Band-info:

The Hard Rockers G'Loyd was founded 1976 in Düsseldorf by Sameh Mina, Lou Moutlak, Peter Wege (ex-Syracus), Cristoph Conrad, Stefan Ingmann and Peter Steinmann (ex-Incognito), and this line up lasted till 1979, when the band was reformed by Peter Steinmann with ex-Die Croonkorken Jörg van Haltern (guitar) and Jürgen Fischer (drums). Within the following years the line up changed for good several times till in 1985 they published the track "Let me go" on the local compilation "Querschnitt" with Peter Steinmann (bass, vocals), Jörg van Haltern (guitar), Günter Radtke (guitar), Michael Kamphoff (drums) and Susanne Held (vocals). Afterwards the lads recorded their debut album, featuring new drummer Dirk Hansmann (ex-Cannabis Airlines), but either the former members Michael Kamphoff and Günter Radtke (both left the band during the recording sessions as it seems) participated on certain songs of the album, that features pretty good Heavy Rock with diverse Southern Rock elements and could be labeled in the whole as classic Hard Rock. The vinyl was manufactured in a limited edition. In January '87 the ex- Cannabis Airlines/Clan Gunn guitarist Achim Flesch took Radtke's place and G'Loyd shared stages with well known bands during the following years till they published their second (live) LP "We're on the road again" in 1989 with Caesar Czaika on bass (ex-Hammersmith), and subsequently supported Molly Hatchet on their 1990'er Germany tour. After more line up changes in the early 90's, the band published their "Still there" Maxi CD 1992 with now ex-Trans Am Ronny von Assel on guitar and on drums Michael Röder (ex-Mary Jane). They consequently developed their Southern Rock inspired Hard and Biker Rock and used to perform on stage at several Biker festivals. The last G'Loyd album "Where the eagles fly" was released in 1995, but the lads kept on performing live on stage nevertheless, until their last gig in 2006.
You may also check out the band's website with detailed info: G'Loyd

Band-info:

A melodic Metal/HR band from Nuremberg, formed in January 1987 merely as 'Gaia' by guitarist Clemens Dachs and bassist Wolfgang Korn. Stefan Noack later joined on vocals and in July 1989 Stefan Brem added his 2nd guitar. Finally, Thomas Chimainski completed the steady line-up on drums and in 1991 (or possibly 1990) their first demo was recorded. A second tape followed in 1993, but their one and only full-lengh debut didn't see the light of day until 1996, in form of a privately released CD. The band is still active today, but exclusively as a cover-band, with only the 2 guitarists remaining from the original line-up. You can visit their homepage here.

Band-info:

Galaxo from Potsdam seems a quite obscure representative of the eastgerman Hard Rock, as the band is even unknown to insiders of the local scene, though the guys, who existed since already 1980 and had been promoted officially by the FDJ direction Potsdam since 1983, appeared with the Deep Purple inspired song „Eis“ on one of these little known ex-GDR vinyl compilations, that featured tiny local bands from all over the republic, who should be introduced to a bigger audience in order to find out if it might be worth to boost their evolution. Galaxo had both a Blues and Hard Rock influenced background, leading into several recording sessions for the national broadcast service during the mid 80’s, while besides the tracks „Eis“ (1984) and “Wir haben nur eine Erde” (1985), also the numbers "Mädchen geh" and "Rock'n Roll Lady" was produced a bit later then in 1986. So far it seems no more recordings happened anymore afterwards since the band’s sponsoring contract with the FDJ ended in that year. Michael Skiba then during 1987 completely restructured Galaxo with Rolf Pilz on drums, Hannes Rietz (bass), Toni Schäffer (guitar) and Peter Eichstädt on keyboards and only lead the band on national stages, while the guys kept Galaxo going through 3 decades this way as a live/cover band until 2010, when they eventually called it quits. Toni Schäffer and Hannes Rietz subsequently formed the band HOT Rock, that’s covering Gary Moore, Rolling Stones or Jimi Hendrix songs nowadays on stage.

Band-info:

A raw Black/Thrash Band from Pödeldorf/Bamberg (Bavaria) with some Celtic Frost influences, that was active in the fall of the 80's till the early 90's. Gallmor recorded 2 Demo tapes, first one from 1988 was entitled "No more pain" (8 trax). On the second tape "We want your soul" from June 1990, Martin replaced R. Liedgens on guitar, while Eiermann switched on guitar/bass and did vocals on all 6 songs. For a certain time Gallmor was also seen live on stage as a fourpiece. Further info is needed.
Check out Gallmor here
(Thanx to Jürgen Grimm for info, pictures and kind help)

Band-info:

The band Gambit could contribute a track to one part of D&S' two "The Best Of German Metal Newcomer" LP's and "Success" features nice keyboard driven atmospheric Melodic Metal with a cool refrain. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

A band from Langenfeld between Düsseldorf and Leverkusen, that just produced a single CD in the early 90's for Steps Records. The songs on the album are residing in the merge of Hard Rock and Metal, some heavier, some with R'n'R touch and mostly slightly american glammy influenced. Otherwise a solid album for Hard Rock fans.

Band-info:

A local Duisburg melodic Heavy Rock act most probably. Their only album "Red on blue" was produced at the SC-Sound Studio in Duisburg at least, with the help of additional musicians namely Stefan Hartz (percussion), Dirk Blumhoff (bass), Holger Schreiber (keyboard), Christian Fandrey (guitar), Bernd Rhode (guitar), Dieter Voges (guitar) and Holger Karen (guitar), who all played additional parts on a few of the 13 trax featured on the CD, which nourishs the verdict that band was more or less a sort of project. Nevertheless, for fans of Bon Jovi during the heavier days of "Slippery when wet", Gambler in general might do something. They keep a certain grade of heaviness all along, though commercial keyboards lower that heaviness in the end.

Band-info:

Basically we seriously don't expect that it's needed to introduce Gamma Ray at all. The long time Helloween guitarist Kai Hansen founded the band when he departed from Hellloween in 1989 with ex-Tyran' Pace shouter Ralf Scheepers, ex-Bullfrog Uwe Wessel and Mathias Burchardt and immediately released his first album strangely on Noise Records, who pretty much caused all the trouble that threw Helloween back in their career for several years in the fall of the 80's and was responsible indirectly for Hansen's departure. Normally the band was firming under the name of Kai Hansen in the beginning, but during the process of manufacturing the records the name Gamma Ray was chosen, so the LP's got a special sleeve with still Kai Hansen printed as band name on, that covers the regular Gamma Ray album inside. Not surprisingly Gamma Ray's debut sounded very Helloween-ish, which might be caused by Hansen being one of the main songwriters for his old band. In the following years the band's line up changed permanently, accompanied by a stylistical change, away from the Helloween roots, but the same time Hansen established Gammy Ray being one of the leading german Heavy Metal bands throughout the 90's and on, releasing numerous albums and singles till 2016.

Band-info:

A Hard Rock trio from West Berlin, that used to publish an quite outdated sounding album on the indie label Rockwerk Records in 1989, as well as the CD "Alcohol disaster" 1991 and another MCD in 1994 on the same company. The album's quality is so-so, in places bluesy Hard Rock ala AC/DC meets 70's Boogie stuff and some of the trax feature a quite unessential sort of Heavy Rock with huge late 70's touch.
(Thanx to emosteel for the additional info)

Band-info:

A band from West Berlin, which was active during the late 80's. If you got further info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

Obscure West Berlin band - or possibly a joke project? This self-described "Barbaren-band" had Otger Jeske of Iron Pages as contact for the demo (including the 'megahit' "Barbarian Lover", apparently) so it's possible he was also part of the line-up, but this is yet unconfirmed. In any case we'll have to assume this was at least some form of HM. If you have more info, please get in contact.

Band-info:

This optically "Blessed Death double" band was hailing from North Rhine-Westphalia and previously started playing Hard Rock as Fliehkraft already in 1978. At around the time when they recorded their only album, they changed name to Gator also and published the album independently. NWOBHM inspired rippers like "Priest of Voodoo" or "Hey you" pretty much belong to the creme de la creme of the early german Heavy Metal pioneering sound. Sadly the album also featured some Hard Rock numbers mixed in between, otherwise the same titled LP would be a top notch example of an early Heavy Metal troop that's not copying Accept at all. A special hint, Hartmut Engler used to sing the backing vocals on the album. Most of you won't know this guy I'm sure, but he later became famous with the Pop/Rock band "Pur" at the end of the 80's. Gator in contrary completely vanished from the screen afterwards, though all remaining 4 members came back into the light a decade later as the southern/country rock cover act General Lee Band (see West Wirginia Records).

Band-info:

Can't say much about this band, they was located in Osnabrück and had a first track "I'll see the light tonight" on the local Blizz IIX compilation but this song hasn't much in common with the LP that got released 1 year later on the underground label D&S Recording. GB Force on that song sounded pretty much like an AOR band, appearing quite poppy, while on "The force" they went into a much more Metal dominated direction, though with melodic edge too but the material had enough rough edges to be fully voted for the Heavy Metal sector. They rather kinda remind me more of british post-NWOBHM bands than german ones. The album is available in black and red vinyl and doesn't pop up that often anymore nowadays.

Band-info:

Geböhlke (impossible to translate into english^^) was a Funcore band from Fulda, that was active between 1986-1988. After Butje quit in 1987, Andy took over the vocals and also Eddy got replaced during that year by Linki. The guys released a Demo tape with the title "Total Geböhlke" in 1988, that according to their own info, features a Metal/Punk Crossover mix in the "classic" A.O.K. style. Andy Süss afterwards re-appeared in the bands Rawhead and Vex.
(Thanx to Andy Süss for the info)

Band-info:

An early Noise combo from Bochum that formed around 1985 as Antitaste, but changed name still that year shortly before their 200 song Demo "Krach und Lärm" was about to be released in Gebølze. Songtitles such as "Baptized in beer", "Conserved in alcohol", "Flaschbier has no boundaries" or "Delirim awaits" clearly show the direction of these lads. March '87 the guys either played their first live gig, but most of them formed Nuclear Terror right afterwards, while guitarist Bestial Liquidator of Flaschbier prefered to continue with Gebølze.

Band-info:

Gehacke was a Munich based "Brutal German Noise" band, initiated by tape trader Mike Rogge during the late 80's. Both their Demos should be from around 1988. He also runned similar Nothingcore combos like Dariah and Dagoberts as well as another project called Schmolke, but that one shouldn't be of interest for Thrashers according to his own opinion.

Band-info:

A Southern Rock band from the Saarland featuring the previous Fliehkraft/Gator members Charly Schuster and Rolf Roskos. They should be active since the fall of the 80's and published their debut LP on Rockwerk Records in 1991, while in the following year it got also published on CD on different labels. The second album "Southern heat" was available in 1993 and features, just like the debut, hard Southern Rock in the vein of Lynyrd Skynyrd or Molly Hatchet. The band is mainly known to be a live act, but also released two more albums in 2014 and 2017.

Band-info:

A Heavy Metal band from Munich, active in the mid 80's, who performed on stage in spring '85 at a Rockfabrik Metal festival. There's at least one Demo available of these guys. If you have more info please get in touch.

Band-info:

Genital Putrefaction are actually an entirely polish band, but relocated during 1990 to Berlin. The foursome was started in September 1990 by Dominique (vocals), Gregor Blachura (guitar), Adam (bass) and Alice (drums), who besides a very short phase with a second guitarist in the band, steadily built the core of the band, who used to play Death/Grind in the very beginning as heard on the Demo “Sepsis” from March 1991. On “Destination” a Reh/Demo from July of the same year their sound shifted much more into classic Death Metal. On the 3rd tape “The inside anxiety of soul” from 1992, Sebastian Baczyński had joined on guitar yet, but their drummer Alice (actually his name was Marek) died in a car accident, so Genital Putrefaction ceased to exist at that time in 1993 as well, but Gregor Blachura revived the band in 2009 with members of his recent band Nebiros shortly once again. The CD "Stworzony przez bogów" was the result of that in 2012. The compilation "The unholy decade" features all of the band’s early Demos.

Band-info:

Another obscure act, hailing from Freisingen (Munich area), introduced by the D&S label and we should be thankful they made all these crazy bands immortally pressed in vinyl. Despite playing an extremely speedy Heavy Metal, the Genocide band didn't benefit much from the low budget production at all. For that kind of ripping Metal you need a fat sound with fat guitars. "Soldier of death" and "Headbanger" are musically quite ok Power Metal but as mentioned, the low sound kills them both. "Headbanger" even could be called early Living Death for pedestrians or something. In an old Metal Hammer mag I found a band from Isenbüttel with that name mentioned. So it's most probably them. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

A local Heavy Metal act from the Hamburg scene, that later in May '84 evolved into Stagefright. Further info is needed.

Band-info:

A Heavy Metal band from Isenbüttel (north of Braunschweig), active in the mid 80's, who performed on stage in spring '85 at a Rockfabrik Metal festival. There's at least one Demo available of these guys. If you have more info please get in touch.

Band-info:

A Braunschweig Heavy Metal band that formed in 1981. The band a few years later changed name to Cardinal Sin and released the ”Loud ‘n’ quiet” Demo in 1984, so we guess it's not the same band as the guys from Isenbüttel (Braunschweig area as well), who were part of the Rockfabrik Metal festival in spring ’85. If you have more info please get in touch.

Band-info:

A quite brutal sounding local Grind/Noisecore band from Welden in the Augsburg area, that was active during 1989-91, sharing stage with f.e. Ulcerous Phlegm.
Further info is needed.

Band-info:

Gentry from Hamburg was kinda the first musical steps of certain members of Helloween. Piet Sielck (later in Iron Saviour) and Kai Hansen formed Gentry at around 1977/78 with the first real line up consisting of Frank (vocals), Peter "Piet" Sielck (guitar), Kai Hansen (guitar), Christian (bass) and Johannes (drums), who either won the first prize on a local festival during 1978. A bit later on around 1979 the band kinda broke while Sielck and Hansen was left alone searching for new members, till in 1980 drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg and bassist Markus Großkopf was recruited. Piet Sielck took the vox from this day. The band name got changed in 1980 to Second Hell and 1982 to Ironfist. Since Piet Sielck had to quit the band coz he went to the US of A for his studies, guitarist Michael Weikath took over Sielck's part inside the band late in 1983, who earlier had tried to make Hansen joining his own band Powerfool, but immediately changed plan. The band got renamed once again to Helloween in 1984. It's known that there are several recordings of Ironfirst or the early Helloween are available, but it's not completely confirmed if these indeed was officially spread as Demos of the band. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

This strangely "George" entitled band from southern Bavaria released an LP on the same label that was responsible for the Shadow LP "Iron umbrella". The title track more or less should probably be a homage to the US of A, a dreamy and softer Hard Rock ballad. The whole album was recorded by a guy called George himself, with only the help of several guitarists, who lend him their helping hands. Basically the whole material on the album could be summarized as Hard Rock, but each song shows different facetes. Melodic Rock, AOR, Hard Rock, Blues Rock, influences of all of these styles can be found on "America". Just a special note, since the album was recorded in Maßbach, near by the US army base in Schweinfurt and the guy is called "George", who's paying homage to America, I tend to guess he was one of the US soldiers stationed in Germany. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

A Heavy Metal band from Essen, active around 1985. If you have more info please get in touch.

Band-info:

A local Power Metal band from the Fulda area, that was active from the beginning of the 90's till the mid 90's. German Paranoa recorded 2 Demo tapes between 1993 ("Chief of the Sioux") and 1994 ("Falls"), before the band dissolved shortly afterwards. If you got further info, please get in touch.
(Thanx to Andy Süss for the info)

Band-info:

An All Star Project with prominent german Hard Rock and Heavy Metal musicians very similar to Dio's "Hear 'n Aid", that was produced by Ulrich Pösselt and featured the ballad "Let love conquer the world", that came close to almost melodic Hard Rock Gospel sounds. Nevertheless a catchy song that's available in different versions with either 16 guitar solos. Under the same header "German Rock Project - The Ballad Album" there was also a compilation made that features songs of Doro, Thunderhead, Roko, Axel Rudi Pell, Darxon, Domain etc etc ... probably all bands who's members was involved.

Band-info:

A one man Biker Rock show from Nortorf in northern Germany. Gero got supportet during the recordings sessions of his selfproduced, entirely in german sung album by the Martin Miller Band. Musically it's quite varied stuff, from Folk Rock, Southern Rock and Hard Rock you can find all kinds of influences on the album, partly ZZ Top comes to mind. But I wouldn't say it's essential stuff at all.

Band-info:

A Heavy Metal band from Nuremberg, that was founded in the late 80's and recorded a few Demo tapes before they eventually published their debut album "(No) Leave without paying" in 1994. In the beginning the guys used to play a straight classic Heavy Metal sound, but later on the CD more modern, typically 90's proggy, funky influences dominated the picture. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

Arnold Sprenger (aka Arnie Ghandi) and Gerd Klik formed Ghandi after their previous band Vicious Circle split up in 1986. They have been around in Willebadessen since 1979 already and released a number of things including a 12" EP, that featured the track "Down the highway", which they also adopted for Ghandi's debut album "Destruction forver?" in 1988. Not sure why Ghandi has been a kinda laughing number in german mags back in the day (Probably due to their outfits?), but musically "Destruction forever?" is speaking a different language. The guys acted pretty heavy, in places Salem's Law tendencies are even shining through. The guys used to play a heavy sort of Metal with Power Metal and speed influences, that I'd rate at least in the upper league of the german Metal acts. The track "Entertainment of war" from the album was either used for the second part of the Teutonic Invasion samplers, as well as "We wanna rock you" and "Down the highway" appeared on a local Kassel compilation LP. For the second album "Grateful message" from 1990, Arnie compiled a completely new line up consisting of Jones (vocals), Peter (guitar), Gonzo (drums) and only Guido Berendes on bass remained of the previous line up. The material got slightly more melodic and midpaced, though remained quite listenable either. Unfortunately the speed influences got almost fully suppressed and only on "All on all" and "S.H.K." the lads did what fit them best. In the end despite Ghandi tried something different on "Grateful message", it still remains a solid middle league album. During the second half of 1991, Ghandi started recordings for album nr. 3, with the scheduled title "Fireball eyes", that continued the more catchy path of "Grateful message" with Hard Rock and Blues influences, though the band split up shortly after nevertheless.

Band-info:

A band from the Witten area, formed in 1989, that featured Rolf Ittner and Siegfried Kwapich formerly in Bloody Flesh. Musically they've been described as simple but powerful Heavy Metal, but they don't seem to have lasted very long, as Siegried later left to join Ambivalenz and Rolf continued in Anger/Cogency. Further info is needed.

Band-info:

Most probably a band from southern Germany, that published two albums around 1980. The debut simply "No. 1" entitled, isn't much of interest, as the material features more or less just bluesy late 70's Kraut Rock. The second album "Just for you", recorded at the Dierks Studios in January '81, on the other hand at least provided a handful of Hard Rock and Classic Rock/AOR numbers, though in between the guys always relapsed into their old scheme and dropped the quality of the album by performing plain Rock with even using saxophone. The debut album was re-released with different artwork and song order under the title "River queen". Bernd Graf afterwards joined the NDW band Patent and Harald Goll went to another NDW band with the name Zeng.

Band-info:

The eastgerman Hard Rock/AOR band Gipsy arose out of the ashes of the band Satori from Thalheim (ex-GDR), that was founded 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". Though the lads was often booked to perform at important eastgerman 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 added here.
For more info please check out Gipsy's Homepage.

Band-info:

One more side note in the german Hard Rock history is the band The Gist with their privately produced album "Too hot", recorded in March '87 at the Checkpoint Studios in New York (if we can trust the back sleeve of the LP). And the compiling of the featured songs couldn't be more strange. AOR/Melodic Rock, Hard Rock, Blues Rock and even Melodic Metal got all thrown into one and the same cauldron, to make it hard for those who love to categorize bands 30 years later. Lets keep it short, the song that's the most exciting is "Shakin' in the 90's", followed by "After the madness" and "I need the Rock" on the B-side, which are both very listenable melodic Hard Rock/Metal numbers. The rest of the bunch is commuting between good AOR/Melodic Rock and other uninteresting rather Guitar Rock oriented sounds. If you got further info, please get in touch.
(Thanx to emosteel for the recommendation)

Band-info:

An obscure NWOBHM influenced early priestish sounding Metal act from any place in Germany. Too bad that D&S didn't had the money to insert any info sheet of the bands featured on their compilations at all. "Big feelings" is a faster flawless Judas Priest inspired track but sadly "Burning love" offered more commercial hints, a midpaced pounder that was just forgettable. If you got more info about the band, please get in touch.

Band-info:

A Heavy Rock band from Horb (Stuttgart area), founded in 1982 by Jürgen Volk, Wolfgang Heuchert and Dietrich Vogt under a different name, but shortly later became Glenmore. The trio recorded a first Demo in November 1986, that received good feedback, but the guys nevertheless had to wait till the 90's to finally could score with another Demo tape recorded 1991 with Markus Ratheiser (bass) and ex-Mascot Olaf Adami (guitar), who joined in 1990, while Jürgen Volk would only take care of the vocals. The Polydor signed Glenmore and released "Materialized" during 1993. The CD features melodic Hard Rock and Heavy Metal tunes with obvious 80's roots and american, typically Hair Metal influences in the vein of Firehouse, Bonfire, White Lion etc. Dietrich Vogt had to leave the band during 1994 and Jörg Michael (Rage, Mekon Delta etc etc ...) recorded the drums on their second album "For the sake of truth" 1994. After another Demo in 1996 ("Sacred mission") the band eventually split up 1999. If you got further info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

Except of the new bassplayer Dirk Breymann all the other guys in Glory Anthem are ex-Breathless musicians from Peine. The guys changed name in 1987 to Glory Anthem and recorded another Power/Speed Metal Demo, that's not too far from the old Breathless material, who worshipped the melodic speed ladden Metal to the bone. The "Death Or Glory" demo was re-released on vinyl in 2019 by HMH Records.

Band-info:

Another obscure act with just compilation appearances that the CBR label was responsible for. The first one "Rock star" on the "Schwarz auf weiß" LP was a german sung Hardrocker with for my taste too big R'n' R edge, but "Hotter than hell" from "The Beast" 7" on the other hand was more or less Heavy Metal, though with bit Hard Rock including as well, but the track was roughly produced and had a driving beat. If you got info about the band, please get in touch.

Band-info:

A melodic Power Metal band from the Kaiserslautern area, that started originally as Escape during 1989, featuring the 2 ex-Carissa members Holger Schroth and also Martin Kröher, who joined GO 90 in early 1991. Already in autumn the guys changed name to Seremon Heights. The band wasn't active during a longer period, as Kröher already went to play with Rough Velvet the following year. Further info is welcome.

Band-info:

Deathgrind noisemakers from Aurich, Lower Saxony, active between 1990-1992. Both their untitled 1991 demos (7 and 8 songs respectively) claim to be extractions from a longer "Hellish Bleeding Nuns"-session recorded at 'Slaughterhouse L.A.'. Guitarist Grindslaughter a.k.a. Klaus Kessemeier was also in the more familiar Thrash-locals Assorted Heap, which also reflected in Godkiller’s sound, that either adopted several Death/Thrash influences, sounding quite US american in the whole. If you have more info, please get in contact.

Band-info:

Once again one of Ingo Nowotny's fake bands that released albums with different hired musicians. Godzilla often are refered to be a real austrian band, but if you take a look at the "songwriters", then you see that Ingo Nowotny was involved in everything. Not sure who recorded guitars on the first album, but I bet it was Simon Sobkowiak once again. The debut album definitely isn't as bad as it's follower and featured in places listenable Melodic Metal, but also dull Hard Rock numbers. On "Godzilla II" I guess you got the same band featured that recorded the hilarious Killerfox and Thrash Queen albums and you should avoid this album by any means. It's amoung the worst that was coming out of Germany.

Band-info:

An eastgerman Death Metal band from Buckow (ex-GDR), that was founded still in July '89, shortly before the political change, by teenagers Max Grützmacher, Michael Marschalk and Andreas Hilbert. The first Demo "Visceral scab" got recorded in early '91 and featured Grindcore inspired Death Metal in the vein of Carbonized, that gained the boys first attention within the Death Metal scene and led to another 7", featuring 2 trax of the Demo. Caused by a tragic car accident, Max Grützmacher died in July '92, that forced the remaining duo to reform the band with Jens Malwitz (ex-Mentis Error) on guitar. When Michael Marschalk quit either a few months later, Ruben Wittchow helped on drums. Last but not least Fermenting Innards' Rico Spiller took over the bass and the band so gar was complete again to record the second Demo "Recall the day of incarnation" in June '93. But either Jens Malwitz was torn out of life unexpectedly when he suffered a crash with his motorcycle. Michael Marschalk returned to the band in 1994 and the recordings for their debut album "Eternity: The Weeping Horizons" happened in August '95. 2 more albums was published in 1999 ("The 2nd moon") and 2004 ("Dreamweaver").

Band-info:

A local Wolfsburg Metal band active around 1985, that among others featured a young Martin Missy (Spitfire/Inzest/Protector) and Peter Laske (Heritage/Death Attack). 2 songs were written - "Kill The Nuns" and "Teutonic Tales" - but no official demos were recorded and no live shows performed. A rehearsal demo was however produced, but it was apparently never officially released.

Band-info:

A Death/Thrash Metal band from Dortmund, that formed in 1989. The band was labelled as Dortmund's answer to Sodom and claimed themselves to stylistically return to the early days of Sodom and Hellhammer fame. During summer/autumn 1989 a single was said to be avalable soon. Either songtitles like "In the sign of Gomorharr" and "Ausbruch des Bösen" (Sodom cover) was mentioned. If you got further info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

East Berlin Thrashers much influenced by Protector, that formed 1987 in the ex-GDR, but had to change name coz of GDR officials to Darkland shortly after. As Darkland they recorded 2 more Demos between 1988/89.

Band-info:

Gomorrha was founded during 1986 in Ludwigshafen and performed still slightly amateurish appearing Thrash Metal on their first Demo "Thrashing madness", recorded in 1987. On the second output "Still insane", that the guys recorded as a trio (Jörg Wienand had left the band), they had developed their technical skills enormously and now sounded like the classic Death on f.e. "Leprosy", performing raw Death/Thrash to the bone. After a felt eternity without further releases Peter König and Thomas Hennig returned in 1991 with Marco Fath on guitar to release the 3rd Demo "Doomed man" (strangely the band used a new logo with 2 M's here), that once again delivered very Death/Massacre influenced classic Death Metal and led into an mini album cassette release on MAY Records from Mannheim, entitled "Beyond believe". One of these new songs also appeared on the Deathophobia CD compilation in 1993, but Gomorrha soon in 1994 would split up, while during 2018, Hennig, König and Weißmann of the original line up reactivated their old band with Marco Anfuso on guitar and released the "Before the storm" MCD in 2020.

Band-info:

Typically cowboy-boots-wearin', slide-guitar-playin' sleazoid Hard Rockers from Aschaffenburg, outside Frankfurt. They released a demo in 1990 and had an additional 2 songs featured on a local sampler 1 year later. If you have more info, get in touch.

Band-info:

The shortlived Power/Speed Metal band Gorgon's Head from Bochum started in 1984 and featured the local ex-Poison Frank Wittke on bass. There's just one Demo from 1987 known, offering 7 archetypical german underground speedy Power Metal bangers with a couple of good melodic lead guitars and in places adventurous vocals that occasionally tried to ape King Diamond. The band split up still within that year and Wittke joined the way better known Flaming Anger.

Band-info:

Graaf is a band from West Berlin, active since already 1985, most probably initiated by the Zimmermann brothers. The band recorded 4 Demos till they produced their selftitled debut CD independently in 1994, that featured a more melodic style Power/Thrash. Graaf's sound though in the beginning was more basic Thrash but later on their Demo's some more technical and proggy elements conquered the band's style. The band is still alive nowadays. If you got further info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

The sleeve of the obscure single of this band from northern Germany (most probably from the Hamburg area) pretty much point it out what's to expect musicwise (Hard Rock), including the suggestion to play it loud. And indeed, late 70's inspired, pounding, and even boogie-ing Hard Rock drones out of the speakers with not just a little AC/DC edge. Basically those who like stuff like the Rusty Nail singles or the first Powerage LP, will definitely enjoy Grace as well.

Band-info:

A Metal band from southern Germany that was playing live at an Open Air Festival in Eschelbronn/Kallenberg during summer '89. If you got further info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

Gracious Violence was post-Splinter from West Berlin, who changed name around 1990. These guy's style was slightly heavier than Splinter's and has to be seen more in the Power Metal genre, while with Mario Schneider (as Mario Le Mole) and Frank Lebe the band had recruited two ex-Merlin musicians, who surely either was a bit responsible that Gracious Violence more than once slightly reminded of Merlin's old material, especially Schneider's remarkable vocals. But the Demo didn't help much to score a record deal anymore, so Gracious Violence got disbanded during 1993. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

Now these Grade A are quite interesting. The “band” features musicians all hailing from different areas. There are Punky from Munich, Werner from Heidelberg and the 3 US boys Lee (Oklahoma), Ralph (Washington DC) and Dennis from New Jersey. No clue how they managed to write a whole album that way in times before there was internet at all, but they did! Seems like the 2 track single “Set me free” was just released to promote their future LP “Dreams & diamonds”, since both was taken from that album, which on the other hand didn’t ever see the light of day it seems. The flipside track “Takin’ back” is the heavier tune, straight up Hard Rock with slight Boogie edge. The title track offers a sort of Power Pop/Hard Rock, quite typical stuff for the beginning of the 80’s. Further band info is needed though.

Band-info:

Grandee formed in October '79, the foursome wanted to focuss on straight Rock music, while being not that happy in their former bands. It didn't take that long and the guys could record 5 trax at the Dieter Dierks Studios for the Rockstudio in April '80, while 3 of them was used to appear on the "Rock Studio 2" Split LP and either Grandee was invited to perform at the WDR Rockkonzert in August 1980. Nevertheless, the band's material just barely meets our requirements. Their unspectacular late 70's Boogie Hard/Kraut Rock with Status Quo edge can't really surprise. Alone "Night like this" offers Hard Rock sounds. The bands active phase didn't last that long either, Holger "Holly" George turned up in the Axe Victims line up 2 years later and also Kay Floor (as Kay Flohr) resurfaced with Hardrockers Mama.

Band-info:

One of Germany's longest lasting Heavy Metal pioneers, thought their career stagnated in the later 80's and Chris Boltendahl experimented with different other bands till he eventually revived Grave Digger to started their second spring in the early 90's, that would become way more coined by success then the earlier incarnation of the band. Grave Digger was founded by Boltendahl, Peter Masson and a drummer in Gladbeck 1980 and the early phase featured a dozen of different drummers till they recorded their first Demo with Philipp Seibel in 1982. For the second tape 1983 the line up once again got changed. The 2 Challenger members Albert Eckhardt (drums) and Willi Lackmann (bass) completed the classic fourpiece and this tape gained the band alot attention within the underground, ending in a record deal with the young Noise Records label, who firstly put 2 trax on their "Rock from Hell" sample and 1 year later produced the bands debut album. Interestingly after recording the Demo during mid '83, Grave Digger already disbanded and Boltendahl went to play with Lackmann's band Challenger. When Noise offered them a record deal, they decided to merge Challenger with ex-Grave Digger members and revived Grave Digger once again. The same titled album featured with "Heavy Metal breakdown" a timeless Metal hymn, that was perfectly reflecting the needs of the young headbanging crowd. Boltendahls vocals made Grave Digger to stand out of the mass of bands, though the albums quality in the whole was fluctuating between breathtaking power bangers and rather middle league numbers, as the guys couldn't constantly keep the level of songs like "Headbanging man". The second album was released as a trio, with Boltendahl playing the bass once again. With the Running Wild inspired title track "Witch hunter" Grave Digger could set some course, but once again the qualitative level couldn't get kept on the same level throughout the whole album at all. While the speedy songs pretty much made them playing in a league with Running Wild or Tyrant, the midpaced material dropped that impression immensely. February '86 the last album with Peter Masson on guitar was published, featuring the new bassist C.F. Brank (later in S.A.D.O.), that equally to the previous 2 LP's had to struggle once again with qualitative differences from song to song. Masson quit in May '86 and the band name got changed to just Digger, while Uwe Lulis replaced Masson on guitar and the sound of the band changed towards commercially influenced Metal with Glam touch, as shown on Digger's only album "Stronger than heaven" from 1986 too. As a result of the less successful album during December '87 a message was spread that Boltendahl had realized his mistake and he added "Grave" to the name Digger again, and only played live material on stage of the first 3 albums with his new crew Uwe Lulis (guitar), Jochen Wiek (bass) and J.J. Börner (drums). When Chris Boltendahl has put Grave Digger on ice isn't 100 % sure, but must have been during 1988, as he started the band Hawaii together with Chris Lulis during that time, but after they both was tired of Hawaii, official announcements appeared already in spring ‘89, that Grave Digger have just reformed and either had recorded a 13 track Demo tape. It took a while once again though till Boltendahl and Lulis unexpectedly returned 1991 with new line up (ex-Exray/Asgard Thomas Göttlich on bass and Peter Breitenbach on drums), and new Grave Digger Demo, that featured real Heavy Metal like from their old days and lead to an highly appreciated new Grave Digger album with the immortal Jörg Michael behind the drums, entitled "The reaper" in 1993, which was the start for the bands second, much more successful career, that still hasn't found it's end yet.

Band-info:

The origins of Gravestone already refer back to the year 1975, when Rudi Dorner and Mike Schmidt founded the band Heizkörper in Illertissen. 1976 when vocalist Berti Majdan joined them on bass guitar, the name got changed to Oregon and in 1977, after Wolfgang Rittner and Andy Müller was added, eventually the name Gravestone popped up. At his moment the guy's sound was typical Kraut/Prog Rock influenced and while they was rehearsing all day and night, they recorded several Demo tracks in 1978, that made the the idea growing to produce an album, which indeed was recorded in February '79. The "Doomsday" entitled LP was manufactured and sold by the AVC studio directly, and contains mainly instrumental proggy Kraut Rock songs. But the band's line up wasn't of permanence, only Rudi Dorner and Andy Müller was still remaining of the original Gravestone to record the band's second album "War" in 1980. Sokrates Gradl (guitar, ex-Jump), Dieter Behle (drums, ex-Sphinx) and Dietmar Orlitta (bass, vocals, ex-Sphinx) has been the new guys in the band and Gravestone's sound got slightly heavier now. First Hard Rock tunes merged with the previous Prog Rock. During the following 2 years the band's line up was plagued by continuous line up changes, that just stabilized at around 1982, when Berti Majdan had returned. The guitars got handled by Mathias Dieth (ex-Dust) and Klaus Reinelt (ex-Solaplexus), while the bass was still in Dietmar Orlitta's hands and drummer being Dieter Behle. Parallel to the new line up, the style of Gravestone had changed also. During a local Baden-Württemberg band contest in December '83, the band's show was broadcasted both in TV and radio, and Gravestone got rewarded with a live track feature ("Sitting on a bench") on the "Radio 3 Südfunk Stuttgart Nachwuchs-Festival 1983" sampler, that introduced that contest. Getting clairaudient by the band's first success and free promotion, Peter Garattoni added Gravestone to the Gama stable in March '84 and produced the "Victim in chains" album in April. Dietmar Orlitta subsequently quit his job because he wasn't much happy of the band's decision, so Thomas Sabisch became new bassist, while the album was available in August. Carried by the wave of success, Garattoni didn't waste much time and Gravestone's 4th album "Back to attack" was standing in the shops already in April '85, featuring even heavier sound than on "Victims of chains". Gravestone had casted its feathers to one of the leading acts of the Gama empire, right behind the all ruling Tyrant, influencing musically a not low number of other german bands of the mid 80's. But in the fall of 1985 Dieter Behle left the band (later in Tyrant and the godly Arrakis) and got replaced by the 18 years old drummer Thomas Imbacher. Mathias Dieth switched over to the band Sinner after playing some last gigs with Gravestone in December '85 (and later was a musical pillar in U.D.O.), while the guys quickly found Jürgen Metkos to replace him early '86. The band's last album "Creating a monster" either was recorded a while later and just like the previous albums sold quite well, but the collaboration with Gama got a crack, due to the dubious financial policy that almost all Gama bands had to struggle with, so both parties went separate ways in 1988. Gravestone, although having received offers by different labels, decided to handle the promotion and production of the further albums by themselves and founded their own label Fortune Records. In combination with that, 1990 the band name got changed to 48 Crash which probably was a huge mistake seen retrospectively viewed. The "Some like it hot" entitled album is dominated by a kinda R'n'R driven Hard Rock/Metal mix while only songs like "Madelaine" remind us of their old exploits and can be considered true Heavy Metal. Despite of the highly developed musical skills of the single musicians in the band, "Some like it hot" never could affiliate the earlier success and especially sound of Gravestone. I guess the lads came to the same conclusion and eventually disbanded in 1992. Please note, several album tracks of the band was featured on numerous compilations, that we don't list here at all.

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 Speed/Thrash Metal band from Alsdorf, near Aachen, that was active since already the late 80's but released their MCD "Walk your walk" independently just in the early mid 90's. During spring 1989 the band was searching for a new vocalist and also had prepared a 4 track Demo tape. On the "Walk your walk" MCD from 1993, their earlier Speed Metal sound had already merged with that typical for the early 90's Power/Thrash style, similar to bands like Pantera, with a not so small portion of groove. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

A Sleaze Rock band from Düsseldorf, that formed during 1987. Their line up during their whole career did not change at all. The band could debut with a feature for the magazine Hartbeat! (Nr. 10 1990), where the song "Bad" appeared on a Split Flexi with High Jinks and later that year the RCA featured the Great Big Kisses with "Desperado" on the "Sleaze Rock" sampler, in company of international top bands of the Sleaze genre. Their only album "Aficionados" was produced by Mekong Delta's Ralf Hubert in March and May 1991, but didn't receive the expected feedback by national magazines, who accused the band to sound boring and sucked dry. Afterwards the lads disappeared, most probably coz they lost their record deal.

Band-info:

A rather unknown Thrash band from Ditzingen in the Stuttgart area, that at least released 3 Demos in the late 80's. We can only provide the title for the second one, recorded in November '88, that seen by the title might already reveal influences of the band's musical style. Since that tape has is marked as Demo Nr. 2 there should be an earlier tape as well, plus we've found evidence for another 3rd Demo from early 1990, featuring 4 tracks of Thrash with melody and a few HC influences. Further info is desired.

Band-info:

Greenback from Hamburg started up as SPIDER back in February 1977, with Martin Müller and Frank Papenbroock on guitars and Ole Ludwig on drums. Six months later Martin was out and Carsten Okkens joined on bass and this line-up laster for about year, before a momentary breakup. In early 1980 the band reformed as Greenback, with Achim Ehrenstein joining on vocals and in April 1981 the line-up was complete with Jochen Midwer on second guitar. This line-up did record the "Automatic gun" Demo 1982, featuring just the same titled track, that's been a Power/Speed Metal rager like early Jaguar or Accept's "Fast as a shark". 1983 one more 6 track Demo was published, including tunes like "Waiting For The End", "Sunday Nights", "Feel The Power", "Virgin Killer", "Automatic Gun", "Persecution" etc.. that has been a straight-up NWOBHM influenced Heavy Metal affair with some occasional "Killers" era Iron Maiden influences. In 1984, Carsten left for personal reasons and was replaced by Serge Demolieré, who also left the band later the same year. If anyone has more info about the further destinies of the band, please get in contact.

Band-info:

Grex was a melodic Heavy Rock band from Stuttgart, that released a single in 1991 and a MCD two years later, both selfproduced and in limited quantity. Their sound was kinda inspired by melodic US Hard Rock bands with midpaced pounding beats and keyboard shaded, that reminds me in places a bit of the softer trax of australian White Metal band Disciple.

Band-info:

Obscure local Hardrockers originating from Haan/Solingen in the Düsseldorf/Wuppertal area, that just shortly existed from the fall of the 80's to the very early 90's. The guys recorded a quite unknown single, that offered lightweight Hard Rock, turning almost into post-NWOBHM on the flipside number "Save your love" with heavy Boogie touch, that strongly reminds of bands of the early era, like f.e. Hammerhead. After the split all musicians went to play in different bands from Solingen.

Band-info:

A local Kraut/Hard Rock band with members from Nuremberg/Augsburg, that was active during the late 70's and early 80's, featuring the later Waxx/Manalishi/Veto drummer Alwin Rainer at a later time point in the band's history. Between March and April 1979 the fourpiece produced their debut album "We were all fools" at the Studio Brutkasten in Nuremberg, who also released the LP under their banner, but it's more or less a private pressing. The guys then subsequently promoted the album with an own tour through Germany during 1980. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

Grinder was a quite a wellknown Thrash band from Frankfurt/Main, who started their career in 1984 and their "Scared to death" Demo was published as trio in 1985, featuring Adrian Hahn (bass, vocals), Lario Teklic (guitar) and Shellshock (drums). Andy Ergün (guitar) and drummer Stefan Arnold had joined Grinder in the meanwhile and with the excellent second tape "Sirens" recorded in July '87, the band gained a record deal with the young No Remorse Records label. "Dawn for the living" got recorded in spring '88 and featured an american Speed/Thrash influenced style that often got compared to Flotsam & Jetsam, Vendetta or the faster Metallica stuff on "Master of puppets". After such a furious start Grinder could record album Nr. 2 right in spring of the next year and provided a refined version of the debut, featuring one of the bands best songs ever "Just another scar". The album "Dead end" gained the band alot of popularity and after another 12" 1990, they got signed by Noise Records for the 3rd and last Grinder album "Nothing is sacred", released in 1991, that introduced new bass man Andreas Reichert. Though the band received good reviews in the german magazines, the album didn't sell so well, while the guys didn't change their classic sound at all. But in contrary to the previous albums, the quality of the material was just of middle league level and especially in Thrash unfriendly times the band couldn't score anymore and therefore lost their contract with Noise. After being a little bit disillusioned and not sure of how to continue, Grinder was disbanded and Adrian Hahn, Stefan Arnold plus the earlier Grinder guitarist David Hofmann formed the Power/Thrash band Capricorn in 1992.

Band-info:

A glammy Heavy Rock band from Stuttgart, featuring the not so unknown Michael Scheuerle (aka Mick Shirley, ex-Sinner/Overkill) who later in appeared on Jackie Wulf's LP. Grizzly at least recorded one Demo tape back in 1987 with a commercial Pretty Maids inspired sound and participated on an international band contest the same year. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

The Düsseldorf Crossover Thrashers Guardians originally formed as "Die Dunkelmänner" back in October 1984 with Ralf "Möhre" Sendzik (guitars, bass) and Markus "Higgy" Hofreiter (vocals, drums) building the core of the band, that previously was rooted in the Hardcore/Punk scene. A schoolfriend was "singing" in the beginning, but left in 1985. The duo either, now called Guardians, recorded a 7 song Speed/Thrash Metal influenced Crossover Demo in 1988, before they decided to change name to Twilight Zone and started searching for additional members, that they found in Jörg Kowalczyk (drums) and Stefan (guitar). As Twilight Zone the band recorded 2 more Demos in the early 90's.

Band-info:

A Heavy Metal band from the Andernach area probably founded in 1988, who played live gigs in 1989. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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.

Band-info:

The Gunslingers are more or less an international band founded by french born guitarist Herve Rozoun (ex-Trans Europe Express) and canadian singer Paul Ekness, who used to start the band in Canada but relocated to Hamburg, where they recorded their debut album "For my mom" in 1989. Afterwards they moved to Berlin to live there for a while and picked up new local musicians. The second album of the band was recorded in Berlin. The Gunslingers was one of these US style sounding Glam Rock/Sleaze bands with influences taken from Aerosmith, the New York Dolls or Guns'n Roses and in places reminded of Hamburg's Shanghai'd Guts. After the second album, the duo went separate ways.

Band-info:

A Hard Rock band with heavy Blues edge from Herne, that was active during 1989. If you got further info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

This is post-Ion Faith from Mehring (east of Trier). As Ion Faith they recorded an outstanding classic melodic Heavy Metal Demo with the title "Cold cut steel" sometime in 1988/89, but changed name to Gypsy during the last months of 1989. Further info is welcome.

Band-info:

A melodic Hard Rock band from Gelsenkirchen/Essen, that was active during 1989. Further info is needed.