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No idea what the Irish were doing in the Frankfurt area back then, or why they had hoped for a successful career as record millionaires in Germany of all places. In any case, ex-BLACKWYCH guitarist Bobby Tierney and his brother Adrian tried to gain a musical foothold in Germany, in the area around Bad Kreuznach, towards the end of the 80s. The result is an extremely listenable album that naturally comes across as more British than German and is somewhere between Heavy Metal and progressive Hard Rock. Perhaps it's the post-NWOBHM influences that make “Child” something special in the German Metal jungle, but unfortunately this album has hardly received any attention, if you only take the few people who know it. One can only hope that this might change, so that the Tierney brothers' musical oeuvre might still be vividly remembered.

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This band, though being quite late seen by their ascension during 1992, fully focussed on a fundamental late 80’s pompous Hard Rock/Metal sound. Main brain behind the band is Davor Sertic, who’s been a German Metal veteran by already playing in bands like TYRAN' PACE, CHRYSTINE and WASTELAND, before he indeed had the balls to form a completely new act in Reichenbach, east of Stuttgart, during the early 90’s, being called KASHMYR. The name wasn’t chosen just by chance, which the opener of their selftitled 1993 Demo proves. “Middle of the night” reminds of LED ZEPPELIN and late 80’s DEEP PURPLE in the first, but performed in a much more modern way. Everyone of those 4 trax truly stands out, starting with a simply FAT production, that even experienced and prestigious bands might get green out of envy. No wonder that the power banger “Abandoned” made it unto the 3rd part of the “Peace-Eater” CD series. And speaking of the remaining 2 songs of the highly recommended tape, “Saving all your tears” & “Falling to ashes”, it seems like KASHMYR had “stolen” unused BLACK SABBATH material from the “Headless cross” or “TYR” sessions! Seriously, with that David Coverdale style vocals, one might get the impression that this SABBATH/WHITESNAKE influenced stuff was recorded by any topnotch international Hard Rock band! KASHMYR on the other hand didn’t ever get the recognition that they had deserved. As mentioned aboved, they had been at least 4 years too late! In 1995 a selftitled CD appeared on Brunette Records in Japan, so at least the lads for sure sold more CD’s overseas than here in Germany. But calling it “success” wouldn’t be the right term at all. Carsten Hisley reappeared in the fall of the 90’s in the cover band LANCELOT.

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This Crossover band from Wulfsen, south of Hamburg recorded a Demo tape in 1990, that featured quite cool, straight forward American oriented Hardcore with massive Speed Metal edge like f. e. THE IDIOTS. Alone the punky vocals won’t fit here so well, seen by the view of a metalhead naturally, so let’s add these guys for reasons of completions only. After the “Systematic suicide” Demo the line-up would change though. Andreas on guitar and drummer Thomas left the guys who added Jens on guitar and Bodo on drums instead and released one more 7” entitled “Mutation of time”, while with the same breath changed the band name to MENTALLY DAMAGED, as noted on the sleeve of the single.

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Despite the bands logo looking rather like Thrash as well as the band name itself might pretend the very same, these BURIAL had been nothing more like a melodic Hardcore/Crossover act. No clue where they originated from, but in February ’91 a 3 songs Demo was recorded by the lads that offered a melodic sort of Punk Metal with guitar solos and all that belongs to it, featuring quite deep typical Hardcore vocals. Sometimes the Metal edge gets the upper hand and sometimes it’s just the opposite prevailing. So this band will be just of interest for die-hard Crossover or Punk Metal maniacs.

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Deadwood, a trio from Olpe/Sauerland who recorded a 6-song Demo in 1991. One of the songs appeared on the local Wildwux Compilation released the same year. The track "Man on the mountain" features a kinda bluesy Hard Rock, that's kinda simple structured, but not bad sounding at all. The other Demo trax more or less offer the same kind of Hard Rock with slightly funky undertones.

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A Hannover based Crossover band, who in their Demo days 1992 played a sort of Faith No More/Freaky Fuckin' Weirdos influenced groovy Thrash/Hardcore, but soon on their only album "O, what a noble mind is here overthrown" went much more punky and modern, so better don't burn your fingers here.

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Dunno why Munich or Bavaria in general seemed to be the capital for Melodic/Poser bands back in the day, but here we have another representative of that genre added to the countless other combos, whose all been playing more or less the same kind of music. And like all the other acts from that place in southern Germany, these guys had been sailing on the same bugwave like FIREFOX, BAD HOVEN, BURNING HEAT and in the first the SCORPIONS. For sure 1993 hasn't been the right year for VINCIs sort of catchy melodic Hard Rock, but nevertheless, their power ballad “Smells of spring" indeed had everything that it takes to become a worldwide hit.

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A Hard Rock band from Munich that could contribute the 2 trax "Rock the night away" and "Hold on" for the Feierwerk Split LP "Rock Feierwerk Sieger 89" with other Munich bands Bad Hoven, Burning Heat and The Comics. Both trax was taken from their 7 track Demo tape that contains even more outstanding songs. Firefox are interesting for the US influenced Melodic Metal/Hard Rock faction who like it melodic and heavy both at same time. Pole Position, Lifeline, Vera Cruz, Burning Heat are all of the same sort and quality. Highly recommended material with awesome vocals.

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Founded in June '88 this trio from Mühlacker (near Pforzheim) didn't waste much time and recorded a pretty punky sounding first Demo right in August. Guess they tried to create a sort of Hard Rock, but due to the elimentariness of these 8 creations it's pretty hard to say. With Ralf Kretschmer on drums and and new vocalist York Milchraum, the band recorded the second Demo "The way to Atlantis" during 1990, while the 3rd one "Laurel - Chapter III", actually with album lenght, followed right away the next year and offered something different. Not to forget that only York Milchraum and Manfred Mikonya was remaining, while Mikonya played all the guitar, bass and drum parts himself. The guys eventually managed to deliver a straight sort of melodic midpaced Power Metal with oriental touch, with vocals in the James Hetfield style. Afterwards nothing much more happened, while 1997 the duo returned with new guys Kai Jansen (bass), Harry Selasis (drums) and Jutta Dittes (keyboard) to record the album "Noah's Ark Project", that was only released as CDR. Till 2019 Bay Leaf then recorded 5 more albums and yet are still active as it seems like.

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Crossroads from Sande in northern Germany, has been a joint venture of ex-Diamond Breaker musicians Axel Ellerhorst, Stefan Ellerhorst, Franz Schede plus the ex-Fact guys Reent Froehlich and Michael Peer Würfel. Originally Michael Köster has been the band's first drummer in 1987, when Crossroads formed, but he didn't stay for long in the band, so Reent Fröhlich probably recalled his ex-Fact bandmate Würfel. Christian Stöver was previously playing with Rave. After a quite promising two song Demo 1989, including the Melodic Metal bomb “Sign of the times", the band scored a record deal with Harvest/EMI and recorded their debut "The wild one", which was available in May '91, when Franz Schede already wasn't part of Crossroads anymore. The material on the album could be compared to the usual melodic Hard Rock/Heavy Metal stuff of american embossment, like Firehouse, occassionally even mid 80's Fastway, Bonfire, Vamp etc. Since the album gained a little success, the EMI produced another album entitled "Hype" one year later, that featured ex-Running Wild bassist Jens Becker instead of Axel Ellerhorst, but couldn't really repeat the success of their debut. Basically the sound of the album appeared a bit dry, while stylistically they tried to dive more into the Hard Rock seas. With Thommy Röben on bass, but without Christian Stöver (who quit 1993) the lads tried one more time with the "Gasolined" CD 1994, but couldn't really get their feet on the ground anymore. 1997 eventually Crossroads split up.

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A Crossover trio from the local Bremen scene, that was actively playing live during 1988/89 and also released a German sung Demo in early 1989, recorded in December ‘88, featuring an absurd sound spectrum of influences starting at Van Halen and ending at D.R.I. The entire tape was limited to only 100 copies and in the end reminds kinda of stuff like The Idiots, thrashing fast forward, with excellent guitar work! If you got more info, please get in touch.

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A "Hardcore Shit Metal" band from Kiel, as they labeled themselves. The Cuntsuckers released a joke Demo "Attack the toilet", that contained about 70 songs with the aim to produce the heaviest and most perverted "music" ever, recorded partly at their basement and on side B there's a live cut from April '87 featured, recorded during their “European Tour 86/87” (!!). I guess you can imagine that it was an early Noisecore act. Siegfried Schröder's stage name was Siggi Sixxx btw.

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A Thrash unit from southern Germany, most probably active in the greater Stuttgart area during the later mid 80’s. Last mention that we found was dating from arounf 1988. More info would be helpful...

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Thrashers from Bietigheim-Bissingen who formed already during 1986, and after recording 2 Demo's got signed by Massacre Records.The first tape was still recorded with Michael Heckel on bass in July '88, but he quit during that period and the lads added with Stephan Späth a second guitarist instead to record the "No answers" tape in September the following year. Bass lines was added by Giovanni Soulas of the band Ivanhoe. During 1990 Baphomet recorded their debut album "No answers" already without the just recently added Stephan Späth as a trio with additional help by Poltergeist bassist Marek Felis and could finally present their new steady bassman Hansi Bieber when the album was available. "No answers" didn't sound nearly as furious as the band's previous Demos at all and the slightly stylistical change by trying to add more technical, progressive elements didn't fit their raw Thrash style so well. Nevertheless, it seems to have been enough for Massacre Records to produce one more album of this band, which was entitled "Latest Jesus" and was available in 1992. The Baphomet guys didn't turn away from their common Thrash style and offered this time an a bit more grown album, with either melodic influences, though fully following their previous direction with just better done vocals than still on "No answers", reminding in places slightly of a melodic version of Morbid Saint. After another slightly modern sounding Thrash album ("Trust") 1994, Thomas Hertler quit and Jens Sonnenberg (ex-Zadok/Cavillator) took his place for about a year till Baphomet split up in 1995.

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Guitarist Jens “Schmette” Schmitt and drummer Heiko “Lands” Landmann started forging the actual foundations of Leipzig based underground thrashers HELLSCREAM back in 1983, when they started rehearsing together for fun. However, a few more years were to pass before the whole project could be described as a real band. Full of enthusiasm and zest for action, which was unfortunately soon halted by the requisitioning of their presence by the ex-GDR’s army (NVA), the duo quietly and secretly muddled through the familiar socialist daily routine until November 1986. In that month, the band was officially conjured up as HELLSCREAM and the search for suitable brothers-in-arms for the glory of Heavy Metal was to begin. In the following year, 1987, the guys were able to find a suitable singer and bassist in Görschi and Heiko “Leipi” Leipold, so that the quartet was able to work on their own material without hindrance. They also rehearsed songs by RUNNING WILD, JUDAS PRIEST and SAXON, among others back then. By the time Frank “Gülle” Labs joined the band as second guitarist at the beginning of 1988, various HELLSCREAM original compositions had already accumulated. Nevertheless, Heiko Landmann would leave the band in the fall of '88, but a replacement on drums was quickly found in Koma Kschentz right in September. With Koma's arrival, the band's style changed noticeably. The speed and heaviness were adapted to a more contemporary level, so that after a short time they found themselves in Thrash Metal fields. The older standards were now adapted to the sound of SLAYER, KREATOR or SODOM, which was reflected in a cover version of “Sodomy & lust”, among others. Since Heiko Leipold hasn’t had much interest in Thrash at all and at the same time had less and less time to rehearse due to his job, he decided to leave HELLSCREAM towards the end of 1988, whereupon guitarist Frank Labs cheerfully switched to bass. At that time, HELLSCREAM shrank back to a quartet, consisting of: Görschi (vocals), Jens Schmitt (guitar), Frank Labs (bass), Koma Kschentz (drums). Kschentz suffered an injury to his hand the following winter, whereupon SHARK ATTACK drummer Stefan Schmidl helped out at rehearsals at short notice. After Koma had been injected fit again, HELLSCREAM were able to play two of their songs on February 14th 1989 in Leipzig's “Völkerfreundschaft” during the intermission of a concert by local bands STAHLWERK and ZORN. On May 23rd 1989, the band used a tape recorder in their rehearsal room in Plagwitz to record one of their rehearsals, which was sent as a Demo tape to DT64, who in turn broadcast parts of it. Meanwhile, HELLSCREAM's sound had it all. If you were to throw SLAYER, PROTECTOR or early KREATOR into an old saucepan and give it a good stir, you'd get a rough idea of their hyper-fast Death/Thrash drumming, which it's fair to describe as mid 80’s classic Death Metal. Another gig followed in the summer on June 9th 1989 at the 5th Leipzig Rock Festival in the “Eiskeller”, but after this highlight for the guys, everything would turn back again to its socialist course. HELLSCREAM showed no signs of wanting to take the next step forward, and in the end they never left their rehearsal room. In the fall of '89, even before the Wall came down, singer Görschi was caught. He was drafted into the NVA, while a replacement could only be found at the beginning of 1990 with “Stelle”. Due to disagreements about the band's further future, they finally fell out and HELLSCREAM disbanded prematurely. However, Jens Schmitt did not want to let this chapter of his life die young and reactivated the band later in 1990 together with former HELLSCREAM drummer Heiko Landmann. They also found a new singer in Martin and a second guitarist in “Susi”. Despite trying to record some songs in a studio in 1991, things didn't really work out afterwards, so HELLSCREAM were finally laid to rest in 1991.

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A brute, whenalso relatively unknown Thrash Metal unit in the KREATOR/DARKNESS/CARRION vein originating from the Leipzig underground scene in the ex-GDR, that was active during the late 80's. The earliest active period of the band can definitely be traced back to 1988, but it is more likely to be 1987. There is a live recording from 1989 known to exist, featuring songs like "I'm your hunter" and "Killer shark", which means these lads had composed a bunch of songs to perform ‘em live on stage.

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A DIY Metal band from the Lichtenstein/Zwickau area in the ex-GDR, that was founded by a bunch of schoolfriends during the early 80's, being active in their local area from 1980-86. Though they couldn't really handle their instruments at all, the lads started covering wellknown international acts and either created own material, that they performed at the few live gigs they played at private parties. Musical influences came from bands like BLACK SABBATH, LED ZEPPELIN, JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, ACCEPT and later during the mid 80's these lads went heavier with METALLICA, RUNNING WILD or HELLOWEEN being their new standards. Official Demos do not exist at all, but private rehearsal room recordings do indeed.

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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, but didn’t perform live with the band on stage anymore during the “Mayence Rock '90" festival, while 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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We just add the band Dåy Høusten for reasons of completion, as despite being a Crossover band in the first, they kinda belong here as well, eventhough they've just been a sort of Grunge Rock act. The band was formed in Fürth, near Nuremberg, back in July 1990 as a trio by Max Hoefler (bass, vocals), Thomas Ebert (guitar, vocals) and Peter Ebert (drums) and later Bertold Brackemeier (guitar, vocals) joined as well. After recording a 3 song Demo in February ‘91, besides the early albums "Dåy Høusten" (1992) and "Sun øf a new dåy" (1993), these guys also released "Marie's got a friend - Her friend is a tree" in 1995 on We Bite Records and the MCD "Wir sind die Fans vom Ronhof" 1997 on the indie Sticksister Records, before Dåy Høusten dissolved during 1998. Later members of the group, both being drummers btw., had been Jürgen Rakus and Erich Bierschock. Dåy Høusten's style as mentioned above was a Grunge inspired Crossover sound with influences of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and also the Rollins Band.

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This band from Kienberg in Bavaria was active since 1982 and released 3 Demo tapes during 1984, which all of them didn't get much love by the German Metal press back in the day, telling the band to rehearse a bit longer. IRON HORSE combined some Hard Rock with overall pounding midpaced Heavy Metal heavily inspired by bands like ACCEPT. On later recordings the songs appear in places kinda sloppy, clumsy. 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 exclusive track "The law of nature" on the local compilation Blizz IIX that was released in 1987. Those ACCEPT influences still dominate overall and comparisons to bands like ARROW, ANGEL WAR, SACRAFICE or BLACK CROSS aren't deniable. In their early phase Tom Reich was handling the vocals and rhythm guitar, but left before any Demo had been recorded though, so Heinz Kreusel took over vocals duties by then. Dunno if they recorded more Demos during the later 80’s, but IRON HORSE split up in 1989, while the Kreusel brothers would carry on briefly as HEATSTROKE afterwards.

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Not to be confused with the band WOLFEN from the Stuttgart area, this band was also active at around the same time (1989/90), but rather in the northern part of Germany, in Hannover. Not sure if these lads already got active in terms of releases earlier than 1993, but during that year WOLFEN produced their “Get rocked" Demo at the Art & Sound Studio in Hannover. Quite professional sounding and technically well executed too, those four featured Heavyrock numbers with an in places accurate SCORPIONS edge pretty much sounded like the common known US Glam Metal bands at around 1990. In other words typically american sounding midpaced Hard Rock sound is what can be expected here in this specific case and there should be lots of fans around to adore that kind of music for sure.

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Voice from Markneukirchen/Saxony (ex-GDR) was founded in early 1989 by the two former NOBODY members Oliver Glas and Rainer Wild (ex-ROCK REPORT) with the primary aim of playing melodic Heavy Metal inspired by IRON MAIDEN, PRETTY MAIDS, JUDAS PRIEST and QUEENSRYCHE, as NOBODY had already drifted in a much more thrashy direction at that time. The drummer of the Zwickau band CATFISH, Matthias Müller, was eventually recruited for this new project. The guys didn't hesitate for long and started working on their own songs the following year. After spending some time finding willing members to put together a proper stage program, the band reappeared in the early 90’s and played covers of MANOWAR, IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST etc. at their live shows. A first Demo tape was also produced at this time and VOICE reached the final round of the band contest “Goldener Rockinger”, which earned them a trip to the “Popkomm” music fair in Cologne. However, it wasn't until 1996, after various line-up changes, that the band achieved greater success, after Oliver Glas (vocals), Thommy Neuhierl (guitar), Rico Hendel (guitar), Sören Glas (bass), Mathias Löscher (keyboards) and Arndt Otto (drums) had recorded their debut CD “Prediction” on their own, which was released on the indie label Blue House Records. In the meantime, the band recorded 4 more albums, all of which were released on the AFM Records label and all of which presented melodic Power Metal, before VOICE took a break around 2003 and only returned in 2017, when their comeback, but so far also last album “The storm” was finally released on Massacre Records. Only Oliver Glas (vocals), Thommy Neuhierl (guitar) and Sören Glas (bass) remained from the classic line-up, while Stephan Stockburger was recruited as the new drummer. VOICE are still active, but in recent years the band has become rather quiet.

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The official birthdate of the quite respected FEUERSTEIN from Halle/Bad Dürrenberg already refers to August 1984, when the ex-ELCH members Karsten Slansky (vocals), Sven "Lemmy" Büttner (guitar), Thomas Hildebrand (drums) founded the band in Halle together with the ex-ROCKENFELD guys Andreas Ohme (guitar) and Jörg Göldner (bass), playing classic Heavy Metal inspired by bands such as MOTÖRHEAD, IRON MAIDEN, ACCEPT, JUDAS PRIEST, SAXON, BLACK SABBATH and the SCORPIONS. FEUERSTEIN did so well at the district performance contest in October '85 that the boys were allowed to produce their song “Sie sieht mich an” during early summer ‘86 in Gunther Wosylus' studio a while afterwards. However, the song was never played on the radio and disappeared into the archives after Wosylus fled to the West. In 1986 after Lemmy's brother Kai Büttner (ex-ELCH) had replaced Göldner on bass and Christian Sorge came for Andreas Ohme on guitar during summer, FEUERSTEIN was participating at the Werkstattwoche Suhl, Oktober '86 and could record there the quite PRIESTish sounding track "Sag ich will", that got airplay in the national broadcast in the “Heavy-Stunde” radio show right in December. Afterwards the guys recorded another 2 heavier sounding songs at the Farmlandstudio of Sieghart Schubert. “Die bösen Jungs kommen” seamlessly followed the same JUDAS PRIEST scheme as ‘Sag ich will’, but ‘Teufelsbraut’, which was a homage to MOTÖRHEAD both musically and vocally and became a No. 1 hit in the “Beatkiste", radiated a magic with its fast beat that you couldn't really escape. “Die bösen Jungs kommen” was first presented in the “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy” show in December 1987 and then subsequently went straight into the “Beatkiste”. This was immediately followed by “Teufelsbraut” in “Tendenz...”, which would romp around in the “Beatkiste” for an incredible 15 weeks from May '88. Sven Büttner their guitarist was a Lemmy double and also has been responsible to sing the MOTÖRHEAD songs due to his voice sounding similar to Lemmy's. All other trax was sung by Karsten Slansky who offered more clear vocals to sing the MAIDEN, SAXON and PRIEST stuff on stage. Later in 1988, when Slansky was out and FEUERSTEIN consisted only of Sven Büttner (guitar, vocals), Kai Büttner (bass), Christian Sorge (guitar, vocals) and Thomas Hildebrand (drums), Büttner and Christian Sorge shared the vocals, whereas songs of MEGADETH and METALLICA was added to their live set. “Teufelsbraut” was even featured on the Rockbilanz '88 compilation, an LP series with the most successful songs from that year, which made it to the top of the national charts. However, due to some politically motivated interventions in the FEUERSTEIN band structure, Thomas Hildebrand soon had enough and left the band to join PUZZLE. However, he was quickly replaced by a new drummer, while FEUERSTEIN were once again allowed to produce the songs “Nie zu laut” and “Haste Geld” for the ex-GDR's broadcast service in August 1988, this time in Jürgen Matkowitz's studio. “Nie zu laut” was broadcast on “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy” in September, which soon would enter the “Beatkiste”, while “Haste Geld” had it’s premier run on “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy” in January '89 and remained in the “Beatkiste” charts from February to April. In the meantime, their style had developed towards a rather thrashy sound, mixing midtempo Metal with some Speed/Thrash parts. Due to the wellknown Matkowitz production, who seemed to had jokingly left the controls of the previous BIEST productions in the same positions, both FEUERSTEIN songs now sounded a bit like BIEST. However, from a studio point of view, those songs were to be their last sign of life. FEUERSTEIN still had been in need of a singer and guitarist right in December '88, as Christian Sorge wanted to try his luck with LOVE GUN instead. Meanwhile, the worst case scenario could no longer be averted. Kai Büttner also left the band at the beginning of '89, while Sven Büttner brought in a completely new team. In May '89 he wanted to perform live again with FEUERSTEIN, but this time in a trio line-up consisting of himself on bass and his new followers Thomas Schlue (guitar, vocals) and Axel Kokoschky (drums). But that didn't last for long, the news of the end of the band followed on the heels. The band's last concert was to take place on October 29th 1989, as Sven Büttner was due to go to the army barracks. The note also stated that the band wouldn’t perform under the name FEUERSTEIN again in the future anymore. After that, M.A.D.'s Christian Ludwig briefly replaced their drummer in 1990, but returned to M.A.D. after only a few weeks for personal reasons, while FEUERSTEIN disbanded in 1990.

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A pretty solid Thrash act from Nordhausen/Harz, of which only a live recording from June '89 remains today, and this contains exclusively cover versions of METALLICA, AGNOSTIC FRONT, SLAYER, SODOM and CARNIVORE. Mario's live vocals are clearly superior to those of James Hetfield, who successfully tried to copy them. The desire to hear their own material inevitably arises in view of the technically remarkable realization of their cover versions, and there should be little doubt that CONQUEROR could have written a few appealing Thrash songs of their own. Unfortunately, own material wasn't particularly in demand at the gigs back then, so this pretty good band will mainly be remembered for their cover versions only.
CONQUEROR formed towards the end of 1987, but in the early days they were still oriented towards acts like JUDAS PRIEST, BLACK SABBATH etc. However, the guys quickly switched over to a heavy Thrash sound and also developed two original compositions, with which they presented themselves to the classification committee in 1988 and at least reached the intermediate level. During late 1988, the still very young CONQUEROR musicians started doing their first live concerts, but these were limited to their rural surroundings in the first. Until the fall of '89, they were able to play quite a number of gigs, and the band's technical skills developed noticeably. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the political change in the ex-GDR put an abrupt end to all the band's efforts. Guitarist Jürgen Müller fled to the West before the fall of the Berlin Wall and was initially replaced by Holger Schüler. Two more CONQUEROR musicians soon would follow Müller's example, so that the issue seemed to be settled for the time being. After staying in contact, however, the thrashers got together again at the beginning of 1990 and attempted a comeback, which led to further concerts in spring and summer '90. After that it was over once and for all and the lads went their separate ways. Jens Unger then played in the Hardcore band UNWRITTEN LAW at the beginning of the 90s. In the fall of the nineties he tried to reanimate CONQUEROR together with one of the original guitarists and other new musicians and was able to pull this project off for quite a while.

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Got to agree with Dan on this one, it's pretty much a shame that no label picked up these guys to produce an album, but I guess the reason was simply that they've been a bit too late for that kind of early/mid 80's nasty Heavy Metal sound like indeed Xxaron, Darxon or Gravestone in their prime time. "Shot into the heart" and "Feel alive" are alone worth the purchase of that compilation they got featured on. Besides those 2 slashers, there’s also 2 Demos being recorded prior to the compilation feature, dating from 1986 and ’88 when the band still acted as a fourpiece with second guitarist Ralph Laskowski, that both offer similar solid material. Lasowski wasn’t mentioned anymore on the compilation trax at all. Those tapes got now re-released on CD together with a Hemlock live cut from 1986. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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The female drummer Angela Ullrich formed AGENTUR NULL in Dresden in mid 1985 after leaving the well known and all female Hard'n'Heavy band NA UND with the aim of devoting herself to melodic Rock music, although the whole thing ended up sounding more like Hard Rock. The first line-up, consisting of Uwe Hiob (vocals), Tino Taubert (bass), Hendrik Borsitz (keyboards), Angela Ullrich (drums) and guitarist Enno Schöniger, who was later replaced by Holger Vogel, lasted until March 1988. During this creative phase, AGENTUR NULL were able to produce 4 songs for the national broadcast service in early 1988 and received invitations for TV appearances on well known programs such as “rund”, “Stop! Rock” or “Sprungbrett”, which naturally gave them a certain level of national recognition. Musically, the musicians were supported by the band STERN MEIßEN, for whom they often appeared as the support act, mainly belting out EUROPE songs from the stage. Unfortunately in March '88, Angela Ullrich had to restructure the entire band with new members, as the rest of the guys wanted to move on to much poppier material. Ullrich now engaged Michael Müller (vocals), Tom Vogel (bass, ex-KREISMAL), Katrin Jäckel (guitar) and Christian Kusch (keyboards) for AGENTUR NULL. Uwe Hiob, Tino Taubert and Hendrik Borsitz subsequently founded the Pop/Schlager band DIE BLAUEN ENGEL. Shortly before the fall of the wall, the band was able to record the song “Rebellische Liebe” for the GDR radio station and was also asked by Amiga to contribute to a sampler. Unfortunately this project could no longer be realized. After being invited to a festival in Bregenz/Austria in 1990, both guitarists Michael Jurischk (ex-PLATTFORM/COUNTDOWN/PHARAO/CHARLIE) & Sebastian “Basti” Bauer (ex-KEKS/MONOKEL/MCB) were quickly added to the regular line-up especially for that show and stowed away in the band's hand luggage. Michael Jurischk would subsequently remain in AGENTUR NULL as guitarist. From 1990, the band consisted of Michael Jurischk and Anette Putz (vocals) alongside Christian Kusch, Tom Vogel, Michael Müller, Katrin Jäckel and Angela Ullrich. However, with reference to the collapse in the country and the loss of the relevant concert opportunities, the band fell into a kind of hibernation in which nothing more happened. During this time, Christian Kusch and Katrin Jäckel moved to West Germany in search of a future. It was not until 1992 that Angela Ullrich pulled herself together again and reformed her band with the two ELECTRA lads Andreas “Bruno” Leuschner (keyboard) and Eckehardt “Ecki” Lipske (guitar). Only Tom Vogel on bass remained from the previous line-up. In the mid 90’s, their old friend Reinhard Fißler (ex-STERN MEIßEN) joined as singer and guitarist. Even Mike Demnitz (ex-LAVA/REFORM) from MCB played with AGENTUR NULL for a year between 1994/95. Nowadays the band is still active, but only gives special concerts for school classes, while they also perform as CRAZY BIRDS together with friends from the old ex-GDR Rock scene. Apart from the radio recordings dating from 1988/89, no further recordings or releases have been made.

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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 way 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 overall quite raw sounding Hard Rock with tons of Heavy Metal approaches and especially that “Rebellion” song surprises with an absolutely evil riff that reminds of Flames of Hell. 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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ETERNAL PEACE were already relatively well known in the Annaberg/Scheibenberg region in the early nineties. But nevertheless, the band emerged entirely from a completely different project, which was called FIZZ, named after their singer Mike “Fizz” Schmidt. Founded back in Scheibenberg (ex-GDR) already during 1987, the guys gradually began to focus on playing Thrash Metal. However, it would take still quite a while before they were able to announce their first Demo. The tape with the title “Die before...!” was recorded in February '91 and offered some rather bumpy Power/Thrash in the vein of METALLICA and TORANAGA, which was mostly midtempo based. But in and of itself, the tape was definitely worth listening to, as there were a few good approaches and ideas here and there as well. Unfortunately FIZZ did not find a glorious fate in the end, as people got into each other's hair, it probably seems. In any case, FIZZ split into the bands AGE OF MADNESS in 1992, led by singer Mike Schmidt, while the rest of the guys: Jens Dietrich (guitar), Olaf Martin (guitar), Tobias Prager (bass) and Jörg Unger (drums), formed the Doom/Death Metal band ETERNAL PEACE.

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It's difficult to say which region this quartet came from. There is only scant information on their only single. According to the recording studio they most probably originated from the Dortmund/Hagen/Iserlohn area. Musically they didn't seem to have progressed much beyond mediocrity. Their antiquated sounding Boogie Hard Rock was fundamentally rooted in the sound of the 70’s, and STATUS QUO was probably one of their favorite bands. FUNNY REVIVAL rocked at least in the same style as the Brits, only 2 leagues below, and offered plenty of R'n'R infected Hard Rock with an emphasis on the Boogie sound.

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The Bremen based SPROTZBAND had come up with a really strange concept, especially for the 80’s. It took some getting used to for a Hard Rock band, as all their songs were sung in German. Fortunately this had no effect on their power sound. Anyone who thinks the band would sound more effeminate as a result is very much mistaken. On July 5th – 7th 1985, the band performed live at the NDR Hörfest Festival in Hamburg and impressed without reservation. As a reward, their energetic Hard Rock grenade “Hunger” was included on the accompanying sampler, which almost offered Metal-like structures in places. The SPROTZBAND could also set accents with their other material, as they had already adopted a style similar to the late 80's DEEP PURPLE in the peak of their success during the mid 80's. Here you can enjoy another live track of the ”SPROTZBAND".

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A traditional female fronted Hard Rock band of the mid 80's originating from the wider Hamburg/Bremen area. Their independently released single "The famous theme" was recorded in Hollenstedt (south of Hamburg) back in October '84 and features a very solid A side, rocking in typical AC/DC manner with Boogie edge and pretty good vocals. The flipside "Never more" got a more melodic touch and sounds slightly softer. They also had "Famous theme" in a powerful live version on the “NDR Hörfest Live 1” complilation. If you got more info of this local band, please get in touch.

(Thanx to emosteel for the recommendation)

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The Crossover/Thrashers INSOLENCE from Erfurt (ex-GDR) have been around since the beginning of 1989. Initially, the quartet felt more under the spell of bands like S.O.D. or ANTHRAX, but this would change again at a later date, when METALLICA also became one of the guys' main influences. Their classification took place on October 21st 1989 at the official performance comparison in the social center Wiesenhügel in Erfurt. It wasn’t possible anymore to find out about the final result, but INSOLENCE could be seen live on stage with ROCHUS at the Tanztreff in Aue already the following month. However, a few more years would pass before the release of their first tape “Telemania”. It wasn't until 1993 that INSOLENCE were able to present something solid. The material they presented could certainly convey good ideas. The guys stayed true to their style and delivered some decent middle class Thrash. Unfortunately their traces are lost afterwards, making it difficult to follow their footprints. It can be assumed that INSOLENCE probably split up during the mid 90’s.

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A local Hard'n'Heavy band from Bad Salzungen, north of Suhl (ex-GDR). It can be assumed that this band originally started out as PANTHER, but certainly must have changed their name to EX-PANTHER due to the much more popular band from Halle. Apart from the fact that the band also played live, there is unfortunately no further information available.

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Obscure local West Berlin Hard’n’Heavy unit that appeared with 5 tracks on an even more obscure tape sampler in 1981. Song titles like “Shot down in hell” or Nightfight” might get your mouth watery now we bet, but frankly the band just acted on a really low technical level, so the lads should be rated as blood beginners to be honest. “1776” reminds a bit of the very early VENOM, who had their accuracy problems as well in their early phase. In the end it’s just some kind of unmusical noise…

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The Blues Rock band Monokel from East Berlin (ex-GDR) was originally founded 1975 by Sebastian Baur, Peter Schneider, Horst Trümpelmann, Wilfried Borchert und Michael Mirek, but the spirit within the band wasn't as desired and Monokel was disbanded in summer '76 already. Sebastian Baur didn't want to surrender and gathered new musicians a few months later with Wilfried Borchert (guitar, vocals), Frank Gahler (vocals), Jörg Schütze (bass), Mario Janik (drums) to risk a second try. Sebastian Baur left the band in 1979, joined the band Keks and eventually MCB in 1985. Also Wilfried Borchert and Mario Janik quit to get replaced by both ex-Engerling musicians Bernd Kühnert (guitar, vocals) and Rainer Lojewski (drums). Michael Linke became Monokel's guitarist. Around 1982/83 ex-Berluc Gerd Pöppel replaced Frank Gahler on the micro, who joined NO 55. 1983 Monokel could add 3 songs to the triple Split LP "Kleeblatt No. 10 - Berliner Blues Bands" and Amiga produced their debut LP in 1986, that got the strange title "Fünf nette, junge Herren, die 1a Kraft-Blues machen!". You might wonder why we add a Blues Rock band here I bet, but the lads themselves called their style "Kraft Blues" (Power Blues). And indeed you'll find massive Hard Rock influences there, and either their guitar sound was quite heavy. In a way the Monokel trax sounded close to early MCB songs, f.e. "Lied des Galgenbruders an Sophie, das Henkersmädel" could be a Monokel song either. Nevertheless, almost everyone, who trys to compile a list of eastgerman Hard Rock vinyls, does forget about Monokel's LP. After the album nothing else happened anymore and during the political change 1989 the band was almost about to split up, but could be sailed into a secure haven throughout these crazy times. 1995 their second album "Monokel" was released on Buschfunk. The guys are still active nowadays, though at a certain point the band split up into 2 different bands using the name Monokel.
You can check out their album here.

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The eastgerman Hard Rock/AOR band GIPSY arose out of the ashes of the band SATORI from Thalheim, that formed in 1973 and disbanded in 1977, which was the official date of birth of the rockers GIPSY, featuring Fredy Lieberwirth (bass), Wilfried Opitz (guitar, vocals), Dietmar Bergert (keyboard), Achim Pöschel (drums). The guys was playing cover versions of international rock stars and are still active until nowadays. In the 80's the band was working with different line-ups and musicians and either could produce several trax for the national broadcast service, that got also featured on different compilations, but are more or less to count to the Classic Rock genre like "Marie" on the "Auf dem Wege 4" sampler proves. On the "Startschuss 2" Split 7" from 1986, GIPSY was backing group for female solo vocalist Petra Schwerdt. During their live shows and especially in the later 80's the guys added songs of RAINBOW, DEEP PURPLE, KISS, AC/DC, FOREIGNER, TOTO, BON JOVI, WHITESNAKE or EUROPE to their repertoire, but also are performing own compositions like "Song of Gipsy". After the premature end of MOSHQUITO, guitarist Rochus Roder joined GIPSY, where he stayed from 1992-94. Though the lads was often booked to perform at important ex-GDR TV music shows like "rund", "STOP! ROCK" or "bong", they wasn't allowed to produce own singles or albums at all. None of the official releases featured below are of interest for the classic Hard Rock or Metal faction, but due to their hardrockin' live shows, GIPSY truly needs to be mentioned at all.
For more info please check out Gipsy's Homepage.

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A local Hard Rock band from Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz), that existed from 1975 to 1986. Initially the band only played regionally until the end of the 70's, but from 1980 onwards, a sponsorship contract with the FDJ leadership of Karl-Marx-Stadt gave them the chance to appear nationwide inside the ex-GDR. In 1982 GLASHAUS took part in the nationwide “Rock für den Frieden” tour, which led to the first broadcast service production of their song “Sturmfrei” in 1983, that appeared on the sampler “Auf dem Weg...3”. In addition to their classic Hard Rock and Prog Rock elements, their style also included various early Heavy Metal influences, which were particularly evident in “Sturmfrei”, which was performed quite briskly. However, the keyboard parts, some of which were pushed to the fore, repeatedly made a reference to Prog Rock. After another broadcast service production (“Morgen”), the band unfortunately broke up in 1986.

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A local ex-GDR band from Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz) that must have been active since the end of the 80's, but only on a regional level. Unfortunately their main focus was limited to a Hard Rock sound strongly influenced by DEEP PURPLE, with the band probably focusing mainly on cover versions of Classic Rock and softer Hard Rock acts such as BRIAN ADAMS, ZZ TOP or DEEP PURPLE. Their guitarist Rochus Roder joined MOSHQUITO in 1990.

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A local Crossover troop from Prenzlau, north of Berlin, that originally formed as T.A.I. (Total Alcohol Invasion) in early 1989, but changed name to TMK within the political change inside the ex-GDR during late ’89, still with Ron Schaffer on vocals, who though left in 1990 to form his on band Necrosist. M.F. Waschk replaced him afterwards right away, who got then replaced himself by M. Kundt in 1992. TMK released 2 Demo tapes between November 1992 and May '93, that both featured Motörhead inspired Hardcore Metal with Speed Metal influences and Thrash parts. The band most probably split up during the mid 90's. Thomas Pfeffer later played in Schweineröck and Thoralf Jachtner joined the Dark Wave band Kinski. TMK stands for "Totaler Mützenkrach" btw

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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).

Band-info:

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…