Born in Hamburg in 1949, Joachim Witt is among the few survivors of the new German wave that dominated the early '80s: after years of struggling to regain the popularity he found with the hit single "Goldener Reiter" (Golden Rider) from his 1981 debut solo album Silberblick, he managed to launch a serious comeback with the album Bayreuth 1 in 1998. Mixing Wagnerian pathos with heavy guitars, the album and its main single, "Die Flut" (The Flood), a duet with Wolfsheim singer Peter Heppner, fit into the Neue Deutsche Härte trend spearheaded by Rammstein. The album sold over 700,000 units. A sequel to the album, Bayreuth 2, was released in 2000, followed by Eisenherz in 2002, Pop in 2004, and Bayreuth 3 in 2006. ~ Christian Genzel