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These melodic Hardrockers from Jork, west of Hamburg, were formed in January '86 by Jörg Leyding and Thomas Fisher. The line-up was completed in June '87 with the addition of Frode Garshol, Andreas Glummert and Jan-Marc Bayer. Their "...Call 6069" Demo was recorded in December '87 (released early 1988), described as Y&T-influenced melodic Hard Rock with even KEEL style up tempo numbers. Their Norwegian Drummer Frode Garshol went on to ALLEY CAT in 1988, causing a big conceptional change inside the band, who immediately got renamed to CHAMPAGNE during late '88 or January '89, with new line up featuring Jörg Leiding (vox), Hucky (guitar), ex-WILD HEART Heiko Schröder (guitar) Olly (bass) and AC on drums. For the end of January '89 a new Demo was either announced. If you have more info, please get in contact.

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A relatively young band from the wider Bocholt area on the Dutch border, whose members all had been still teenagers when MANDRAGORE was seen live on stage at the “Metal Battle” in Isselburg, happening in May 1988 together with local heroes VEBRIFUGE and KARNAGE. The boys couldn’t fully convince the audience at all, comments about a “strange vocal style” came up. No clue what happened with them afterwards, they seemed to have been vanished quickly.

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Bocholt’s own KARNAGE formed sometime during 1987 in the area northwest of Essen, where these guys mainly operated live as well during their too short existence. Guys who’ve seen them live on stage back in the day attested the band a quite professional performance, while their sort of Speed Metal had been rather on a higher level than usual. Unfortunately KARNAGE only recorded a single Demo during the second half of 1988 to prove the good impression they left on stage, but well, the tape then included with 7 songs quite album length.

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The Thrash band BLASTED was previously known as DARKNESS since already 1985, but not the Essen band! These DARKNESS/BLASTED hailed from Ludwigshafen and released 2 rather speedy Power Metal influenced Demos before they changed name to BLASTED in 1988 and added Stefan Webet as second guitarist. On the guys 3rd tape (Demo # 1for BLASTED though), "Contamination by torture", they tried to perform a kinda varied Thrash Metal with several breaks, but the main focus was clearly on the thrashy parts of the songs. During 1989 another tape with similar style was released, entitled "So near and yet too far".

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Another Thrash band with the name HATRED, that as if it wouldn't be enough that the Winterscheid HATRED played Thrash Metal too, was active at exactly the same time and either released their only known Demos during late 1991 and 1992. The band was formed around 1990 in Moosburg, north of Munich, while Uwe Sedlmaier already was the drummer of Landshut Thrashers SORS IMMANIS. After HATRED’s "Live Demo" 1991, their original guitarist Daniel Kuntz passed away and therefore SORS IMMANIS’s Karl “Charly” Schaberl was hired, who appeared on their second tape "Under pressure of lies". HATRED didn't seem to exist much longer afterwards as Irlbauer joined SORS IMMANIS in 1995.

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Thrashers from Erdingen/Landshut, that originally operated as a Punk band during the early 80’s under the monicker of DIE SCHWULEN PÄPSTE. After the reformation and a name change to FICKINGER, the band carried on as a Hardcore outfit between 1985/86, before another stilistical break would happen. During 1986 new guitarist Karl “Charly” Schaberl joined the guys, who changed connected with further line up changes stylistically into the Thrash camp and therefore a new name had been in bad need as well. SORS IMMANIS got the surcharge, while until March of 1987 it took the guys to completely restructure the new band. Only bassist Mike would remain of the old team. In 1987 SORS IMMANIS would record their first Demo, that could hold certain quality standards of that time, but reviews mentioned the band wouldn’t stand out of the mass of new Thrash bands at all. Late in 1988 the guys decided to throw another tape on the market, being a live Demo this time, recorded in early September of that year. Stylewise it was noticeable that SORS IMMANIS would drift away more and more into the Techno Thrash direction from that point on, although for the rest of the decade the band wouldn’t release any other tape at all. It took them until 1992 when “Hidden truth” was available, now with Uwe Gasz on bass guitar, who also would appear with Albert Nitzl, Karl Schaberl and Uwe Sedlmaier on the 1993 output "The fragility of beauty", all being technical Thrash stuff. For the follow up Demos “The haunted” (1994) and “Instant termination” (1995, released on CDR) the line up had changed again. Ex-HATRED frontman Stephan Irlbauer, whom Charly Schaberl & Uwe Sedlmaier, who both also played in that band, recruited after HATRED’s split eventually joined in, while also Sascha Treffert, another guitarist, would reinforce SORS IMMANIS together with remaining duo Karl Schaberl and Uwe Sedlmaier. Last sign of life so far was the “Beyond the red” Demo CD released in 2000. It seems the band is still active yet though.

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ACID was an old band from Dortmund, whose roots are originating back to 1979 already. Their first release was a private Hard Rock inspired single, recorded in July '83, featuring the cheesy ballad "Livin' in a dream" and the better, NWOBHM influenced rocker "Drifter". During the mid 80's ACID entered the stage again with a 3 song Demo, that also contained "Drifter" again, which was sold at their gigs. At that time the band members saw themselves influenced by bands like RAINBOW, SCORPIONS, STATUS QUO and JUDAS PRIEST. Right for October ’86, as ACID claimed in interviews of that time, a recording session was in the planning phase, featuring 5 songs, predestined for an album, that the manager of the guys should try to sell to any record company afterwards. But nothing in that direction would happen at all till after several years of silence, ACID recorded the album "Acidify" during September '88, which in the end was released under the title of "Don't lose your dreams" the year after. The band was now a trio, consisting of mastermind Sommerhoff (vocals, guitar), Andreas Schulz still on bass and Carsten Bald behind the drums. Also soundwise they added a proper pound of power and occasionally played a very speed driven melodic type of Power Metal, not much unlike Helloween and bands of that caliber. The only disturbing issue are those few commercial Heavyrockers that simply won't fit to the album at all. Otherwise "Don't lose your dreams" was a very sold affair. Not sure, when Acid split up, but for sure during the very early 90's.

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A Heavy Metal band from Laudenbach/Heidelberg that formed in early 1984 and released a Demo tape in 1985 that featured faster melodic Heavy Metal with influences of SAXON, JUDAS PREST and ACCEPT. Afterwards in 1986 a second Demo entitled "Heavy Metal" was recorded with new members Carsten Oesterreicher (bass) replacing Stefan Schiemer and Mike Schmidt (guitar) came to replace Andy Fath. The guys claimedtheir style themselves as “Rock’n'Rage" btw. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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Did you ever ask yourself why these early german bands always looked like the guys from the Blue Oyster Bar? However, Ralf Hollmer was previously active since 1981 with TYRANT before he started VAMPYR in 1984 with Wolfgang Schwarz (vocals), Markus “Conan" Maier (bass), who both had been playing together in another local band previously, and the two Sterzik brothers Roman (drums) and Lubosch on guitar, who as well played together for several years. This might probably explain why both bands are so close in style and sound. For those who enjoy the typically german Power/Speed Metal like TYRANT and early RUNNING WILD the "Cry out for Metal" LP might be the Elysium for every headbanger. Unfortunately they only made this one album before the band split up in 1988 already. Lubosch “Iron Head” Sterzik joined (oh miracle) TYRANT right afterwards.

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The Duisburg headbangers METAL SWORD debuted with the track "Ready for love" one year after the band was formed (spring '82) on the obscure compilation album "Die No 1". Early 1983 the quartet already had recorded a first Demo tape, that they wasn't too impressed of, as the sound didn't meet the band's expectations at all. When Steve Thomaszorro joined in early '84 on second guitar, the METAL SWORD lads re-recorded that Demo and sent it to diverse record labels, which gained attention by Wishbone Records, who released their "Harder than steel" MLP, recorded in summer '85. At around the same time the album was released Randy Tomlin (ex-WARRANT) replaced T. A. (Thomas Allkämper) on drums in late 1985 and either T.G. Cunning (bass) joined, so the guys could start working on their second album, planned for 1986 as well,featuring new songs like “Into the fire”, Out of control” and "Heavy Metal". Right in the same breath the band announced in interviews, that they’d rather go more commercial on the new albumm trying to cover a spectrum within IRON MAIDEN and DEEP PURPLE.
But the band split up still within the same year. The interesting fact on "Harder than steel" was, that METAL SWORD sounded less german than other bands of the area, but instead showed similarities to the dutch style, like f.e. DARK WIZARD. The MLP is a highly collectable piece featuring haunting underground hymns like "The exorcist" or the outstanding "Stormriders". Ex-drummer Thomas Alkämper would reappear in AIRWOLF, while Randy Tomlin was playing with MANTICORE throughout 1990. One lesser known fact is that Randy Tomlin, while still being in METAL SWORD during 1986 announced plans for a solo EP entitled "Children of the night”. If you got more info about the 2 METAL SWORD Demos, then please get in touch with us.

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ACRID - An early Black Metal band from Siegen, formed in January 1985 by Savage Bastard (guitar) and Hellish Tormentor (drums). The diabolic duo surprised with a mad speed and made just one mistake, their Demos both was "homerecordings", done by themselves. Despite all those early Black (Death) Metal outfits sounded pretty horrible, it's not really the case with ACRID. With a proper studio recording these guys name would be known to a wider audience most probably, though they've been faves in tapetrader circles, being one of the really few early extreme acts that actually sounded good. Fans of old brazilian pioneers like early SARCOFAGO should give them a try definitely. On the debut "Devil's Metal" from 1985, Savage Bastards did all vocals, while at a later stage Hellish Tormentor jumped in and sung on the second effort "Acrid beasts" (1986). A certain "Vollarsch" was hired for session lead guitar for the recordings of "Devil's Metal" as well, after their original “lead guitarist" got just fired shortly before the rercordings. After another inofficial reh/recording done within the same year, the lads changed name to ETERNAL TRASH in mid '87 and released one more Demo entitled "Procession".

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WALLOP was a conspiracy of Stefans it seems, like in WHIPLASH where there was only Tony's playing, WALLOP's almost whole team consisted of guys called Stefan. Nevertheless this band from Hattersheim/Offenbach recorded 2 Demos since they started as quintet in early 1983 and released an album on Axel Thubeauville's label Bonebreaker Records. The second guitarist already left the band in April '83 again. The 2 early Demos was both sung by the original vocalist Stefan Niebling, but shortly before they recorded the album he left, just to return after a while to keep on singing for them till their split in 1987. Mick Wega did the vocals on "Metallic Alps", but he didn't stay for long due to different views about WALLOP’s future music and weak live performances. On the LP their style got way heavier than on the still more in the classic Heavy Metal rooted tapes. They went into a Power Metal direction with many speedy parts (certainly with RUNNING WILD/NOISEHUNTER similarities) and the band was often seen doing live shows with mainly Speed and Thrash bands back in the mid 80's. So it's not really a miracle that Stefan Arnold, after WALLOP recorded a last Demo in 1986 and split up in the coming year, joined Thrashers GRINDER. Lorz and Fleischer founded the Prog Metal band SCENE X DREAM in 1989.

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MORDOR from Wuppertal surely has been fans of ACCEPT, but I have to admit that they did that very well, as musically their first incarnation that started 1984 with vocalist Holger “Doc Rock” vom Scheidt, in places could be seen as serious concurrence for the Solingen steelmasters. The MORDOR boys Holger vom Scheidt (vocals), Oliver Schlimmer (guitar), Harald „Harry“ Lingenberg (guitar), Jörg Hermann (bass) and Thomas “Tornado” Bergmann (drums) recorded their first 4 track Demo in December '85, which was spread in the beginning as a Demo cassette indeed, and published it a bit later on during 1986 as the "Metal" 12” independently in a limited edition of 1000 copies. Despite the fact that the EP was originally intended and already announced to appear under the title “5 riders are coming”, the band seemed to withdraw that title in the very last second. Songs like the eerie "Rock warrior" could be ACCEPT's own songs to be honest. But I don' want to degrade their EP here, as it features more than just listenable typically german Heavy Metal nevertheless. Dave T. Richards of Iron Works came to the same conclusion I guess and featured the track "Rock warrior" on one of his countless shapes, but originally that shape (though it's listed separately down below) originally belongs to the Iron Tyrant's III compilation and was just given away with that album. 1986 Holger vom Scheidt left and formed the also sweet NINJA. His vocal part took over Alan Vandendriessche. Either Jörg Hermann and Harald Lingenberg got replaced by Marcus Bielenberg (bass) and Michael Stötzner (guitar) on the last Demo, anticipatory "Second birth" entitled, that was released in 1987. During May '88 MORDOR announced to soon start recordings for a new Demo, featuring their new shouter Alain Vandendriesche from Belgium, but the chapter MORDOR was finished a while later during 1988 and Marcus Bielenberg reappeared in DANTON.

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Not Fragile belong to Hamburg's oldest Metal formations and their birth goes back till summer 1980 already when Torsten Buczko and Matthias Belter started playing together, till Arnd Stronkowski and Markus Köhn a while later completed the line up. When these lads still started as Hard Rock band, their sound delevoped into NWOBHM influenced Heavy Metal with every year that passed by and after releasing several Demo tapes between 1984 and '85, the whole thing started to fructify, when 2 trax of their "Made in Metal" tape appeared on international compilation albums, while the D&S label also featured Not Fragile on the 1st of their "Break Out" samplers with the trax "Hard to be alive" and "Too fast", that marked the band's advancement to the classic german Power/Speed Metal sound like early Helloween f.e. One weak point though in the whole 80's history, should remain the rather weak vocals of Torsten Buczko. In autumn '87 Raico Ebel (ex-Ill Prophecy) joined Not Fragile for Arnd Stronkowski (later in Bleedfort), who left the band a bit earlier. In February '88 the lads prepared a 4th Demo, when Metalother Records, who already had featured them on their "Metal Warriörs" sampler, contacted the band and offered them to rather produce a vinyl of the recordings instead of a Demo. "Who dares wins", as the MLP was later entitled, featured a grown Speed Metal band, that fully continued there where Helloween stopped after "Walls of Jericho", celebrating the melodic highspeed Metal thing with smoking fingers. Due to Metalother financially ripped them off, Not Fragile in fall of '88, reinforced by Ralf Salpius as second guitarist, recorded 3 new songs for the "Lost in a dream" 12", released by their management Hellion Records in all kinds of possible vinyl colors in a limited edition of 1000 copies. Raico Ebel quit Not Fragile still in 1989 due to internal trouble and started his own project Mad Alien. Torsten Buczko handled the second guitar from this point again and the album "One way to glory" was recorded in summer 1989 at Delta Studio in Wilster, which wasn't released before 1992 in Japan only as "Hard to be alive", including the "Who dares wins" EP as well. In Germany that album was released just 1 year later as the "Lost in a dream" CD, including different bonus trax. Their sound was still following the classic Power/Speed Metal scheme like on the previous releases and this album could have had probably marked Not Fragile's breakthrough on the Metal market, but it just shouldn't be probably. Not Fragile though had called it quits already in 1990, but returned 4 years later and since then recorded lotsa more albums.

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VICIOUS CIRCLE from Willebadessen was around since July 1979 and it wouldn’t be entirely wrong to call them a pre-stage of the band GHANDI, as Gerd Klik and Arnold Sprenger (both later in GHANDI) had been active in VICIOUS CIRCLE. Since around 1982 the band could eventually stabilize a steady line up featuring Pieter Vermeul (vocals), Thomas Sünnemann (guitar), Arnold Sprenger (guitar), Donald Vermeul (bass) and Dieter Kratochwill (drums). The lads even had been not so far away from the later GHANDI style, already delivering a nice dose of speedy Heavy Metal with "Down the highway" on their debut 12" on Noise. Previously they already released the "Nightmare" Demo in 1981 and got featured on an underground compilation with the MOTÖRHEAD inspired live track "Hard days of my life" after participating on a newcomer festival in 1982, while VICIOUS CIRCLE already got several support slots for bigger Rock bands at that time as well. Pieter Vermeul (later sometimes also refered as “Peter”) though would decide to leave the band during summer ’83 and rather joined the heavier acting Breaker from Paderborn as drummer instead. With the Demo that the reformed band recorded in 1984, Noise International picked them up. The line at that time consisted of Gerd Klik (guitar), Joachim Wittmann (guitar, vocals), Arnold Sprenger (guitar, vocals), Georg Knaub (bass) and Dieter Kratochwill (drums). Still in contrary to later GHANDI, they performed a bit more Scorpions influenced beside the already mentioned speed number. But that would later change with GHANDI that Sprenger and Klik would form after VICIOUS CIRCLE's split in 1986.

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A progressive Hard Rock "orchestra" from Miesbach, south of Munich, that formed in 1985 and used to sing in their native local slang, which is quite abnormally within the German Hard Rock spectrum, as most of the bands tried to reach an international audience. Nevertheless Xenon's style wasn't uninteresting at all, having a slightly heavier sound than band's like TOTO with huge Prog Rock edge in the beginning. Right one year after forming the band, the guys took part on an obscure local compilation entitled "MB Pop", featuring XENON’s “Der Wächter” and “Du allein”. Their selfproduced debut single with the 2 songs "Der Wächter" and "Die Wölfin" got finally released with huge delay during early 1989. The original recordings was done already in January '88, but a few things had to be added in the following months. When they entered the studio in April '88 again, all the analogue technique got converted to digitally PC controlled which caused more problems than advantages. When they finally had every missing part recorded and the songs was finally finished, the lads wasn't happy with the too sterile sounding result at all and simply re-recorded both tracks once again within 2 nights. November 3rd 1988 XENON's single recordings was finally finished. 1992 the guys once more released a fullenght album on the label Ample Records, featuring much heavier Hard Rock with bavarian slang like on their first single, but this time explicitly more Hard Rock and either Metal guided than before, comparable to the late DEEP PURPLE. After "Fuartfahrn" (means "To drive away") the band in 1996 released one more privately produced CD entitled “Haberfeldtreib'n”, which was published on the Rockwerk indie label, as well as their last MCD “Nix anders”. XENON split up on 2003.

(Thanx to emosteel for the recommendation)

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A female fronted act from somewhere in the southern Frankfurt/Offenbach area, that’s still dwelling in the shades of nothingness, despite a selfproduced single, made sometime during 1984/85. The lads notorically saved on important info on the sleeve, but due to the name of the studio, the 2 songs were recorded in, we’d been able to draw a circle around that secret area. Nevertheless, THE BREEZE’s sound adopted R’n’R influences in a major way, merging Metal and Hard Rock on a rather average level. There’s some tiny hints of ACCEPT audible on the title track, even though due to the female vocals the song’s drifting off to completely different shores. Moreover it seems that “We need parties” remained THE BREEZE’s only output so far we can tell by now.

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Another no name ensemble from the sheer seeming endlessly German Hard Rock jungle. There isn't’ much to tell about this band's history at all, since zero info could be found nowadays. Only remnant of their musical legislating is a totally obscure 7" that features the 2 trax “Killing my head” and “Famous". Due to the name of the record label "Wall-City-Records", there might be a tiny possibility that LIPSTICK perhaps originated from West Berlin, but who knows. Judging by the music of this group there wasn't much German influences audible so far. We should rather move over to the British island instead, as LIPSTICK's sound reminds rather of the typical Hard Rock acts of the NWOBHM movement like early TOBRUK, DARK STAR and similar calibers.

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A local Heavy Rock band originating from Offenbach in the greater Frankfiurt area, whose firstly recorded live activities are reaching back to at least 1988, so we guess the band formed around 1986/87 most possibly. But despite acting rather in the background of their locally limited live performances as it seems, STATION C even recorded a more or less unknown single during the fall of the 80’s, that was released on the local Berlin based label J&P in 1990. Musically the guys totally fit into the sign of the times during those days, delivering 2 highly melodic sounding Hard Rock tunes with commercial edge, but at no time appearing boring at all. It's quite a miracle where all those great musicians would crawl out of the dirty backstreets of the big German cities in the late 80's, but yeah they did so indeed, just to vanish again soon, as quick as they once turned up. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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FRYSBEE will only be mentioned briefly here, as this band does not really belong to the Heavy Metal spectrum at all. Their first single, “Deadend Street Man,” from 1984, therefore does not offer much of interest apart from mediocre, shallow rock. The second single, “Harley Davidson,” on the other hand at least surprised listeners with a genuine biker Hard Rock number. The title track also appeared on one of those countless obscure samplers from C.B.R. Records, which the studio had produced in the mid 80’s, but which, with a few exceptions, contained only average material. On the “Querschnitt” sampler, which was also produced by C.B.R., FRYSBEE was able to include another of their tracks (“Rendezvous am Strandcafe”), but again, it did not stand out particularly positively.

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Another Berlin band that also formed during the ex-GDR era around 1990. However, this group is relatively unknown, despite the fact that their Demo “Interlude” received rave reviews in the Metal press in the early 90s (for whatever reason) and was sometimes compared to a mixture of MEGADETH and ANNIHILATOR. For the major part, the guys played a much more progressive, strongly psychedelic-influenced sort of Power/Thrash, which, to make matters worse, also featured quite a few DEPRESSIVE AGE-style parts that made the whole thing even more difficult to digest. Why the majority of writers at the time suffered from such extreme lapses in taste remains to be clarified. Although SOLAR FLARES initially started with Bosa Hennig on vocals, the two guitarists Andreas Wolf and Sven Jorkuweit, and Jörn Darkow on drums, the line-up had already been completely revamped by the time the Demo was recorded. Maik Oberpichler was now behind the mic, while the guitar line-up remained unchanged with Andreas Wolf and Sven Jorkuweit. Mario Prause by then played bass, while Bosa Hennig now took on the role of drummer. Most likely the band already split up by 1994/95. Bassist Mario Prause then launched a broadside with his new band PUNISHABLE ACT.

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The band BLACK VELVET is mainly known for a track on the "Schwarz auf weiß" compilation released on CBR Records. Their song "Welcome to the show" is an ok Hard Rocker with rocking background, that appears probably heavier due to the rough sound. Already in 1984 the C.B.R. label had produced a scarce 2 song single as well and additionally used another BLACK VELVET song "Emotional freeze" for one their scarce compilations entitled “Erholung", that most probably was recorded in the same session as the 2 single trax. Similar to other BLACK VELVET material, the 84er recordings deliver average Hard Rock with certain proggy hints, that's suffering by the bad vocal performance. If you got more info of this band, please get in touch.

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Obscure hardrockers with yet still unknown identity, who appeared with the song "Suicidal woman" on one of the scarce C.B.R. compilations that was released during the mid 80’s. So far judging by this single song, the lads stood for catchy archetypical down to earth Hard Rock, that won’t hurt anyone and on the other hand leaves the door open for some more RAIN recordings that for sure took place around the same time when “Suicidal woman” was recorded in 1984 as well. Further info is welcome.

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Blue Velvet was originating from the Dortmund area, and this five piece recorded a quite solid melodic Hard Rock album with feeling in the typical Bonfire style, focussing on late 80's heavy rocking US american Hair Metal stuff, much reminding of Vice, Vamp or either Pink Cream 69. Thomas Matiszik and Björn Gralla also was part of the Science Project (SP), who recorded a benefit 12" in 1990. the D&S label who published the CD, alsop made a few promotional singles that featured the song “Two different words" on both sides.

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The Mayence based hardrockers MISTRESS for sure built the heaviest contribution on the local “Mayence Rock '87” compilation album, while the band itself was also part of the yearly happening local Mayence Rock festival during 1987. Their track “Eyes can tell" at first appears a bit strange seen by the entire design/structure of the number, that combines AOR, Hard Rock and Heavy Metal all together in one production, but in the end it seriously worked well. Most near compare would be early DIO most probably, especially during the refrain part it’s screaming DIO all along.

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I doubt this was a real band in the first, rating it rather a project of Lutz Korndörfer, a local Mayence musician who’s been also playing in other local Mayence AOR and Hard Rock acts like MELBOURNE, RANKNESS, VILLAIN and later appeared in HEAT. It seems that his project was part of the yearly happening local Mayence Rock festival during 1987 and for that purpose they produced the song "Feel what you see" for the “Mayence Rock '87” compilation album. The track is far off the heaviness of RANKNESS OR VILLAIN, and since it’s an AOR ballad, it’s even difficult to say more about the project at all. Well possible that it could be seen as the precursor for MELBOURNE, since both Wolfgang Weber as well as Frank Wallmüller a bit later on surfaced with that band on the local Mayence scene.

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A band from Mayence, that was part of the yearly happening local Mayence Rock festival during 1987 and for that purpose could produce the song "The lonelyness inside" for the “Mayence Rock '87” compilation album. The song's a controversial affair to be honest, because parts of it just deliver plain Pop/Rock, while on the refrain X-IT clearly mutate to an AOR band.

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A band from Mayence, that was part of the yearly happening local Mayence Rock festival during 1987 and for that purpose could produce the song "Hobo on the run" for the “Mayence Rock '87” compilation album. Starting quite softly in the beginning, the song develops a pounding american sounding AOR/Hard Rock beat during the second part, so it's difficult to say which musical spectrum the band with their other material was able to cover.

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Less known hardrockers from southern Germany’s Landau, between Karlsruhe and Mannheim. It won't bother anyone at all if he doesn't owns their privately produced single, recorded on Easter 1985 in the Face Music Studio, who also took care of the vinyl pressing and published it under their own banner. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad piece, but for the year 1985 quite unspectacular sounding. Due to their undoubtable favour for the 70’s sound, both of the tracks appear relatively outdated, especially "The night in front of the mirror" on the B side, which pretends a heavy STATUS QUO Boogie edge and is only slipping into slightly more metallic sounds during the guitar solo part. The midpaced, slow title track “White Haze” on the contrary comes down with a rather melodic approach and should represent the early 80’s Hard Rock sound a bit more detailed, though you won't get rid off that Krautrock feel here either.

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A Rock band from Celle, north of Hannover, who already formed in 1980. Unfortunately to dig out more specific info of this band went difficult. Apart of 2 songs on a local compilation entitled "Celler Rockmusik Initiative" from 1988, there wasn’t much interesting to be found so far. Judging by the sound of “How do you feel" and "Monday", SKOKIAN's sound combined lotsa styles. With “How do you feel” the lads delivered a nice Hard Rock ballad, while on "Monday" there's more of an AOR/Prog Rock act shining through, with influences of MARILLION. The band info either mentions Blues, so who knows how much other surprises their musical repertoire had in petto. However, SKOKIAN musicians performed for sure on an above average level.

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A less known Hard Rock band from Mayen, near Koblenz, who on their “No pleasure” Demo tape, do sound a lot heavier than you may expect, due to their raw sound. The tape just features 3 midtempo trax that had been recorded during May 1992 and should be musically categorized somewhere in the early/mid 80's Hard Rock scene with a certain bluesy feeling though, whenalso it’s not meant in any negative aspect. Nevertheless, BLACK BLIZZARD’s material never left the average stage, so they’ve been in good company with hundreds of equal bands spending their time locked in their basements.

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Aidean from Mannheim belongs to the most underrated bands of the whole decade and it's really a mystery that a band of their format never made it big back in the day. The band was founded 1980 and recorded some first Demo recordings in July 1985. These 5 trax was still sung by ex-Stainless Steel shouter Frank Heukemes, who later got replaced by Steve Lydakis. After adding keyboarder Angelo Vilardo they started producing their debut album independently, which was recorded between July ’87 and March ’88 and released by the indie label Run Records, while they truly deserved some bigger label in the back for sure to promote the band in a bigger way. Their album "Promises" belongs to the most promising albums of the whole 80's german pompish Melodic Metal/Hard Rock scene, that could be mentioned equally to the ones of Zeno, Fair Warning, Craaft, Bonfire, Heartlyne or Mydra, delivering only top notch material that's been equal to top sellers of the US american charts. While other bands wrote Rock history, Aidean vanished into nothingness quickly after the album and didn't even get a Wikipedia entry nowadays.

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Kiel melodic Power Metal obscurists featuring Jörn Evert (vocals), Thomas "T.T." Klang (guitar), Thomas "Fineman“ Schönemann (guitar), Marc Lakomczak (bass), Stefan "Step" Krüger (drums), that formed in 1984 according to the info on their 1988 Demo. Prior to that tape, the band had already recorded 2 previous Demos back in 1986 and '87 respectively, with their first singer called short and sweet "Hugo". After the second 10 song Demo, simply entitled “Demo II", the vocalist was exchanged with Jörn Evert, with whom they recorded “The tempest" in 1988. From the one tune of the tape that's been unearthed so far, we're dealing with a pretty enjoyable, down-to-earth form catchy Heavy/Power that would probably have earned more local recognition if released a few years earlier. If you have more info, please get in contact.

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LÖWENHERZ from Querfurt (ex-GDR) was the band from which MANOS would later emerge, and had been roaming the local underground since 1984. The band was founded by Ingo Zach, Torsten and Mike “Andrew” Andrae in Lodersleben, while the trio played their first live gig in 1986. During the following year in 1987, Torsten was replaced by Thomas “Tunte” Thrun on bass, while a second guitarist, Thomas Peschke, joined the band as well. “Lionheart”, most likely a rehearsal (or live) recording, features a MOTÖRHEAD-like Punk Metal sound, which did not differ significantly from some of the first MANOS recordings such as "Metal invade". However, Peschke was replaced by Andreas “Pils” Löhne (guitar) in the fall of 1987, while Ingo Zach also made space for new drummer Jan Berendt right in the next year. By that time in 1988 the guys had long since changed their name to MANOS respectively. There is also a private rehearsal tape that survived, with already Andreas Löhne on guitar and and still Ingo Zach on drums, recorded in March 1988 in the Saal "Kartoffelhaus"/Querfurt, actually their rehearsal room, heavily MOTÖRHEAD influenced too.

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The chaos mongers MANOS originally started as LÖWENHERZ in Querfurt (ex-GDR) back in 1984, albeit with a different line-up at the time. LÖWENHERZ was founded as a trio by Ingo Zach (drums), Torsten (bass) and Mike “Andrew” Andrae (vocals, guitar) in Lodersleben, with their first live performance taking place in 1986. In 1987, Torsten got eventually replaced by Thomas “Tunte” Thrun on bass, while a second guitarist, Thomas Peschke, also joined the band. Peschke was replaced quickly by Andreas “Pils” Löhne (guitar) towards the end of 1987 and Ingo Zach also made space for new drummer Jan Berendt right in the following year. By that time in 1988, however, the guys had long since changed their name to MANOS. On the 1988 demo song “Metal invade”, which was not officially released btw., the guys played a rather raw, speedy, MOTÖRHEAD-inspired, punky Metal with Power Metal influences. In the wake of the political changes in the GDR and the associated personnel changes, MANOS recorded their first Demo “Kranker Tannenbaum” in 1989 as a trio with Mike Andrae (guitar, vox), Andreas Löhne (bass) and Carsten Rothweiler (drums). Another tape entitled “Frust” followed shortly afterwards in 1990. By this time, the band's style had already transformed into raw underground Thrash, so that MANOS had become an insider tip thanks to their sometimes quite insane live shows. In November 1990, the three psychos were able to support Norwegians MAYHEM, who were still unknown over here in Germany at the time, on their short East German tour in Zeitz and Leipzig. The whole madness led to a single on the Poserslaughter Records label in 1991, which contained 5 tracks in an even rougher Death/Thrash style. The band's debut album “La Bumm - Die Fette” was otherwise not released until 1994, but had to be taken off the market again shortly afterwards due to legal problems. Manos are still active today and release albums from time to time.

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CARDINAL were a local Berlin Hard Rock band of the ex-GDR, founded at the beginning of 1989 and thus still relatively young at the time of reunification, whose activities were only limited to the Berlin area. They first appeared by name in the second half of 1989, when their song “The school closed down” was aired by Matthias Hopke on his show “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy” in November. The song was taken from their first, selfproduced Demo tape, which they had recorded with the help of Wolfgang “Wolle” Densky” (ex-JOCO DEV SEXTETT/FORMEL 1/BABYLON) in his ‘studio’ during autumn and just contained two songs. Before that, the guys had already performed together with SIXTUS on a live show in Berlin at the beginning of September. CARDINAL rated themselves as a GARY MOORE oriented Hard'n'Heavy act. In the meantime, further studio recordings were already being discussed for 1990, but due to the current situation in the country, this is unlikely to have happened.

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A local Hard'n'Heavy band from Mittweida (ex-GDR), north of Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz), who recorded a Demo tape in the late 80’s. Unfortunately no further information could be dug up.

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A local band from Erfurt (ex-GDR) that was only active on a regional level and was most probably also categorized as a Hard'n'Heavy act. Apart from the fact that CARTHAGO competed on October 21st 1989 at the Gesellschaftliches Zentrum Wiesenhügel in Erfurt to complete their official classification, nothing more is known about the band anymore.

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Just listed for reasons of completion, these are the West Berlin based Crossover punks of RANCID CROWD from Spandau, that should had been active since around 1987 most probably. So far there are 2 Demo tapes available, that the lads recorded during 1988 (5 songs) and “Choice of weapons” was recorded in July 1989, featuring 4 trax, of which only "Last meal" should be of interest for fans of the thrashy US HC/Crossover, since that songs pretty much reminds of AGNOSTIC FRONT. The other 3 just offer rather midtempo California style melodic Surf/HC stuff. During 1988 and as well in 1989 the RANCID CROWD participated at the local West Berlin Senats-Rock Contest "Rock News '88" + "...‘89”.

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Obscure Heavy Metal outfit, hailing from Neuwied, near Koblenz. The band should have been active during the early 80’s, if we’re not mistaken. Despite it’s widely unknown even in collector circles, these lads had produced an independent single at around 1983/84, that featured the trax "Religion wars" and "All but nothing", with the first song tending roughly towards MOTÖRHEAD, which is mainly caused due to Dirk Adam's vocal style (though his voice doesn’t sounds like Lemmy's at all). On the whole, however, there is no doubt that this nice lil piece joins the list of obscure local acts with tiny limited vinyl output, even if it doesn't manage to stand out in any way. Nevertheless, both songs offer exactly what the German Metal lover would expect, solid, midtempo Heavy Metal.

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Morgan Le Fay started around 1984/85 in Düsseldorf and released a first 3 track Demo in 1985, that was reason enough for the D&S Recording label to put two tracks on their Metal Hour sampler. In 1987 another 3 tracker was released and also "Killer without a face" was used again for the Teutonic Invasion compilation. The "Elected" Demo prior to the "Schizo flowers" EP appeared 1989 but a stytlistical change happened around that time. Morgan Le Fay in the beginning was a classic Heavy/Power Metal act though their first recordings left a feeling that the guys wasn't playing that tight together, as besides "Morgan Le Fay" on the Metal Hour being an awesome banger, the performance appeared kinda clumsy, especially on "Killer without a face". On the "Schizo flowers" 12" all the Metal was thrown over board and Morgan Le Fay, despite having a new line up with Horst Endemann (drums), Torsten Hendrix (guitar), Jock Picasso (guitar), Michael Messiah (vocals) and only Dirk Hartl remaining of the old team, their new sound was rather sleazy Hard Rock with Blues touch and Harmonica. Nevertheless, the 12" was privately manufactured and comes with handnumbered innersleeve.

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A progressive Power Metal act that was long active in the wider Bremen/Bremerhaven underground scene since early 1983 and could contribute the track "Beyond eternity" to the Teutonic Invasion 2 sampler, which was taken from the same titled second Demo of this band from Frelsdorf. Scaffold previously already debuted with their Demo "Fight for glory", that was recorded in September '86, and remixed once again im summer the following year. In late '87 the Scaffold spine was built by Norbert Wellbrook (vocals), Klaus Brüning (guitar), Torsten Wendelken (guitar), Hans Teschner (bass) and Frank Alpers (drums). Basically their sound adopted several Helloween influences, but the songs was drawn through with many breaks that made them sounding more like an US band. In the same untypical style for a german band was their 3rd effort "Illuzions of an eerie circle" from 1989, that offered Fates Warning/Dream Theater influences, but it took them a few more years till Gorgon, a sublabel of Inline Music, produced their debut CD "Eerie circles" in 1992. But from the 80's sound was almost nothing left, though the band developed alot musically, adding early Dream Theater and melodic influences and sounding more progressive than they ever did before.

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No idea what the Irish were doing in the Frankfurt area back then, or why they had hoped for a successful career as record millionaires in Germany of all places. In any case, ex-BLACKWYCH guitarist Bobby Tierney and his brother Adrian tried to gain a musical foothold in Germany, in the area around Bad Kreuznach, towards the end of the 80s. The result is an extremely listenable album that naturally comes across as more British than German and is somewhere between Heavy Metal and progressive Hard Rock. Perhaps it's the post-NWOBHM influences that make “Child” something special in the German Metal jungle, but unfortunately this album has hardly received any attention, if you only take the few people who know it. One can only hope that this might change, so that the Tierney brothers' musical oeuvre might still be vividly remembered.

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This band, though being quite late seen by their ascension during 1992, fully focussed on a fundamental late 80’s pompous Hard Rock/Metal sound. Main brain behind the band is Davor Sertic, who’s been a German Metal veteran by already playing in bands like TYRAN' PACE, CHRYSTINE and WASTELAND, before he indeed had the balls to form a completely new act in Reichenbach, east of Stuttgart, during the early 90’s, being called KASHMYR. The name wasn’t chosen just by chance, which the opener of their selftitled 1993 Demo proves. “Middle of the night” reminds of LED ZEPPELIN and late 80’s DEEP PURPLE in the first, but performed in a much more modern way. Everyone of those 4 trax truly stands out, starting with a simply FAT production, that even experienced and prestigious bands might get green out of envy. No wonder that the power banger “Abandoned” made it unto the 3rd part of the “Peace-Eater” CD series. And speaking of the remaining 2 songs of the highly recommended tape, “Saving all your tears” & “Falling to ashes”, it seems like KASHMYR had “stolen” unused BLACK SABBATH material from the “Headless cross” or “TYR” sessions! Seriously, with that David Coverdale style vocals, one might get the impression that this SABBATH/WHITESNAKE influenced stuff was recorded by any topnotch international Hard Rock band! KASHMYR on the other hand didn’t ever get the recognition that they had deserved. As mentioned aboved, they had been at least 4 years too late! In 1995 a selftitled CD appeared on Brunette Records in Japan, so at least the lads for sure sold more CD’s overseas than here in Germany. But calling it “success” wouldn’t be the right term at all. Carsten Hisley reappeared in the fall of the 90’s in the cover band LANCELOT.

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This Crossover band from Wulfsen, south of Hamburg recorded a Demo tape in 1990, that featured quite cool, straight forward American oriented Hardcore with massive Speed Metal edge like f. e. THE IDIOTS. Alone the punky vocals won’t fit here so well, seen by the view of a metalhead naturally, so let’s add these guys for reasons of completions only. After the “Systematic suicide” Demo the line-up would change though. Andreas on guitar and drummer Thomas left the guys who added Jens on guitar and Bodo on drums instead and released one more 7” entitled “Mutation of time”, while with the same breath changed the band name to MENTALLY DAMAGED, as noted on the sleeve of the single.

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Despite the bands logo looking rather like Thrash as well as the band name itself might pretend the very same, these BURIAL had been nothing more like a melodic Hardcore/Crossover act. No clue where they originated from, but in February ’91 a 3 songs Demo was recorded by the lads that offered a melodic sort of Punk Metal with guitar solos and all that belongs to it, featuring quite deep typical Hardcore vocals. Sometimes the Metal edge gets the upper hand and sometimes it’s just the opposite prevailing. So this band will be just of interest for die-hard Crossover or Punk Metal maniacs.

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Deadwood, a trio from Olpe/Sauerland who recorded a 6-song Demo in 1991. One of the songs appeared on the local Wildwux Compilation released the same year. The track "Man on the mountain" features a kinda bluesy Hard Rock, that's kinda simple structured, but not bad sounding at all. The other Demo trax more or less offer the same kind of Hard Rock with slightly funky undertones.

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A Hannover based Crossover band, who in their Demo days 1992 played a sort of Faith No More/Freaky Fuckin' Weirdos influenced groovy Thrash/Hardcore, but soon on their only album "O, what a noble mind is here overthrown" went much more punky and modern, so better don't burn your fingers here.

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Dunno why Munich or Bavaria in general seemed to be the capital for Melodic/Poser bands back in the day, but here we have another representative of that genre added to the countless other combos, whose all been playing more or less the same kind of music. And like all the other acts from that place in southern Germany, these guys had been sailing on the same bugwave like FIREFOX, BAD HOVEN, BURNING HEAT and in the first the SCORPIONS. For sure 1993 hasn't been the right year for VINCIs sort of catchy melodic Hard Rock, but nevertheless, their power ballad “Smells of spring" indeed had everything that it takes to become a worldwide hit.

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A Hard Rock band from Munich that could contribute the 2 trax "Rock the night away" and "Hold on" for the Feierwerk Split LP "Rock Feierwerk Sieger 89" with other Munich bands Bad Hoven, Burning Heat and The Comics. Both trax was taken from their 7 track Demo tape that contains even more outstanding songs. Firefox are interesting for the US influenced Melodic Metal/Hard Rock faction who like it melodic and heavy both at same time. Pole Position, Lifeline, Vera Cruz, Burning Heat are all of the same sort and quality. Highly recommended material with awesome vocals.