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One of the earliest Hard Rock/Metal bands from West Berlin, that formed in 1980 and played several live gigs even throughout Germany during the mid 80's. The Devil's Soldiers, a rather NWOBHM influenced band with strong Saxon edge, saw themselves influenced by the good old 70's Hard Rock tradition and in the very beginning wrecked several members like f. e. Alexander Strauch (keyboard), who later turned up in Heartlyne and the poppy She's China. Their main line up consisted of the guys to the left and these lads also recorded the bands official first Demo in 1984, despite there's also a 1 song Demo from 1982 known. Around mid/late 1985 Thomas Hartstock (guitar) replaced the leaving Olaf Schlünzen and recorded with the Devil's Soldiers 1986 the third selftitled Demo, that went a bit heavier, while the band was diving into classic Heavy Metal waves now. After the heavily of Gravestone sounding “Demo 1987” (also refered as the "Roadrunner" tape), the band name was changed to Charisma late within the same year. If you have more info please get in touch.

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A Crossover band from West Berlin, that formed there during the later 80's, though the guys had a few Metal influences, they more or less belong into the Hardcore corner, comparable to bands like Biohazard or the 90's Pantera. Angelus had been a bit too early for that Groove/Metal/Hardcore style as it became more successful just a bit later during the mid 90's.

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Not so unknowns within the Hamburg scene during the late 80's, the late 1987 formed Jesse Hoyah from Brackel-Thieshope (south of Hamburg) was a notorious live act, known especially for their funny stage shows, that was focussed to ape abit the Thrash acts of their time. The guys called their style Hardcore/Thrash Metal and recorded their debut Reh/Demo with the title "Haribobär massacre" (the title says it all) already the same year (September). The band featured former Bleedfort member Maurer and spend most of their time during the last years of the 80's with playing live. Just in early 1991 the "Grey misery" studio Demo was recorded and the guys could sell quite a number of tapes. Either "Mortality of the gods" and "Don't read the lyrics" from that Demo was used for the local Hamburg compilation "Brown bottles go ape" and furthermore was both featured on the underground compilation tape "Schreie der Angst". "Don't read the lyrics" together with "Day by day" also was used for "Just another Sampler" tape compilation. While in their early days Jesse Hoyah acted a bit more chaotic Thrashcore inspired, on "Grey misery" they perfomed a straight forward Thrash Metal style in the vein of fast Metallica, I.N.C. and Soilent Green. As far as it seems the band split up during already 1991, while at least Maurer and Dirk "Dicker" Weiss formed Warpath right afterwards.

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A melodic and rather progressive playing Power Metal band from Erfurt, that featured the former The Fog guitarist Sven Lieser. Misery could be seen live on stage during 1993, so we guess they formed sometime in the very beginning of the 90’s. Further info is needed.

Band-info:

From Ballhausen north of Erfurt (ex-GDR) came the melodic Hard Rock band The Fog, whose first steps reach back to 1983 when they started learning to handle their instruments. At around 1987 it seems the young band already officially operated as "The Fog" and could catch interest of local officials who’ve been in charge of musical talents in their area. At a later point drummer Mario Ströhl got replaced by Maik Haun. The foursome was allowed to professionally produce the powerful Melodic Rock number "Irgendwann", that in 1988 entered the youth channel DT 64’s hit parade at rank 20. The sound of the 4 lads strongly reminds of the heavier songs of Perl, acting somewhere in the middle of Classic Rock/AOR and original melodic Hard Rock with german sung lyrics. All in all quite a catchy, professional sounding number. Not sure when The Fog split up, but we guess around 1990 during the political change as well. Sven Lieser their guitarist resurfaced with Erfurt Power Metallers Misery during the very early 90's once again.

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Rather unknown Grindcore quintet from the Donau-Ries area, north of Augsburg, that was active at around 1989/90 and either was seen several times live on stage during the period. We aren’t aware of any official recordings of the band, but judging by their live performance within that special genre they could be mentioned to be “talented" at least.

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Distract Reality was a classic Crossover troop with massive Hardcore and Thrashcore impact hailing from bavarian Alerheim (Augsburg/Nuremberg area). The band formed during the late 80’s, most probably in 1988 and played several gigs in their own area at that time. There’s just a split Demo known with the Noisecore mongers Shrettled Illusions, where the guys remind in places of Lethal Aggression or in general the classic NYHC sound, but also came up with several hyperspeed Thrashparts. Further infos would be welcome.

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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.

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This band was even more shortlived than it’s first incarnation known as Savage Fun, a Noisecore trio in the early Napalm Death vein from Höchstädt/Schwenningen (Bavaria), that formed during January 1989 and played their first show already in late February. At around April/May '89 they changed name to Shrettled Illusions and released a split Demo with Distract Reality before the savage fun was definitely over. Bernd Spring formed Ulcerous Phlegm right in August ‘89 then, who in the beginning came up with a similar style. On May 13th 1989 the Shrettled Illusions played their last gig.

Band-info:

Quite an extremely shortlived Noisecore trio in the early Napalm Death vein from Höchstädt/Schwenningen (Bavaria), that formed during January 1989 and played their first show already in late February. At around April/May '89 they changed name to Shrettled Illusions and released a split Demo with Distract Reality before the savage fun was definitely over. Bernd Spring formed Ulcerous Phlegm right in August ‘89 then, who in the beginning came up with a similar style. Besides some private live recordings there’s no official Demo material ever being made.

Band-info:

A grinding Death Metal band from Hochstädt, north of Augsburg, that was just shortlived, but within these few years released a Demo and 2 singles. Bernd Spring (ex-Savage Fun/Shrettled Illusions) and Thomas “Blinki” Brinkmann in August ‘89 felt the urge to form a Noisecore band and found Kreso on guitar after a short while. The Demo was recorded in their practise room already 2 weeks after Ulcerous Phlegm had formed. Their style was still early Napalm Death/Bolt Thrower influenced and got often compared to Pungent Stench, pretty much standard stuff, but nonetheless Shithouse Records (sublabel of Turbo Music) offered the band to produce a 7” in December ’89. So the guys went to the studio already in January 1990 and recorded 12 songs, while a bit later on already became much annoyed with the label, that always delayed the release of the single, which was enthusiastically announced for already March 1990, entitled "International problems can't be solved by intern nationalism", but actually wasn’t available before June. Also their early Noise/Grind style submerged with classic Death Metal influences during 1990/91, while Soulstorm’s Zong shortly joind the band on the second guitar, but went soon back to his original band again. Brinkmann later got replaced in February ’91 by Max, who would play on Ulcerous Phlegm’s selftitled second single, recorded in June 1991. The announced album, scheduled for 1992 on Bodonski Records like the second EP as well, was never released though. In March ‘93 the band played their last gig and vanished shortly later. The "International problems can't be solved by intern nationalism" 7" was re-released with different cover.

Band-info:

As the name might suggest, Hellbound from Weißenfels near Leipzig (ex-GDR), most probably wasn’t much keen on playing Melodic Metal stuff. Instead the fivepiece celebrated a really rude brutal Death/Thrash sound similar to Demolition Hammer, Incubus and Kreator on their selftitled Demo released in early 1992. Holger Ritzel and Mario Würzburger firstly had the idea to form the band in February 1989, but to find willing musicians in their local area didn’t work out as easy as expected, so they more or less “borrowed” musicians from their friends in other local Thrashers Exocet. By March 1991 at last a working line up was completed with Ralf "Monroe" Zobel (vocals), Ralf “Party" Schönrock (guitar), Mario "Würze" Würzburger (guitar), Holger "Fritze" Ritzel (bass) and Steffen “Keule" Kolditz (drums), who recorded their first 5 song Demo in January 1992. Despite a second tape was planned for September ‘92 already, Keule their drummer then left the guys and fully focussed on Exocet by then, while the rest continued as a fourpiece in the meanwhile, leaving the position of the drummer vacant and rather worked with a drumcomputer until 1995. Between 1994 and 1995 the band still recorded the Demos “Gesichtsgebung" (1994) and “Trilogy" (1995), but went on hiatus afterwards. Holger Ritzel's the only one who reappeared in music business with the band Demoria late in the 2000's.

Thanx to Holger Ritzel for info and pictures!

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Random was the baby of the "Nietenpapst" himself, Fred Otto, who was previously active since 1980 in the band Empire. One of the founding members 1983 of this band from Wuppertal was Michael Kupper, better known as "Majk Moti", who got later famour for his work with the way bigger Running Wild. In March/April '85 the first privately (Random Records) produced album "We'll be with you" was recorded and distributed without picture sleeve, but with insert and in clear coloured vinyl (light brownish or beer colour?) and just a limited number of copies was manufactured, featuring a melodic rocking sort of Heavy Metal with slightly Hard Rock edge. Nowadays this LP is just a rarely seen guest. It took the guys 5 years to supply the follower "Randomized", that Ingo Nowotny was responsible for. The album, though being released on Metal Enterprises won't have had received too much attention by the Metal press, wasn't as bad as it's lousy cover artwork might have suspected and features quite more than solid melodic Heavy Metal, that doesn't need to hide behind other bands of that era at all. Fred Otto had reinforced Random with Kai Ulrich (ex-Zenith) on guitars, Thomas Rothes (vox), Folko Canter (bass) and Andy Kocks (guitar) who all was doing a respectable job. For "Body games" the line up had changed once again. Kalle Herrmann (bass) and Martin Fago (guitar) replaced Folko Canter and Kai Ulrich. Also Olle B. Stardust had joined as new singer. The sound of the album refined the style they celebrated on "Randomized" and certain late Warlock/Doro influences prevailed now, with hints of the US glammy touched midpaced Metal. After the live album "Hate us" 1993, Random still released the "Homeless" album in 1995, followed by the "Sex" MCD 1998 and "Reloaded", their last effort so far in 2010.

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One more local Destroyer band with an absolutely obscure independent album release from 1983, that seems was never really officially released. The band was formed in Ulm around 1979 by Wolfgang Schwarz and Markus Maier, who knew each other since school days and either played together in a band at that time, that later turned into Destroyer in a way. The local Sparkasse Ulm (a bank) sponsored their scarce “Thunder” LP, that seemed to be made in a tiny edition or probably just a few promo LP’s were even pressed. Destroyer's style was simple structured, just typical early 80's Metal like Sin City, NWOBHM influenced and either reminded of the softer material of early Tyrant. Right in the year the album was out, the band already split up and and both Wolfgang Schwarz and Markus Maier had been founding members of another Ulm legend, Vampyr.

(Thanx to Tatjana Menk for additional info)

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A Wolfsburg Hardcore act, quite american sounding with heavy, metallic NYHC edge reminding strongly of the Cro-Mags or early Leeway on their Demo ”The way how to deal with us”. The tape was recorded in January ’91 and included 5 technically quite good songs with Thrash edge. In a way it’s impressive how American a German band can sound btw. For Crossover fans worth to check out!

Band-info:

Slam was just an alternative monicker of Bremen’s Crossover band Children Of Riot, that they used during 1989, but changed back to COR right after 1 year. The band’s style could be categorised somewhere in the D.B.F. vein, mixing Hardcore and Metal. As Slam there are no recordings being made at all, while as Children Of Riot they released 2 Demos.

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Quite a “wild bunch” with lotsa hairy armpits up there on the picture we guess, that’s Cologne’s Bluesrockers Dick + Alex, the latter better known as Alex Parche from bands such as Zeltinger Band and Breslau. He’s truly one those classic German Hard Rock pioneers of the late 70's, whenalso AC/DC’s music must have played a big role in his musical universe. Both Breslau and his solo project the Alex Parche Band dealt with AC/DC inspired Hard Rock and that’s exactly what he delivered with Dick + Alex years earlier. The first album around “Mr. Kingsize Dick” Heinz Ganss (Should we bother why he used that nick name?), that was recorded with several Cologne musicians like Jan Dix on drums (later member of famous rockers BAP) and Triumvirat Dick Frangenberg on bass, as well as f.e. Ritchie Reifferscheidt (guitar) and Zwiebel Truhöl (bass), who both became a steady part of the later Dick + Alex crew, got released in 1978. For the second and last album "Schweine in weißen Westen", recorded in spring ’79, they could hire ex-Kraftwerk drummer Andreas Hohmann. Now, as mentioned above, the musical core of the album featured a highly AC/DC inspired Blues Rock as well as hard R’n’R and quite a number of classic Hard Rock songs. Why the band split up after the album is uncertain. Alex Parche joined the Zeltinger Band during 1980 as we know and remained member there for one year before he left to form the shortlived Breslau together with Zwiebel Truhöl. Seems like Zwiebel Truhöl accompanied Parche quite a longer time on his musical journey since he also was part of his solo project Alex Parche Band a bit later on.

Band-info:

That's the band that Alex Parche formed after Breslau's days was counted. The ex-Dick + Alex/Breslau bassist Zwiebel Truhol followed him and the ex-Kraftwerk/Dick + Alex drummer Andreas Hohmann was on the drums. The band only recorded one album, that just like the previous Breslau LP, continued that sort of Breslau's AC/DC inspired Hard Rock, that didn't even sounded bad at all. After some silence Alex Parche returned with the albums "The Alex Parche Project" (released as "The Alex Parche Project") and "Son of a healer" (released as "Parche") in 1992/93, featuring drummer Martin Werner (ex-Sign) and Luke Herzog (bass, keyboard), as well as several different vocals, including Udo Dirkschneider. supporting his work. Occasionally the songs do either sound like Accept (and not just because of Udo) and feature a brand of classic Hard Rock/Metal, known from Parche's earlier works. Till his death in 2009 he recorded 2 more albums.

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Most probably just a shortlived Hardcore act from Koblenz in the western part of Germany. We couldn’t find much info of this quintet at all. A 7" could be released on Egocentric Records in 1991 though, featuring 4 songs, with 3 of them delivering a sort of California style melodic Hardcore/Skatecore or rather Punk Metal and alone the opener of the EP “Become aggressive" offers thrashier stuff like f.e. Agnostic Front.

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A Heavy/Power Metal band from Munich that started around 1984/85 and recorded a selftitled 4 song Demo right during that time. On guitar being a certain "Flint", while we guess that's most probably Alois Weiss after all. The line up changed after the Demo though, when Michael Schinkel (vocals) and Armin Donderer (bass) replaced Günter and AC Siebert and the fivepiece either began to record an album during 1986, featuring amongst others the trax "Stand up" and Arkham", but never finished it at all it seems. The shortlived label Bregenzer Records already announced a forthcoming album of the band, scheduled for August/September '86, but collapsed financially right afterwards, so the LP never was released at all. Armin Donderer also played with Mark Terry and later joined Paradox, while Michael Schinkel formed Eternal Flame in 1987. If you got more info, please get in touch.

(Thanx to ObsessedByCruelty & Tatjana Menk for additional info)

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Inofficially Necrosist from Prenzlau up in the eastern north of the ex-GDR was created by Ron Schaffer in 1990, after he just had left his former band T.M.K. But it took a while till he could gather enough musicians around himself to officially start a real band eventually in 1991. Drummer Mike “Heini” Hein f. e. came from the then defunct band “Dorn im Auge”. The other guys completing the band had been Stephan “Wölfi” Roll (guitar), Jahn “Janni” Junghans (guitar) and Sven “Plogy” Plog (bass). Right during early ’92 Necrosist recorded their debut Demo “Faces of death”, that featured classic and slow Doom/Death Metal. Within 1992 as well the second Demo “Power of darkness” was released, continuing the path of the debut. Plogy left afterwards and Guido Hausohn entered instead to play the bass. During 1993 a 3rd Demo “Traumatic” was recorded, delivering 6 songs before the band’s style went into a rather Gothic/Death Metal direction with keyboards. A 5 way split CD entitled “Children of tomorrow Vol. II“ and featuring Necrosist together with Desertion, Senistro, Sadistic Feast & Diarrhea was released in August 1996, though the band member carousel spinned several times. On their late debut CD from 1997 “Lost time’s” (AFM Records) the band line up already featured Ron Schaffer (guitar, vocals), Michael Grambow (guitar), Guido Hausohn (bass), Cornelia Thiel (keyboard) and Mike Hein (drums). But nevertheless it led to nothing than pure stagnation. One more Demo was recorded in 2002 with the same result, although they dropped the Gothic Metal influences and returned to their Death Metal roots. So the newly reformed Necrosist with now both guitarists Ron Schaffer and Michael Grambow still being on board, yet got supported by new members Nico Lüttschwager on bass and Fabian Reimer behind the drums to start recordings for the second album “When day dies” in 2003. In the end the album was selfreleased by the band independently on vinyl just 3 years later in 2006. Once again the line up changed. Felix Müller (bass) and Martin Hempel (drums) joined Necrosist who simply walked down a road wihout any end, that led into nowhere. Plogy eventually returned on bass during 2008 and formed a steady line together with Ron Schaffer both on guitars when Eva-Maria Dahlmann (Püppi) came in 2011 to play the bass guitar. One last change happened with Cannibal Kurt taking over the vocals 2013, leaving Schaffer on guitar only by now. The actual future of the band yet is undecided, they seem to still keep the band alive, but no further releases appeared at all.

Band-info:

Crossover Thrashers from Boksee in the wider Kiel area, active between the late 80's and early 90's, that started back in December 1989 and recorded their debut Demo "Demosaurus" in July '90, offering a slightly Hardcore influenced Thrash Metal sound with diverse Mosh parts, in the first reminding rather of american bands like f.e. Slayer and M.O.D. The second Demo was recorded live in Kiel on June 6th 1991 and Swen Schulz had joined Jid Saw on lead guitar in February ‘91. After a third tape “Peaceful violence” released right in 1992, the band dissolved during the mid 90's and Dräger joined Erosion. Dirk Abraham went to play with King Vulture during 1994.

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Necrology from Gundelsheim/Heilbronn originally started as very young Thrash/Crossover quintet with 2 guitarists in the fall of 1987, but the second axeman left the guys during 1989, who then only featured members: Andre Achziger (vocals), Nico Kramer (guitar), Kai Schindelar (bass) and Norbert Remmler (drums), who at least recorded one Reh/Demo between 1989 and 1990, which though didn’t receive positive reviews at all. By continuously doing the next step and gaining live experiences on stage in the meanwhile, the skills of the foursome improved until their first studio recording ”For all we hate”, recorded in Juni 1991, while either the style of the boys went into Death/Thrash fields, with influences taken from Kreator, Morgoth, Sodom and Death. For unknown reasons the whole didn’t work out as planned as it seemed, since their Demo is still widely unknown, though reviews in the underground press was relatively overwhelming. Necrology disappeared unheard afterwards…

Band-info:

Dinas Emrys from Wasserburg, near Munich/Rosenheim, was founded by Ivan Akar and Jürgen Keil in 1989, after Keil’s former band Paranonia split up. Next to join the duo was guitarist David da Cruz just 2 months later. By the summer of ’91 drummer Simon Lentner and Christian Huber (vox) joined the guys, who had their first gig October 12th 1991, and used to label their own style “Progressive Noise Core”, but actually it combined influences ranging from Thrash, Doom and Death Metal, quite extraordinary so to speak. Their first tape „Anatomie des Wahnsinns“ was just a rehearsal tape, for the second Demo „Like a dragon in autumnal childhood dreams” (1993) the sound had improved, though the band disappeared after this tape as well.

Band-info:

A local Crossover troop from Prenzlau, north of Berlin, that formed sometime during 1989 within the political change inside the ex-GDR, still with Ron Schaffer on vocals, who though left in 1990 to form his on band Necrosist. M.F. Waschk replaced him afterwards, who got then replaced himself by M. Kundt in 1992. TMK released 2 Demo tapes between 1992 and '93, that both featured Motörhead inspired Hardcore Metal with Speed Metal influences and Thrash parts. The band most probably split up during the mid 90's. Thomas Pfeffer later played in Schweineröck and Thoralf Jachtner joined the Dark Wave band Kinski. TMK stands for "Totaler Mützenkrach" btw.

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Captor - a raw Death/Thrash band from Witten that formed in 1989 and was active till the early 90's. The band recorded at least 2 Demos, influenced by Sodom and Kreator and also played a few shows in their area. On the second tape they added some more Death Metal influences and additionally went into an improved technical direction as well. If you got more info, please get in touch.

Band-info:

Necrophobia from Frankenberg, north of Chemnitz, still formed during the ex-GDR's last breaths in 1990 but existed just for a very short period, before the band already split up after the release of their only Demo "The lost souls” in 1992. This Doom/Death Metal trio consisted of Marco Kluge (guitar, vocals), Frank “Lommi” Lommatsch (bass) and Thomas "Halloween" Helbig (drums), whose material got compared to stuff like early Cathedral, Goatlord or early Paradise Lost, performing a very slow kind of Death Metal with extreme vocals. Marco Kluge afterwards joined Deface on drums.

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Utterly obscure HM act from Troisdorf, between Bonn and Cologne, whose even more scarce single "Hot Metal nights" we've never ever have heard about earlier yet. It seems a little misleading at first that the band chose the name Fast Eddy, as one immediately thinks of the master himself, Fast Eddie Clarke. Also very interesting is the outrageous fact that this 7" is a demo EP, which means that there shouldn't really be many copies in circulation. Musically, both trax "Hot Metal nights" and "Hell is breaking out" offer a strong NWOBHM sound, the latter even reminiscent of Crucifixion's "On the run". One source mentioned the year 1989, but there is no information on the single itself.

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A less known Thrash band from Unterweißbach, between Suhl and Saalfeld south of Erfurt, that was formed in 1989 by guitarist Torsten Gronenberg and Uwe Appelfeller (bass) in the ex-GDR. After playing with several drummers, they eventually found Jens Kecher in May ’91, who fitted best to the band's style. Since no singer could be found at all, Uwe Appelfeller took over vocals duties as well. After excessive rehearsing the trio went on stage for the first time ever in autumn 1991 and recorded their first Demo "Bad message" in February '92 at a professional 24 track studio. Horrible Hour's material though offered faint Death/Thrash influences, but tended rather into a classic, straight forward Thrash direction with melodic parts as well. Jens Kecher left the band a bit later during the same year and got replaced by ex-Morbid drummer Mike Poppel. After their second output “Jester’s desire" from 1994, Horrible Hour went down the drain. Torsten Gronenberg many years later in 2008 joined obscure Ilmenau locals Noise Orchestra.

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Shortlived Death/Thrash combo from Thuringia, hailing from the Arnstadt/Ilmenau area in the south of the ex-GDR, who formed around 1989 we guess. They’ve played a couple of gigs in their area during 1990, f.e. with Eminenz and Wodan in October ‘90, but disappeared again quickly afterwards. At that time no recordings had been available at all. Drummer Mike Poppel joined Horrible Hour in 1992.

Band-info:

A Speed 'n' Thrash troop from Kirchheim/Teck from the Stuttgart area that formed in 1985 as Poison, but due to the famous US glamsters added a second "s" in 1986 and became Poisson instead. The guys recorded the “Hard & loud" Demo in 1986, that provided US american influenced Thrash sound, but split into 2 camps afterwards. Oliver Tielking, Uwe Gall and Rainer Künstle formed Outrage in 1987, while both Frank Allgaier and Frank Linke rather decided to join Overheat.

(Thanx to Rainer Künstle for band info!)

Band-info:

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.

Band-info:

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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Obscure local DIY Thrash combo from Neunkirchen/Siegen that was active during 1988 and only rehearsed in a garage. The duo was Karsten „Blasphemer“ Menk on drums and Holger „Mayhem Angel“ Büchel on bass and doing vocals as well, who never played any gig at all, but recorded a private rehearsal tape in early ’88. They refered their style themselves like "poor Hellhammer".

(Thanx to Karsten + Tatjana Menk for the info and pictures!)

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Sometimes things couldn't be worse than having a famous big brother, that you not just share your name with, but also both your voices do sound almost identical. That's been the exact case with Danton, the band of Udo Dirkschneider's little brother Peter. Danton was founded around 1986 in Wuppertal, with drummer Heiko Hornmann, bassist Dirk Distelhorst and both guitarists Guido Jabgui and Thomas Rattunde previously being a part of Wuppertal obscurios Atomic On Rush, who’s vocalist Jörg Reuter had just left the band to join Midnight Darkness, so they hired the little Dirkschneider and changed name to Danton instead. Distelhorst shortly after left the band already, while Peter Dirkschneider asked his friend Ralf Seelheim to replace him. Then Guido Jabgui (als refered as Guido Job) soon would run into personal issues with Rattunde and also quit. The band recorded two Demo tapes in 1986 and '87, and either gained a record deal with Mausoleum Records in late 1986. Thomas Rattunde had quit in the meanwhile and Martin Reinert joined on guitar instead, who also recorded all guitars on the first unreleased Danton album at the Skyline Studio with Peter Brick as producer. But after Mausoleum announced the album wrongly as “Produced by Udo Dirkschneider”, the whole thing went down the drain, since Mausoleum didn’t pay the studio, so Brick kept the master tapes and later the label canceled the whole undertaking. Martin Reinert left Danton afterwards in late ’86 to rather join Ninja and Rattunde returned again, before Charly Rinne produced Danton’s known debut album "Way of destiny" 1988, that was published in November on Megavault Records from Gelsenkirchen (a sublabel of No Remorse). Though the Danton guys promised faithfully not to be an Accept copycat and wouldn't either have songs in their repertoire that would sound like Germany's Heavy Metal signboard, my ears do tell me something different. And it's not just Peter's vocals that stigmatize Danton's style with the mighty Accept burnmark. No, the main part of the material just reminds of mid 80's Accept over and over again, apart of two speedrippers, that perhaps could have been the direction that Danton would have needed to get recognized as an independent part of the German Metal movement. Bassist Marcus Bielenberg joined the group after Mordor called it quits around 1987, since Thomas Rattunde wanted to play with 2 guitarists, that’s why Ralf Seelheim switched from bass to guitar. But it only caused tensions in the band and splitted Danton into 2 camps. Shortly after the album the band already collapsed, while Dirkschneider and Bielenberg quickly founded Vanize in 1989. Heiko Hornmann joined Thrashers Amnesty. If you got more info about the band's Demos, please get in touch.

(Thanx to Tatjana Menk for additional info)

Band-info:

Quite obscure local Emmendingen Thrashers, who formed around early 1987 in the Freiburg area under the motto “In the sign of the Schwein”, musically influenced by Destruction, Kreator, Motörhead and Cryptic Slaughter. Their gimmick had been their uncommon lyrics dealing with “farm stories”, resulting in their style being called „Farmer Thrash“! The trio either recorded a private tape, that wasn’t spread at all and played a few gigs in their own area around Emmendingen and Denzlingen during 1987. Further Demo plans at that time had been still undecided, but we guess they never made it up to that stage anymore.

(Thanx to Tajana Menk for band info!)

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Another obscure Disaster troop, hailing from Sonthofen/Bavaria, who seemed to exist since around 1987 and released the scarce single “No escape” on the local Marimba Records label right in the same year. The lads seemed to be musically impressed by the classic Motörhead style, delivering 2 quite british sounding songs with slightly punkish edge, not wondering at all why they used to call their style "Power Metal meets Rock'n'Roll". Especially the title track needs to be mentioned separately here, because during the second part it turns into a furious Speed Metal banger. One of the guys was called Nick Wirth, singer Joachim Mayr prefered to be rather called "Jerry". 1988 the troop also released their “In my blood” Demo and prepared another tape in 1989, entitled "Heavy Metal Pure", though if it was ever finished or officially released is yet not confirmed at all.
We need more info of these hairy gentlemen.

(Thanx to Tatjana Menk for additional info!)

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A Hard Rock band from Wiesloch in the Speyer/Heidelberg area, who had their famous phase around 1990/91, when the guys either produced an own 2 track single, which sadly isn’t that known at all, but indeed should. Both songs deliver quite catchy not too poppy sounding melodic Hard Rock with potential for higher tasks. The keyboards on “Stop me now” either remind a bit of classic mid 80’s Van Halen (“Jump”). Fans of the melodic stuff should definitely keep their eyes open for this little gem.
Local Parley formed around the beginning of 1987 after Gregor Steinbrenner (vocals), Rene Michel (bass), Tilo Graf (guitar) and Oliver Barthel (keyboard) got to know each other at grammar school and played together as a "Schülerband". Tilo Graf had previously played in another band and took guitar and bass lessons together with Rene Michel from the same teacher, Wolfgang Schulz. With Markus Kreutzer, a drummer was quickly found for the quintet, which meant that the first gig could take place a short time later on August 29, 1987 in Wiesloch. The latter left the band at the beginning of 1989 and the new drummer Thomas Schubkegel made his live debut on February 3, 1989. After that only the position of keyboarder changed once more in the autumn of 1990, after Oliver Barthel, who had worked on the song "Backseat Juliet", which then appeared on the local sampler "Wiesloch City Smash Down" in 1990, left Local Parley and was replaced by Stefan Zirkel. He played his first concert with the band on 27.9.1990. Local Parley played many different gigs at major festivals and newcomer band competitions, as well as smaller gigs, especially between 1989 and 1990 and also recorded various demo takes in the studio during this time. After the individual members drifted further and further apart at the beginning of the 90's due to their studies, the band gradually came to an end as everyone had to focus on their professional future.The last gig took place on 16.10.1993. Local Parley's singer Gregor Steinbrenner later went to become a known TV showmaster by moderating the well known show for kids "1, 2 oder 3", while Tilo Graf immediately joined the band Zelexion within the same year, who later changed name to "we need money".

(Thanx to Dr. Tilo Graf for explicit info and pictures!)

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A commercial Hard Rock band of the early 90's, that was originating from Wiesloch, south of Heidelberg in Hessen and recorded an obscure CD in February '93 for Face Music. The 10 tracks on "One for the money" feature all the same kind of melodic Hard Rock with quite commercial US edge, comparable to acts like Bon Jovi, Europe with also a well noticable german note. The guitar solos are pretty well done and so is the whole catchy songwriting, though the heavy use of these poppy keyboards might not be everyone's cup of tea at all. 1995 Statement either released one more CD entitled "Love bites" on the indie label Goodlife Records. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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Nope, that's not a Halloween picture, it are indeed the Shanghai guys from Kirchheim/Teck, who was previously haunting their neighbourhood as Wild Child. The Metal Voice label supported these Shock Rockers and published their only album "Yesterday's tomorrow", that was recorded in February '89. Though Shock Rockers might fit for their aim probably and indeed the guys seemed to have fun to pose like US Glam Metallers and copied even their style musically. But well the german hardness put it's saving hand atop this foursome and therefore we got the pleasure to get to hear the best of both styles, the Glam pounders and the Heavy Metal smashers with vocals in places strongly reminding of Ozzy. Even Ozzy's sound of the mid 80's might be a good comparison. But best and heaviest power banger is "The veils of darkness". Seriously a great Party (Heavy) Metal album, that fans of the genre shouldn't miss at all. In 1994 the lads changed name to Horny Speed. Jürgen Bischof their vocalist who uses to mask himself as “Eric Boulton” previously played with Kirchheim Thrashers Outrage.

Band-info:

The idea to form a band for 4 young Slayer fans arose already in December ’86, when they decided in Berlin Weißensee (ex-GDR) to do the very same in a bar. None of the four protagonists at this pub table had ever owned an instrument or even had one between their fingers! Inspired by "Reign in blood", the name Postmortem was chosen and without much discussion it was clear who should play which instrument. Other musical influences were Celtic Frost, Motörhead and Venom. This first line up at the time included: Michael Brümmer (guitar), Martin Pfeiffer (drums), Michael Däne (bass) and Marcus Marth (guitar). After a short time, Renè Köhler already replaced Michael Däne on bass. However, the band only existed on paper, they never ever rehearsed together and rather focussed on drinking beer, instead everyone tried to organize instruments and amplifiers on their own to learn their first skills. Being part of the East Berlin Metal scene, the guys also knew some people who knew musicians and so they finally started taking lessons towards the middle/end of 1987. Renè Köhler was taught by the bassist of Blackout Andy Bahr, while Michael Brümmer and Marcus Marth had the opportunity to learn the basics from Desaster Area guitarist Martin "Ötzel" Windelschmidt. When Uriah Heep played at the Werner Seelenbinder Halle in Berlin in February 1988, there was a small stand where you could have business cards made. A friend of the band said that Postmortem absolutely had to have business cards and had them printed, which were quickly distributed. As a result, the name Postmortem was quickly on everyone's lips, even though no music had ever been heard anywhere, let alone a joint rehearsal. Over the next few months, Martin Pfeiffer (drums) also lost interest, but became a real drummer indeed in Fatal Embrace years later. What remained were Michael Brümmer (guitar), Marcus Marth (guitar) and Renè Köhler on bass, who were really serious and practiced their instruments diligently, but they were always missing a drummer. However, Marcus Marth was completely on it's own in the fall of '89 because the other members tried their luck elsewhere in the course of the political change in the GDR. After a short break, he finally found another Berlin band without a name during the summer of 1990, that badly was in need of a guitarist and it was agreed to merge the two bands and adopt the name Postmorten. Marcus Marth also had the idea to try Peter „Pluto“ Neuber (the owner of Poserslaughter Records btw.) as vocalist, which wouldn’t work out so well. But shortly afterwards, Lemmy, the drummer, already left after just a very few rehearsals, leaving Marcus Marth (guitar), Sven Gohdes (guitar) and Matthias Rütz (bass, vocals) without a drummer until the end of 1990, when Marko Thäle came from Darkland, who brought his Darkland buddy Tilo Voigtländer (bass) with him as well, Postmortem's classic line-up was eventually completed in early 1991. Matthias Rütz from this day only took care of the singing. Stylistically, the band played Death/Thrash, with clear musical influences from Darkland, early Incubus and Desecrator. With this working line-up, the Demo "Secret lunacy" was recorded in the summer of 1991 and officially released on November 2nd 1991, when Postmorten played their first live show in Hohen Neuendorf in front of 350 people. The demo was completely sold out that evening and there were many new editions. In total, between 1900 and 2100 copies must have gone into circulation over the following three years. The second Demo "Last aid to die" was recorded a year later in September '92, which the band was able to finance by winning a band competition in Ludwigshafen in May '92. After the release of "Last aid to die", the Berliners began recording their debut album "Screams of blackness" in August 1993, which was produced by Harris Johns at Music Lab Studio. Sven Gohdes left Postmorten after these recordings and joined Dayzolate instead, while ex-Enslaved Dirk Olesch switched from Dayzolate to Postmortem. "Screams of blackness" can best be compared to the British Desecrator in terms of style and the way the songs are played. The album was finally released on CD by Husky Records in 1994, while the band had already been appearing more and more live since 1993 and were also constantly supporting bigger acts such as Morbid Angel, Protector, Crematory or Atrocity. Postmortem then signed with Morbid Records and in spring 1996 started working on the new album "The age of massmurder" (1997) without Dirk Olesch though (he had already left Postmortem in 1995), which had already been preceded by the MCD "Der Totmacher" (1996). In contrast to the early releases, and especially "Screams of blackness", the band's musical concept had changed a lot and now got a much more modern touch, more in the Death'n'Roll vein, which the album "Repulsion" (Morbid Records) underlined once again in 1998. After the MCD "Storm force" in 2000, again released on Morbid Records, the longtime drummer Marko Thäle eventually left the band and was replaced by Andreas Grant (ex-Bonestorm), who, however, threw in the towel during the recordings of the "Join the figh7 club" MCD in 2003. The EP was completed with Marko Schröder (ex-Murderers Row) on drums instead and a second guitarist, Ekkehard Wolff, was also recruited. The overall sound of the band changed again, but Marko Schröder was not able to fulfill his duties as the band's drummer all the time, which caused Ekkehard Wolff to leave Postmortem in the end. After a final concert in June 2005, the remaining members decided to close the Postmortem chapter for the time being.
Since spring 2006 Matthias Rütz, Tilo Voigtländer and Marcus Marth have been back from retirement and, together with ex-First Aid drummer Max Scheffler, have started all over again. From this constellation, the band released 4 more albums between 2008 and 2014.

(Thanx to Marcus Marth for band info!)

Band-info:

East Berlin Thrashers much influenced by Protector. Darkland was actually founded in 1987 by Andre Menzel, Dirk Porstmann, Mario "Pinocio" Arndt, Jörg "Gecko" Ebert and Marko Thäle under the name Gomorrah, but the state classification commission had various objections to this name and so the guys decided to change it to Darkland a little later. Towards the end of 1988, however, Marko Thäle had to follow the call of the “Nationale Volksarmee”, whereupon Torsten "Tier" Stahnke (Disaster Area/Blackout) recommended drummer Heiko Wolf from Gardelegen to the band. After bassist Jörg Ebert was unfortunately drafted into the army in the spring of '89, Tilo Voigtländer joined the band, which then consisted of Andre Menzel (vocals), Dirk Porstmann (guitar), Mario Arndt (guitar), Tilo Voigtländer (bass) and Heiko Wolf (drums). Some of the main influences were Protector and Celtic Frost, of which Darkland also had some cover versions in their program. The first untitled demo was recorded shortly afterwards but never released. Jörg Ebert still had recorded most of the bass tracks. It contained all of Darkland's own songs completed at the time. Towards the end of summer '89, the band also recorded the much better known 2nd demo "Violent world" in the DEFA studios in Babelsberg with the same line-up, which was one of the most brutal Thrash tapes from the ex-GDR at the time. The band was often on the road live with Asathor from Magdeburg and also supported Holy Moses and Blitzz in Berlin in early December '89. Jörg Ebert then returned from the army in the fall of 1990 and initially took over his position on bass again before leaving the band for good towards the end of 1991. Marko Thäle went to Postmortem at the end of 1990, where Tilo Voigtländer also found a new job at the beginning of '91. In the end, Dirk Porstmann (guitar/vocals), Mario Arndt (guitar/vocals) and Heiko Wolf (drums) only remained as a trio, which disbanded in 1994. Heiko Wolf remained active with Scream Silence for a long time afterwards.

(Thanx to Tilo Voigtländer for band info!)

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A Hard Rock band from Fulda, which was active during the very early 80's and was seen sharing stage live with bands like f.e. Sin City. Mythos C recorded their sole album "New world" during March 1982 and released it independently. The song material partly combined the common german Kraut/Prog Rock with rough Hard Rock and even some early Heavy Metal influences, sounding occasionally like f. e. Rebel or the very early Accept. A female vocalist was part of Mythos C as well, sharing vocals equitable with André Lukáts, whenalso Sabine Heil mainly sung the softer material though. The band most probably was already history before the mid 80's started. Further info is welcome.
(Thanx to Andy Süss for the info)

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Unfortunately we don’t have much info of this unknown Noise/Grindcore act, but they released a split Demo with Eastgermans D.A.B. in 1991.

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Actually D.A.B. stands for “Die Aufplatzenden Bockwürste“ and this Crossover troop was founded during 1989 in Salzwedel, on territory of the ex-GDR. This band recorded their first Rehearsal/Demo in November 1989 and one more split cassette with Lethal Retch during 1991, before they vanished again silently. To describe their style, it’s deathy Grindcore in the vein of Necrophiliacs with HC vocals, that unfortunately kinda take out the charm of the whole recordings. Despite the vocals, D.A.B. fell totally into the common primitive scheme of these early Grind/Noisecore acts though. One of the members was called Frank Peisler...

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Rest In Pain from Tröbnitz, south of thuringian city of Jena, started out back in March 1988 originally as a Punk unit under the name of “Dolfburgs Rache”. Thommy and Gunnar shared vocals, Kermit on guitar, Ronald Schuch on bass and Michael Schlichter behind drums, in this form they tortured their surroundings until summer, before Thommy decided to quit, while the rest of the bunch raised speed and went into a brutal Hardcore act instead, combined with a name change to Rest In Pain. Besides diverse private garage gigs and spending the following 2 years with intense rehearsing, the band somehow survived the decline of the ex-GDR and had their first official club gigs in spring '90, while a bigger audience was waiting at the Pausaer Sommerrock Open Air 1990. At this time Rest In Pain still performed their brutal Hardcore, but the band started stagnating in October 1990, because it's only been Michael and Ronald who permanently rehearsed together on conventional base. This resulted in Ronald learning to play guitar and taking over vocals as well, while new member Uwe was found on bass instead already in February '91. In the summer of ’91 then guitarist Kermit and singer Gunnar eventually had to leave the band for good, that now became a trio with Ronald Schuch (guitar, vocals), Uwe (bass) and Michael Schlichter (drums) building Rest In Pain’s new core. In July 1991 their first Demo "Screaming decomposed disorder" was recorded, presenting the band with a new, midpaced, rather technical Death Metal sound, reminding slightly of finish Xysma. The first gig of R.I.P.’s new incarnation already happened in September then, before the second Demo "Insalubrious sights from the dark half" was recorded right in the next year. The doomy, but rather progressive style of the band spiked with grind parts and vocals in the Prophecy Of Doom/Carcass vein, invited the new label Invasion Records to produce an EP during 1993 with the guys, entitled "Intense tremor", that was released as a MCD, which couldn’t really draw interest of bigger labels due to their complicated and almost unapproachable style. 1994 Rest In Pain once again still could release a Split 7” with Grindcore geeks Vaginalmassaker on Regurgitated Semen Records, featuring the songs "Possessed by mouldy" and "Insalubrious sights from the dark half", but here their story ends as well.

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Shortlived Death Metal band from Zwenkau, south of Leipzig, that formed directly after the political change right during the beginning of the 90’s and lasted just for 2 or 3 years with the professionally produced “Eternal stench” Demo from 1993 being their effort. The first Demo though already was recorded the year before, entitled "Mortal agony of death" and could be compared stylistically to bands like Eternal Darkness, Bolt Thrower and Asphyx, a rather enjoyable sort of Death Metal with ferocious underproduced sound. After the first release Theo joined on guitar while bassist Henrik “Henne" Frey left the guys, so on the “Eternal Stench” tape there's Lade on vocals, Tom and Theo on guitars and Fred still on the drums.

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A band from Rösrath, near Cologne that used to love the story of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves it seems. The guys dressed up like arabian princes and either worked with silly synonyms, that one could be well tempted to skip the band alone for that sake, but seriously their only album from 1987 features some poppy, yet catchy melodic Hard/Heavy Rock, that must be counted to the upper middle league and gets in the line with other bands of the genre like Domain, Mydra or Karo f.e. Mainly recommended for the melodic faction. Interestingly that "Marrakesh Express" EP released in 7” and 12” format, totally differs from each other. While the 7” contains the album number “Salome", the 12" features with “Shake it up, Lucy” and "She can't sleep” two non-album songs on the B side.

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Just a typical “bavarian band” judging by their AORish sound and indeed this fivepiece came from Fostinning in the wider eastern Munich-area. Their scarce single “Dreamin’" doesn't pop up often, so it seems those copies had been spread mainly in their local area back in the day. For fans of poppy Hard Rock in the vein of Kingdom, A’s & B's Project, Boysvoice, Burning Heat, Dominoe etc. surely a nice find since musically, like all the other Munich Pop Metal acts, Straight Line offered rather solid and catchy material.

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Another one of these local unknowns hailing from anywhere and nowhere, who produced any unkown single during the early 80’s and disappeared into nowhere again afterwards. They rather might not look like Hardrockers at all, but that's what their 2 numbers "Breakdown" and "Shadow of the devil” indeed are, reflecting the growing german Hardrock sound of the early 80’s with good heavy riffing on the title track. "Shadow of the devil" walks a slower path though, still the only point that opens a discussion here are the weak vocals of Matthias Kral. No clue where to and when they disappeared…