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Hard Rock band that only released one album on Sabina Claasen's label. Rene Savelsberg (guitar, vox), Hans Peltzer (guitar) and Jan Sluijsmans (bass) started O.K Corral in 1990. The latter got replaced by Jan Meeusen whom they recorded their debut album with. They played a sort of bluesy Hard Rock like AC/DC f.e. with some southern Rock and even Funk influences. After the CD was out, they toured Europe with Iggy Pop but soon quit again.

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More or less being just a typical Krautrock outfit from the Cologne area, the obscure foursome Oakland due to their roughly produced 2 track single managed to at least create a rather Hard Rock feeling, inspired by the classic 70's sound. The B side “Got all I want” may indeed attract Status Quo fans up to a certain point with it’s Boogie edge. The 7" remained their only output it seems, yet all the musicians disappeared afterwards. Just Rainer Röder's name popped up occasionally on the one or another release from the Cologne region as producer. He nowadays runs his own company.

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I dunno how much this band from Frankfurt/Main was related with the Black Metal band Pagan Winter, but there should be any relation as far as I'm concearned. Nevertheless they previously was active as Cholera since 1990 and changed name to Oblivion 1991. On the first two Demos from 1991 they still played pretty good gloomy Death Metal like Morbid Angel on "Altars of madness" and later changed on the "Just a black shadow" tape to norwegian style Black Metal in the vein of early Darkthrone (the Black Metal phase) with still a few Death Metal influences. In 1996 they change name to WeAreTheEnd. There must be another Demo from 1991 as the "Regress of the lost" tape is labelled as Demo # 2. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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Oblivion was a Speed/Thrash Metal band from Emmerich/Bocholt, northwest of Essen, that was active between 1986 and at least 1992. The guys only recorded a 2 track Demo tape in May 1990, though with bad sound, but varied Thrash with many midtempo and twin lead parts. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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These Munich Power/Thrashers sounded quite a bit like early 90’s Pantera on their contribution on the underground sampler “Munich Nightmare Compilation”. Despite delivering a typical Thrash production, the slowed down stop and go riffing makes the song quite boring and so does the weak vocal performance as well. By far too modern sounding for classic Thrash ears…

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An Oldenburg based Death Metal band that started 1989 and got a deal with Sabina Claasen's West Virginia Records right after the first Demo "Age of brutaliy". The result, entitled "Suffocated truth", showed for that time pretty common Death Metal that could be compared to Morgoth, combining influences of the classic Death albums and a bit of Asphyx due to Oliver Jauch's voice reminding often of Martin Van Drunen. After all "Consuming impulse" might have been influential for them as well. After West Virginia Record went bankrupt Obscenity had to start from zero with another Demo called "Amputated souls" in 1993 that lead again to a record deal with D&S Recording this time. The band kept on releasing albums since then and is still active nowadays.

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This Bremen Metal outfit seems to be as obscure as their name was, since we could only find a short mention of the band in a local Bremen Metal scene report dating from 1989. If you have any further info, please contact us.

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The Thrash band Obscurity from Munich started in 1989 and performed a for the Munich scene typical slightly progressive sort of Thrash Metal with Death Metal connected vocal style. Their Demo "A mind prison" featured just 2 trax, that need some time to get into due their technical edge. The band after releasing the Promo tape "So tell me..." changed name in 1992 to Absorbed in Thought.

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Basically Octopus are just interesting for their "Hart am Rand" album from 1981, but this band formed in Frankfurt/Main already in 1973 and published several other albums prior to this LP. The band's sound was typical Kraut Rock connected with elements of Prog Rock and the guys was originally fronted by Jennifer Hensel till the "Rubber angel" LP from January 1980, when their previous 70's Prog Rock sound started working with Hard Rock influences also. But they fully dived into common Hard Rock/AOR sounds just with the "Hart am Rand" LP, that was released 1981 with the new line up consisting of new vocalist Michael Stein, Claus-Dieter Kniemeyer (bass), Georg Klivinyi (guitar), Werner Littau (Synthesizer) & Seppl Niemeyer (drums). After several personnel changes Octopus disbanded in May 1983.

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The single of Odin's Hammer from Frankenthal is a rarely seen piece, and it's pretty sad in this case as the 2 trax "Crazy woman" and the heavily NWOBHM inspired rocker "Nobody knows" sound more than convincing and did offer 2 nice alternates to the usual Boogie influenced stuff, that the main wave of the early Hard Rock/Metal used to play. The fastpaced energetic title track pretty much sets the standard high, whenalso both songs do still spread a special 70's charm. But as mentioned earlier, the guys combined the german sound with classic NWOBHM tunes and the result could be called a cross of Lucifer and Loose Connection. Odin's Hammer or Odin's Hammer Band, as the group was called too, also recorded a shitload of other songs from 1981 to 1985, probably a whole unreleased album, but went into a much more Hard Rock driven direction later.

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After Mem von Stein (ex-Tartaros, ex-Mayhem) left Exumer after their debut LP, he formed the HC/Crossover band Phobic Instinct and later joined Of Rytes, a quite uncommon Thrash band that also gathers not exactly less influences of the US Hardcore scene incl. a few kinda Rap vocals. Their style was quite un-german sounding, technical progressive but modern as well, with certain influences of Voivod and von Stein's voice sounding so much not like Exumer anymore. I feel more reminded of Sean Killian (Vio-lence) or the Crossover act Sonick Plague in general.

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A Heavy Metal band from Mayence active in the mid 80's and doing live several shows. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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A local Hamburg Hard/Kraut Rock band, that was formed in the late 70's and featured John Boutkam (aka John Ridge - of E.F. Band, Picture, Roy Last Group, Hot Property, Dirty Money) on vocals. The guys could place 3 of their trax on the Rockstudio Split LP, offering a just typical late 70's Hard Rock style with influences of Deep Purple and the british Glam Rock wave also.

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A Prog Rock band with Hard Rock influences from Bad Kreuznach, that appeared with the "Lady from the wild" on the local underground compilation “Kreuznacher Rockszene '84”.

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A Death Metal band from Schwalmstadt (between Kassel and Marburg), that was formed during the fall of the 80's. Since the guys was already seen playing local gigs in early 1990 together with Schwalmstadt locals Squealer, you might expect Oppressor being active since at least 1989 or even earlier. The guys was heavily influenced by Death's "Leprosy" and the early Autopsy sound (incl. vocals) and debuted with the track "Time of Apocalypse" on the local underground scene compilation "Oma im Koma" 1992. We are not sure if the "Osterlärm!" CD was indeed released during 1992, but this private release features a gig of the band at the Heavy Metal Kneipe Frantic in Loshausen 19.4.1992 (probably released later in the fall of the 90's). Their official debut MCD "Inside" was produced independently during 1993 and nowadays is a rarely seen piece. Apart of the classic early Death Metal style, Oppressor surprised with for Death Metal untypical almost Black Metal related style of vocals. Nowadays the the band is still active.

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Orakel from Tambach-Dietharz in the south of the ex-GDR was founded by Lutz Edelhäuser and the brothers Michael and Frank Brill (both ex-Phon) in 1980 as a Blues and Hard Rock band. The band didn't exist for long and disbanded already in late 1981 when most of the guys had to join the army. But they played several gigs throughout 1980/81 and after the guys finally had returned, they formed the Hard Rock band Hardholz 1983 with additional vocalist Stephan Buchfeld, that later would become one of the GDR's leading Heavy Metal bands.

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Local Hard Rockers from Schongau, southwest of Munich within deepest Bavaria. We do not have much info of this trio, but they privately produced a CD in 1993, that was manufactured via Rockwerk and released in a tiny edition of about 250 or 300 copies on their own label Magic Sound & Work. Orange Pekoe's sound was Blues influenced. They later added Felix (keyboard) and Gertrud Proske (vocals) and released one more album with the title "Pregnant" in 1995, once again on their own label. Further info is welcome.

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A joke band or fun project that's kidding well known german Sauflieder, Schlager, Folk songs (and Mötley Crüe), just like Baron Titus or what Tankard and Onkel Tom did later. Musically it covers a huge spectrum from metallic R'n'R, Fun Punk to Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, but seriously who really need stuff like that? If you're drunk as fuck you might think it's funny ... but wait till you wake up next morning with a strange tattoo on your best friend...

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A classic Power/Speed Metal act from Bad Harzburg, near Goslar, that was active during the late 80's and recorded a 7 track Demo in early 1990 with album lenght. Further info is welcome.

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A female fronted Hard Rock band from Dreieich, south of Frankfurt/Main, that acted somewhere between the Melodic Rock and Hard Rock spectrum. 1992 they appeared with the 2 live trax "You" and "Money and war" on the "Rock Festival - Music Hall - 9. Februar 1992" CD compilation, to promote the festival these songs has been recorded at. A selfproduced MCD was released in 1993 that featured 4 more melodic Hardrockers. Futher info is needed.

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Power Metallers from Laatzen/Hannover with an obscure vinyl released in the fall of the 80's, when so many other underground bands like them turned up with privately pressed albums and disappeared as quick as they came. The band was around already since 1986 and recorded "No light" originally in early '89 as a Demo, and it was spread as Demo either in the beginning. But the studio also pressed a couple of vinyls of it. Though the guys level of heaviness was pretty neat, there also are some certain discrepancies in terms of songwriting and either the vocal performance audible on "No light", whenalso the mini album in the whole must be counted a solid effort, coming directly from the underground scene.

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A quite professional acting proggressive AOR band from Regensburg with Hard Rock influences, sounding alike the classic early 80's US AOR pioneers, who could contribute the track "Running the endless mile" to the local compilation "Rock around Regensburg". The song was taken from their Demo "The race has just begun", that featured 6 songs in total. Further info is needed.

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A Heavy Metal band from Lübeck, featuring the later Subcutane vocalist Heiko Sudars, who was active earlier in the Gothic Rock band Mephizto in the mid 80's. After Mephizto he joined Outrage and sung on their selftitled Demo in 1988, before he went to join Thrashers Killdozer in 1989. After spending one year with Killdozer, Sudars joined first the band Chalice till he eventually co-founded Subcutane in 1993. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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A local, female fronted Hard’n'Heavy act from Ladenburg in the Heidelberg/Mannheim area, who probably liked Ozzy’s early stuff as it seems. This is a young band, who rocked hard and heavy and performed live at the "Rock aus der Penne” festival (“Penne” is slang for school) happening on September 17th 1983 in Heidelberg. Their song "Purpose of help" was recorded live and got featured on the same called compilation LP, that was released on blue vinyl.

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A Thrash/Power Metal band originating from Kirchheim/Teck in the wider Stuttgart area, that was active from the late 80’s up to the early ’90’s, influenced by Metallica, Metal Church and Fates Warning in the beginning. They originally started under the monicker Poison, but changed to Poisson shortly afterwards, before eventually becoming Outrage during 1987. The core of Outrage always consisted of Oliver Tielking (guitar, vocals) and drummer Rainer Künstle, who constantly played with several bass players during that era, some of them being Uwe Gall (former Poisson bass player) or Jürgen Bischof aka “Fozzy”, who later joined Shock Rockers Shanghai under the pseudonym Eric Boulton, but already has sadly passed away by now. Their first Demo was entitled “Street Metal”, but that tape couldn’t be found anymore by the band. A second 4 song Demo was recorded 2 years later in April 1990, released under the title “Plain” and features quite at that time modern sounding heavy Power/Thrash, not unlike the known late 80’s US Thrash bands that dropped speed to play heavier Power Metal instead. Guess Metallica and early 90’s Metal Church might be a good comparison here. Outrage existed until 1992, while Oliver Tielking afterwards went to Seattle to play with Thrashers No Big Deal as “Johnny Katchoolik”. In 2006 he released the Jazz CD “Wings of the mind” under the same monicker as well. Rainer Künstle either made his own vinyl copy of the “Plain” Demo, that additionally features the non Demo track “The Aids (Rohu)”, but it’s a just one unique copy in existence, so no need to start searching for it, it’s just his own copy that exists.

(Thanx to Rainer Künstle for info and pictures!)

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In May '83 Udo Feierabend (guitar) and Frank Pfeiffer (vox) started Outrage in Pforzheim and got joined on drums by Andreas Eisenmann in July. The Black Metal band got baptized to Outrage in September '83 and started rehearsing till they finally found their style around October '84 inspired by Hellhammer/Celtic Frost. After Roland Sen joined them in early 1985 they went to a studio to record the first Demo "Outrage I" but wasn't much satisfied with the result that still sounded kinda uncontrolled. So they went again into a studio in Dec. '85 to record "Outrage II" and this time the even more Celtic Frost inspired Speed/Thrash Metal that in places even reminds me of Anthares (check out "D.E.L.O.S., the Asylum of the Vanished") was more of their liking. Then Roland Sen left and as a trio again they released the Demo "From nightmares and myths…" ('86) and "The book of the seven seals" ('87, with Reini Wörner on bass) before they disbanded in 1988, never giving up the Hellhammer influenced Thrash and reaching their personal zenit with "The book of the seven seals". In 2004 Outrage got reactivated and they are releasing CD's since then. Also the first 2 Demo's got re-released on Ripping Storm Records in 2014 as "1985 Demo(n)s" on vinyl and CD.

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A shortlived Hard Rock band from Bamberg/Bavaria, which was active since 1991 and recorded an independent CD in 1993, that The Outrage either released privately in the first run. The band was heavily influenced by AC/DC and the whole late 80's US american Sleaze/Glam Metal stuff, that made their material sounding like a cross of Cinderella, Faster Pussycat, Mötley Crüe and naturally AC/DC. Still within the same year Rockwerk Records re-released the CD once again (different CD labels), but looks like the band already dissolved not so long after the album was released.

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Outside was a Heavy Metal troop from Landau in the greater Mannheim/Speyer area, who started back in 1983 and released a Demo tape 1984, plus a nowadays extremely seldom surfacing 7", featuring the neckbreaker "Action" and the less speedy "Heavy Metal" on the flipside, which pretty much gives you a hint what direction the material tends too. On these early outputs Outside really concentrated on the pure and heavy Metal, in contrary to their two later albums, starting with "Magic sacrifice" (1986) and "Never in security" (1988). The band's sound went into a much more melodic direction on both albums, also adopting certain Hard Rock influences, but still keeping the average level Metal all the way. After the "Magic sacrifice" release they toured 2 times through the country to promote the album, but did eventually fall into an empty hole, kinda losing their energy. The result was that the musicians dissolved Outside. After a few weeks of silence, Kalle Scherthan and Volker Gutting decided to try it again and could convince their drummer Rudi Herzenstiel to join ‘em once again. Only guitarist Peter Weber wasn’t fond of the idea anymore and had to be replaced with Andreas Zeckra, one of the band’s roadies. Together they’d start recordings for “Never in security” in June ’88. Outside could be probably compared in places to Mad Max, Steeler, Sinner and such bands. After disappearing in the early 90's, Outside reformed in 2006.

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A Heavy Rock band from Waldshut, on the border to Switzerland, that was active during 1986. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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The band Overdose from Augsburg is just known for their sole album "Over the top", that marked a highly wanted rarity in earlier years, but could be found for more human prices nowadays again. The band was active since the early 80's and released their album the same year like the other Overdose from Frankfurt/Main. Musically both bands differed in style. These Augsburg lads combined Accept-ish Hard Rock/Metal with early Maiden or in general some NWOBHM tunes, but unfortunately the vocals hadn't much fire and the whole sound in total appears quite a bit outdated for 1985. Harry Steiner, one of their former bassplayers, joined Cromium Rose, who later would transform to Chroming Rose.

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A shortlived classic Heavy Metal band from Frankfurt/Main. They began as Tight Action in November 1982, but changed their name to Overdose in December 1983 after having lost their original drummer and one original guitarist. The guys released 2 Demo tapes in 1983 and '84, though in september 1984, their guitarist Mike Jost left the band and was replaced by former Crack Jaw guitarist Bernd Vestweber. Another untitled promotional tape featuring 7 trax was recorded, and some of these tracks also appeared on their only album "Tight action" that was recorded in July '85. I might be wrong for sure, but since I received that tape directly from that album's producer Axel Thubeauville and the sound in my ears might be any pre-production of the album recordings, I'd say that tape might be from 1985 as well, and furthermore the non album trax ("Mogly" and "Tail light killing") could well be unused songs of the same recording session. But however, these Overdose split up already in 1986 and most of the guys played in Dynamite, Roughhouse and Still Crazy in the following years. As well as the other band Overdose from Augsburg, these guys delivered a NWOBHM influenced style, but in contrary to the Augsburg lads, their sound wasn't that outdated sounding and fitted more to the common Gama empire's typical mid 80's Heavy Metal bands, acting mainly in midpaced regions.

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A Hard Rock/Metal band from southern Germany, that was seen playing several live gigs already starting back in 1986, which obviously might leave the impression the lads started in the first half of the 80's decade. I'm pretty sure they recorded at least one Demo during the 80's, though their debut album "It's too late to pray" wasn't released before 1992. Musically at least on the CD the Overdose Kids had a sound quite similar to AC/DC's, with a huge dose of R'n'R that merged with simple down-to-earth classic Hard Rock. If you got more info please get in touch.

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Overheat from Kirchheim/Teck, near Stuttgart, that featured two former Poisson members Frank Allgaier and Frank Linke, didn’t seem to have caught interest of the Gama imperium, which is a bit odd, since the lads performed quite experienced on their “1988” Demo tape, that features 7 rough power/thrashing bangers in the vein of Powerlord, Sentinel Beast, Détente and such, american influenced so to say. Jochen Haap turned up in the line up of Diabolic Force around 1990 again and Frank Allgaier 1994 in From Beyond.

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A Heavy Metal band from Mannheim, not to be confused with the band from the Stuttgart area. Formed in the early 80's, their former bassplayer had to quit the band in 1983 and Jack Denniels (ex-Toyzz) joined instead. Besides a few live cover versions of Judas Priest, Deep Purple and the Scorpions, the Overkill guys also created own material, that was featured on their 1984’er Demo “HM thunderclap", featuring mainly a Priest inspired rough sort of Heavy Metal Rock. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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Overkill from Winnenden nearby Stuttgart started late 1980 (or early 1981 as another source refers to) and recorded the 2 trax "New York City queen" and "Angels of revenge" in January '83 for the local Split LP "Stuttgart Rock Sampler" with other bands being Roxanne, Trash, Snowgoose and Bel Air. At this time their sound was still rather more british sounding Hard Rock influenced Metal, but right on the next vinyl appearance, the "M.I.R. Heavy Metal Sampler", that features 2 trax of their Demo from 1984, Overkill delivered a timeless classic of the 80's decade with "Killers in the dawn". The track spreads such a power and energy and so does another song of the Demo that wasn't taken for the Split LP with Thunder, Beast of Prey, Divine Victim and Vengeance. "The iron sword", that reminds of early Running Wild in a way. Early '84 Andreas Pfau (ex-Divine Victim) on guitar joined. Mick Shirley (Michael Scheuerle) then left for Sinner in May 1984 and later released an album with Jackie Wulf. He got replaced by Andreas Feller (guitar). In 1986 the guys changed name to Monroe and recorded another Demo.

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Overlord was and since a few years again still is the baby of Lutz Hommel from Merseburg (between Halle and Leipzig), a former ex-GDR Death/Thrash veteran, who’s been a member of extreme Thrashers M.A.D. since already late 1986. When he returned from the army in 1989, he still played a few shows with M.A.D. and then was asked to leave due to musical deviations. He immediately baptized (in blood of corpse) his little boy „Overlord“ right in early 1990 and began to record new songmaterial, to realize his deepest Death Metal visions, that burned inside his mind for quite a while already. Still playing all instruments himself on the debut, he soon would find Uwe Nolte on vocals, the Manos drummer Carsten Rothweiler and ex-Panther Sven Halm on bass to record the 2 track Demo „Sinister path“ in 1991. Nolte and Halm wouldn’t remain for long in Overlord and had already left the band, when the 3rd Demo "Birth of descendants" was about to be produced, so that was Hommel’s former M.A.D. friend Robert Eilenberger signal to fill the spot on bass and vocals right away, building a strong backbone now for the band, that resulted in positive responses everywhere in the underground press, culminating in the offer to record their selftitled debut album in 1993. The CD in the meanwhile got extremely delayed and wasn’t available before 1996, when D&S finally threw it onto the market. Carsten Rothweiler already had quit Overlord right after those recordings and Andreas Wünsche (ex-Mortal Impact) joined in just briefly, when the duo Hommel/Eilenberger eventually could recruit the ex-MCB/M.A.D. drummer Jörg Borchert (ex-Fam) still in 1993, who appeared firstly on their 93er Promotape. During the following months, waiting for their debut to finally behold the light of day, Overlord recorded another Demo ("The Orient's breath") in 1994, that sadly offers a groove infected sort of Death’n’Roll now. Despite of “Overlord” being available at last during 1996, the guy’s different opinions for the future lead into their disintegration lastly in mid ’98. Lutz Hommel though returned with a selfmade Promo CDR during 2018 once again, but seems that the chapter Overlord finally was put at rest, since he’s playing actively in the reformed Musical Massacre now.

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Frankfurt AC/DC-wannabees formed in 1980 who was rather active on the local live-scene back in the days. One Mick Hunter and one Joey Gadd replaced Jürgen and Michael Stocken on guitars and drums respectively and apparently tried to steer the band towards a more Southern Rock-direction, which led to the band breaking up. The original line-up later reformed as Steam, but it seems few (if any) of these members were left by the time Steam's "Can't Get Enough" LP was released.

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A Heavy Metal band from the greater Tübingen/Stuttgart area, active since the late 80's till at least 1990. Their vocalist Volker Pfisterer joined Seven Crimes during that time. Further info is needed.