Band-info:

A Heavy Metal band that was most probably originating from the greater Bielefeld area and played live at least during 1987. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

A Hard Rock band from Elversberg, active since autumn 1981, that was featured on a local compilation called "Dem Nachwuchs eine Chance" with the 2 trax "Heavy rockin'" and "Top joke". The band was influenced by acts such as Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallager and Molly Hatchet.

Band-info:

Icy Roads was an AOR/melodic Hard Rock band originating from Bremen and was active during the early 90's. They released a selftitled CD on the indie label Globe Records in 1993 and additionally the Promo tape "Lost in human race" the following year for promotional purposes. Last sign of the band was the track "Help yourself" on the local "Best Of Bremen - Bremen Sampler Serie: Volume 1" CD from 1995, also on Globe Records. Further info is welcome.

Band-info:

Not really a Metal band in the common sense was The Idiots from Dortmund who were active since already 1978, starting as Oi Punk band. The guys released a few Punk vinyls till 1986, but with the "Cries of the insane" album (with Piet Scritic on drums) from 1987 The Idiots went into Hardcore direction, but that kind of Hardcore that's interesting for Metalheads as well. Especially on their "Station of life" LP (with Holger Bals on guitar, Dominik Sapia - drums and new bassist Volker Körner) the Metal edge got even more dominant and the lads in general was sounding like a punky Speed Metal band. After the album Bals, Körner, Sapia (joined Ambivalenz) and Schmidt left in 1991 and with Santos Nunez Ramon as new vocalist, plus Christian Fabian (bass) and Oliver Lonien (drums) they recorded the last album "Im Zeichen des Kreuzes" 1992.

Band-info:

Hamburg's Ill Prophecy was founded by Michael Kiske and Karsten Nagel back in 1984, when Kiske saw Queensryche live in Germany and thought that he could sing like Geoff Tate as well. While still being in school, they quickly recruited ex-Chaos Raico Ebel (guitar), Patrick Hampe (bass) and Ulrich Schulz (guitar) and started writing own material. When their principal wanted them to play at the yearly graduation ceremony, the guys performed 4 songs, that opened several doors for them. Mania immediately recruited them as opener for some of their local shows and shortly later Helloween's manager got in touch with Michael Kiske. At around the same time Ill Prophecy wanted to record a Demo, but none of the lads knew that Kiske needed it for his later job in Helloween. 3 weeks after the Demo was finished Kiske left Ill Prophecy in autumn '86 to join Helloween and start a furious career that catapulted him into the premier league of german Metal vocalists. Nevertheless, if he would have stayed in the band, who knows what these guys could have achieved. Their Demo still belongs amoungst the best that the german Heavy Metal underground scene has ever spit out. While we know Ill Prophecy was Queensryche fans, they managed to reproduce the early Queensryche sound like an 1:1 copy on the same musical level and created a topnotch US Power Metal demo, while the schoolboy Kiske at no single minute had to hide behind Tate at all. Unfortunately the remaining guys tried to replace Kiske but didn't succed at all. For a short while Chris Klauke joined on vox during 1986, but soon was recruited by Mania. After trying to record another Demo during 1988 with the help of Ralf Scheepers (ex-Tyran' Pace) on vocals and Kai Hansen mixing the whole and adding backing vocals, the band split up shortly later. We are not sure if that second Demo was officially released at all. The last line up in spring '89 featured Karsten Nagel (drums), Roland Guadrelli (guitar), Ulrich Schulz (guitar) and Patrick Hampe (bass), while Raico Ebel already had joined Not Fragile in 1987 and later formed Mad Alien.

Band-info:

A Heavy Rock band project from Düsseldorf, that was active during 1991/92. Further info is needed.

Band-info:

The Death Metal band Immortal Hate accrued on new year’s eve of 1989, founded by Tim Eiermann (guitar, vocals), Joe Pröll (bass) and Schlanzer (drums) in Neckarbischofsheim and was the first stage of what later would become Pyogenesis. The trio recorded a Demo in August ’90, entitled "Pyogenesissis of a festered corpse" in 1990 that's basically the same doomy Death Metal as Pyogenesis celebrated on their legendary "Ode to the churning seas of Nar-Mataru" tape, just with worse sound and Schlanzer's vocals sounding more screamy than grunted as in Pyogenesis. Schlanzer after the Demo got replaced by Pit Muley on drums, while the band name was also changed to Pyogenesis in early 1991, before the trio recorded another Demo, but this time as Pyogenesis.

Band-info:

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

Band-info:

Death Metallers from Göttingen who started out as Blasphemy in 1989, still with Sebastian Bielecki playing guitar and doing vocals, but changed name sometime in around late 1989/90 before they released their first Demo "My requiem". Then the band got quickly signed by Morbid Music, a sublabel of West Virginia Records and recorded their first album ”Indicium de Mortuis” in November '91, that presents Immortalis in a way almost trying to copy Entombed, Utumno or similar swedish acts. Even the sound of the album was fully pimped on the typical swedish Death Metal sound and Sebastian Bielecki vocals either sounded close to Lars Göran Petrov. For a while Andy Classen of Holy Moses was playing the bass then but the band disbanded quickly.

Band-info:

Raw local Crossover Thrashers originating from Giengen, north of Ulm, who actually started as Toxic Shock in 1987. Not sure when they changed name, but most probably because of the other Toxic Shock, who’s been active at the same time in their area and ended up on Nuclear Blast. There's just a Demo tape known to exist, which was recorded during March '89 and features a very rude style of straight forward Hardcore/Thrash, sometimes musically reminding of D.R.I.'s "Crossover" LP, but soundwise the guys could well be just one of the countless US Crossover bands, as Implicit Fear indeed sounded so close to bands of the US scene, you can't even imagine. The Demo was handnumbered and comes with a sticker.

Band-info:

A shortlived teenager Death Metal band from Berlin-Friedrichshain (ex-GDR) that only has been active between 1990/91, but managed to record a Demo with the title “Downfall” in 1990, offering raw underground Death Metal with Grindcore parts. During that short time span the guys played a handful of live gigs as well, f.e. supporting Berlin locals Postmortem. The title track of the tape either got aired in the program “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy”, but already the following year the band broke up and all members went to other bands. Mike "Stanley" Hoffmann joined Harmony Dies in 1992, just like Robert Kotlarsky (1995), after he previously had spent some years in Raped Cadaver between 1992/94. Singer Daniel "Schulle" Schulz joined for a couple of weeks the Oi/Punk band Voice of Hate (1991) and was later during 1992 found in the band Bierpatrioten.

Band-info:

Inarime was a melodic Thrash band from Germering, in the Munich region, that was formed during 1990 and recorded their debut Demo during early 1991. The tape featured 6 songs, that the lads themselves labeled "sophisticated". A second Demo entitled "Beyond..." in a rather Power/Thrash style was released 2 years later in 1993, before the band disappeared during the mid 90's.

Band-info:

A local Metal band from Pirmasens, south of Kaiserslautern, that was active during the late 80's and also recorded a Reh/Demo back in 1989, featuring a Blues influenced sort of Heavy Metal. The band later added a second guitarist around 1990 to this way create a contrast to Silvestrini's bluesy guitar style. Further info is needed.

Band-info:

Incubator from Oldenburg was founded by Christian Mummenthey and Michael Hahn in 1989 and the duo either recorded the selftitled debut Demo themselves before they got signed by Morbid Music and published the two albums "Symphonies of spiritual cannibalism" (1991) and "Mc Gillroy the housefly" (1992) on that label, before Morbid Music went bankrupt and Incubator found in Steamhammer a new partner. 1991 Stephan Becker (bass), Sven Schade (guitar) and Dominique Thomsen (drums) joined Mummenthey and Hahn and built the backbone of the band for several years. Was the debut still a listenable, whenalso just average sounding classic Death Metal album with influences from both the US and UK scene in form of Impaler or Death hints, with "Mc Gillroy the housefly" Incubator entered a different path and adopted psychedelic elements that merged with common Doom/Death, which indeed wasn't everyone's cup of tea at all. On the 3rd album "Hirnnektar" the whole dilemma got even worse. The former Death Metal roots completely got rejected and those psychedelic parts on "Mc Gillroy the housefly" built the bands new sound, paired with a modern kind of Groove Metal. Till 2000 the guys still published a few more records before they disbanded Incubator. But the band got revived in 2014 again.

Band-info:

A raw Speed Metal band in the vein of early Living Death hailing from Bamberg/Bavaria. The band was active in the mid 80's and recorded a Demo with at least 3 songs in 1986. If you got more info, please get in touch.
Check out Infernal here

Band-info:

"Infernal Beershit" were an obscure novelty Thrash act from Lathen, north-west Germany. The only known demo to their name, its title translating to "Shit", has however been compared to early Sodom and Kreator, so there's always that... If you have more info, please get in contact.

Band-info:

Augsburg's Hardcore legend Inferno just deserves a mention here either due to their last album, that clearly has to be counted to the Thrash Metal scene, whenalso the guys used to play a rather Crossover/Thrash because they couldn't completely get rid off their old Hardcore roots. Inferno was founded already in November '81 by Stefan Vetter, Bernhard Hlava und Peter Ziegler as a Punk band. Igor Velican (guitar) joined in February '82 but soon got replaced by Christian Pfister. July '83 the new drummer Lorenz Braxenthaler came for Ziegler and this line up, consisting of Hlava, Vetter, Braxenthaler and Pfister, would become the classic backbone of Inferno for several years. Already in 1983 the guys recorded two highly respected Demo tapes, that gained them a great reputation within the early international Hardcore scene and led to several compilation appearances (which we do not mention here at all). Mülleimer Records signed the band who recorded their legendary debut album "Tod & Wahnsinn" in November the same year, while the album was available in 1984 in different editions. "Tod & Wahnsinn" in contrary to most of the other german Hardcore bands adopted the fast american Thrash/Punk style like Septic Death, that either the S.O.D. cover on one of the re-editions of the album pays tribute to. A number of singles followed as well as a Split LP with Execute on the Pusmort label during 1985/86 before the lads started their own label Rise & Fall Productions in 1986, where they published the "Hibakusha" and "Live and loud" albums in 1986, that marked a first step towards their later Metal influenced style. The following year Inferno used to play several gigs throughout Europe, while in November '87 Christian Pfister quit and got replaced by new guitarist Andreas Ferucci. The very last Inferno album "It should be your problem!" was released in 1990 and showcased the band from a Thrash Metal influenced side, that naturally still offered several Hardcore edges and could be called metallic Crossover. Inferno split up in 1990, while Hlava and Vetter formed the similar sounding Soulstorm and published one more album in 1991.

Band-info:

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.

Band-info:

After their former band Thrash Attack from Hettstedt (ex-GDR) got disbanded early in 1990, Rene Jauernik (drums) and Frank Hannak (guitar, vocals) 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, which was fully dedicated to Death/Thrash Metal. Uwe Martin also brought along his buddy Matthias Herbst as bass player. This line-up also recorded their only Demo tape (“Demo”) in 1992, which offered fastpaced, hard hitting Thrash Metal with rather Death Metal vocals. However, this tape was never officially released at all. After some back and forth due to different ideas about the future style of the band, Rene Jauernik left INFLUENCE in 1993 to concentrate on his band ABSCESS. He later joined FLAMING ANGER. Meanwhile, the rest of INFLUENCE carried on with a new drummer and after various personnel changes in which Frank Hannak would remain the only constant, released the Demo CD “Eternity” towards the end of the 90s.

Band-info:

A melodic Heavy Metal band from Cologne, that published a very sought after independent EP in 1989. The funny accent of the vocalist is giving this record a special note, and pretty much underlines the local charm of the release. Nevertheless the lads acted technically solid and might be counted to the last wave of the german Metal bands that popped up during the fall of the 80's with quite a number of private or independent releases like Wishes Burn, Violent Touch, Red Coast or Silk 'N' Steel. All of the songs got a slightly commercial touch in form of catchy refrains, that in the end doesn't hurt the EP's quality either seen as a whole, but if you expect to find the really heavy Metal, you won't find it here I'm afraid.

Band-info:

The Inhuman Conditions started their career as Evil Prophecy in Bochum 1986 and published 2 Demo tapes under that monicker before they changed name to Inhuman Conditions in 1987 and re-released the second Demo "Proceeding decay" once again as Inhuman Conditions. The early sound of the band was still roughly Thrash Metal influenced, but with each further release the lads moved nearer to the US Speedcore sound. After the "Positive or dumb" Demo, the "Sanction S.A." 7" got released (blue vinyl) on Amok Records, which flattened the way for their debut album "Deserve no respect" with new vocalist Tobias on Nuclear Blast Records in 1989. If you take a look at the shirts that the guys was wearing, you pretty much get a glimpse of their musical influences. The Accüsed, australian Speedcore mongers Massappeal or either Lethal Aggression's albums could be mentioned to share a similar hyperfast Hardcore sound. In 1990 the "Support" 7" and the next year the band's last album "Secrets" was published on Amok Records again, but the sound of the Inhuman Conditions went more punky, though still rooted in the classic Hardcore scene, but the melodic influences and the Rock edge got much more dominant here. After a last Demo in 1993 and the "Change!" CD 1994, the band dissolved in the early 90's.

Band-info:

A Death Metal band from Wolfsburg, that used to start with Tobias Gloge on vocals as Access during the late 80's but changed name to Inner Bleeding during 1990. Gloge after a few gigs was replaced by Michael Wehram and in summer '91 this fourpiece recorded their Demo "Yoyage into the uncertainty", that featured 6 melodic yet quite brutal Death Metal numbers with Thrash influences and vocals in the Obituary vein. The band shortly after the recordings split up, so the Demo remained unreleased till 1999, when one of the former members found the old tape in his basement and made a small CDR and tape edition of it. Protector's Martin Missy used to sing for 2 months in this band too. Christian Steffenhagen formed Grief of God right afterwards in 1992.

Band-info:

Prog Rockers from Schiltach that recorded their 7" in April '83. But it's just listed as a marginalia because basically this band seems to be rooted more in the Rock sector. But the title track contains some epic Hard Rock influences, though it's Prog Rock nevertheless, in the vein of the softer Berluc tracks on their debut LP. The B-side track "T.A.E.D.-System" is not of interest for us at all.

Band-info:

A Metal band from Bergkamen (Dortmund region) that was launched already in 1985 by Jürgen Grziwotz, but couldn't establish a steady line up before 1988. The band also recorded the first tape "Seasons in hell" within that year, with a slightly more Thrash influenced sound than on their later rather Power/Speed Metal inspired stuff. Ludger Weiß left the band 1990 and Wolfgang Haitz played drums on Insania's second effort, the "Streets of madness" Demo 1991. Their selfproduced first album "Set them free" was published on Battery Records, a sublabel of Inline Music. Like aforementioned, the lads on the CD adopted a way more classic 80's Power/Speed sound, with hints of Helloween, Running Wild or Scanner, but less speedy than the latter mentioned ones. Despite the powerful musical performance, the vocals of Jörg "F. R. Shorty" Muß slightly pull the album down a bit, coz his vocal range wasn't exactly made for their kind of music. Insania afterwards kept on releasing abums till 2005 and was never officially disbanded.

Band-info:

The eastgerman band Insanity from Erfurt (ex-GDR) was the pre-stage of what would later be known as the band Howlin' Mad. Some of the guys was already playing as the trio Insanity since 1985, but had to quit due to their required army services. But in 1989 Gert Lange (vocals), Sylvio Skoberle (guitar), Rolf Horvath (guitar), Mirko Ludwig (bass) and Olaf Eisenbrandt (drums) reformed Insanity to keep on thrashing under the new monicker of Howlin' Mad and either released the album entitled "Insanity" in 1990. Insanity during their active phase mainly performed cover versions of Celtic Frost, Sodom, Metallica and Voivod. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

Local Stuttgart Thrashers that formed in spring '87 and shouldn't be confused with Wuppertal's Insanity, who was active at around the same timeframe. But these guys provided the german underground constantly with a ton of Demo tapes, starting with a first effort recorded in October '88. Insanity's sound was inspired by mainly thrashy Metallica and sounded quite technical, like a mix of aforementioned Metallica, Toranaga and early Xentrix. After 2 more Demos drummer Alex got replaced by Marco Ieva during 1990, who played on the following Demos "Tales of insanity" (1990) and "Delegated nations ... insane earth" (1991), that though keeping the Xentrix style Power/Thrash, added slightly melodic and progressive influences too. Marco Ieva and Michael Faisst both joined Letter X in 1992 and Klaus Sperling (drums) as well as Stefan Leibing (guitar) joined instead. 1995 The band recorded the selfproduced Demo CD "The human side of paradise" and faded into obscurity afterwards.

Band-info:

A local Wuppertal Heavy Metal quintett, that only released a 3 track Demo during 1989. The band was active between 1986 and 1991 and should not get confused with the Thrash band Insanity from Stuttgart. Further info is welcome.

Band-info:

A local Melodic Metal/Hard Rock outfit from Forchheim/Bavaria, a bit north of Nuremberg, who started in the mid 80's. These guys last activities we could track down so far go back to at least 1989/90, while already in 1987 an obscure private single was manufactured, also known as "Nights of mystery". The B-side "Warriors" offers rough edged straight forward pounding Teutonic Metal with though purplish organs, that doesn't affect the main impression of the good song in any way. There's most probably another CD of Insert Coin with the title "Get paid" being made in 1994, released on the B 27 Musikverlag from Ludwigsburg. But the line up on this album features different musicians: Eckardt Dietel (guitar, vocals), Guido Weischedel (bass, vocals), Charlie Schmid (keyboard), Harald Ebensperger (drums, vocals). If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

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.

Band-info:

A Crossover influenced Thrash Metal band, formed in Ludwigsburg back in 1985, that changed name to Atrocity, when their first Demo "Instigators" was recorded during late 1988. There are no recordings known to exist of this band. If you got more info, please contact us.

Band-info:

Progressive Thrashers from Bad Kissingen, Bavaria who released a 27-minute (yay details!) demo in 1992. It's possible that this might be the same Ralph Reuss as in other local thrashers Cryteria, who broke up the same year as this demo was released, but more info is certainly needed.

Band-info:

A Metalcore band grom Hilden, that formed in 1989 and got signed after their Demo from around 1990 by Snoop Records, who published a single (1991) and Intricate's debut album in 1992. After the album Intricate went on tour through Europe, which resulted in one more live tape and a Split 7" with Majority Of One, both featuring live cuts, before the Century Media label picked them up for their last album, strangely entitled "[va:l]", in 1993. The guy's sound was for the early 90's typical modern Power/Thrash like Pantera mixed with a huge dose of US Hardcore, which made the whole material sounding more or less like Biohazard on their first two albums.

Band-info:

Intruders - or sometimes listed as "The Intrüders" - was a Black/Thrash/HM band from Langen, south of Frankfurt. Formed in 1987, they released a 7-song demo of sloppy, Celtic Frost-inspired Black/Thrash in 1988. Curiously enough, this band evolved into the radically different, high-tech progressive Power Metal band Fenris a few years later, releasing a demo under this name in '93 and a full-lenght CD the year after. If you have more info, please get in contact.

Band-info:

A classic Heavy Metal troop originating from Bremen, who started as Victory in 1984 and after their debut Demo "March for victory", changed name to Invader to publish the Demo under the new monicker once again. Axel Thubeauville found interest on the band and produced their debut album for his Bonebreaker label, that pretty much fits to the other releases on that label. "Children of war" features hard, archetypical german sounding mid 80's Metal with speed tendencies, similar to acts like Wallop, Xxaron, Fact or Gravestone and either the lads tried to issue some of the songs an epic note like on "March for victory". Nowadays the Invader album definitely has to be counted to the more important ones of the german mid 80's scene. After the album guitarist Frank Hoffmeyer got replaced by ex-Sweet Cheater Micky Sebastian, plus also Uwe Thielbar due to professional reasons left the band and Joey von Sermon joined for the planned 86'er tour with Victory. But Invader disappeared quickly afterwards just like Bonebreaker Records. Michael Sebastian subsequently formed the band Prophet afterwards and Peter Bekusch returned during the fall of the 80's with the band Topaz. Thomas Grabisch otherwise was seen playing with Ambrosia during 1988.

Band-info:

A melodic Hard Rock/Metal band from Fellbach, north of Stuttgart, that formed in 1985, but changed name to Mascot during 1986, when Bremen's Invader debuted with their album. Frank Eisenmann left the band to join the locals Honeytrap and Martin Obermeier took over the vocals. The guys later recorded a 4 track Demo in 1988 as Mascot before they split up.
(Thanx to ObsessedByCruelty for the info)

Band-info:

A bunch of Metal monsters from the mid 80's, who was hailing from Nordhorn, north of Münster, and bequeathed us a quite raw sounding Demo with 5 rough Power Metal ragers, that slightly reminded of the very early Slayer (but less thrashy) and Grave Digger with an absolutely godly sound. Why Earthshaker, Gama or Noise didn't stretch out their claws after this band, is nothing but irreproducible. Further info is required.

Band-info:

A Thrash band from Wilhelmshaven, who later changed name to Desaster Area. They were active from 1985 and released the Demos "Violence and terror" (1986) and "Restricted area" (1987) both as Desaster Area. 1987 Manuel Neumann and Ingo Frerichs left Desaster Area to form Power Metallers Voluntary. Dirk Leiner joined on the drums instead. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

A Metal band from Lingen, north of Münster. Despite getting the whole thing started already in 1984, they needed an eternity to record a Demo tape. 1989 the band kinda split up since both guitarists Raimund Burke, Mark Marthen and their drummer Peter Breitenbach left Inverness. Breitenbach joined the newly reformed Grave Digger in 1991, while his replacement in Inverness became Jörg Rubbers. Björn Eilen, Frank Neugebauer and Rubbers then finally recorded their "Good bye" Demo in 1991, featuring 7 tracks of classic Heavy Metal with lotsa rough edges as well as tender tunes, before they kissed the Metal circus good bye indeed right within the following year.

Band-info:

For this promising Wolfsburg Speed/Thrash Metal act it was very sad that no label picked them up. Inzest contained several members of other Wolfsburg acts like Steeltower, Death Attack or Steelhunter and delivered a lethal speed driven Thrash style with quite outstanding guitars partly a bit sounding like early Vendetta and Slayer. They were formed in 1985 by drummer Peter Schulz and guitarist Andrè Borawski, and recorded their first demo in 1987. Both Demos sounded somewhat professional, that it's indeed a mystery that not even Noise Records gave em the chance for an album. Definitely amoung the top Demos in the 80's german Thrash underground. Inzest was also featured on a local compilation tape called "KaschpaSound Compilation" that featured bands playing live there. Lutkemuller and Borawski would later play together in Shooting Gallery again.

Band-info:

Hereby we introduce one of Germany's hottest irons in the fire, even though they didn’t manage to release an own album at all. These lads was originating from Leiwen/Mehring (east of Trier) and easily must be called one of the most promising german Metal acts that never made it out of the Demo stage at all. The band had already existed in a different form since the beginning of the 80s under the name Iron Faith and released the single “Life in dreams” privately in 1983. Unfortunately the guys didn't release anything after that, but they could still be seen live on stage every now and then until 1987. At the beginning of 1988, singer Shane Campell, originally from Los Angeles, Norbert Donowen (guitar), Carsten Herres (guitar), Peter Schu (bass) and Marc Haas (drums) decided to rename the band to Ion Faith and were able to arouse some interest with their live supports for Trans Am and Zed Yago, among others. In the summer of '88 the band was invited to the TV Metal show “Mosh” for an interview. After Shane Campell was replaced by ex-Wild Axes/Princess singer Thomas Horst and new guitarist Hacki joined the band for Norbert Donowen, Ion Faith began recordings for “Cold cut steel” in 1988 at the renowned Franz. K Studio in Witten. You get everything here, 8 tracks all of the same high quality, squealing guitars all along, a great vocalist and melodic Heavy Metal that your balls are going to burst. Their sound was a mix of the late 80's classic german Metal with a not unimportant dose of US steel. The lads even had a french management. Ion Faith then went on a short “Cold cut steel” promotional tour in 1989, but no label signed the band. The last info that we found was Ion Faith to change their name to Gypsy during late 1989.

(Thanx to Tatjana Menk for additional info)

Band-info:

Iron Age from Stuttgart was the first stage of the band Araya and was founded in 1985. The name change happened sometime in the later 80's. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

These guys should be from Coelbe, not to be confused with Iron Age from the Stuttgart area, that later became Araya. 1985 they already released a 3 track Demo, that at least according to the description of the Metal Hammer review should fit to the style of the two trax on the later German Metal Fighter 1 compilation feature of the band. "Born infor gotton" has got an heavy Accept impact, though they tried to do it their own way, but "Bringing it back" clearly is US Glam influenced and sounds like early Crüe. The same Accept-ish touched Metal you’ll get to hear on Iron Age’s second Demo recorded in 1986, that featured 6 more songs in that typical mid 80’s pounding german style with raw sound. If you got more info, please get in touch.

(Thanx to Rumblefist for additional info)

Band-info:

Hamburg, in April '83 Mike Matthes and Thorsten Lohmann decided to leave their former band Metal Gods to play harder and faster. They found guitarist Sven Strüven who also brought his pal Peter Wittke into their rehearsal room. As a fourpiece they started rehearsing till one day Dirk Schröder joined as vocalist and Iron Angel was born. January '84 the first Demo "Iron Angel" was published featuring 10 ruthless speed dominated Black Metal power hymns, influenced by bands such as early Slayer and the rising Helloween and right in September the same year the "Legions of evil" Demo followed, that both gained the guys fantastic responses by the worldwide Metal press and woke up the interest of Steamhammer Records. After a third Demo, the lads recorded their debut album "Hellish crossfire" in May '85 in the Caet Studio Berlin, that fully transfered the power that their Demos already had promised into vinyl and besides Helloween's "Walls of Jericho", "Hellish crossfire" could be mentioned equally as one of the best Speed Metal debut albums of all times. The band gathered a huge followership and started preparing the second album "Winds of war" in April '86. But despite Iron Angel shared the stage more than once with the who's who of the german Thrash scene, they went the other way and added melodic elements, fully misinterpreting the recent needs of the headbangers. While songs like "Metalstorm", "Vicious" or "Stronger than steel" still fully continued the Speed Metal style that made them notorious, with material like "Son of a bitch" or "Born to rock" the Iron Angels tried to add heavyrockin' sounds, which was the reason that the album failed to convince both the fans and press. Retrospectively viewed "Winds of war" by far isn't a bad album, but if your debut features stuff like on "Hellish crossfire", then the Iron Angel guys pretty did set their own standards too high to just turn a step backwards. When the lads toured through Germany with King Diamond in 1986, Günther Moritz replaced Thorsten Lohmann, while during April '87 the studio was already booked to record their 3rd album which according to the band's own info should feature melodic songs in the Dokken vein. But the band called it a day shortly afterwards.

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 short lived melodic Heavy Metal band from Giessen who started 1984 and recorded a Demo sometime in 1985 I guess, before they contributed the trax "The fall of the warlord" and "Born to rock" to one of the Metal Hour compilations on the D&S label. The musical legislating wasn't much interesting, that kind of german stuff that I use to call Rumpel Metal. Clumsy, homemade, amateurish (or whatever to call) sounding happy stuff, at least the lads seemed to had fun during the songwriting process. In a way Angel War comes to mind, nevertheless the band split up right in 1986 but some of the members was later found in first Exray and then Asgard ("Dark horizons"). If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

A Kraut Rock band from Hannover that released an obscure 7" on their own label. The single turns up on certain wantlists but it doesn't contain any Metal influences at all. On the title track you can hear in places a Hard Rock guitar but seriously, it's more or less just a Rock band. Hands off! One of Claudius Hempelmann's other bands at that time (he also played in Kosmonautentraum and "Der Moderne Mann"), namely the Trivales single, though belongs to the early german Hard Rock/Metal gems.

Band-info:

Short lived band from West Berlin formed by musicians who just escaped from the GDR. They at least made it into Metal Hammer Nr. 6 1985 with the short message that they just parted ways. If you have any further info please get in touch.
This might be probably a band that the ex-Regenbogen musicians formed after they left GDR one by one in 1984 to 1985.

Band-info:

A Metal band from Leiwen, in the area around the city of Trier, that published an independently manufactured single in 1983, but couldn’t really get much attention afterwards. Both of the trax feature a quite rough styled powerful Heavy Metal with idiosynchratic vocals, which makes the 7" to stand out. Unfortunately this obscure piece almost never turns up, so I guess the edition hasn't been that large at all. Despite no more releases of Iron Faith seem to exist, the band though was still playing live up to 1987, before they changed name to Ion Faith in early 1988 and could once again surprise with an outstanding Demo under that new monicker!

Band-info:

A Heavy Rock band from Kaarst, formed in 1981 under the name Iron Horse. The band was however rechristened to Iron Force since at least 2 other bands shared this monicker (so no, no relation to the infamous Kienberg Iron Horse). A demo was recorded in the early days, but it's yet unclear if it was a 'Horse'- or 'Force'-affair. Their one claim to fame was however their 2 trax "Tyger in the city" and "The band is on the road", recorded in late '83 for Noise Records' "Rock from Hell" sampler. Both of the songs still feature Rock'n'Roll influenced, quite british sounding Hard Rock/Heavy Metal mix with almost Biker Rock feeling. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

A Heavy Rock band from Kaarst, formed in 1981. The band was however rechristened to Iron Force in the years to follow, since at least 2 other bands shared this monicker (so no, no relation to the infamous Kienberg Iron Horse). A demo was recorded, but it's yet unclear if it was during their 'Horse'- or 'Force'-period. As the latter they are mostly known for appearing on Noise Records' "Rock From Hell"-compilation from 1983. If you have more info, get in touch.

Band-info:

This band from Kienberg in Bavaria was active since 1982 and released 3 Demo tapes during 1984, which all of them didn't get much love by the German Metal press back in the day, telling the band to rehearse a bit longer. IRON HORSE combined some Hard Rock with overall pounding midpaced Heavy Metal heavily inspired by bands like ACCEPT. On later recordings the songs appear in places kinda sloppy, clumsy. Despite all this they managed (perhaps they've been the only Germans who sent their tape to NRR so they didn't have any other choice) to get picked up by New Renaissance to place the track "Devil" on their "Europe's Best Metal" compilation, that wasn't released at all officially and is only available as a test pressing (just a few copies are circulating). The same picture you get on their exclusive track "The law of nature" on the local compilation Blizz IIX that was released in 1987. Those ACCEPT influences still dominate overall and comparisons to bands like ARROW, ANGEL WAR, SACRAFICE or BLACK CROSS aren't deniable. In their early phase Tom Reich was handling the vocals and rhythm guitar, but left before any Demo had been recorded though, so Heinz Kreusel took over vocals duties by then. Dunno if they recorded more Demos during the later 80’s, but IRON HORSE split up in 1989, while the Kreusel brothers would carry on briefly as HEATSTROKE afterwards.

Band-info:

Unknowns that maybe originated from the Frankfurt/Darmstadt region. All we know for sure is they produced a demo in 84-85, supposedly sounding a lot like AC/DC with poor vocals. If you have more information, please get in contact.

Band-info:

A Heavy Metal band from Gmünden that released a Demo tape in early 1985. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

Ironfist from Hamburg was kinda the first musical steps of certain members of Helloween. Piet Sielck (later in Iron Saviour) and Kai Hansen formed the band 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:

A local Heavy Metal band from Bavaria, most probably originating from the Ingolstadt/Landshut/Mainburg area. Ironheart was active during the mid 80's and is known to perform at the local Mainburg "Heavy Metal Thunder Festival" in September 1985. Further info is needed.

Band-info:

Ivanhoe was formed in Bietigheim-Bissingen during 1986 by Giovanni Soulas, Markus Britsch and Lars Hörnig. Being plagued with constant line up problems, the lads recorded their "Behind the wall" Demo in 1988 with different guitarist and vocalist than the line up that recorded the following masterpiece "Written in stone", featuring Thomas Kovacs on guitar and Scott Anderson on vocals, who left the band already after the Demo. Ivanhoe during 1989 disbanded, but initially reformed right in 1990 once again, to return with a instrumental Promo tape the same year, once again been searching for a proper vocalist, that they thought to finally have found in ex-Battlefield Conny Ernst. After just 3 months she had to leave the band in early 1991, but eventually Ralf Küchle joined, who sung on the MCD "Play express" from 1992, but quit afterwards also. When either long time guitarist Thomas Kovacs left around 1993, the core of the band hired Andy B. Franck (vocals) and Chuck Schuler (guitar) and started recordings for the debut album "Visions and reality" in 1993 (released 1994). Naturally the sound of the band changed, especially the first 2 outstanding Demos gained these guys an excellent reputation within the underground scene. Their Progressive Metal with influences of Queensryche paired with excellent instrumentation and extremely high pitched vocals, raised them up on a golden throne, whenalso the band was constantly thrown back to start due to the problems with finding the right musicians. On "Visions and reality" you can hear a sort of progressed Demo style, slightly more pompish but nevertheless impressive songwriting and performance. Till Ivanhoe once again split up in 1999, 3 more albums followed. 2001 they tried again and since then are still alive.

Band-info:

A local Hard Rock band from Ingolstadt, that was active during 1988. If you got more info, please get in touch.