Band-info:

Frank Schubert, Ingo Liebe and Stephan Mosebach formerly since 1987 already played in a hobby band, covering international songs of known Hard'n'Heavy bands, before they formed DARKHAT during summer '88 in Waltershausen, between Erfurt and Eisenach (ex-GDR). A bit later on, the second guitarist Bert Gillmeister joined and they started covering heavier stuff, caused by Gillmeister's passion for METALLICA. Mosebach then in mid '89 wasn't much fond of the recent direction and left the band. Also Gillmeister was later called to the army during that time in October, when Frank Schubert and Ingo Liebe recorded DARKHAT's 2 track Demo at BLITZZ's rehearsal room, that featured the trax "Bruno" and "Soldiers of death", with a drum computer. Musically the direction arrived in Thrash fields already, gaining the remaining duo either airplay. A second Demo was planned, but nothing happened anymore. During 1991 the guys disappeared. Interestingly on the Deaf Tape Sampler, that featured their song "Bruno", the band was refered as DARKHATE, not DARKHAT.

Band-info:

After the four musicians Uwe Kohlberg (guitar), Guido Kamps (guitar), Manfred Roloff (bass) and Heiko Kroß (drums) from Templin, in the north of the ex-GDR, a little south of Neubrandenburg, had already gained relevant stage experience in various local bands in their area, the four decided in October 1986 to set up something of their own and for this purpose founded the band TAUFRISCH. In the period from 1986 to summer '89, they had a repertoire of 20 own songs, with titles such as “Der kleine Junge” and “Die alte Frau” becoming favorite tracks of the live audience. Through constant practicing, the foursome earned the official classification “Special Stage” in January 1988, combined with the award “Best Youth Dance Formation of the Neubrandenburg District” and could be assigned to the Classic Rock spectrum, which the guys impressively underlined on stage with various cover versions ranging from NEIL YOUNG to ZZ TOP. Between 1988 and '89 the band was allowed to produce 2 songs for the GDR's broadcast service, but they never appeared on any recordings. Traces of this quartet were lost during the reunification period.

Band-info:

A Blues/Hard/Southern Rock act from Lehnitz/Oranienburg north of East Berlin (ex-GDR) that was active during the early and mid 80’s, much influenced by ZZ TOP and similar groups. They easily reached the "special grade" at their official band classification, that included own songs like "Sonntag", Vergiss mich nie", "Traumfee" and "Freund im Flur". In March ‘86 the band surfaced with a new line up, featuring Klaus Lange (bass, vocals), Andreas Pohl (guitar), Frank Brunner (guitar) and Matthias Claus (drums). If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

Utterly obscure amateur Thrashers from Worms who's one and only demo got quite a 'thrashing' (heh..) in an issue of Shock Power. Supposedly some original ideas where present, but performance was said to be crude, bordering on garage-punk. If you have more info, please get in contact.

Band-info:

PUMPHUT was a band that was initiated by the 15 years old guitarist Steffen Bayer in the Oberlausitz area (Bautzen/Görlitz/Zittau) of the ex-GDR during the early 80's. The band also featured drummer Jens Kuge, with whom Bayer would later in the mid 80’s form the better known COBRA. Their repertoire according to their own words included anything from Blues Rock up to the known Hard'n'Heavy classics of their time. PUMPHUT ceased to exist during 1984, when both Bayer and Kuge went to Berlin and joined REGENBOGEN for a short time before eventually in June ‘86 COBRA was founded.

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A brutal, guttural Death Metal band from Eichenau, Bavaria, formed by Gernot Welsch and Richard Strauss, who recorded their first (rehearsal?)demo already as at the young age of 15 in 1989. According to what we've read, the sound of the debut was as expected but they did follow up w/ a second tape in 1990, displaying basic/average demo-DM of its time. If you have more info, please get in contact.

Band-info:

"Punk/Thrash" that got absolutely butchered in an old Mortal Sin mag review. Other than a contact address in Mildstedt and supposedly releasing a 2nd demo in 1994 and 2 members continuing in a band called Steel Crusher in the 10's, this is all we have to go with as far as Discredit is concerned. To their credit the title of their 1988 demo became my #1 Chuckle Of The Day..

Band-info:

Power Metallers from Laatzen/Hannover with an obscure vinyl released in the fall of the 80's, when so many other underground bands like them turned up with privately pressed albums and disappeared as quick as they came. The band was around already since 1986 and recorded "No light" originally in early '89 as a Demo, and it was spread as Demo either in the beginning. But the studio also pressed a couple of vinyls of it. Though the guys level of heaviness was pretty neat, there also are some certain discrepancies in terms of songwriting and either the vocal performance audible on "No light", whenalso the mini album in the whole must be counted a solid effort, coming directly from the underground scene.

Band-info:

Thrashers from Soest, North Rhine-Westphalia, active in the 2nd half of the 80's. After an obscure live demo released in 1988 they changed their naame to Naasty. Ingo Holzhauer were also active in Broken Law around the same time, and later in prog-metallers Life Artist together with N.B./Naasty drummer Roger Ihmann. If you have more info, please get in contact.

Band-info:

Thrashers from Soest, North Rhine-Westphalia, formerly known as Nasty Blutschande. Under the Naasty-monicker they released a 4 song demo in 1988, said to be fairly tight and well produced Thrash albeit a bit generic. Little else is known about the band, other than their tie-ins to other locals, where Ingo Holzhauer were also active in Broken Law around the same time, and later in prog-metallers Life Artist together with Naasty drummer Roger Ihmann. If you have more info, please get in contact.

Band-info:

A quite extraordinary band within the german Metal scene of the late 80's was the Gütersloh based Disjecta Membra, who celebrated a completely instrumental musical program on both their Demo tapes, that combined Heavy Metal with elements of mainly Jazz, classical music and psychedelic hints. The Rock Hard magazine described their style as a merge of Deep Purple and Dream Theater, while the purplish organs dominate Disjecta Membra's sound picture. Founded in May 1987 by Gert Sprick on drums, Michael "Festus" Geisthor on guitar and Fritz Verläger on bass, Marcus Mutz joined later on drums while Gert then switch to keyboard. After some fruitless but not too desperate searches for a suitable singer, the band discovered that their sound and musical interaction was already perfect as an instrumental quartet, so they decided to remain in this format.
During late 1989 the band already had a stage repertoire of 12 of these instrumental numbers. Despite releasing 2 demos in 1989 and 1990, they nevertheless had problems to score a record deal with their kind of musical revelation and split up during mid 1992.

Band-info:

Unknown mid/late 80's HM band from the Sulzbach/Saarbrücken area, featuring future members of the band Medusa. No recordings are known, but if you have more info, please get in contact.

Band-info:

A classic Heavy Metal band from Sulzbach, north of Saarbrücken, that was active during the late 80's. Apparently they had their origin in 2 earlier local acts, Stormbringer and Relood (or was it 'Reload'? We can't really tell if our source misspelled this name or if the band members themselves did...)
As far as we know, only one Demo tape came from this version of the popular Medusa-monicker, in 1989, where an intro plus the 2 tracks "Riding Far Away" and "We Love Metal" got compared to bands like Manowar and Helloween. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

A Speed Metal band from Fürth, that started as Bourbon 1986, but changed name to Embargo in 1992 shortly before they recorded their debut album for D&S Records. Each in 1989 and 1991 the band recorded a 5 track Demo, that in the end resulted in the album "Panem et Circenses", that they recorded for D&S Records after changing their name. The lads used to play a sort of melodic Power/Speed Metal with Helloween/Scanner touch, though without the high pitched vox.

Band-info:

The Crossover trio BOTTLED from Frankfurt/Oder (ex-GDR) was formed in autumn 1987 by ex-TIEFENRAUSCH Christoph Dobberstein (bass, vocals), Kay Gesche (drums) and Thomas Romberg (guitar), who tried to merge extreme Thrash Metal with HC/Punk, highly early D.R.I. influenced. During summer/autumn 1988 with Léon Kleinbaum a second guitarist joined the trio shortly, but left the band again after one show. The guys recorded their first Demo as a trio again right within that year as well, which included amoung own material also cover versions of D.R.I., MISFITS, S.O.D. and SODOM. In April '89 the second Demo entitled „Don’t sleep till Tunnelstreet" was produced at the studio of the band WAHKONDA, again spiked with lotsa coverversions of NINA HAGEN, SEX PISTOLS and WALL OF VOODOO’s "Mexican radio". Their own songs on the tape delivered a hyperspeed blend of almost Death/Thrash with domineering Punk influences. During summer ‘89 Thorsten Haberland was hired to replace Thomas Romberg, who escaped the GDR, but returned a few months later once again when Thorsten Haberland did the very same, to rehearse again with the band a couple of times and to play one last farewell show. Several venues in the Berlin/Frankfurt area could be played, before BOTTLED’s last gig was eventually finished on September 30th '89, coz the guys wanted to leave the GDR. Afterwards still during 1991 Chris Dobberstein re-appeared in the Death Metal band INNER CONFLICT, that would later become UNDER BLACK CLOUDS. Since July 2024 Bottled are active as a trio again, but with Torsten Schlauß behind the drums.

(Thanx to Julia Dobberstein for band info!)

Band-info:

Sudden Darkness was founded in summer 1985 in Lambsheim (Mannheim area) originally as a Hard'n'Heavy act by Martin Kramp, and brothers Volker and Udo Faust. Jaroslav Krnac (guitar) joined a bit later as well as both ex-Reptile members Marcus “Mare Bery” Beringer (vocals) and Andreas “Neudi” Neuderth (drums), who replaced Udo Faust in early of 1986. By that time the lads in the fall of 1986 recorded their first Demo "Lord Nightmare", which sold in quite neat numbers, while shortly afterwards already in March '87 Queftho (Guido Holzmann), another former ex-Reptile mate, substituted Martin Kramp on bass, and Sudden Darkness also started doing first live gigs in the area. A Demo entitled "Living in sin", though it’s being mentioned on certain websites, doesn’t exist at all. According to Neudi’s own details he just dubbed a few cassettes with only the song "Living in sin" on for private use because it's been the only song of the band with a speedy part and especially that's been the desired new direction of Sudden Darkness at that time, leaving the Hard Rock roots behind and rather moving forwards into Speed Metal sounds instead. Shortly later guitarist Jaroslav Krnac and vocalist Marcus Beringer both quit and a guy called Matthias instead joined on keyboards, while he only played on the intro of the following Demo "Advanced madness" Demo, that's been recorded in June '87 with the line up Volker Faust (guitar), Queftho (bass), Matthias (keyboard) and Neudi on drums, who also did the vocals on the first version, until a certain guy called Tom a few days afterwards re-sung all vocals parts of the 3 trax "No tears", "Lord Nightmare" and "Satanic butcher", that featured a Metallica influenced Power Metal style with Speed Metal hints. Either Tom left the band after an entirely short intermezzo of just a few weeks, so drummer Neudi had to handle the vocals once again till Alki was found as new vocalist much later in spring '88. Prior to that with the once again shrunken trio line up consisting of Guido Holzmann (bass), Volker Faust (guitar) and Andreas Neuderth (drums, vocals) they eventually recorded the "Fear of reality" Demo in early 1988 at the Zuckerfabrik Frankenthal, where on the first version that was only sold for a short period, Neuderth still sung all vocal lines himself. Eventually when Alki joined on vocals a bit later on, the recordings was remixed with Alki’s new vocal trax and Gama offered them a record deal. Unfortunately only 12 testpressings was manufactured of the "Fear of reality" LP, that wasn't offically released before 2016 on Diabolic Might Records. The band's sound on this Demo/album has completely turned into typical german Thrash'n Speed Metal that often reminded musically of Kreator's "Terrible certainty" album. Just the vocals more or less are pulling the album slightly down, because they do sound typically german as well, reminding of Vendetta's vocalist, but for Sudden Darkness' style that kind of voice just did not fit at all. After "Fear of reality" the guys only produced the "Iceflowered" Demo in 1992 with Roger Dequis on guitars, Guido Holzmann on bass, Axel Schott on vocals and Andreas Neuderth behind the drumkit, before they changed name to Economist. There are several re-releases avialable, made in the 2010's, including the vinyl edition of the "Fear of reality" album.

(Thanx to Neudi for additional band info!)

Band-info:

A local Metal act from Frankenthal in the Mannheim area, featuring the Sudden Darkness drummer Andreas Neuderth. The band was active just briefly between 1985-86, as most of the Boys went on to play in other local bands. Reptile formed during late '85 with the aim to create more vicious music than Venom or Celtic Frost and only had time to create one own song with the title "Visions" during that short time span before Marcus Beringer and Andreas Neuderth decided to rather join Sudden Darkness early in 1986. The lads also produced a now lost home Video for that track and either made a few copies on tape, but it wasn't anything that had been officially sold at all. After a few months when Beringer and Neuderth had left Reptile, also Guido Holzmann followed them to Sudden Darkness in spring '87, though there was info found when the band announced plans to record a 6-8 song Demo in the winter of 1986, but it wouldn't ever come to that anymore. Thomas Will subsequently settled for drums to join Ludwigshafen Thrashers Mad Evil and was later found in Nyctophobic. Their song "Visions" currently re-appeared on the "Sound And Action – Rare German Metal Vol. 2" CD.

(Thanx to Andreas Neuderth for band info!)

Band-info:

Regenbogen (Rainbow) was founded by Ralf Bursy, Detlef Brauer, Wolfgang Hoffmann, Hans-Christian Weise, Lutz Brauer 1977 in Berlin (ex-GDR) as a classic Rock group who covered songs of Uriah Heep and Deep Purple and right 1 year later they could produce some first songs for the national broadcast service, having a first national hit with the Rock song "Du machst mich verliebt". Despite the coming success, Ralf Bursy left Regenbogen together with Detlef Brauer (later found in Berluc) and joined the band Keks (Sebastian Baur, later in MCB, was playing in that band too). Bursy after quitting Keks joined the Hard Rockers Prinzip and started a successful solo career in the mid 80's. For Bursy came Ralf Dohanetz (later found in Berluc/Mephisto/V2) on vox and he got replaced by Ronald Pilgrim (ex-Mephisto) later. Also Wolfgang Hoffmann left and got replaced by Robert Hanke (bass), while with Andreas Schwendemann a new guitarist joined who got replaced by Jörg Powileit a while later. Jens Kuge came for Lutz Brauer on drums. The bands style till early 1984 with all the new members that came and go, had changed towards a more melodic Hard Rock/Metal sound and playing Maiden and Priest songs at their live shows. With another national broadcast recording "Eiskalt" (ice cold) they entered the hitparade 1984 once again, a fine melodic midpaced Heavy Rocker who's opening riff is ripping off Survivor's "Eye of the tiger". Beside the studio track the band recorded a Demo the same year with songs like "Der Träumer" or "Der alte Fan". There are also Live recordings with good quality known including songs like "Großmaul", "Lass uns fliegen" and "Die Blinden" that's showing Regenbogen's sound in '84 was close to Maiden's. But in fall of 1984 except of Ronald Pilgrim all musicians left the country. Ex-Regenbogen guitarist Andreas Schwendemann tried to revive the band together with Countdown musicians but he left the GDR too in late 1985 and Regenbogen's story ends here. Ronald Pilgrim was active afterwards in Berluc and Jens Kuge was co-founding melodic Metallers Cobra in 1986. Jörg Powileit hooked up with S.A.D.O. for a while and 1989 founded Preussen together with Lutz Brauer.

Band-info:

A Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band from East Berlin, founded originally as Mephisto, that belongs to the very first acts of the ex-GDR, that went heavier ways, and that most musicians of the Berlin scene have played in. The band formed during January '79, but adopted the Heavy Metal influenced style first during 1982, by covering bands such as Judas Priest, Saxon, Ted Nugent, Scorpions or Accept. Already during 1983 was in negotiations with the national broadcast service to record their song "Frieden der Welt". Since the band tried to sing in english, they often had to struggle with stage bans. Guys that played in Mephisto was amongst others Frank Eichhorn (ex-Vantom/Cobra/Love Gunn/Rocket), Mario Schneider (ex-Dynastie/Merlin), Rocco Stellmacher (Merlin), Frank Lebe (Merlin), Marcell Thiele (Merlin), Roland Tschech (Metall), Reinhard Repke (Rockhaus), Ralf Dohanetz (Regenbogen/Mephisto/Berluc/V2) or Ronald Pilgrim (Regenbogen/Berluc). During 1984 the Mephisto members Jens Schuwerk, Michael Sündermann (later in Formel 1/Pharao) and Reinhard Repke founded Vantom, so the band was forced to reform with other musicians and this game continued throughout the years. During 1986 and '87 Mephisto also produced 4 songs (titles are unknown) for the national broadcast service, while their early Heavy Rock got much heavier as songs like the Queensryche influenced "Höllenengel" proves. Then after the fall of the wall in 1990 the band recorded a Demo tape (released 1992) that led to one of the highlights in Mephisto's career, which undoubtly was their support gig for Dio and Metallica May 1990 in Hannover, that the band positively could use to spread their name, while the Krefeld Mephisto immediately judicial prohibited the band to use the name Mephisto any longer. 1991 eventually they had to change the name to Double Action and finally officially released the 1990 Demo recordings as "Demo 1992". 1998 their independently produced debut album "Fireproof" was released, that gained the band a deal with Udo Dirkschneider's Breaker Records for the follow up album "Sokaris" 2001. If you got more detailed info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

For such a short lived act that V2 from West Berlin was, they released really alot albums. The band was founded by ex- S.A.D.O. members and Tommy Heart (Thomas Conrad; ex-Heartlyne/Zeno) in 1988 and directly got a record deal and even the debut LP was available still in the same year. Tommy Heart already left after one album and got replaced by Zlatan Stipišić (ex-Osmi Putnik, ex-Divlje Jagode) but didn't stay long enough to be heard on "Out to launch", their second album. Ralf Dohanetz (ex-Regenbogen/Mephisto/Berluc) got his job and when Simon D'Brouier and Robert Hanke quit as well (both later founded Preussen), the ex-Ballantinez guitarist Joannis Stefanidis joined in 1989 and Alexander Reich jumped on bass. With Reich, Stefanidis, Kaebs and Dohanetz the new V2 recorded "Out to launch" in December '89 and rather dropped the melodic Heavy Metal of the debut. The songs on "Out to launch" are mixed, besides some pretty heavy speedy power bangers, the main material has got a kinda glammy edge, midpaced pounding, almost in places comparable with mid 80's Accept. The band sounded like they didn't really have a musical concept. Guess that's why they split up still in 1990. Robert Hanke was later found in Claim while Matti Kaebs joined producer Harris Johns's band Charn. Ralf Dohanetz joined the post-Mephisto band Double Action.

Band-info:

A shortlived teenager Death Metal band from Berlin-Friedrichshain (ex-GDR) that only has been active between 1990/91, but managed to record a Demo with the title “Downfall” in 1990, offering raw underground Death Metal with Grindcore parts. During that short time span the guys played a handful of live gigs as well, f.e. supporting Berlin locals Postmortem. The title track of the tape either got aired in the program “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy”, but already the following year the band broke up and all members went to other bands. Mike "Stanley" Hoffmann joined Harmony Dies in 1992, just like Robert Kotlarsky (1995), after he previously had spent some years in Raped Cadaver between 1992/94. Singer Daniel "Schulle" Schulz joined for a couple of weeks the Oi/Punk band Voice of Hate (1991) and was later during 1992 found in the band Bierpatrioten.

Band-info:

Thrashers from Ludwigshafen/Maubach, who started during 1988 as a fourpiece and was already seen playing live the following year. Thomas Will was previously playing in Reptile during the mid 80's, but on guitar in that band. November '88 they already recorded the debut tape "Suicidal future" and later added a second guitarist (Lotte) in 1989, who didn't stay for long in the band. Holger Köster replaced him and also recorded the band's second Demo "Violent world" during February 1990. Not sure what happened after that Demo, but the band totally fell apart. Just Köster remained tried till 1992 with new members Andreas Leitner (bass), Juste (drums) and Markus Seitz (vocals). Mad Evil's style was obviously Kreator and Protector influenced extremely raw Thrash Metal, that reminds slightly of Morbid Saint. Some of the first incarnation of Mad Evil tried to revive the band under the monicker Depraved in 1993, but Rummel and Will already started the more successful Nyctophobic in 1992.

Band-info:

For this promising Wolfsburg Speed/Thrash Metal act it was very sad that no label picked them up. Inzest contained several members of other Wolfsburg acts like Steeltower, Death Attack or Steelhunter and delivered a lethal speed driven Thrash style with quite outstanding guitars partly a bit sounding like early Vendetta and Slayer. They were formed in 1985 by drummer Peter Schulz and guitarist Andrè Borawski, and recorded their first demo in 1987. Both Demos sounded somewhat professional, that it's indeed a mystery that not even Noise Records gave em the chance for an album. Definitely amoung the top Demos in the 80's german Thrash underground. Inzest was also featured on a local compilation tape called "KaschpaSound Compilation" that featured bands playing live there. Lutkemuller and Borawski would later play together in Shooting Gallery again.

Band-info:

Locals from Aachen, formed some time in the mid 80's as Witchcraft. In 1987 the former drummer of Heavy Rockers Life (who released a selfproduced EP back in 1983) joined the line-up and the name was changed to Axe La Chapelle. Their first ALC "Demo '88" was recorded rather quickly. A second one was released the next year, both featuring quite melodic but nevertheless solid mid league Hard Rock/Metal stuff. Around 1990 the ex-Helicon guitarist Volker Marx entered and 1992 bassist Uwe Wessel (ex-Galaxy/Bullfrog/Steamer/Noblesse/Gamma Ray) and drummer Ulli Kusch (ex-Holy Moses/Mekong Delta/Joker/Gamma Ray) also. The guys started working on their Power Metal album "Grab what you can", released 1994 on the label C&C, but split up eventually 1995.

Band-info:

An early incarnation of the Aachen Heavy Metal band Axe La Chapelle, before ex-Life drummer Detlef Müller joined in 1987 which in turn resulted in a name-change. According to at least one source, a demo should have been produced under the Witchcraft-monicker, but no such recording has yet been unearthed. If you have more info, please get in contact.

Band-info:

Unfortunately, we couldn't find any information about the Hardrockers Backtrack either, although the band which consisted of Ron Quiror (vocals), Klaus Wagner (guitar), Achim Rausch (bass), Andreas Lahm (keyboard) and Mathias “Tiger” Braun on drums, released a pretty decent single on the indie label Blue Cue Records in 1989, so that, for better or worse, one could draw a circle around the creative area of this label and one should probably assume the place of origin of Backtrack to be in the southwest of Germany, somewhere in the Saarbrücken/Homburg area or in the western Stuttgart region. In the end, it doesn't really matter with the two stunning songs “Take a Chance” and “Rock with force”, as both speak for themselves in terms of quality. As with most of these obscure German local singles from the Bavarian region, Backtrack are also completely convincing and offer 2 x melodic Hard Rock in a class of its own. “Take a Chance” even offers hints of the good, more modern mid 80's phase of Deep Purple.

Band-info:

The band Havarie formed back in 1983 as a school band in the Oberlausitz area, in the small town of Rothenburg in the far east of the ex-GDR, north of Görlitz. Initially still without a name until 1985, the name Havarie was finally considered, while musically they were still influenced by bands like Prinzip and Formel 1. The quartet, which consisted of Matthias Kerger, Dirk Schubert, Norbert Fiedler and Dirk Pestel, then began to focus more on songs of Running Wild, Dio and Judas Priest and easily reached the upper level in their official classification. At the “Rock-Visite '87” festival, where 15 other national bands took part as well, they shared stage with local metal bands Pent, St. Metal and Doctor Rock. Havarie must have split up around the end of 1989, as Dirk Schubert was already a permanent member of Danger by November of that year and Matthias Kerger joined Dresden's Doctor Rock at the beginning of 1990.

Band-info:

A Speed Metal band from Dresden (ex-GDR) active in the late 80's, apparently inspired by Motörhead by the choice of name. Doctor Rock was formed by the trio Gunter Brendel, Rüdiger Freud and Günter Weber in February '83, while Brendel and Freund has already been bandmates in Zenit since the 70's. During June '86 the band was featured on a live radio broadcast, including a live cut of Doctor Rock's songs "Mathilde", "Schulrock" and "Frei von dir", now with Jens-Uwe Berg on guitar, replacing Rüdiger Freund since 1985. 1987 Thomas Lorenz till 1988 played drums, before Norbert Fiedler took over. He remained in the band till 1990, just shortly interrupted during 1989 by Ralf Matthäß, who didn't stay long in the band at all. In 1987 the guys recorded the 2 Demo cuts "Metal Man" and "Das kleine Licht", before the national youth radion stations showed interest. February '88 two more live tracks got airplay ("In der Falle des Teufels", "Das kleine Licht") and once again in June the same year "Metal Man", "In der Falle des Teufels" and "Der harte Weg". According to the rising popularity of Doctor Rock, they could eventually produce the song "Metal man" for the national broadcast in December '88, that made it on the Rockbilanz '89 Compilation. Kay Rühmer (ex-St. Metal) was on the second guitar till between 1987/89 and then guitarists came and go all within 1989. Thomas Bachmann (ex-St. Metal), Heiko Serchen, Thomas Walther (ex-Frontal/Charon) tried to replace Jens Berg (who in mid 1989 joined MCB to replace Sebastian Baur), while Rühmer quit too that year. Heiko Serchen left again early/mid '89, when he joined Charon from Chemnitz. Next to handle the guitar was Thomas Lindner, shortly followed by Heiko Winter (we're still in 1989), who remained in the band till at least 1990 to get replaced by ex-Havarie Matthias Kerger, who on the other hand brought his brother Steffen on bass into Doctor Rock as well. Previously Mario Prause and Carsten Michel (both in 1989) tried to complete the band on bass. With all these musicians coming and going within shortest time you can imagine that the sound of Doctor Rock changed as well. On their last Demo production from 1990 (at least 3 trax are known) the Speed Metal of the previous phase of the band had progressed into a more pure Thrash sound. 1990 was also the year when Doctor Rock called it a day. If you got more info please get in touch.

Band-info:

There’s always a bit of confusion when it comes to locate the hometown of the band Danger. Guys from the Stollberg area (near Chemnitz) swear the band was officially located in Stollberg, other info says they’re from Radeberg (near Dresden). Perhaps the location Radeberg might fit for the very first year of the band’s being, since it seems most of the hired musicians originated from the Dresden area, but the main part of Danger’s later history happened in Stollberg. Nevertheless, it’s a fact that Danger was founded in 1989 by Andreas Männer after the end of his former band Frontal (Stollberg/Meerane) and by the end of the same year in November ’89 a steady line was already built by Erik Sommer (guitar), Maik Zühlke (guitar), ex-Havarie Dirk Schubert (bass), Andreas Glück (drums) and Männer himself on vocals. The first Demo „Death before Disco“ was quickly recorded during early 1990 and delivered straight forward contemporary Thrash with Power Metal influences. Unfortunately both guitarists and the drummer Andreas Glück then decided to seek their glorious fortune in the ex-GDR Metal legend MCB’s service, so the trio turned their backs on Danger and joined the bigger MCB in August ’90, resulting that also Dirk Schubert disillusioned quit the band. If you now think that Andreas Männer had finally enough, after losing a third time his complete band, you’re bloody wrong. The „tumbler“ of eastgerman Metal did it once again and reformed Danger with his former ex-Frontal mates Thomas Steinz (bass, ex-Rübezahl) and Uwe Eckert (drums), who both arrived from the defunct Charon, plus Dirk Fankhänel on guitar. The result of this new collaboration was another Demo, released in 1992, featuring 3 more thrashy Power Metal delicacies. On their in August/September ‘93 produced cassette album „Nightmare“, the new Danger crew dived into the Power Metal waves even deeper and reminded in the first instance of some of the King Diamond stuff. A CD version later in 1995 was released on OTR Prod. as well, but Uwe Eckert soon would leave Danger. Andreas Männer moved on the position of the vacant drummer, Maik Richter on second guitar was recruited, while 1998 the ex-Villain shouter Lars Sehm joined the guys, who produced the Demo CD „Wonderland“ in 1998, before Männer was asked to leave and the remaining guys continued as Dangerous, incl. the „Wonderland“ re-release under that new monicker too. But it wouldn’t take long and Dangerous split up right within the same year.

Band-info:

Rumpel Thrashers from Ludwigshafen, featuring a number of later Crematory musicians like Harald Heine, Markus Jüllich and ex-Sudden Darkness Lothar Först. The first line was built by Harald Heine (bass, vocals), Thorsten "Smog" Aschenbrenner (guitar) and Markus Jüllich (drums) who shared the same rehearsal room with underground Thrashers Sudden Darkness, whose guitarist Lothar Först would help out on guitar as well in the beginning, but just stayed in the band for about a year after Excess was baptized back in summer 1988 and didn't play on any of the band's future Demos. Stylistically they adopted a sort of basic Death/Thrash in the vein of british Desecrator. During 1989 the trio recorded 2 Demos and afterwards Jüllich got replaced by Thomas Lösel (joined Malignity), still late in '89. He either was replaced 1990 by ex-Reptile/Sudden Darkness drummer Andreas Neuderth who recorded 2 more Death Metal tapes with Excess in 1992, before they eventually split up. Heine and their new vocalist Claus Oehler (later in Blood) went to play with Malignity, while Aschenbrenner and Neuderth recorded a Demo with Ripping Entrails. Since 2014 Excess is active again.

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Hardrockers from East Berlin (ex-GDR), active only during the early and mid 80's. Their original bassist Hubert Ranft decided to play with Babylon in early 1985 and Christian Merz joined Triolog instead. The guys could even produce 2 songs for the national broadcast service, with "Wilde Wochen lang" either getting airplay at national rating programs. Triolog's sound was influenced by Ozzy, Van Halen, ZZ Top and Saxon. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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Shortlived band from East Berlin (ex-GDR), that existed from 1987-90 and broke up during the political change. Bandleader Uwe zur Kammer (guitar) already played with drummer Jens Baldauf in the band "Das Linke Ohr" (Punk and Metal). Andre Mosler (bass) previously was in a band together with Merlin's Mario Schneider. Guitarist Dominique “Nick” Jaudzims came from the ZZ Top cover band Blue. After Mosler, Baldauf and zur Kammer had rehearsed for fun, they saw Nick Jaudzims with his band Blue on stage and asked him to form a new "Texas Rock" band. Since he was tired of playing only covers and wanted to play own songs, they agreed to form Tequila, who combined the classic ZZ Top sound with Hard'n'Heavy stuff. Lutz Schwarz who previously sung in other Berlin bands joined the guys on the micro. But Jens Baldauf was shortly afterwards called to arms and ex-Dynastie Marcel Thiele took his drumsticks. The quintet 1987 produced 3 songs privately at the studio of the Rock band Lucie, that got airplay and highest positions in local newcomer hitparades. The entire repertoire of Tequila featured only about 12 songs and either livewise the guys wasn't much active and performed about 10 x on stage only. 1988 Uwe zur Kammer officially applied to leave the country and therefore the Stasi began to show interest in the band. After he had went to West Berlin in March '89, Marcel Thiele rather joined Merlin, while Manfred Blich (guitar) and Stefan Witter (drums) replaced both, so Tequila started working on new english sung material and either recorded the song "No more" during 1989, that got aired at the “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy” radio show. Despite reaching the “special level” at their official band rating test in November ’89, the band split up quickly afterwards.

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An obscure Lüdinghausen band active in 83/84, who announced their demo in an early Rock Hard issue. Apparently we were only presented with covers of "The Kids Are Back" and "Revelations", and the name of the contact address was the contemporary editor of RH, Götz Kühnemund. If this means it was Götz' own band or if he had taken them under his wings, we currently don't know. Further info is needed.

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This short lived affair formed in Hagen during October 1982, initiated by Siegfried Schwarz and Ergün Tasli. Jürgen Tetzlaff, Reinhold Durand and Hanni Plattke completed the quintet a bit later on, who claimed for themselves to be the most tough Heavy Metal band of Hagen. After a poorly produced 3 song Demo and a live recording in Dortmund, January '84, Reinhold Durand left the band for Hard 'n' Heart and later Universe, while the band altered their monicker to Nytemare. The demo songs "Drive out the demon", "Down town", the ballad "Tears in your eyes", as well as the live songs "The Bitch" and "We Rock Every Night" gave a short impression of the upcoming Nytemare sound. Same style, with a few Maiden influences as well.

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A local Heavy Metal band from Bonn, formed in March 1983. They were active on the Cologne/Bonn live scene in 84/85, performing classic German Metal tunes like "Extermination", "See The Rockin' Place Explode" and "Local Heroes". A demo was apparently planned around this time, but if it ever was recorded, it is yet undiscovered. A 40 minute live recording from January 1984, recorded at a youth cafe in Dortmund is however rumored to exist. Thomas Schumann and Michael Schell formed the local heroes Trans Am in May 1985. Further info is needed.

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The Rock band Caravan was founded in Dresden in the ex-GDR in 1979, but was active under different monickers since already 1967, when the band originally started out as Matadors and later on as Salko, with Gerald Hamann being one of the founding members of the band. In the early years the guys had a focus mainly on playing cover versions of Genesis and Saga, and even could produce some of their own material during the mid 80’s for the national broadcast, where f.e. the song "Nicht drüber weg" entered national hit parades. In the following months then the line up changed, connected with a musical reorientation when Caravan relocated to Berlin and in early 1987 Gerald Hamann found some fresh musicians to restart with either a new concept that was more based on Rock music with heavy guitars, while their cover versions changed from Genesis of the band's early days to now Europe and Marillion songs. Carsten Knabe the new singer came from the band Passion, while on guitar joined the ex-Regenbogen/Cobra member Ernst Reuter. Additionally in the band had been Thomas Fabian on the bass, both Gerald Hamann & Bert Wawrzinek on keyboards plus Henry Butschke on drums, a former Babylon/Engerling member. It seems that this heavy Rock concept wasn’t maintained by the band for too long, as later radio recordings drifted back into more standard Rock territory, so those songs that Caravan recorded for the national broadcast service between 1988 and 89 aren't much of interest for this guide. We just feature the band due to their live repertoire, that included as already mentioned above cover versions of Europe and Marillion. The band labeled their live program themselves like "from Pop to Heavy Rock". February 1989 the band name got slightly altered to Knabe & die CARAVANe, till the band split up in the early 90's.

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A classic Heavy Metal band from Ettenheim, that released the superb "Metalized" EP in 1988 (1000 copies made), which features straight forward pushing speedy Metal in the vein of bands such as Atlain or Avenger. The guys was active since early 1987 and came up with a 3 track Demo right in autumn the same year. With Matthias Dittmann a second guitarist joined in May '88, but then vocalist Wolfgang Tample left to join Central Power Unit and one by one more members quit, so Lazzer unfortunately needed quite a while after the vinyl release to return with a completely new line up to introduce their 1993'er true 80's alike sounding Power Metal Demo "Fight for your right", that either contained a Beastie Boy's cover. Roland Seidel (vox), Ingo Zimmermann (guitar) and Peter Scherer (drums) supported the only remaining original member Thomas Kraft, but either that line up wasn't steady enough to survive the eternity. Jens Ribow (ex-Scarecrow) had replaced guitarist Zimmermann already on Lazzer's last CD "Tales of the Cosmoverse" in 1995, that sounded way more modern than the previous releases.

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Rank maybe, but Rich & Famous I dunno. Although they pretty much had the balls to reach the top with their featured number on the "Mayence Rock '91" sampler. Above standard AOR in the vein of early Bon Jovi with a female vocalist. A shame they didn't make it back in the day. The guys was featured with the ballad "Magic love" already on that city's local compilation from 1990 either. A talented band for sure. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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Local Mayence band from Heidesheim, formed in August 1989, in the softer Bon Jovi vein with Hard Rock edge though, who could contribute their listenable song “Strangers in the night” on the 1990er edition of the famous sampler “Mayence Rock”.

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Local Mayence AOR band formed in February 1989, whenalso a quite poppy one in the early/mid 80’s Journey vein, who could contribute their song “Like a knife” on the 1990er edition of the famous sampler “Mayence Rock”.

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6 guys from Bischofsheim/Mayence launched Snow Donia already during 1986 and the band was known to perform live on stage quite often in their area, which granted them special musical experience. A 2 Track Demo was recorded around 1989/90 featuring US influenced Hard Rock material comparable to White Sister, Illusion or Autograph and either the track "Out for love" made it on the local scene compilation "Mayence Rock '90". Further info is welcome.

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Death Metallers from Göttingen who started out as Blasphemy in 1989, still with Sebastian Bielecki playing guitar and doing vocals, but changed name sometime in around late 1989/90 before they released their first Demo "My requiem". Then the band got quickly signed by Morbid Music, a sublabel of West Virginia Records and recorded their first album ”Indicium de Mortuis” in November '91, that presents Immortalis in a way almost trying to copy Entombed, Utumno or similar swedish acts. Even the sound of the album was fully pimped on the typical swedish Death Metal sound and Sebastian Bielecki vocals either sounded close to Lars Göran Petrov. For a while Andy Classen of Holy Moses was playing the bass then but the band disbanded quickly.

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Death Metallers from Göttingen who formed during 1989, but already changed name sometime in around late 1989/90 to Immortalis, before they released their first Demo "My requiem". They got signed by Morbid Music afterwards, a sublabel of West Virginia Records and recorded their first album ”Indicium de Mortuis” in November '91. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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A HM band from Emmendingen-Lahr in the south-west corner of Germany, cobbled together by ex-members from various other local "legends". Guitarist Andreas Wolk and drummer Rüdiger Föll who both initiated the group in 1989 were previously in MP/Metal Priest. Singer Wolfgang Tampe came from Lazzer and bassist Wolfgang Nübling was part of a later line-up of Freiburg's oldies Heavy Load. They had their debut gig in Appenweier in the spring of 1990 and their 4-song promo-demo from the same year has been described as no frills, tight but not too exceptional Heavy Metal. Not sure if this band might be the same like the one from the Frankfurt area. More info therefore is truly needed.

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Ingolstadt hard rockers active around 1988, who according to a show ad considered themselves successors to Bonfire. High ambitions but little in way of legacy it seems... If you have more info, please get in contact.

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Tyrus was an obscure Heavy Metal band from Riedlhütte, eastern Bavaria formed by guitarist "Half An Hour" and a yet unnamed early vocalist in early 1985. With a slowly stabilizing line-up and a new singer in 1988, the 5 teenagers surprised alot with their only 7" released the same year. The title track's offering speedy powerful Metal that's just seeping out the German Metal thru and thru. "My love is true" the B-side, is a softer tune, still good Metal, but way more melodic sounding with galopping beat. All in all for a teenager band a solid piece of vinyl, worth to watch out for. A contemporary live review speak of a 19(!) song set, so somewhere out there there should be more great material waiting. If you have more info, please get in contact.

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A local band from the Frankfurt area, that was actively playing live in 1988 and has been described as "melody-focused hard rock with double-bass drumming". If you got more info, please get in touch.

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Marilynn from Berlin were a 6-man melodic, US-style Hard Rock band that started out in April or May of 1987 (sources do differ here), initiated by a group of skilled musicians namely Andreas Schwichtenberg (guitar), Oliver Schwenke (guitar), Michael Dobbertin (bass), who aimed to create a sort of melodic Heavy Rock in the Europe vein and quickly found Roger Ulbrich on drums for that undertaking. Not much later keyboarder Andreas Hoyer joined the pack, that right in the late summer of ’87 started with the studio recordings of their debut Demo. During those recordings singer Jack Stein, who had lots of choir experiences and anyway had plans to join a Heavy act, was asked by one of the guys to try singing those songs, which worked out so well in the end that he became Marilynn’s frontman. The Demo was finished in October and included 4 songs in total, that raised interest in the band not just by the underground press but also several record companies looking for these kind of american Hard Rock bands, despite Marilynn’s material featured songs right in the middle of Melodic Metal and Hard Rock, sounding like the heavier Europe or Bonfire, Heartlyne, Mydra, Karo and Fate. On May 14th 1988 the Marilynn guys organized their first live concert at the legendary Quartier Latin in Berlin, which was sold out by the way. But Jack Stein left the band afterwards and turned up shortly later in another Berlin act called Preussen. His replacement being the former Ballantinez shouter Achim Hemme, with whom a preproduction session was recorded at the Powerplay Studios in Berlin. The guys surprisingly could either participate at a Peace Festival in Moscow in late 1989, while the year after, Marilynn, despite aiming for their highest goal to score a record contract on a major label, already broke apart due to the usual band internal tensions and different views concearning their musical future direction. During 1999/2000 with Oliver Schwenke (now being called Oliver Christopher) on vocals, Andreas Schwichtenberg (guitar), Michael Dobbertin (bass) and Andreas Hoyer (keyboards), Marilynn played a few reunion gigs with diverse session drummers, while in 2011 the band decided to re-record some of their old songs together with Thomas Parchem and Ingo Cress of the band Metal Law for the band’s debut album "Back where you belong", whic was released on CD on Firefield Records. The lads main focus on that album was to bring back the classic Hard Rock sound of the 80's, and therefore all fans of that genre are the ones that album was mainly dedicated to.

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Originally the members of the early 1989 founded Preussen played already together for several years, till everyone of them joined other Berlin acts like V2 (Simon De Brouier, Robert Hanke) or S.A.D.O. (Jörg Powileit, Simon De Brouier). Lutz Brauer and Jörg Powileit in the early 80's was both members of the ex-GDR band Regenbogen, before they left the country and went to West Berlin. When Powileit, De Brouier and Hanke left their former bands, they decided to try again from zero and started the project Preussen with the ex-Marilynn singer Jack Stein. The guys themselves claimed to play somewhere between Maiden and Dio, while living witnesses who saw them live on stage confirmed serious commercial influences being part of their style as well. Not sure if they ever recorded something officially, but further info is welcome.

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Ballantinez from West Berlin was founded 1983 by Jörg Franke (ex-Tantalos/Skylla) and Carsten Köhler (ex-Skylla) and undergoing permanent line up changes.The guys recorded a 3 song tape in late 1983 when the band was still influenced by Black Sabbath. With members coming and going the style of Ballantinez also changed and at the point when Noise Records signed the quintet, acts like Dokken or Ratt was already mentioned as influences. Either Jörg Franke (Calderone, Black Burn, Crypt) quit Ballantinez during the first phase together with his later Black Burn mate Carsten Köhler, before "Charged" was recorded in December '84. The remaining lads decided to use some of the new songs for the mini album, which ended up in a quite ambivalent result. On one hand songs like "Storm will be rising" definitely got something catchy and barnstorming, but the main part of the album features slightly confusing structures, that sometimes don't even fit together. If the aim of the guys was to produce US Party Metal, then they at 50 % failed. Uwe Neff (bass) replaced Thomas Hedrich already when "Charged" was available and the band prepared for a tour with Warlock and had started working for a fullenght, planned for the fall of 1985. But it didn't came close to that anymore, coz Ballantinez split up and Karsten Krause joined Dark Avenger still in 1985, before he co-founded the post-Dark Avenger offshoot Heartlyne. Andy Malecek recorded "Dirty fantasy" with S.A.D.O. and was later found in Fair Warning around 1990. Joannis Stefanidis joined the shortlived V2, while singer Achim Hemme teamed up with Marilynn during 1988.