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The Siegen Prog/Thrashers The Immortal was founded by both ex-Guardian guitarists Markus Uelhoff and Martin Redieske (ex-Welkins Cry) and ex-Whetstone veterans Martin and Stefan Neuser in 1989. They didn't hesitate much and during January '90 recoded their debut Demo "Awaken the lion", that was made only for promotional purposes and not for sale. Though the tape got quite overwhelming critics and The Immortal started negotiations with certain german labels for a debut album, the almost sure deal with Axel Thubeauville's US Metal Records didn't came together. Not sure if that happened after both guitarists left the band or before, but after a studio session at the RASH Studios, Thubeauville withdrew the contract. The style of Th Immortal was a progressive kind of Power Metal, that later changed with the second tape "Autumn rain" (recorded autumn '91) when Burkhardt Schmallenbach (ex-Whetstone) covered the vacant part of the guitarist, so The Immortal could be almost seen as a further stage of Whetstone, which also mirrored in The Immortals later style, that was close to Whetstone's second Demo and going more into detail, a melodic version of Paradox's classic Power/Thrash style. The band disappeared afterwards.

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Whetstone easily could be counted to the hottest unsigned german Power/Speed Metal bands of the whole 80's decade.
This promising act was founded in summer 1984 in Siegen by Martin, Jörg Gudelius, Frank Andrzejewski and Uwe Bensch. In 1985 Sebastian Beaumer was recruited as vocalist since Martin wasn't convinced his voice was the right one for their style and finally in 1986 Stefan Neuser joined them. With Neuser as new permanent vocalist they recorded the first Demo tape "United blood" that was released in December '86. The tape contained 4 epic Power bangers which was stylistically to see somewhere between Running Wild and Manowar while Neuser's voice in places was sounding like a cross of Rolf Kasparek and Charlie Steinhauer (Paradox). In July '87 Gudelius, Andrzejewski and Bensch decided to leave Whetstone due to the lyrics, which they couldn't agree with due to their christian belief while only Martin and Stefan Neuser remained which usually had to mean the end for the band. They started again from zero and added still in the same month Axel Büdenbender as new bass player. Hubertus Stricker (who was playing in a band called "Mom" at that time) helped Whetstone out on drums in the meanwhile. Burkhardt Schmallenbach (ex-Squad) became the second guitarist a few weeks later so they just needed a steady drummer. After testing several drummers, Stricker in August '87 finally decided to quit Mom and join Whetstone instead. They started doing live gigs again with the new line up and due to the fresh blood in the band Whetstone's style progressed into a more Speed Metal dominated direction. In that period they created an own term for their music - "Ancient Metal", which also would become the title of the second Demo that was recorded in 1988. The band now had completely thrown the early hymnic Metal roots over board and adopted the classic Speed/Thrash sound which pushed them even more into a category amoungst bands such as Blind Guardian and Paradox, while Whetstone was well able to competite with those. Whetstone played their last gig together on 18.3.1989 before Martin and Stefan Neuser quit in July. Büdenbender followed shortly after, while Schmallenbach and Stricker tried to revive the band once again for another 8 months with Alex Wintjes on bass. In early 1990 they called it quits. Most of the members was later found in The Immortal and Axel Büdenbender joined Wycked. Both Demos incl. live cuts got re-released 2017 on Cult Metal Classics in vinyl and CD format under the title "Ancient Metal".

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One more Vivian band, this one was originating from northern Germany, rather in the surrounding Hamburg area. There's just one Demo tape left of them, including melodic 5 Songs, recorded in Trelde during August 1990. Musically the lads had lots in common with the late 80's US melodic Hard Rock heroes with rather commercial Edge so to say, which shouldn't automatically mean they sucked. The material sounds quite catchy nevertheless...

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Foxfire from Heidelberg are still quite unknown amoung Hard Rock fans, what’s not really hard to understand since the group’s legislating fell into the peak of German Krautrock movement, and seriously their debut album "Between a rock and a hard place" from 1979 has a huge proggy edge nevertheless. Despite that fact, fans of the heavy Prog Rock may risk an ear or two, as the creations of the trio are quite ambivalent, having dreamy parts that abruptly getting cut through with sawing guitars. The band consisted of the German guys Claus Ackermann, Andreas Urban plus the US American guitarist Chuck Deely (Charles Edward Deely III), who seemed to have tinkled around across Europe to play with several bands back in the day till he stranded in the Netherlands until his death during 2017. With Foxfire he recorded 2 albums plus a single featuring the song “Rebellion”, taken from the heavier second Foxfire album “Good to go” from 1980, plus the non album number on the flipside “For ever and a day”. Speaking of “Good to go”, that’s in places quite raw sounding Hard Rock and especially that “Rebellion” song surprises with an absolutely evil riff that reminds of Flames of Hell. Still the album’s is heavily 70’s influenced by Status Quo and such bands. Deely still released another album entitled “Enjoy” in 1982 with Chuck Deely's Rockaine, before lights went out for a long while. During the 2000’s he reappeared as a street musician in Den Haag, where he recorded and sold a number of privately produced CD’s of his own until his death.

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Thomas Schmitt’s Skyrider was a quite good but very shortlived Krautrock project from Marburg, north of Frankfurt/Main, that only released one album during 1980. Schmitt was previously recording music with the German Kraut Rock legend Pell Mell since the early 70’s and after Pell Mell’s last album 1978, he started building up his own PM-Studio and around 1980 and later on produced a number of bands of that genre, as well as his own new band Skyrider, consisting of local Marburg musicians plus the early Pell Mell member Otto Pusch. The selftitled Skyrider album was recorded in spring 1980 and contains a pretty much complex style of Hard/Kraut Rock with in places symphonic touch and proggy NWOBHM influences. Calling it proggy Hard Rock surely wouldn’t be lie, it though sometimes reminds of The Sweet and features lotsa twin lead parts. During 1981 Schmitt would go on for a last Pell Mell album entitled “Moldau” that he finished with help of Skyrider’s Ralph Fricke, and also was recording an album with the band Touch. Werner Ettling would re-appear just a decade later with alternative rockers Drive A British Car.

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A Mainz based band whose musical history makes for interesting reading, as each band member played 3-4 instruments and you could have played spin the bottle as to who would end up with which instrument. The Dawn's story begins in 1985 when Nico Gourgè and Tom Bruce had just left their old band Beyond All Things to pursue their own musical visions. After composing 2 songs, including the 20 minute long epos “Heroes”, they tried to find suitable musicians in the Mainz Rock scene, which turned out to be no easy task. After quite a while, they finally came across the local band Canyon, whose musicians seemed to have similar musical views to Gourgè and Bruce and were also looking for musicians. So Tom Bruce (guitar) and Nico Gourgè (bass) joined forces with Canyon's Ronny Gerges (guitar), Michael Horst (keyboard) and Steve Boes (drums) to form The Dawn. The Dawn's first gig took place in February 1986 and was a success, but Steve Boes already left the band after the second gig, with Wolf Dobberthin replacing him on drums. Further gigs followed until the end of '86 and the band also successfully took part in various local talent competitions. Already in April '87 they took part in the Mayence Rock Project, while at the same time the song “The mask” was produced for the accompanying LP “Mayence Rock '87”, followed by a participation in the Mayence Rock Festival in September '87. Towards the end of the year the members decided to change some positions in the band. Tom Bruce took over the bass, while Nico Gourgè concentrated fully on the vocals. As a result, the musicians finally began recording their EP “Night-tales” at the beginning of 1988, which was officially presented on March 25, '88 at the sold out Musikpalast in Wiesbaden. Drummer Andy Simon then joined the band, while Wolf Dobberthin specialized on saxophone and flute. From then on, the line up was as follows: Nico Gourgè (vocals), Ronny Gerges (guitar), Tom Bruce (bass), Michael Horst (keyboard), Wolf Dobberthin (saxophone), Andy Simon (drums). In the summer of '88, another of their songs (“Time only knows”) was recorded for the “Mayence Rock '88” sampler and the band once again performed convincingly at the Mayence Rock '88 Festival in November. In spring '89 they were able to produce another song, “Ordinary life”, for the upcoming “Mayence Rock '89” sampler, which would be played at the festival in the fall of ’89 as well. Unfortunately, the band's subsequent path cannot be traced, so we can assume that The Dawn ceased to exist around 1990. It should also be noted that The Dawn were not a Hard Rock or even Heavy Metal band, but a pure Prog Rock unit, although various Hard Rock influences are clearly perceptible on their “Night-tales” EP. However, the compilation contributions do not have these and should only be listened to by pure Prog Rock fans.

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Actually, it's always interesting to see that even after 40 years, things like this hitherto completely unknown single by the Bremen band Rustlers still turn up. Visually you wouldn't associate this record, which was produced in January '84, with Hardrock at all, as you would probably rather put these 5 shaggy beards in the Krautrock drawer. But that would be doing this band a total injustice, as both songs were 100 % rooted in the Hardrock scene. The A-side rocker “Blame it on...” immediately shows the way and offers quite appealing, energetic AOR/Hard Rock with refreshing good songwriting. The B-side drifts more into the Status Quo department with “Woman and wine”, but still has enough drive to recommend this obscure single to fans of this genre. Of course, there is hardly any information about the band itself to find nowadays.

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A Krautrock band from Neuenlande-Roxstedt, south in the surrounding of Bremerhaven that released a self financed 7" in 1980 and appeared on the local compilation “Rock Cyclus II” one year later playing an in places Jimmy Hendrix inspired Kraut Rock with Hard Rock parts and even a few single NWOBHM alike twin leads. On the 7” they already had that Hardrock edge as well, but it seems it’s rather Status Quo, who’ve been the inspiration for the lads, though the B side number is quite a lively rock number here, both german sung.

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Balou was a quite weird sounding band within the modern Hard Rock spectrum of the beginning 90's, while we’re not even fully convinced they indeed belong there. These guys from the Siegen area formed during the late 80’s and released two independently produced albums on their own via Dust Music Productions during 1990 and 1991, entitled "Balou" and "Serious attention". The first one still’s rather on the Hard Rock side, at least in some way, since Balou had been experimenting with Funk tunes on here as well. On "Serious attention", released one year past than the debut, that guys had almost drifted off the Hardrock universe, since that album features an odd mix of funky Guitar Rock and Hard Rock, which hardly will attract classic Hardrockers in any way. So lets leave Balou and their alternative Hard Rock being just a marginalia of the german HR scene. They made their own thing...

(Thanx to emosteel for the recommendation)

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Gotha’s very own Grind heroes SCUM IN ACTION (ex-GDR) formed during 1990 still before both Germany’s united once again. Members of the band back then being Torsten “Chef” Wichert (bass, vocals), Karsten Seeber (guitar) and Renè “Buckelprinz” Neumann on drums. A first proof of their musical legislating was delivered during 1991 in form of a selftitled Reh/Demo. A bit later on another tape could be offered during early 1992, leading into another recording session during April 1992, that was featured on their only vinyl output, the „Geisteskrank“ 7“. These guys personal faves could be found in the Death/Grind as well as in the HC scene including bands like PUNGENT STENCH, CARCASS, NAPALM DEATH as well as NO MEANS NO. Nevertheless the band would split up not much later.

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Avenger from Herne, that are also known to be the first stage of the legendary Rage, was founded in 1983 by Jan Yildiral, Jochen Schröder and Alf Meyerratken. After certain problems with finding the right musicians, a steady line formed with Peter Burtz on vocals and Klaus Müller on the bass, but already when Avenger tried to record their first Demo, Axel Rudi Pell's Steeler stole Yildiral and Burtz for Steeler duties, who on the other hand already had a record contract in their pockets. Peter "Peavey" Wagner (ex-Dark Light) joined a little bit later on, replacing Klaus Müller and taking care of the vocals as well. Already in February Avenger had found Jörg Michael (ex-Blizzard) as new drummer and recorded their first official 4 song Demo, that's also known as "Faster than hell". There is also a tape floating around through tapetrader circles from 1983, featuring the trax "Destination day" and Mirror", but it wasn't mentioned at all in early articles about the band, though it's clearly Peavey singing there, but officially Avenger just released two Demo tapes during 1984. The guys already earned a record deal with the speedy Power Metal featured on the first one of both, while for testing purposes Avenger recorded another Demo later in 1984, including the songs "Battlefield", "Southcross union", "Adoration" and "Bloodlust", that once again got great feedback. During October '84 the "Prayers of steel" album was recorded in Bochum, which was available in April '85. Like the previous Demos, also "Prayers of steel" found alot of requited love from sides of the press, while Avenger kept on working out their Power/Speed Metal style, that would reach it's peak in later years as Rage. Alf Meyerratken left Avenger after the album and Peavey’s old friend from early Dark Light days Thomas Grüning (ex-Vampire) came into the band to play already the Wishbone festival '85 with Darxon and Stormwind, besides Avenger's set. After another EP (incl. a large poster) released in late '85, that featured the new studio songs "Down to the bone" and "Depraved to black", recorded autumn '85, plus two more live numbers, the band got renamed to first Furious Rage and shortly after just Rage, due to the british band of the same name. The rest is history.

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After Udo Dirkscheider "got to leave" Accept due to the other boys wanting to go more commercial, he quickly formed an own group together with ex-Warlock musicians Peter Szigeti and Frank Rittel, ex-Sinner Mathias Dieth and Thomas Franke (ex-Stallion, ex-Snakebite). Since all songs for the debut was already composed by his old band Accept, they had an easy game to release "Animal house" right in 1987. Dieter Rubach (ex-Bad Steve) came for Frank Rittel and Andreas Susemihl (ex-Sinner) replaced Szigetti but even this line up didn't last for long and "Mean machine" was recorded with Mathias Dieth (guitar), Andy Susemihl (guitar), Thomas Smuszynski (bass, ex-Darxon), Stefan Schwarzmann (drums, ex-Running Wild). Susemihl on "Faceless world" already wasn't playing anymore. For a short time Wolfgang “Wolla” Böhm (ex-Snakebite/White Witch/Stormwind/Darxon/Universe) replaced him during 1990. Andy Susemihl left to focus on his band Lazy and later joined the band Ape together with Mathias Dieth, while U.D.O.'s "Timebomb" album was available in 1991, recorded with the same line up like "Faceless world". To label U.D.O.'s style is quite easy as Udo Dirkschneider always will be the voice of Accept and "Animal house", no matter if one is fan of Accept or not, was a better album than what Accept delivered later with "Eat the heat". All of the U.D.O. albums (except maybe "Faceless world" that's a bit more mellow sounding), are more or less the same Heavy/Power Metal style, with "Timebomb" (the best U.D.O. album!) almost picking up Judas Priest-ish tunes after they returned with "Painkiller". But basically those who liked Accept on "Metal heart" and "Russian Roulette" must love the U.D.O. albums as well. Dirkschneider put the band on ice after 1991 due to the reunion of Accept, but would keep on recording albums since 1996 again, and hasn't stopped yet at all.

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A melodic Heavy Metal band from Wuppertal founded 1985 by Axe Victims and Darxon members.Tom Bohn (ex-Axe Victims) already left a year later and ex-Nightmare/Hard 'n Heart guitarist Reinhold Durand joined. Wolfgang "Wolla" Böhm was previously playing in a number of Metal bands like Snakebite/White Witch/Stormwind and Darxon, and would appear in the line up Udo Dirkschneider’s U.D.O. project as well. In 1988 a first 7" was ready and after a tour through eastern Europe and a Demotape, they started recording the debut album "Bad child" in 1990. It took 2 years till the album got finally released and Universe already started recordings for the "Waiting for" MCD. They got the support act for Running Wild's 1993 european tour and then the carousel of mannig started turning. The band produced some more albums later and is still active nowadays. Musically they could be seen as an equivalent of late 80's Bonfire, with "Bad child" sounding pretty much contemporary when it was recorded, though it was released 2 years too late for that kind of music.

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Markus Szart and Peter Schmidt founded Darxon 1983 in Bochum. With Massimo de Matteis and Dominik Hülshorst they recorded a first Demo tape still within the same year and immediately earned a record deal with the also Bochum based Wishbone Records label. In spring '84 the NWOBHM inspired "Killed in action" debut was recorded and featured a quite Judas Priest influenced classic Heavy Metal style. One year later in spring '85 the excellent "Tokyo" EP would become the last recording of the classic Darxon line up, since the band split up in Winter '85 with just Massimo de Matteis remaining, who subsequently formed a completely new band. Dominik Hülshorst joined Cacumen who would soon change name to Bonfire and later was active in Kymera and EZ Livin also. The new guys in the band was Thomas Smuszynski (bass), Michael Hebestadt (guitar) and the Universe drummer Ingo Plass, while in summer '86 also ex-Snakebite/White Witch/Stormwind and recent Universe guitarist Wolfgang "Wolla" Böhm came. The first release of the new Darxon was the single "Holding on", published on the label of their manager Willi Wrede, who either piloted the band to the Rockport label, who immediately started a campaign to promote Darxon's coming album that was produced in summer '87 by Accept's Jörg Fischer and was originally planned under the title "Love conquers them all". In the end the album got the title "No thrills" and was available in late 1987 on Rockport's Metal sublabel Energy Records. The album sounded different to the early Darxon material, though the level of quality rose. The band's fresh melodic Heavy Metal knew to attract, though the one and other commercial Hair Metal part entered their sound as well. But the guys had been in good company with bands such as Steeler or Sinner and especially most of the scene internal independent latecomers that published records around 1990. An european tour was planned for March '88, but the guys just played 12 dates with Zed Yago, which resulted in Ingo Plass to quit Darxon. He joined a while later the german Sleaze band Crash n' Burn that was living in London. Michael Hebestadt prefered to form the band Nero in Essen and either Thomas Smuszynski accepted a job offer by Udo Dirkschneider for his band U.D.O. Massimo de Matteis, though having quit Darxon, instead spend time on his solo project, while Wolfgang Böhm hired his ex-Stormwind mate Klaus Lemm (vocals), guitarist Jens Frank plus the ex-Holy Moses members Jochen Fünders (bass) and Herbert Dreger (drums) to start another attempt to record one more album, that wasn't finished at all since he couldn't keep the band together for a longer period anymore. But a rough mix of the planned album should exist. Böhm in the meanwhile was focussing on Universe and joined U.D.O. 1990 as well. When Massimo de Matteis reformed the inactive band 1990 with Frank Dielewski (guitar), Thomas Thanscheidt (guitar), Ingo Geiger (bass) and ex-Avenger/Steeler Jan Yildiral (drums) the reanimated Mausoleum Records got the award to produce Darxon's last album "Shout!", that was eventually finished in October 1991 and provided classic 80's Heavy Metal with either hints of the old Darxon sound of the early days of the band. During 1991 Darxon also participated on the All Star Project "German Rock Project" and provided the song "Waiting for your heart". But once again after the "Shout!" CD was published 1992, the musicians went all their own ways. 2006 Jens Frank tried to revive Darxon with former musicians, but had to firm under the monicker Noxrad due to legal problems.

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A band from Düsseldorf, whose roots go back till 1980 when Niko Arvanitis and Rudy Kronenberger started jamming. It's still unclear if the band indeed was called Stormwind at this stage, as another source mentions Stormwind officially to be founded in January '84. That pre-version is said to have recorded a 3 track Demo in 1983. Wolfgang “Wolla” Böhm was previously playing in Snakebite and White Witch, before he settled with Stormwind. The guys got signed by Wishbone Records who produced 2 vinyls in pretty short time, one being the debut LP "Taken by storm" in February '85 and the "Warbringer" 12" in July the same year. Both featured pretty heavy Metal with good riffing like early Warlock and Klaus Lemm sounding like a cross of Rob Halford and Udo Dirkschneider. But just like for Warrant from the same city, the career of Stormwind was over before it begun. Warlock grabbed guitarist Niko Arvanitis and also Wolla Böhm left to join Darxon in 1986 and was later found in Universe and U.D.O. The other guys tried to keep the band going for a while but resigned in 1988. Klaus Lemm joined Darxon as well, Olli Kliem and Rudy Kronenberger formed the Metal band Energy right after the split.

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Royal Flush was a band that the ex-Accept/Black Jack guitarist Jörg Fischer formed during 1988/89. He went to the United States to complete his line with Butch Carlson (ex-Jag Panzer/Sahara/Gypsy Moreno) and Roy Zerimar (ex-Gypsy Moreno, later Bruce Dickinsons guitarist), as well as Hellion bassist Rex Tennyson (Heavy Bones), plus David Fefolt (ex-Valhalla/Hawk/Masi) on vocals. The fivepiece was managed by ex-Wiseman guitarist Willi Wrede, operated from both Los Angeles and Essen due to it's mainly american members and either recorded promotional Demo material (not for sale, without booklet) in Sylmar/California, that was mentioned to sound quite promising, rooted in the commercial Hard Rock/Metal spectrum, mixed at Dieter Dirks studio in Cologne in the summer of 1989. But Butch Carlson and Roy Zerimar afterwards left Royal Flush to form their new band Driver, so Royal Flush split up already in autumn '89, despite already having a contract pending with Polydor Records. David Fefolt and Rex Tennyson with still the contract in their pockets formed Bourbon Street together with Wolfgang "Wolla" Böhm (ex-Snakebite/White Witch/Stormwind/Darxon/Universe/U.D.O.), Jens Frank and ex-Holy Moses' Herbert Dreger in spring '90.
(Thanx to David Fefolt for additional facts/info)

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These guys from Ratingen was haunting the Düsseldorf area since 1981, while Tucky arrived from the band Black Fair. They stepped into public with a 2 track Demo in 1984, before grabbing all their saved money to produce a 2 track 12" independently on their own label Prowler Records. The EP comes with incredible artwork and features 2 post-NWOBHM influenced Metal numbers, that adopt the spirit of british acts such as Persian Risk or Cobra. The Nightprowler guys kept on playing throughout the whole 80's and tried with several other drummers, before they eventually disappeared in around 1992.

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A local Düsseldorf Heavy Metal band that felt inspired by Mercyful Fate, Iron Maiden and Dio. The band was active at last during 1984/85, though guitarist Wolfgang “Wolla” Böhm and vocalist Klaus Lemm left already in January 1984, to join slightly more familiar Düsseldorf HM brothers Stormwind. Further info is needed.

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An early/mid 80's Dortmund cellar band in the Judas Priest vein, so far only known for having one Thomas Grüning (ex-Dark Light) on guitar, until october 1983 after which he left for the much more familiar Avenger/Rage. More info is needed.

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First known cellar-band formed by Peter "Peavy" Wagner and Thomas Grüning, both later in Dortmund stahwarts Avenger/Rage. Formed in 1981 and broke up 2 years later, the style has been described as bluesy Hard Rock, but that is unfortunately all that is known about this project atm. Grüning subsequently joined Vampire afterwards and would resurface in Avenger/Rage after's Vampire's end. If you have more info, please get in contact.

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Ratingen hardrocker unknowns active in the early 80's, whom we only know as a band where guitarist Tucky of also-Ratingen act Nightprowler once originated. If you have more info, please get in contact.

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A female fronted Power Metal band from Sulzbach/Frankfurt, that started in 1981 and recorded a 4 track Demo tape in June '85. Interestingly their style reminded more of US american bands of the era, instead of german ones. The opener "Unborn demon" shows some similarities to Agent Steel at their early demo stage with either late 70's Priest and also Maiden influences. After the two rubbish "B.S.D." and "Iron legion", the tape finishs with "Desateur" in typical US Metal manner again. Cici L.'s voice reminds more than just once of Kim La Chance.

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A Metal band from Dortmund, that was formed early 1984 by the two guitarists Oliver Bongartz and Hartmut Kaukel. Dirk Mlynarek soon became their vocalist and 2 months later Christian Hellwig joined on drums. They apparently released an 8-song demo in November 1984, featuring promising titles like "Hills Of Force", "Fight With The Law" and "Heavy Metal Heart", that was influenced by the rather speedy side of Metal. After getting picked up by a management company they recorded another 6 track Demo in April 1985 that they released under their new name Torrent. If you have more info, please get in contact.

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A Hard Rock trio from Hamburg, personally influenced by Deep Purple, Ramones or the Rolling Stones, that had it's most successful phase in the late 80's, starting with the numbered and limited MLP "We like it simple" on 1st Records "Young Rebels (Vol. 1)" series, released November '88. A track on a local Hamburg compilation (Elbground Vol. 2) followed in August '89 and in September finally the "You keep me running" 7" on Oktave Musikverlag. The Honx formed during 1987, gathering ex-members of the bands Rotzkotz, Cat’s T.V. and The Trash Boys, while musically they stood for R'n'R ladden Hard Rock with late 70's Punk edge, in places similar to the Ramones or Generation X I'd say. Not so bad stuff at all.

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This band from Kienberg in Bavaria is active since 1982 and released 2 Demo tapes in 1984 which both didn't get much love by the german Metal press back in the day, telling the band to rehearse a bit longer. And indeed the songs appear in places sloppy, clumsy and quite amateurish. Iron Horse combined some Hard Rock with pounding Heavy Metal inspired by bands like Accept. Despite all this they managed (perhaps they've been the only Germans who sent their tape to NRR so they didn't have any other choice) to get picked up by New Renaissance to place the track "Devil" on their "Europe's Best Metal" compilation, that wasn't released at all officially and is only available as a test pressing (just a few copies are circulating). The same picture you get on their track "The law of nature" on the local compilation Blizz IIX that was released in 1987. Here you can hear the Accept influences even more and comparisons to Angel War aren't deniable. Tom Reich has left them, they recorded the track as a trio. But still that clumsy touch they couldn't get rid off. Dunno if they recorded more Demos but the band is still (or again) active nowadays and still playing live in their area.

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Thrashers from Passau who was active from August '89 till 1992, when they quit playing. Previously most of the guys had the local Power Metal band Bronx running, but wanted to play heavier stuff, so Christofer Steffek and Stefan Vitek decided to rename the band to Voracious Souls once in 1989. The old Bronx drummer Günther Scheuchl was still part of the band in the very beginning, but soon the 18 years old Volker Kilian would replace him. 2 Demos and a selfreleased LP is their heritage. Not so bad stuff to be honest, solid Thrash with american influences. Take a bit Death Angel, Defiance, Atrophy and Gothic Slam and you'll get a moshing faultless Thrash album that compared to other typically german albums sounds completely different. Some of the members also created a glammy party band called Wet 'n' Wild.

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A locally well known band from Passau, formed in March of 1987, who played an US Power Metal influenced style with Judas Priest touch. Sometime in the mid/late 88 the band felt that it might be time to enter heavier paths since the desire of certain members to play Thrash Metal came up. The backbone of the band got completely restructured a while after the 6-song Demo "Sign Of Krypton", recorded in PAN Studios in 1988 Demo was recorded, consisting of Christofer Steffek (vocals), Andy Greul (guitar), Stefan Vitek (guitar), Bernd Deragisch (bass) and Günther Scheuchl (drums) by then. During summer ’89 Christofer Steffek and Stefan Vitek decided to form the band Voracious Souls, still with Günther Scheuchl on drums, who’d shortly later get replaced with Volker Kilian though.

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An early incarnation of the Soulheim/Nieder-Olm edition of Pestilence. Bathory, Sodom and Death were namedropped as influences and according to one 'zine source, a couple of "terrible tapes" were released under this band name, before the band changed their name to Pestilence in the spring of 1986. If you have more info, please get in contact.

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Pestilence from Nieder-Olm (south of Mayence) might be interesting for the small clientele of HC/Thrashers, as the lad's Thrashcore adopted several Thrash Metal influences, though the band itself has to be counted to the HC faction in the common sense. Originally named Devil's Poison, the the duo changed their name to Pestilence in the spring of 1986 and debuted with the "Our last fun..." Demo later the same year, where they still got supported by a session bass player called Latz. The material featured raw Crossover/Thrash with a guitar sound close to Celtic Frost's, and musicwise often showed similarities to Californians Necropolis (the ones from the Thrash Metal Attack sampler). 1988 they recorded some more trax that was released as a Split LP with Tausend Augen (Thrashcore) on Holzinger's own label Your Choice Records, which didn't differ much in style at all. Once again raw Thrashcore without compromises was delivered, this time also working with several early D.R.I. influences.

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An obscure local Thrash band, that shouldn't be unknowns to die-hard tapetraders back in the day. Originally formed in Darmstadt, they were fairly active on the local live scene, but due to their age mostly at Youth Cafe's and parties. Musically seen it's not either a tragedy, as the lads followed that DIY spirit and homerecorded all the 3 featured tracks of their '85 debut demo, that in the end sounded like coming directly out of the abyss, with out of tune guitars, wannabe Celtic Frost and hyperspeed attempts, that indeed remained only attempts. After this, bassist/vocalist Black Master and drummer Death-X had to do their military service, and there is also a story of guitarist Mayhemic Conqueror serving jail-time after a trip to California for certain actions/pranks of a "political" nature that we won't get into details here (because internet). This obviously led to things slowing down a bit for the band, and also led the band to move to Dortmund in the Ruhr-area, after being generally disillusioned with the scene of their old home town. A new guitarrist in half-Greek Hellenic Warrior was added to the line-up, to replace the mr Mayhemic, as well as a new female bassist, Crapla, after Black Master left to travel to the US. In 1986 they declared that they were tired of their old Venom/Hellhammer-style original influences and adopted what they described as a "Social Metal" approach. In the autumn of the same year another promo-demo was produced and the same time a rumour made the round that Massacre signed a contract with the Detroit-based label G-Point Record via a certain Martin O'Sher, and their debut LP "No welcome for the fisherman" was announced. Unfortunately, no additional info have been found about this supposed album, the label or its boss, or any further adventures of the band. If you have more info, please get in contact.

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There isn’t much known anymore about this obscure band from the Jüterbog area (ex-GDR), which was active around the mid 1980s. One prominent member of this band was Uwe Klotz, who joined BIEST in mid ‘85. Nevertheless according to Frank Lawrenz KIOWA was more of an ordinary Hard Rock band.

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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. The band was originating from Kusel, a bit western of Kaiserslautern and north of the Saarbrücken/Homburg area. 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 f.e., 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. The single is available with 2 different sleeves btw.

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A Melodic Rock/AOR band with slightly proggy touch hailing from the eastgerman city of Werdau in the south of the ex-GDR, that formed during 1980. The line up naturally changed during the first few years of Forum’s existence, but during 1984 the band eventually consisted of Thomas Martin (vocals), Holger Kaniß (guitar), Reinhard Pestel (bass), Jens Schmidt (keyboard), and Klaus Fechtner (drums), who got rewarded for their successful participation on the “7th FDJ Werkstattwoche Jugendtanzmusik” happening in Suhl during 1984, and could produce the song “Die letzten Stunden” in a professional studio. This song that reminds kinda of Berluc’s material at that time (especially the vocals), appeared on the sampler “Auf dem Wege 4” the following year as well. Forum’s kind of melodic AOR with Hard Rock guitars could entrap the officials to push the future career of the band and therefore more studio recordings happened during summer of 1985. In the meantime guitarist Holger Kaniß was replaced by Anselm Riess (ex-Dialog/Block) and within May of the same year also ex-Dialog Günther Franz (vocals) and the new drummer Jörg Markgraf joined. One song („Verraten und verkauft") of that mentioned studio session from summer 1985 appeared on a split single entitled “Startschuss”, featuring other GDR newcomers like Perl, Condor and MEX. The band was also immortalized on the 4-way split LP “Kleeblatt № 19” with 2 more tracks, in addition to “Verraten und verkauft”, which probably reflected the complete studio session from the summer of 1985. However, the high expectations could not really be fulfilled by the band and so FORUM slowly but steadily disbanded. Anselm Riess had the duo PROJEKT M with former FORUM singer Thomas Martin for a while, but then went his own way.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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"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..

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!)