Out of the ashes of an alternative industrial rock project called Uberp*ssy rose Terminatryx.
Uberp*ssy was the brainchild of the statuesque Sonya Ruppersberg and South Africa’s rock chick super-model, Christina Storm. The band’s music was written by Paul Blom who was the drummer for the ’90s metal legends, VOD.
However, Storm was far too busy to see the project through to fruition.
“I don’t think she realised the amount of work it takes to be in a band,” laughs Blom.
That was in 2007. However, seeing the potential in the music, Ruppersberg and Blom decided to carry it forward and Terminatryx was born. Ruppersberg, who is light and gentle off stage, had never performed live before.
Their first gig was to open for gothic rockers, Diary of Dreams, in Joburg and Cape Town.
“It was so much fun,” she recalls. “I went on stage with the idea that I can do this. I’d cringe if I had to watch that first gig.”
Blom is quick to come to her defence: “Yes, but these 18- year-old boys asked her to autograph their ID books.”
Ruppersberg starts to laugh: “I remember asking them if they realised that my signature would invalidate their ID books, but they didn’t care.”
It is not hard to understand why these boys went crazy for Ruppersberg. On stage she is a dominatrix, a vixen, androgynous, imposing, a satanic rock star.
Quite frankly, there is no one else like Ruppersberg in South Africa.
Terminatryx, like many other hard-core alternative acts, have a penchant for the dramatic. This stretches from the black leather clothes to their gothic horror videos which are becoming popular on YouTube.
Their video for the track Midnight contains scenes from the original film, Nosferatu. Twilight kids, go catch a few mosquitoes!
Now they have just released their third album, Shadows. It was co-produced by Blom and Theo Crous. The two are longtime friends, with Blom being the drummer in K.O.B.U.S with Crous and his brother Francois.
In 2008 Blom quit the band to focus on Terminatryx which went on to open for groups like Sheep on Drugs and Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Both leaders of the bands did remixes of tracks from their self-titled first album.
The band subsequently released a remix album called Remyx V 1.0 with contributions by Sean Ou Tim, Paul Riekert of Battery 9 and The Awakenings’ Ashton Nyte.
With Crous steering their latest release and Blom making sure it never became poppy, Shadows is a must-have album for anyone who enjoys the much harder side of music.
“Theo did such a great job and there was so much emotion in making this album,” says Ruppersberg.
“This album is in a whole different league. Some of the songs are less aggressive and more moody and vocal.”
The band’s video achievements include winning Best Music Clip at the Barossa Film Festival in Australia.
They have also had their videos screened at the Salt Lake City Horror Festival in Las Vegas and Sci-Fi London.