Band-info:

These Attack from Nordhorn, north of Essen in the greater Münster area, was Ricky Van Helden's baby, who kept the band running throughout the 80's and early 90's and recorded several Demo tapes during the mid 80's, that's a bit hard to keep track. During the early days Attack consisted of Ricky Van Helden, Andy Kammer and a certain T.R.O.S. (Thomas St. Jones) on keyboards, who also recorded the band's debut album "Danger in the air", that contains different kinds of Metal. While the title track offers pretty exciting atmospheric Power Metal, some of the other tracks would almost meet Heavy Rock requirements. Combined with the really heavy songs on "Danger in the air", those keyboards are quite an enrichment for Attack's sound. On the contrary songs like "Sunday morning" are getting an ugly commercial touch and remind of the Europe stuff. On the second album "Return of the evil" Ricky appeared with a new team already, both Hardware members Jörg Franz (guitar), Thomas Ewermann (drums) and Andy Niewidok (guitar). Congruously the album went more consistent than it's precursor, dwelling entirely in Metal realms. Then a time of silence without releases followed, when several Demos and the unreleased album "Beastkiller" (1987) was recorded , that eventually convinced Zyx Metallic, who just tried to save themselves a piece of the german Heavy Metal cake during the late 80's, to produce one more Attack album ("Destinies of war") 1989. His new team consisted of the earlier recruited Chreddy Riepert (guitar - most probably Fairywhite's Christian Riepert ), Gerd Sossnierz (guitar), Athanasios Tsoukas (drums) and now had a slightly Maiden/Helloween influenced speedy Heavy Metal in their backpack. The big breakthrough for Ricky Van Helden failed to appear, but if you think that little fact could prevent a hero like Ricky then you failed. He returned 3 years after "Destinies of war" with another album incl. a new crew ofc (Enthophyte guitarist Peter Oko and Jens Petersen - guitar), that featured quite similar speedy complex Power Metal too. And once again nobody took notice of the "Seven years in the past" CD, since it wasn't really the best time for that kind of Metal. During the next years several other Attack albums was recorded and the band's chapter yet wasn't closed at all.

Band-info:

A Heavy Metal band from Laudenbach that was active since 1984 and released a Demo tape in 1985 that featured faster melodic Heavy Metal with influences of Judas Priest and Accept. Afterwards in 1986 a second Demo entitled "Heavy Metal" was recorded with new members Carsten Oesterreicher (bass) replacing Stefan Schiemer and Mike Schmidt (guitar) came to replace Andy Fath. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

A classic Heavy Metal band from Epfendorf, between Stuttgart and Villingen-Schwenningen, who've been active since 1987 and recorded just one Demo with 6 songs in 1990. Despite not acting too technical at all, Heartattack set their priorities more on that typical german "in your face" sort of Metal like mid 80’s Accept. Jürgen Lauble was previously playing in Dilemma and Dieter Bühler was also active in Exterior. Further info is needed.

(Thanx to Rumblefist for additional info)

Band-info:

A local Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band from the Paderborn area of the early 80’s, that featured a later Breaker member.

Band-info:

A classic Heavy Metal act originating from Wermelskirchen, between Wuppertal and Cologne, that was active during the mid 80's. Their Demo "Games of Death" recorded 1986 features 4 just archetypical mid 80's German Metal numbers sounding very similar to bands like Arrow, Metal Sword etc. According to MA there should be a Live Demo available too, but yet no real evidence could be found. Further info is welcome.

Band-info:

A White Metal unit from Bruchsal, a bit north of Karlsruhe, between Heidelberg and Stuttgart, that was active during the late 80's and early 90's and played several shows during that time frame. The guys had a rather Thrash influenced complex sound that they mixed with neoclassical influences and recorded their debut 4 song Demo 1989 plus another one in the following year. If you got more info, please contact us.

Band-info:

A shortlived Heavy Metal band from Spremberg (ex-GDR), that mainly covered NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden, Motörhead or Judas Priest in the beginning when they formed in 1987. Their own material was rather Power Metal inspired and the guys either played a few live gigs at that time. But during 1988 Secret Attack split up and Runhardt Scheffler learned to play guitar instead in order to form something more brutal sounding. He tried several times to gather musicians for that purpose but always failed, till he met drummer Jean Schulze in early 1990 and both formed Necromance.

Band-info:

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.

Band-info:

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.

Band-info:

The Hettstedt based ensemble THRASH ATTACK was founded towards the end of 1987 by a group of teenagers who mainly covered songs by TANKARD, SODOM, SLAYER, KREATOR and others. Alongside Thomas Hollmann (guitar, vocals), Frank Hannak (guitar) and Mario Wagner (bass), their drummer Fliege was initially part of the young band's first line up. Unfortunately right after their first gig with him went so disastrous, he had to be replaced immediately afterwards by a new drummer (the name is unfortunately no longer known), with whom the band was able to successfully perform the following gigs. When he left THRASH ATTACK in 1988, Rene Jauernik became his direct replacement on drums, who joined the band in the fall of 1988. Despite the fact that their stage program consisted of 100 % cover versions, the guys had even composed a few of their own songs. But as the audience was more interested in cover versions at the time, these songs were unfortunately not developed any further and were never performed live at all. Thomas Hollmann finally decided to escape the ex-GDR via Hungary in the middle of 1989, so the rest of the guys continued with a buddy on vocals as a trial. Unfortunately this didn’t work out so well, so that the gap left by Hollmann could not be filled in the end anymore. They couldn't keep THRASH ATTACK artificially alive much longer anyway, as the band fell into total stagnation until they finally gave up completely in early/mid 1990. No recordings were made during their creative period, even though rumor has it that an old live recording exists. Although THRASH ATTACK didn't quite work out in the end, Rene Jauernik (drums) and Frank Hannak (guitar) nevertheless decided together with Uwe Martin (guitar) at a party at the beginning of 1991 to give it another go and started a completely new band in March '91, namely INFLUENCE.