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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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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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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).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Thanx to Andreas Adelhofer for explicit info!)

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

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

(Andreas Adelhofer for additional info!)

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

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

(Thanx to Andreas Adelhofer for explicit info!)

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

(Andreas Adelhofer for additional info!)

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

(Thanx to Maximilian Haferkamp for suggestion!)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Band-info:

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

Band-info:

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