a lot of what used to be a real, hard-working job nowadays turns into a soap-opera-like farce.
So, coming back to your question, I guess you will find some of that bizarre circus reflected in our lyrics. And then, of course, there is another angle. Take the lyrics of “Ballroom of Pain,” for example. If you just listen superficially to the song, you might think it is about accusing someone of being a total pain in the ass when he is drunk. But if you listen more closely, you might come to think that it is actually about oneself, and about how we are all prone to fuck up sometimes.
Reflecting on yourself and accepting that you are not always the person you really want to be, because you are flawed like everyone else, might be a meaningful lesson. And that lesson is also a deeply political one. Being able to admit mistakes and personal failures should be high on every political agenda.
In this complex and crazy world, you are bound to make mistakes. But of course, I know that is not only the politicians’ fault. More and more, we create a world in which there seems to be no room for humility and forgiveness, which is probably one of our biggest problems, although not many people talk about it. And voilà, you have funny, pissed off, stupid and political in one song.
You are already working on a split with Team Wasted and writing new material. Where is the band at right now in your own head?
Well, we are really up to our asses in songwriting mode. We have just written five new songs for our small split LP project with our Dutch hardcore punk buddies from Team Wasted in only one month. In May, we are going to record these little fuckers, and hopefully we will be able to release them in late summer or early fall. The split project even got us writing songs that would not be part of our usual thrash style, but are more punk and hardcore in their influence. We even ventured so far as to include a bluesy country song on this project.
And still, we are writing songs for our third full-length album, which will hopefully be done by the end of the year. So keep your eyes on us. There are a few releases ahead to keep the Anti-Movement going. Thanks for giving us the chance to present our music to a whole new continent.
Buy and stream Amor Anti on Bandcamp.
