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A lesser known AOR/Melodic Rock band from Emmendingen, north of Freiburg, whose musicians built a kinda “inner circle”, as you will find those names being involved in lotsa musical projects of their local area during the 80’s. On their first MLP “There was a time...”, recorded in 1985 with the line-up consisting of Dejan Djordjevic (vocals, keyboard), Heiko Sauter (guitar, keyboard), Werner Scheer (guitar, keyboard), Claus Bühler (keyboard), Stefan Gräßlin (drums), there’s Heiko Sauter & Werner Scheer, who’d also been members of the contrary band TRON since already 1982/83, that was experimenting with Pop beats and heavy guitars. On LADY’s fullenght entitled “The portait”, recorded in February 1986, besides Heiko Sauter (on keybords now) and singer Dejan Djordjevic, three more TRON musicians would join the LADY crew, being guitarist Rainer Lehmann, Thomas Zeller (bass) and Michael Link (drums). Zeller and Link should be known names within the German Metal scene, since both would later become members of MP (METAL PRIESTS). But prior to MP, the two had a similar project running called INFERNO, while Thomas Zeller before launching MP, would also play in a band called ROTOR. What kind of connection had drew both to bands like TRON or LADY, seems interesting, because those must be rather counted to the poppy faction. However, not as poppy as f. e. MANDALA’s album sounding, that in a way fell more or less into the same category, LADY experimented with Pop and AOR/Hard Rock elements like the band LUCY, which makes it difficult to rate the band seen in the whole. Fortunately the distorted guitars found heavier use on LADY’s creations than the aforementioned MANDALA LP. It’s up to everyone to check out both of LADY’s records if needed. They are in the first case made for fans of the poppy AOR stuff. Guitarist Rainer Lehmann would turn up with INFAMIS during the mid 90's, while Heiko Sauter formed the AOR/Hard Rock band PARANOJA around 1985. Michael Link after a brief appearance in Zeller’s band MP would join SEPARATE REALITY in 1990/91, that later became ENTRY.

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Judging by the pic, it should be indeed ex-TRON/LADY/ROTOR Thomas Zeller and Michael Link (ex-TRON/LADY), both members of the METAL PRIESTS (MP), being involved in this obscure project. The other known guy of their line-up is Uli Haas of PARANOJA. As usual, info are rarely to be found, while you won’t read anything about these lads elsewhere. So focuss on the song instead. “Do it again” just 100 % follows the known MP path. A nice midtempo banger with ACCEPTish beat, roughly produced, just typically German sounding Heavy Metal by any means.

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MP originally stands for METAL PRIESTS and indeed, the lads from Witten that are active consistently since the mid 80's, delivered the archetypical german Heavy Metal sound and would well have had the format to appear in the Gama releases catalogue either. But the Step Records label has been quicker to sign these guys and published all of their three 80's vinyls under their own banner. MP was founded by the trio Thomas Zeller (bass, vocals), Andreas Wolk (guitar) and Thomas Schneider (drums), who all three previously had been playing together in the band ROTOR. As it seems ROTOR’s direction wasn’t really up their alley, so they decided to form their own band MP instead. Being from Witten apparently helped the guys, since Peter Josefus of the local Franz K. studio took care of the trio and produced a Demo for them, that gained interest by the EMI, who sent them back to studio immediately to produce the album "Bursting out". On the second "Get it now" album Michael Link (ex-TRON/LADY/INFERNO) had replaced Thomas Schneider on the drums and on "Show down" from 1988 Sesamy B. took Schneiders part either, while also with Uwe Ulm a second guitarist completed the line up. The debut offers classic Metal sounding like a cross of mid 80's ACCEPT and GRAVESTONE/GRAVE DIGGER, and on "Get it now" (1987) & "Show down" (1988) MP in a way continued that mainly midpaced rocking style, though the sound got slightly more modern, and sometimes one feels reminded of bands like STEELER or RAILWAY. Shortly after the "Show down" album release in autumn '88, Uwe Ulm (guitar) and Rüdiger Föll (drums) got introduced to fill the empty rows of MP. Former drummer Michael Link (drums) would join SEPARATE REALITY during 1991. The following year 1989, Rüdiger Föll and Andreas Wolk left the band to form the CENTRAL POWER UNIT, but after a longer absence the one remaining original member Thomas Zeller returned with a new team (Jens Ribow - guitar, ex-BEATIFIX/SCARECROW, Uwe Ulm - guitar, Roland Dresel - bass, Chris Weller - keyboard), Bernd Schussele - drums) and album ("Melting point") in 1992 to hold the Metal flag higher than ever to once again striked back with classic 80's Metal sound. Particially some of the drum parts had been played by ex-SEX ATTACK Christophe Hoffmann as well. But "Melting point" should remain MP's last studio album, though the band is still active it seems. Thomas Zeller was also involved in the project INFERNO in 1986. However, it remains questionable to what extent he pushed it forward in the end. As things stand, he only made it to a sampler contribution in 1986. Besides INFERNO, he had also played bass guitar in the AOR band LADY during that time and prior to that in TRON, where Michael Link was the drummer in all of the 3 bands as well.

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PARANOJA from Emmendingen, north of Freiburg, should have formed sometime around 1985 while Heiko Sauter at that time was guitarist in the band LADY and prior to this in TRON. He got his sister Daniela taking care of the vocals, while the band applied during early ’86 to appear on a local Emmendingen sampler entitled “Podium 2000”, where the guys could place their song “Flying high”, an emotional AOR number. During the following years the sound of PARANOJA also adopted several Hard Rock elements and merged melodic Hard Rock with AOR/Arena Rock by then. Result has been their only album from 1991, the selftitled CD “Paranoja”, that features highly melodic AORish Hard Rock compositions, often reminding of SURVIVOR. “Make my day” even went heavier, offering just typical 80’s US Hard Rock. But seems like the band fell apart at around the same time already. Drummer Bernd Schmidt in 1992/93 went to TDN, while Heiko Sauter focussed on different projects as well. Just a side note, PARANOJA’s bass player Uli Haas was also featured in a Heavy Metal project together with MP’s Thomas Zeller, called INFERNO during 1986.

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ENTRY from Hamburg originally formed during 1981 as SEPARATE REALITY and released a nice 7" on the Pirol label in 1988 that features the cool Heavy Rocker "Metal skies" and the more or less rather AORish "Enough", who's refrain could be compared to a heavier form of BACHMANN TURNER OVERDRIVE's "You ain't seen nothing yet" in a way. Later the guys also recorded a 6 track Demo tape in 1991, who's drum parts was all done by still Jürgen Schlottau, but the booklet already mentions Michael Link (ex-TRON/LADY/INFERNO/MP) as new drummer. Additionally David Roth (keyboard) and Goetz Sucke (vocals) had joined the band while Struck and Gliese left SEPARATE REALITY after the single. That tape featured their wellknown blend of Prog Metal and Hard Rock sounds, offering either occasional FATES WARNING hints. 1992, when Stefan Vermehren became their new singer, the lads decided to change the band's name to ENTRY and released the "Out of court" Demo the following year. ENTRY in the meanwhile kept the former upperclass melodic Hard Rock/Metal sound that SEPARATE REALITY used to perform as well and presented quite typical late 80's material during the mid 90's. Another Demo was recorded before the band went into a studio to record the album "Face the world" back in 1996, which though wasn't released before 1999, due to different internal hassle.

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The already 1981 founded SEPARATE REALITY from Hamburg released a nice 7" on the Pirol label in 1988 that features the cool Heavy Rocker "Metal skies" and the more or less rather AORish "Enough", who's refrain could be compared to a heavier form of BACHMANN TURNER OVERDRIVE's "You ain't seen nothing yet" in a way. The guys also recorded a 6 track Demo tape in 1991, who's drum parts was all done by still Jürgen Schlottau, but the booklet already mentions Michael Link (ex-TRON/LADY/INFERNO/MP) as new drummer. Additionally David Roth (keyboard) and Goetz Sucke (vocals) had joined the band while Struck and Gliese left SEPARATE REALITY after the single. That tape featured their wellknown blend of Prog Metal and Hard Rock sounds, offering either occasional FATES WARNING hints. The guys later changed name to ENTRY and released a CD in 1999. Further info is needed.

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W.B.I. stands for “Wismars Bart Inferno” and was an extreme Noisecore act from northern ex-GDR. The band was actually founded around 1987 in Wismar, but since some of the guys left the country during 1989, their contact adresses printed on their later releases mentioned first Flensburg and later Hamburg. Guitarist Tarri previously had a band called PENTAGRAMM. They recorded some Demos and Split EP's with NECROPHILIACS (with members of W.B.I.), MEAT SHITS and the CRIPPLE BASTARDS before their debut MLP was recorded in 1992 and released 1993 on Rödel Records/Schnauf Records. Stylistically W.B.I. pretty much sounded like NAPALM DEATH on "From enslavement to obliteration" with even some Death Metal hints on the later releases. The title on "Arschbombe des Monats" was refering to the Rock Hard Magazine, that each month nominated the worst release for the title "Assbomb of the month". Guess they knew themselves they wouldn't make it into the top ten with their noise...

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Even if everything, starting with the look of the musicians or logo, points to a band that at least belongs to the Hard Rock spectrum, you are largely wrong. The band seems to have been, if not directly from Hamburg, at least based in the Hamburg area, because their only album “Whisper hands” was produced there. Unfortunately, this album can only be categorized as Melodic Rock/AOR in the wider range. In addition, there are so many extremely poppy elements on it that the entire B side tends more towards the Pop/Rock corner. Considering the line-up of the guys with two (!!) keyboarders, it should dawn on everyone that it must have been less their declared aim to make hard music than to focus on commercial Rock music instead. On the A side, apart from the lame title track, there appear at least a few soft SURVIVOR-like songs with occasional Hard Rock beat. Nevertheless, this hand is only a marginal entry in our database, as the B side of the album actually calls into question the entire connection to AOR/Hard Rock. Their drummer Jerk Christiansen briefly appeared in the BAND FULL OF LEROYS in 1993 once again, but that’s about it.

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Moshquito was founded as Argus in the saxon Zwickau (ex-GDR), by Manfred Uhlig as a Blues Rock band back in 1982. After several personnel and musical changes the original Argus line up had crystalized in 1985 with Benjamin Müller (vocals), Ingo Lohf (guitar, ex-Rapunzel), Steffen Häupl (guitar), Manfred Uhlig (bass) and Uwe Kovarnik (drums), while stylistically their influences now came from bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Saxon and Judas Priest. But the band's style permanently got heavier during the following year. Slayer and Kreator influences infected the guys who turned into one of the first pure Thrash acts of the GDR. Oliver Hippauf replaced Benjamin Müller in 1987 and the guys prepared their first Demo tape in late 1987. But due to the fanatic crowd that Argus followed from gig to gig, the SED officials ordered several stage bans, that Argus answered with a simple change of the band name to Moshquito shortly before the Demo "No back to inferno" was released. So basically the Moshquito Demo reflects the early musical work of Argus, featuring a raw Thrash Metal style similar to Slayer. When Hippauf was called to arms during 1988, Benjamin Müller returned to the band, who recorded their "Mosh in Moscow" Demo in the meanwhile in the second half of the year 1989, with technical Bay Area influenced Thrash songs reminding slightly of a cross of Exodus, Metallica and Slayer. During the political change in late '89/early '90 Moshquito got into personnel trouble, as parts of the crew left the band like Manfred Uhlig, Steffen Häupl and Benjamin Müller. Most probably the cracked deal with West Virginia Records, who wanted to produce the first Moshquito album "For the communist emperor" during 1990 (as it was already announced on flyers of the label), was the catalyst I guess. With Rochus Röder (guitar) and André Nebel (bass, vocals) the recovered Moshquito around the only former survivors Uwe Kovarnik and Ingo Lohf, recorded one more Demo during 1991 entitled "Only death is for nothing", that delivered raw Thrash with occasional Death/Thrash influences. But shortly after Moshquito got disbanded, as rumours say because West Virginia hindered the guys to sign deals with other labels. Their last gig happened in Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz), 1991, with only Lohf, Nebel and Kovarnik remaining. André Nebel instantly joined the Chemnitz based Hard'n'Heavy band Rockwärts. 1996 Mosquito got revived again by Ingo Lohf, Oliver Hippauf and Andrè Nebel, who are nowadays firming under the name Xiom. The first two Demos of the band got re-released 2011 on vinyl by German Democratic Recordings under the title "Metallic grave". 2017 the original monicker Moshquito was picked up once again though.

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It remains to be seen how far this band from Gera (ex-GDR) ever managed to put together a functional line-up in the end. At the end of November/December 1989, for example, they were still looking for a drummer and guitarist to play live (again?). Whether they did this at an earlier point in time is questionable. Perhaps they wanted to take advantage of the now open border with West Germany to put together a Hardcore/Crossover Thrash band that was musically influenced by SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, EMILS and LWS (LEBERWOHLSTAND).

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LUCY was a glammy and overall poppy sounding AOR band from FREIBURG, whose musicians seemed to have cared rather for their looks than music. Otherwise it’s difficult to explain why one would print the title “The best looking band in Freiburg 1984" on the back sleeve of one of their records? However, their vocalist Michael Poznanski, frankly better known as Michael Pozz, had previously been around with Mannheim Krautrockers KIN PING MEH during the 70’s and afterwards would form Kraut/Hard Rock act POKER at the beginning of the 80’s. After POKER's decline, who sounded quite antiquated, he formed the much more modern oriented LUCY during 1983 with local Freiburg musicians Mike Joseph Sullivan (guitar), Stefan Conradi (bass), Emil Kodric (keyboard) and Andy Rossel (drums), who soon would produce in May/June 1984 their debut EP "Whatever happened to the banana" at the Calren Studio in Hugstetten. You know, having a poppy sound for an AOR band doesn’t always has to be the best chosen path ever, so despite those commercial influences, that for early 1984 sounded pretty much adequate nevertheless, that band had definitely hit potential. Some of these songs even surprised with pounding Hardrock beats in typical US tradition. To continue, it seems the LUCY guys must have had sold even a number of records, as right in the following year there’s another EP entitled "Not for the innocent" been available. With a new line up that featured Michael Poznanski (vocals), Mike Joseph Sullivan (guitar), Philip Wolf (bass), Martin Machwitz (keyboard) and Andy Rossel (drums), the band produced their debut album "The fine line between pleasure & pain" from June to November 1986 in the same studio once again, that also published all of LUCY’s records. Thankfully the sound of the lads had now adopted much more Hard Rock elements in the meanwhile, so the whole would sound less poppy than their earlier outputs. Still a not unimportant commercial edge would remain on all of the songs, whenalso it’s just like with the previous material, no matter if you like commercial Hard Rock or not, their compositions wasn’t crappy sounding at all. There’s a sort of American feel dominating some of the album trax, like the poppy WHITE LION stuff f.e., or what bands like ROKO or BONFIRE would be doing a bit later on. Basically if you take ULTRANITE’s “I want my own planet” album as comparison, that’s the band Mike Joseph Sullivan & Martin Machwitz started after LUCY’s split btw., everything starts making sense, since both these albums "The fine line between pleasure & pain" and “I want my own planet” are made of the same kind. But however, LUCY separated afterwards, while Poznanski, Sullivan and Machwitz, besides the latter two both also formed ULTRANITE, would participate on the DEAD BALLERINAS, a Glam Metal project of Michael Pozz. He also would become TOKYO BLADE’s singer during 1988 when their “No remorse” album was produced and Martin Machwitz playing all keyboards on it as well. Quite a twisted thing here to keep survey when musicians are playing in 3 bands at the same time…

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This band from the Karlsruhe area is sometimes getting refered being a Swiss band, because the album was recorded and made in Switzerland, so you’ll find that word all over the back sleeve of the independently produced LP. ULTRANITE formed during 1988, featuring former LUCY musicians Martin Machwitz (keyboard) and Mike Joseph Sullivan (bass), who both also appeared on the sole album of the DEAD BALLERINAS. Machwitz additionally also played keyboards on TOKYO BLADE’s “No remorse” album at the same time when ULTRANITE’s only album “I want my own planet” was recorded. The band's sound seems quite poppy in the first line, watered down by the massive keyboard parts, which are mostly in the foreground. However, the guys were also able to incorporate various cool guitar driven Hard Rock numbers in the vein of ROKO, VERA CRUZ, KARO, MYDRA etc., so that in the end you are left with an ambivalent product that is most likely to be of interest to the Pop Metal faction. Nevertheless, melodic Hard Rock should be left as a generic term, even if the band often push the boundaries of hard taste. From a technical point of view they have nothing to reproach themselves with at all. By the way, backing vocals were provided by ex-KROKUS Mark Storace himself.

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The band POKER gathered with Michael "Michael Pozz" Poznanski and Gagey Mrozeck a few members of the Kraut Rock band KIN PING MEH from Mannheim, that was active since 1969 and released a not unimportant number of albums throughout the whole 70's decade. Drummer Hans-Jürgen Astor already played in MEDUSA during the early 70’s. Their only album "Red Neck Roller" was published on SL Records and features classic late 70's Hard Rock sound with a few Kraut Rock influences. Wroe got replaced by Norby Hamm after the album was out. The LP was available in black and red vinyl. But POKER’s era merely wouldn’t last for long. Poznanski’s and Astor’s paths would separate shortly later, but cross again during the fall of the 80’s. Hans-Jürgen Astor would soon form Hard'n'Heavy act STARSTRUCK, while Poznanski released several vinyls with the AOR band LUCY. When both had joined TOKYO BLADE to record their “No remorse” album, Michael Pozz eventually had the opportunity in 1988 to start his Glam Metal project DEAD BALLERINAS, where Hans-Jürgen Astor used to play drums as well.

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The DEAD BALLERINAS from Karlsruhe was just a side project that got initiated by the, at that time, recent TOKYO BLADE shouter Michael "Michael Pozz" Poznanski, who's also been the frontman of the Krautrockers KIN PING MEH in the late 70's and already used to play together with ULTRANITE's Mike Joseph Sullivan in the AOR band LUCY during the mid 80's. Tommy Löwe and Hans-Jürgen Astor (Astor Mannheim) was previously both active in the band STARSTRUCK, while both Michael Pozz & Hans-Jürgen Astor knew each other from their experiences in the band Hard Rock band POKER as well. Pozz wanted to start a Glam Metal band during the late 80's, and since TOKYO BLADE 1989 published an album on Hot Blood Records, the Gama produced the DEAD BALLERINAS album 1988 as well. Astor had been part of TOKYO BLADE’s line-up on the album too, so it's been an easy task to form a working line-up for Poznanski with guys whom he had worked with earlier. The guys tried to copy the typical US Glam Metal bands, that especially CINDERELLA seems to have had a huge input on the band's music. But since Michael Pozz hasn't been even half the charismatic frontman that Tom Keifer has been, the whole project turned out shit, and not even his "erotic vocals, instant vocals, vocals, vocals & more vocals" could change anything at all. And therefore the project was soon afterwards laid to rest. Hans-Jürgen Astor still recorded albums with hardrockers STAHL during the mid 90’s.

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No clue where these guys had been originating from, at least a small piece of vinyl of the band survived to witness their existence. Like the ones of MINESTONE, DIRTY LAINE, VENTILATOR and FRANTIC BLUE before, also SMOKEHOUSE privately produced a sort of promo vinyl at around 1990/91 at the Memphis Tonträgerproduktionen plant, that nowadays is almost impossible to come by. Musically the band has to be put in the Hard Rock drawer, but not the modern kind of Hard Rock, nope, rather the 70’s left their traces on SMOKEHOUSE’s sound. The title track sounds almost like a JIMI HENDRIX number, while one could swear to have heard the opening riff somewhere before. The other song “Babi I’m down” just reminds of the bluesy AC/DC, which in turn is also due to the way the song is sung by Rolf, their vocalist, who sounded quite a bit like Bon Scott himself.

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Glam Metallers from Waldkirch/Freiburg, who've been active since the mid 80's and published 2 Demos between 1986/87. SEX ATTACK in early 1986 also applied to participate on a local sampler with the title “Podium 2000”, which ended up in them producing the song “Pretty rough” for that LP, a pretty good MÖTLEY CRÜE/KISS inspired Party Metal number. With new drummer Christophe Hoffmann the band then during 1989 recorded their only album "Beyond belief", that except of a few smaller problems in the vocal department, wasn't utterly bad at all, with the boys still being heavily influenced by US bands such as early MÖTLEY CRÜE or BLACK ‘N BLUE, but couldn't really implement the guidelines of their US idols. But that's the win for the Metal crowd, coz basically, even though there are US Glam influences featured, SEX ATTACK played a quite straight rockin' midtempo Heavy Metal with headbang compatible rhythm, that seriously got the German brand. The grade "listenable" is well deserved. Steve Heyden and bassist Jochen “Judas Cadaver“ Bursy afterwards still formed the band HEYDEN during early 1990, before their paths would separate in 1992 and Bursy returned right in 1993 with the FUTURE ALIENS. Steve Heyden on the other hand, formed BAD TO THE BONE during the mid 90’s. Christophe Hoffmann went the more metallic way, while teaming up with the METAL PRIESTS (MP), to support them on their “Melting point” CD in 1992.

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Both ex-SEX ATTACK members Jochen Bursy and Steve Heyden formed the band HEYDEN during early 1990 in the Freiburg area and recruited Peter Koltay (guitar) and Boris Zimmermann (drums) for their new aim to start a sleazy Hard Rock band with Blues influences. During autumn '90 the guys then changed the band name to BACKSLASH and recorded a first Demo under the new monicker in January '91, that featured an american influenced sort of Sleaze/Street Hard Rock.

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Both ex-SEX ATTACK members Jochen Bursy and Steve Heyden formed the band HEYDEN during early 1990 in the Freiburg area and recruited Peter Koltay (guitar) and Boris Zimmermann (drums) for their new aim to start a sleazy Hard Rock band with Blues influences. During autumn '90 the guys then changed the band name to BACKSLASH and recorded a first Demo under the new monicker in January '91, that featured an american influenced sort of Sleaze/Street Hard Rock. One year later in January '92 the lads recorded another Promo tape featuring the songs "Bizz Kid" and "Don't bother rockin'" that was forwarded to several labels in order to land a record deal. Boris Zimmermann on that tape was replaced by new drummer Matthias Glaser. After those recordings went to exactly nothing, Bursy 1993 went to play with the FUTURE ALIENS instead, while Steve Heyden formed BAD TO THE BONE during the mid 90’s.

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A late 80's Hardrock band from Mayence that was featured on a local Mayence compilation album, with the catchy melodic Heavyrocker "Runaway love". VILLAIN got initiated by guitarist Andreas Adelhofer in 1988, who found bass player Adrian Lee and drummer Hakan Cetin shortly later to start writing own material immediately. There’s only one DOKKEN song, that the guys had covered, which will give a short view on their musical direction, while all other songs of VILLAIN had been their own creations. When the band was chosen to participate on the local “Mayence Rock '88” sampler & festival, they still had been in need for a steady vocalist. That’s why the lads asked american born US soldier Tony Torres of the local Mayence Metal band RANKNESS to perform vocals in the studio. Lutz Korndörfer, another RANKNESS member, as well of the AOR band MELBOURNE, (that was featured on the same sampler) used to play the keyboard parts on all VILLAIN recordings. But since Torres wouldn’t be available for any live gigs, the guys could eventually hire female singer Simone Schönbach to join the band instead. A couple of more studio productions would happen in the meanwhile, till Simone Schönbach left the band to replace Anny Wichardt in ROUGH during 1989. Shortly later, still within the same year of 1989, Andreas Adelhofer went to the university and left therefore VILLAIN to focuss on his studies instead, while the rest of the guys disbanded the band afterwards. Drummer Hakan Cetin joined ROUGH furing 1990, while Adelhofer later in 1990 would try again with RANK, RICH & FAMOUS, but this time as bass player though, which was a lesser time consuming job.

(Thanx to Andreas Adelhofer for explicit info!)

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ROUGH was a female fronted Metal band from Mayence, that could at least release one album for Steamhammer before they dropped the band again, but the lack of quality couldn't be the reason of it at all, coz "First cut" delivers above average Heavy Metal refined by the vocals of the blond eyecatcher Anny Wichardt (since 1984 part of the band), who could call a great voice their own. The bands mainly pounding style reminds slightly of later WARLOCK with a little note of japanese bands such as Loudness and either US american hints like DOKKEN and such. Originally ROUGH during 1985 signed a contract with star producer Dieter Dierks, who had big plans for the band and wanted them to push into a more commercial corner, but after almost 2 years of no album in sight, the band cancelled the deal and recorded their "First cut" album during March '88 for the Steamhammer label, which got a perfect production with sheer power almost soaking out of the speakers. Anny Wichardt left the band 1989, but the guys found with Simone Schönbach (ex-VILLAIN) yet another female vocalist still early '89 and after a tour with AXXIS started pre-producing their second album, while early '90 the band again searched for a new vocalist. Meanwhile, former VILLAIN drummer Hakan Cetin joined ROUGH during 1990. There also was 2 Demo tapes released by the 1981 founded band prior to the album in the mid 80's, as well as their farewell Demo, just entitled "Rough" in 1991, which might feature some songs of the never released 2nd album of the band most probably.

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A late 80's AOR band from Mayence that was featured on 2 parts of a local Mayence compilation & festival series, with 2 catchy melodic AOR tracks, featuring hints of FOREIGNER and JOURNEY. They could be also interesting for melodic Hard Rock fans. Lutz Korndörfer was also member of the Metal band RANKNESS and helped out on keyboards for the heavyrockers VILLAIN, that was also featured on the Mayence Rock '88 album. Lutz Korndörfer during the 90’s formed the band HEAT together with ex-ROUGH singer Anny Wichardt.

(Andreas Adelhofer for additional info!)

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Despite looking more than “suspicious” on the first view, this relatively lesser known unit originating from Delmenhorst in the southern Bremen area, was quite a bit of a surprise. These guys had rated themselves a Hardrock band in the first line, even though on their first output, the "Meine große Schwäche" 12", there's much of a bluesy Krautrock feeling prevailing as well. On this record the band still consisted of Harald Steinbrink (vocals), Michael Stumper (guitar), Helmut Waldhof (bass) and drummer Lüder Kreipke and interestingly reminds ALOT of the GDR band's MONOKEL or MCB, especially on the B side number "Wir sind die Jungs", that's sounding like MCB's "Heavy Mörtel Mischmaschine”. Right on the in October ‘80 recorded 2nd EP “Die Weihnachtsnacht” the JUCKREIZ’ line-up had changed to Harald Steinbrink (vocals), Axel Frey (guitar), Dedlef Godenschwager (bass), Burkhardt Wiggert (keyboard) and Lüder Kreipke (drums). Besides the heavy ballad "Die Weihnachtsnacht", the other song “Spargel-Tarzan" offered those MEAT LOAF alike R'n'R influences. The 3rd and latest vinyl, entitled „No III (Schaum auf der Pfeife)", that all had been numbered btw., which the band had recorded in February '81, sadly also would herald JUCKREIZ’ decay. To what extent Briani Lohwasser was counting to the band's cast, is uncertain. He’s being mentioned though as background vocalist since the "Meine große Schwäche" EP. Well, coming back to JUCKREIZ' heaviest release "No III (Schaum auf der Pfeife)", songs like “Oh Mann” or “Schaum auf der Pfeife", besides occasionally flirting with the 70's, reveal a rather early 80’s Hard Rock broad side with raw guitar sound, closer to the 80's sound so to say. On “Hallo Alter” (yes, all of the band's songs there's sarcastic German lyrics being used) the lads successfully managed a ballad, close to the early BERLUC stoff. Unfortunately JUCKREIZ after this little German Hardrock gem had soon found an end. Harald Steinbrink released an album with NDW band JUGENDFREI right in 1982.

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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 "I can't stop" on the "Mayence Rock '91" sampler. Above standard AOR in the vein of early BON JOVI. A shame they didn't make it back in the day. The band formed around 1989 and had been featured with the ballad "Magic love" already on that city's local compilation from 1990 either, still sung by their original singer Manuela Frey, who left in 1990 due to different personal opinions concearning the band’s future path. When "Magic love" was produced, Rainer Schwaab played all bass parts in the studio and even performed live with the band on stage during the “Mayence Rock '90" festival, so he joined the band briefly in 1990, but would leave again soon enough. His replacement on bass had been ex-VILLAIN guitarist Andreas Adelhofer, who just went to the university and thought it would be less time consuming to rather play bass than guitar. When Manuely Frey was gone, Markus Hachenberger, who prefered a rather AOR/Hard Rock direction, joined in to replace her, while RANK, RICH & FAMOUS were about to prepare for the following "Maynence Rock '91" festival right away with the studio production of the above mentioned hit “I can't stop". Gweni Karpinsky was asked to add backing vocals in the studio, which went so well, that she afterwards would subsequently support the guys on stage and further studio productions as backing singer as well. After several live appearances the band eventually had formed a steady line-up consisting of Markus Hachenberger (vocals), Axel Smyk (guitar), Andreas Adelhofer (bass, guitar), Gunni Brahm (keyboard) and Sascha Kaiser (drums). A number of demos had been additionally produced during the early 90’s, but none of which would gain the guys any successful breakthrough. Andreas Adelhofer after having eventually finished his studies in 1994, was forced to leave the band, which shortly later would fall apart.

(Thanx to Andreas Adelhofer for explicit info!)

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A late 80's band from Mayence that was featured on a local Mayence compilation album, with the upbeat US Metal, highly KEEL inspired rocker "Don't say no". RANKNESS more or less could be mainly seen as a studio project, initiated by guitarist Olaf Eimer, whereas a few live appearances happened as well, like the participation on the Mayence Rock ‘88 festival. Their singer Tony Torres was an US soldier, stationed in Germany at that time, who also helped out their friends in Mayence based VILLAIN in the studio on vocals in the beginning, same as keyboarder Lutz Korndörfer, who besides doing his job in RANKNESS, additionally helped out VILLAIN and played with MELBOURNE and later appeared in HEAT. There isn’t any other RANKNESS releases known so far, possibly some more studio recordings may exist if ever. The band split up during the beginning of the 90's, while Tony Torres went back to Chicago. Olaf Eimer got married and took the name of his wife, by then being called Olaf Lenk and joined ZED YAGO/VELVET VIPER. In 1998 he formed the Power Metal band AT VANCE together with Oliver Hartmann.

(Andreas Adelhofer for additional info!)

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JANNETT was a local Oldenburg band of the later mid 80’s whose style isn’t that easy to describe at all. Despite using Hard Rock and faint Metal beats overall on their Demo, that was recorded in April 1987 in the UAM Studio in Lüneburg (the studio of Unit Art Records btw.), there’s all kinds of additional influences to make JANNETT's sound being kinda extraordinary so to say. All these 3 songs offer a snazzy and mature sounding mix of Prog Rock, AOR and classic Hard Rock with lotsa dominating keyboards, though there's enough of the guitars left to still make it sounding rough enough, especially on those rare Metal parts that tear apart the poppier song parts. Overall, the tape is rather recommended for fans of the commercial stuff.

(Thanx to Maximilian Haferkamp for suggestion!)

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This Wilhelmshafen Crossover act named LEBERWOHLSTAND seems rather unregarded nowadays, though fans of bands like EMILS or in general speedy Hardcore/Thrash might like these lads pretty much we guess. They seemed rather shortlived, most probably existing just from 1986 to around 1990, but had the opportunity to release at least an album on the We Bite Records label in 1988. Prior to the vinyl, the “Schizophren" Demo was already launched in 1987, featuring a chaotic blend of Speed Metal and hyperfast Hardcore rythmns, reminding in places of the US band SOILENT GREEN. On the follow up fullenght entitled “Just confused...", the band had already used the shortcut LWS, which shouldn’t get confused with the dutch Thrashers btw. The album, recorded at Masterplan Studio from December '87 until January '88, though sounded less raw than the Demo recordings did, so here the debut album of the aforementioned EMILS might serve as comparison. Still the Speed Metal that dominates their HC/Punk roots will attract Crossover freaks worldwide by any means. During the early 90’s all of the guys turned up in other bands of their area. Carsten “Jacke" Bucher resurfaced with relatively known ACID RAIN DANCE from Bremen in 1990, Heiko “Hipp” Sudholz released a first Demo with his new band MEINE HERREN in 1992, while guitarist Stefan "Fuchs“ Große had been active in BROKEN CONFIDENCE.

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Not sure if the term alternative Death/Thrash already was created? In case the answer is no, I might claim my privilege to be the first one who used it. Nevertheless ACID RAIN DANCE from Bremen was active since around 1990 most probably, featuring former LEBERWOHLSTAND/LWS bass player Carsten "Jacke" Bucher and recorded a first 7" in 1991, that contained a quite idiosyncratic structured Crossover/Thrash. Though vocally the band could be easily thrown into the Death/Thrash corner, but their rather unstraight sort of playing reminds more of a Hardcore band. But with "Melting resistance", recorded in October '92, ACID RAIN DANCE pretty much got the curve and delivered a cool, absolutely raw sounding Death/Thrash mini album that fans of that style will truly have their pleasure with. Both, the single and EP are available in different vinyl colors.

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Erfurt's ROCHUS, beside BLACKOUT and ARGUS/MOSHQUITO, belonged to the well known and best Thrash acts of the ex-GDR back in the day. After Tobias Nehmer left MACBETH in autumn '85, he formed the band ROCHUS with Maik Hoffmeister, Heiko Axt, Michael Steglich and Ralf Michels during early 1986, that in the beginning was more like a classic Heavy Metal troop, but switched sound during the following year. Their first bass player Michael Steglich soon was fired and Gerd Willnauer replaced him till 1988, when he decided to leave the band. But Hans-Ulrich Wilke (ex-COSMOS) had just moved to Erfurt and joined the Thrashers immediately in April '88. Right in May the band recorded their first 5 song Demo tape, that yet was not officially for sale. It also includes an early version of the band's megahit "Let's trash", besides other songs being "Excalibur", "Nur ein Traum", "St. Rochus" and the impressive "Mithridates". ROCHUS' sound was highly influenced by bands such as KREATOR, SODOM, SLAYER or METALLICA at that time, whose "The four horsemen" and "Welcome home (Sanitarium)“ often had been part of the band’s live set. And even technically they also performed on a higher level than other GDR bands back in the day. When Heiko Axt had to follow the call of the army, the future HOWLIN' MAD's guitarist Silvio Skoberle (ex-INSANITY) joined to replace him in November '88, till Axt returned from the army in late 1989. During January '89, after graduating the level of an extra class amateur band, they could produce 2 months later the song "Let's trash" for the national broadcast service, which was later used for both the national Rockbilanz sampler and either was sold internationally to appear on the well known "Thrash the wall" Roadrunner compilation. At the beginning of April '89, “Let's trash” debuted in the “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy” and also celebrated respectable success in the “Beatkiste” charts shortly afterwards, where the song was a permanent fixture from April to June. After the band had recorded another unofficial four-track Demo with a conventional tape deck in the Festhalle Sollstedt at the end of 1989, from which Jens Molle played the songs “New horizon” and “Haunting in your brain” in the “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy” in December '89, the band was once again ordered right within that month as well by the GDR's broadcast service to record another song (“Haunting in your brain”) in the Tonstudio Quadenschönfeld, which ultimately led to the song “Frankenstein” also being produced in the very same session due to the remaining recording time. The band was in its most productive phase at this time and would produce the Demo “Years of ignorance” in January '90 as well, which would bring them the attention of several labels. But sadly ROCHUS made a fatal mistake and rather signed a contract with West Virginia Records for the planned album "Between the worlds", which even West Virgina Records officially announced together with MOSHQUITO's debut album on their promo flyers during 1990, but just like MOSHQUITO's album, "Between the worlds" wasn't ever realized at all. Then Hans-Ulrich Wilke left ROCHUS due to health problems and Tobias Nehmer for a short time played the bass as well, till he also left the band to rather join HOWLIN' MAD as second guitarist on their european Tour in 1990. The band then found Christoph Rompf on bass guitar and Lutz Issermann used to perfom the vocals during the last year of ROCHUS' existence, till the band already split up in 1991. German Democratic Recordings fortunately re-released the important ROCHUS recordings dating from 1988-1990 on the CD "Haunting in your brain" in 2012.

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CAPT'N METAL were a Heavy Metal band from the Wolmirstedt/Magdeburg area, who appeared on the relevant stages of the ex-GDR venues in the late 80's. The band certainly formed around 1987 and appeared more and more live in the summer/fall of '88, completing a small tour with ROCKET at the end of '88. In October they also shared stage together with THRASH ATTACK, among others, before a completely new program was worked out at the beginning of November '88, with which they wanted to tour the country again from March '89. However, their singer Bernd Goder soon decided to join their buddies from ROCKET in May, as ROCKET's frontman Olaf Bismarck had just left the band. After ROCKET ran out of steam during the political change inside the country, some of the members subsequently left to strenghten CAPT'N METAL's rows instead, who later changed their name to CAPT'N HAMMER UND DIE RAKETEN respectively.

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Shortlived, really heavy acting Thrash combo from Thuringia, hailing from the Arnstadt/Ilmenau area in the south of the ex-GDR, who most probably formed in early 1989. Between autumn ’89, when they often supported Thrashers CAIMAN, and late 1990 with EMINENZ and WODAN in Oktober of that year, they primarily could be seen on live gigs in the wider Erfurt area mainly. Though MORBID would disappear shortly later nevertheless. At that time no recordings had been available at all. Drummer Mike Poppel joined HORRIBLE HOUR in 1992, which might give us a good hint, when MORBID split apart.

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SONIC REDUCER were a lesser known (Thrash?) band from Berlin (ex-GDR), whose activities took place in the late 80’s. Unfortunately it was no longer possible to research whether the band had played live. In December '89 nevertheless, their singer had already joined the West Berlin Heavy Metal band WHITE MANIA and could now be seen with them in a Berlin club. Judging by this, one could conclude that SONIC REDUCER had possibly already called it a day at that time.

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A local band from the inexhaustible Berlin underground (ex-GDR), which was only active from 1986-90 and disbanded 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) had been active in a band together with MERLIN’s Mario Schneider. Guitarist Dominique “Nick” Jaudzims was previously employed by the ZZ TOP cover band BLUE and later had teamed up with METALL since the end of '88 as well. After Mosler, Baldauf and zur Kammer had rehearsed together for fun, they saw Nick Jaudzims on stage with his band BLUE and asked him if he would like to form a new “Texas Rock” band with them. As he was tired of only playing cover versions and would much rather write his own songs, they agreed to form TEQUILA together, who wanted to combine the classic ZZ TOP sound with the standard Hard'n'Heavy stuff. Lutz Schwarz, who had previously sung in other Berlin bands, was recruited as their singer. But Jens Baldauf was called to arms shortly afterwards and ex-DYNASTIE Marcel Thiele took over the drumsticks. In 1987 the quintet produced 3 songs privately in the studio of the Rock band LUCIE, which achieved airplay and top positions in local newcomer charts. TEQUILA's entire repertoire at the time only comprised around 12 songs, while the boys were not particularly active live either, only appearing on stage around 10 times. In 1988 Uwe zur Kammer officially applied to leave the country and that’s been the start when the Stasi began to take an interest in the band. After he moved to West Berlin in March '89, Marcel Thiele joined MERLIN instead, while Manfred Blich (guitar) and Sven Sauer (drums) had to replace them both. In the spring of '89, after work had begun on new material sung in English, the band re-recorded their song “Manchmal” in German and English, whereas the German version was broadcasted on May 27th '89 in “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy” show, with a request for ratings from listeners. At that time, TEQUILA consisted of Lutz Schwarz (vocals), Nick Jaudzims (guitar), Manfred Blich (guitar), Andre Mosler (bass) and Sven Sauer (drums). After Stefan Witter had switched to drums, the Demo “Better give it up” was produced at the end of 1989, of which both the title song and “No more” got aired in November on “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy”, which, like “Manchmal” before, featured really down-to-earth, typically American sounding Heavy Rock in the style of OZZY OSBOURNE and DIO. Although TEQUILA could achieve the special stage at the official classification concert in November '89, the band had to look for a new bassist and drummer in December '89 and disbanded the following year.

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POKER formed in April 1986 in Zeitz (ex-GDR), in the greater Leipzig area, but had previously already been active in the underground as KRISTALL. After winning a workshop week in Halle with 8 participating bands at the end of 1988, they were sponsored a three-day studio stay, which the band used to produce 2 songs in December '88 in the Studio Lengenfeld, which they afterwards would use as a Demo. The tape went straight into the hands of DT64, who firstly aired the track “Ariane” on January 5th '89 in Stefan Lasch's “Musiktest” and a few weeks later on January 21nd in “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy” radio show. “Ariane” is an inevitably keyboard dominated, but nice atmospheric sounding Hard Rock/Metal anthem on a quite high musical level, with some powerful double bass parts, similar to some wellknown US bands. The other track on the Demo was an instrumental number. However, bassist Steffen Baumann left POKER after the recordings and an old acquaintance, Frank Baumann, who had already played with POKER on an earlier stage, rejoined the band. “Ariane” subsequently was able to stay in the “Beatkiste” for a long time from April to June '89. From the end of '88, POKER could be seen on stage regularly well into 1989, for example on June 24th together with SAPHIR, THRASH ATTACK and REGENBOGEN at a festival in Aschersleben. Due to their excellent performances and popularity, another radio production was scheduled for November '89, also recorded at Studio Lengenfeld, whereby the band now wanted to work with English lyrics. The song “The cry of the children” from this Demo was also broadcasted on 9.12.1989 in the “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy”, and once again offered above average Hard Rock/Metal, although keyboard-ladden as known from the first Demo, but nevertheless extremely powerful. Unfortunately the band broke up in 1991 due to a lack of interest and the political turnaround, which caused almost all the wellknown GDR clubs to close their doors for good.

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A Hard Rock band from the ex-GDR, that obviously was playing Glam/Sleaze Metal influenced by Guns'n Roses. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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QUASIMODO from the capital of the ex-GDR, Berlin, was launched back in 1982 by childhood friends Ronald Czyrny (guitar, vocals) and Marco Wegener (guitar), who wanted to emulate their heroes AC/DC, BLACK SABBATH and DEEP PURPLE. Gerd Wölk on bass and Jörn Landeck on drums were part of the band right from the start as well. The quartet initially started out under the name PHANTOM, while the guys in early 1983 were allowed to record their song “Hey Girl” in the studio of ex-PUHDYS drummer Gunter Wosylus, with which they applied for a spot on the TV program “rund”, hoping for the start of a successful career as musicians. After this undertaking wouldn’t work out as expected, they decided to try the classic route and began playing smaller concerts in schools and gyms, f. e. with the band JUNGFRAU, which later became the nationally well known CHICOREE and later DIE ZÖLLNER. The band had already changed its name to QUASIMODO in 1984 and the first line-up change followed briefly. Michael Minge joined as singer in the course of '84 and Falco Amberg replaced Jörn Landeck on drums for the time being. More local gigs followed, but as early as 1985 QUASIMODO reunited with the original line-up of Ronald Czyrny, Marco Wegener, Gerd Wölk and Jörn Landeck to continue rocking out and were finally able to celebrate their classification as a temporary upper level band in July 1986, while at that very time the guys already prefered to play tunes of AC/DC, ACCEPT, WASP and JUDAS PRIEST. Unfortunately Ronald Czyrny and Marco Wegener were not able to enjoy this success for too long, as both were called up to the army in the course of that year, whereupon Gerd Wölk and Jörn Landeck were forced to restructure the band with Egbert Schütz (vocals, guitar) and Stefan Preuhs (guitar). However, this scenario could only be carried through until 1988, when QUASIMODO ceased to exist for the time being. When Ronald Czyrny and Marco Wegener got back together after the political change in 1990, they initially formed the band CONAN with Jörg Trumpf (bass) and David Fack (drums), until they finally brought their old drummer Jörn Landeck and Sascha Schnabl (bass) back on board in 1992 and breathed new life into QUASIMODO. A first demo tape “We'll come to rock you” was then produced, followed by another “12-Track-Demo” in the same year and the “7-Track-Demo” the following year in 1993, all of which offered a rock-solid Metal sound strongly influenced by MÖTORHEAD, with raunchy vocals that reminded strongly of Lemmy aswell. During 1994 another selftitled Demo was released, before Marco Wegener and Jörn Landeck left the band afterwards, that after a correction of their musical direction to a rather Thrash sound, recorded a selftitled Demo CDR in 1998 (S.M.R. Records) with completely new line-up consisting of Sascha Schnabl (vocals, bass), Ronald Czyrny (guitar) and Michél Domaing (drums). The quite complicated sounding debut album "C.Y.R." (Noiseworks), that delivered several early 90's PANTERA/PRONG like influences, was recorded with the same musicians like already "Quasimodo" before, but right with their 3rd effort "Härtetest" the casting carousel had turned once again, back in 2002 already. Ronald Czyrny remained on vocals and guitar, but the ex-FORSAKEN guitarist Frank Seidel, as well as Steve Schmäring (bass) and the old Metal veteran Frank Müller on drums, better known as Franky Miller, previously of COUNTDOWN/PHARAO and RESISTENCE fame, had joined the band by then. Between "Härtetest" and the next independently released album “Be strong” (2013) recorded with Stephan Kohlhoff (vocals), Ronald Czyrny (bass), Marco Wegener (guitar) and Jörn Landeck (drums), there's a difference of 10 years, a period that the lads bridged under the name of MAD DOG 2020, mainly as a cover band, though there’s also a CD entitled "Hands up" available from that special era of the band too, whose participating members being Ronald Czyrny (guitar), Marco Wegener (guitar), Marko Laabs (vocals), Detta (bass) and Frank Müller on drums. For the following CD "One shot" (2017) the line-up of the previous album almost remained the same with just one exception. The new QUASIMODO drummer Renè Jauernik was previously playing with THRASH ATTACK/INFLUENCE/ABSCESS and FLAMING ANGER, while remaining positions on guitar (Marco Wegener), bass (Ronald Czyrny) and vocals (Stephan Kohlhoff) hadn’t changed at all. QUASIOMODO's Thrash style once again offered a rather modern 90's Thrash backbone with a few groove passages, but could remind in places of the new METALLICA. On their so far latest album "Cancer city" (2022) the METALLICA vibe was audible even more. Stephan Kohlhoff in the meanwhile left the guys right after the "One shot" CD release and QUASIMODO decided to work with different singers on the album, like f.e. Franz Herde (SIEGES EVEN), Gerre (TANKARD) or John Gallagher (RAVEN).

(Thanx to Marco Wegener for explict info!)

Band-info:

The school band PHANTOM was founded in Berlin (ex-GDR) early 1983 by Ronald Czyrny (guitar, vocals), Marco Wegener (guitar), Gerd Wölk (bass) and Jörn Landeck on drums. Musically Hardrock bands such as AC/DC, BLACK SABBATH and DEEP PURPLE left a particularly heavy impression on the boys, so that they preferred to play their songs in the first. However, PHANTOM should not be seen as a mere cover band, as the four of them set about writing their own songs sung in English right from the start. Right at the beginning in the studio of ex-PUHDYS drummer Gunter Wosylus, PHANTOM were able to record their song “Hey Girl”, with which they applied to appear on the TV program “rund” in February/March '83, hoping for the start of a successful career. As this didn't work right away, they logically tried the conventional route and started playing smaller concerts in schools and gyms, including with the band JUNGFRAU, from which the wellknown CHICOREE and DIE ZÖLLNER would later emerge. In addition to their own songs, they covered AC/DC, BLACK SABBATH and DEEP PURPLE, as well as SEX PISTOLS and UDO LINDENBERG material on stage. After 4 gigs as PHANTOM, they changed their name to QUASIMODO.

(Thanx to Marco Wegener for explict info!)

Band-info:

The Berlin based CONAN only existed for a relatively short time and are closely linked to the history of the band QUASIMODO in one way or another, as both guitarists, Ronald Czyrny and Marco Wegener, had been active together since already 1983. It all began with the school band PHANTOM, which was called QUASIMODO from 1984 and existed until 1988, although Czyrny and Wegener left QUASIMODO early on in 1986 due to their upcoming military service. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990, both began to make music together again and founded CONAN together with Jörg Trumpf (bass) and David Fack (drums), who only spent two years in the Berlin area before Ronald Czyrny and Marco Wegener finally reappeared as QUASIMODO during 1992. The band's sound can certainly be described as being strongly influenced by the sound of the heavier MOTÖRHEAD, with classic Heavy Metal and Power Metal merging, while certain METALLICA like riffs might appear here and there too. There are even live recordings on which the band sounds even more raw (Power/Thrash) than QUASIMODO later on, whereby it can be assumed that many songs from the later QUASIMODO Demos from 1992 were also based on former CONAN songs.

(Thanx to Marco Wegener for explict info!)

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Another ex-GDR underground Heavy Metal band, originating from Berlin, about which unfortunately only very sparse information could be unearthed. It can be strongly assumed that BAROCK had already existed since at least the end of 1987 or the beginning of '88. For the end of the year in September '88, various concerts with f. e. SIXTUS can be reported. After that it became rather quiet around the band, no further concert announcements could be tracked down yet. Their singer Henrik Ilgner joined the Berlin heavyrockers B.O.R.N. in the course of 1988. It is said that BAROCK changed their name around 1989. However, it is no longer possible to reconstruct further details without detailed information.

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As the name may already suggest, the rockers from LIZZY from Berlin (ex-GDR) were a THIN LIZZY cover band that was active in the late 80’s and played several live shows in the area, the first of which is known to have taken place in Berlin in May '89. Unfortunately no further information or even recordings that LIZZY may have made during this time have survived, but the band was interviewed in the “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy” radio show in January 1991.

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To all appearances, this band from Klosterfelde/Wandlitz, north of Berlin (ex-GDR), must have been a relatively unknown quantity outside the Berlin area. STEP OUT was most probably founded at the beginning of 1988 and were able to play a few isolated concerts towards the end of the year, which, as already mentioned, tended to concentrate on Berlin. In OCTOBER 1988, for example, STEP OUT played together with NOBODY in Berlin's Langhansstraße, where it can be assumed that they were probably geared towards rather thrashy sounds. According to as yet unconfirmed information, the band later continued under a different name.

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A Glam influenced Metal band from the Magdeburg area (ex-GDR), that was active in the late 80's and had their main personal focus on bands like SCORPIONS, DIO and BLACK SABBATH. MEDUSA nowadays is still known due to a gig with Thrashers ASATHOR, that happened in 1988 “Am Weißen Haus” in Magdeburg. Some pictures of the gig survived the past decades though, but sadly recordings not at all. During spring/summer of ’89 MEDUSA was actually quite often to see on stage, but after summer they wouldn’t appear in the concert advertisements anymore.

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A Hard Rock band from East Berlin (ex-GDR), that was founded by ex-Mephisto musicians Jens Schuwerk, Michael Sündermann and Reinhard Repke in 1984. Usually the band's sound was focussed on a Van Halen inspired sound, but the guys either played Saxon and Judas Priest cover versions on stage. 1985 Reinhard Repke changed bands and went to Reform, before later joined the famous GDR Rock band Rockhaus. Uwe Pfenninghaus was the new bass player then. 2 of their trax got airplay in autum '86 at the national Metal radio show "Tendenz Hard bis Heavy", but we strongly guess those have been live recordings (info anyone?). When Jens Schuwerk quit, Cobra's Frank Eichhorn (vocals) joined for a short while from early '87 till summer, when he returned to Cobra again. But Vantom's fall already started during early '87 and the band eventually split up during the beginning of 1988. Though early '87 Vantom already was officially allowed to record their song "Alleine durch die Nacht“ professionally at Dieter Birr's studio (Puhdys), it never came to that anymore. Michael Sündermann was working with Formel 1 already during 1987 and later joined B.O.R.N.

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Founded in 1979, the young Meerane school band AILIBI only played live for a short time in the Meerane/Glauchau region (ex-GDR) and had to stop playing again at the beginning of 1981. As some of the musicians involved reached military age one after the other, the call-ups to the army were not long in coming and at some point there simply were no longer enough people left to play. Meanwhile, ALIBI's preference was for the harder Rock bands of the 70’s, and so they covered songs by FREE, STATUS QUO, ZZ TOP, STEPPENWOLF and BACHMANN TURNER OVERDRIVE among others. After the band's early demise, the boys later reappeared in other bands in the region. Olaf Künstler, for example, in FAME and MR. JOE, Uwe Pick with SCHAUORCHESTER UNGELENK, while Achim Waldheim continued to rock with ARGUS in 1982.

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A Heavy Metal band from Münster, Westphalia, formed in September 1982 by Jürgen König (drums) and Peter Brüning (guitars). Gerd Reese and David Rebel joined shortly after on bass and vocals/2nd guitar respectively and their live debut followed on December 3 the same year. In December the following year their debut demo was recorded in a professional studio but it unfortunately did little to entice the record labels at the time. Instead it was the more primitively produced (apparently a rehearsal room recording) but musically more professional 2nd demo from October 1984 that finally got the attention of classic German label Wishbone Records. A mini-album with the working title "Rockblood" was recorded and set for release in 1985, but for unknown reasons this release never came to be. It has however been confirmed that a handful of test pressings of this vinyl does exist, so consider this one of the holy grails for German Metal collectors! It's interesting to note that around this time a 3rd demo is mentioned in some mag reviews, said to contain 12 tracks of slightly faster and heavier (though certainly not Speed/Thrash) material than their previous pedestrial HM stock, so we can't help to speculate if this could be the same studio session as the scrapped album (?) The rest of the story is shrouded in mystery, other than the fact that a certain Jürgen König did turn up in another Münster act called Cherokee in the early 90's. If you have more info, please get in contact.

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A local, fairly unknown Heavy Metal band based in Wolmirstedt, north of Magdeburg (ex-GDR), which probably only existed for a relatively short time. ZENTAUR, who also achieved classification of an intermediate level band, were dedicated to rather doomy sounds and preferred a BLACK SABBATH-alike style.

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A rather obscure local Metal act from Nordhausen in Thuringia (ex-GDR), who became active in the mid 80's and apparently remained so throughout the entire late 80's. Unfortunately, no further solid information could be found about the band itself.

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Actually a pretty heavy acting Hard Rock band from Isny/Allgäu (south of Ulm), which we became aware of rather by chance, because the existence of the band indirectly overlaps with the history of the Heavy Rockers NOKO BAND, in which 2 former KID CARSON GANG members, namely Wolfgang Neumann and Christoph Konrad, were also involved. Surprisingly, this unknown Southern Rock quintet was able to produce a complete album on their own in May 1982, which was pressed on vinyl by the indie label Unit Art Records and thus joins the ranks of the few rather obscure Hard'n'Heavy releases on this label. You can hear quite earthy early 80's Hard Rock with some Southern Rock flair, whereby the main focus of the song material here is clearly on the Hard Rock side, while the Southern Rock part is largely concentrated on the lyrics and the overall concept of the band. Hard Rock fans should give this one a listen. During the later mid 80’s Wolfgang Neumann and Christoph Konrad turned up with the NOKO BAND once again, as mentioned above.

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The Red Rooster MLP belongs to the less exciting D&S releases imo. These guys from Münster recorded the album in January '89 and also spread a Promo Demo containg the same songs. "Trouble? Take our sister to party" features quite uninspired heavily bluesy touched AC/DC aping Hard Rock, that suffers by the really annoying vocals. But also musically Red Rooster wasn't really the yellow of the egg, though fans of AC/DC might probably risk an ear here. There’s also one more fullenght CD entitled “Wumm Tschning!” available, that should be from sometime in the early 90’s.

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Jochen "Zeno" Roth is the brother of Uli Jon Roth. He started playing back in the 70's in Hannover together with Ule Ritgen in a band called Black Angel. But that band broke in 1977 and Ritgen went on to play with Zeno's brother Uli. Their path had crossed in the early 80's again and together with ex-Murphy singer Michael Flechsig (as Michael Flexig) they started writing songs for an album when they already scored a record deal with a 2 track Demo that was sent to record companies. The debut album (with several session drummers) shortly entitled "Zeno" was available in 1986 and entered the US billboard charts. By the quality Hard Rock that the band delivered it wasn't any miracle as their sound was fully concentrating on the US market, delivering only topnotch melodic Hard Rock creations that equal bands like Survivor, Whitesnake or Kiss at the same time could only dream about having such songs in their own repertoire. For fans of german melodic Hard Rock bands such as Mydra, Aidean, Karo or Vera Cruz definitely a must to hear as Zeno pretty much overrounded them all with their awesome debut. During spring 1988 the message was spread that Zeno went into the studio again to start recordings for their second album, but strangely nothing further happened anymore. Then Flexig left Zeno and Tommy Heart (Thomas Conrad; ex-Heartlyne, later in V2) took his role, though the band went more or less inactive till they released the second album "Zenology" in 1995. A few more followed then but for that kind of music it had been too late already.

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This unknown Hannover outfit started out already in 1975, aiming to play Heavy Rock ‘n' Roll within the growing Disco movement during the 70’s. Despite originating from the same city as the SCORPIONS, their sound wasn't as heavy as theirs and should be be rather grounded in the wider Classic Rock/AOR spectrum, though having enough of Hardrock in their music to be mentioned here for sure. The lads focussed on creating songs that combined melody with harmony and independently produced their “My life/ My Life / Young girl's dream” Single in 1977. During the early 80's, when MURPHY seemed to dive into their most successful phase, they participated on the 4th Talent Festival, happening in Novemer ’81 in the city of Würzburg, where the band could get a rank among the best 6 bands of the festival and got the opportunity to record the song with misleading title ”Reggae Peggy” for the obscure sampler “Jazz-Rock / Nachwuchsfestival Pop 81”. There's no Reggae here, to calm your concearns down, just energetic just archetypical early 80's AOR with quite above average songwriting. 3 more songs had been produced as well, that appeared on the “Rockstudio III” Split LP in 1982 too. While the first track of the bunch “Mona Lisa” still spreads a mellow feeling, the MURPHY guys right with the snappy instrumental number "Daytona", directly followed by "Burning for your love" once again can easily continue where they started with “Reggae Peggy”, catchy hardrocking AOR! Unfortunately it seems that MURPHY had split up just a few years later since their singer Michael Flechsig re-appeared as Michael Flexig in Hannover Hardrockers ZENO during the mid 80’s.