~ The German Hard RocK and Heavy Metal Guide ~
History forged in Steel 1978-1993
Yeah I hear what you're saying - Even attempting such a vast project as a "complete" German HR/HM Encyclopedia seem about as futile as ...making a US one? Bah! Long-time Metal collector and Corroseum forum member Prowler spits in the face of Impossible and hereby delivers unto the Metal world the first encyclopedia of the Largest-Yet-Least-Collected Metal-country in the world!
The main idea for this database was born a couple of years ago, when I had found out that in most of the cases, the style descriptions of many German underground bands was completely wrong or there wasn't any info available at all, because the items/bands were too obscure, or that noone had ever heard about them before. The first impulse was to print a book, but that idea was quickly abandoned as while adding known bands to this database, even more, completely unknown releases of even more obscure acts were found.
We also wanted to focus on any kind of heavy music/band that had ever been around from 1978-1993, so that's why we stopped adding releases to the discographys that was released after 1993 in case you might wonder. This database tries to cover every kind of Heavy Kraut Rock/AOR/Melodic Rock/Hard Rock/Crossover and Metal bands of all genres, that were active during that mentioned time range, no matter if these bands ever recorded anything. We are also aware that the list isn't nearly complete, meaning we are open for any kind of suggestions, corrections and help by adding more obscure bands. Especially the local acts are of huge interest, so we might have a short survey of that city/area's underground scene. We know that especially in the Kraut Rock scene there are tons of bands/albums that would most probably meet our requirements, but unfortunately most of these albums are so insanely expensive and rare, that it's impossible to buy all of them just to check out if they might include any possible Hard Rock riffs. We are open for your suggestions, don't worry, your name will be mentioned in the article. To get the site started, we first added the bands with vinyl/CD appearances, while the Demo bands will be added piece by piece in the future as well.
Last but surely not least, a BIG THANK YOU to Dan Edman who made all this possible, by granting me space and technical help. Without his heads up I'd most probably still be dreaming of something like this project.
Browse bands by letter:
S.A.D.
Lineup:
Apostel (vocals)
Micha (vocals)
Andreas Tremmel (guitar)
Roman Kocholl (bass)
Heiner Reul (drums)
Band-info:
S.A.D. wasn't a Metal band, but their Hardcore style could be interesting for some of the Crossover fans, since these guys from Stuttgart played a kinda westcoast US style Thrashcore like Septic Death or D.R.I., though there are lotsa punky parts and a few Motörhead-ish influences featured too. They released 2 vinyls on Empty Records, first being the "Enough now! 7" still featuring a second female vocalist and on the fullenght "Behind the fence" Roman Kocholl was replaced by Hammi on bass guitar and just Micha was left to handle the vocals. As mentioned above, Crossover fans might risk an ear or two, I would be surprised if they wouldn't like what they hear. On the 7" the band name S.A.D. was refering to "Search and Destroy" while on "Behind the fence" the meaning changed to "Second Anorexical Disease".Discography:
"Enough now!" 7" EP 1987 (Empty)
"Behind the fence" LP 1988 (Empty)
S.A.D.O.
Lineup:
André Cook (vocals)
Matthias Moser (guitar)
Stefan Neumann (bass)
Wolfgang Eichholz (guitar)
Thomas Mittendorf (drums)
Band-info:
S.A.D.O. from West Berlin was a quite notorious live act, known for their SM show features, that lured many fans to attend their shows. Cook and Eichholz both was playing in the Berlin Punk band Feuervogel since the late 70's, a band that would later around 1980/81 evolve to S.A.D.O. Since Karl Walterbach of Noise Records was aware of the crowd that S.A.D.O.'s show always drew to their gigs, he offered them a record deal for the "Shout!" album in 1984, now with Matti Kaebs on drums. The LP featured middle league Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, that is kinda missing the right hit imo. The band was playing solid, but in a way almost sounding like being influenced by american Hard Rock bands. After 3 years S.A.D.O. returned with new members Alexander Reich (guitar), C.F. Brank (ex-Grave Digger, bass), Simon D'Brouier (guitar, later in V2), and a new album that focussed more on real Heavy Metal with even some pretty good powerful melodic trax, but also was offering diverse keyboard pregnated parts, that made it hard for the band to attract a special clientele of fans. Eichholz after the "Circle of friends" album quit S.A.D.O. and formed V2 with other S.A.D.O.'s Reich, Kaebs, D'Brouier, so André Cook had to start again from zero with ex-Regenbogen Jörg Powileit (guitar), ex-Ballantinez Andy Malecek (guitar), Alexander Remde (bass) and Chris Kuhlmey (drums), which resulted in the album "Dirty fantasy", that suggested listeners that these guys have been playing together since a hell of years. Stylistically S.A.D.O. changed as well and delivered now straight Heavy Metal without keyboards, without glammy parts, instead fully offered typical German Metal of upper middle league quality. But once again this line up wasn't made for eternity and so on the last album "Sensitive" from 1989, Matthias Moser returned, who was already playing guitar on the "Shout!" album. Danny replaced drummer Kuhlmey and also a new bass player was introduced with Duncan O'Neill. Guess what happened? S.A.D.O. returned to old "Shout!" days and went softer. The good old Hard Rock influenced Heavy Metal from the beginning was unwrapped again and they failed so bad, that it meant the end for the band. Jörg Powileit and Simon De Brouier formed the band Preussen in early '89.Discography:
"Run, baby, run" Comp.-LP Track 1984 (Rock from hell)
"Shout!" LP 1984 (Noise)
"Circle of friends" LP/CD 1987 (Noise)
"Dirty fantasy" LP/CD 1988 (Noise)
"Gamblin' fool" 12" EP 1988 (Noise)
"On the races" 7" EP 1988 (Noise)
"Sensitive" LP/CD 1989 (Noise)
S.D.I.
Lineup:
Reinhard Kruse (vocals, bass)
Franck Tiesing (guitar)
Ralf Maunert (drums)
Band-info:
Satans Defloration Incorporated or in short S.D.I. was a Hyperspeed Metal band from Osnabrück, whose members all have been previously active in Black Jack Co. and Vivian (Ralf Maunert), a band that featured several Grave Digger members as well. An early incarnation of the band, and most probably the "Bloodsucker" Demo even was still published under that monicker, might have been Satans Defloration, coz an old Metal Hammer pre-album article introduces the band as Satans Defloration. The guys got offered an album deal directly coz of that Demo from Gama Records and the selftitled LP still was released in 1986 as well, followed by "Sign of the wicked" (1987) and "Mistreated" in 1989, that featured Rainer Rage instead of Franck Tiesing on guitars. The band's sound on all 3 albums was a sort of extremely raw doublebass driven Speed Metal, like an even more rude version of Helloween without the funny melodies. Though "Mistreated" featured the most stupid cover of all 3 albums, it marked the peak of S.D.I.'s musical legislating. The band split up in 1991, but shortly reunited a year later just to be buried till 2014, when Reinhard Kruse revived S.D.I. with new musicians. For fans of the archetypical german Speed Metal sound, S.D.I.'s albums must be amoung the first choice. The "Bloodsucker" Demo was re-released 2015 on F.O.A.D. Records.Discography:
"Bloodsucker" Demo 1986 (selfreleased)
"Satans Defloration Incorporated" LP 1986 (Scratchcore)
"Sign of the wicked" LP 1988 (Scratchcore)
"Mistreated" LP/CD 1989 (Hot Blood)
"Metal Attack Vol. 2" Comp.-MC Tracks 1990 (MDD)
S.E.D.
Lineup:
Oliver Kränkel (vocals)
Florian Schwarz (guitar)
Rainer Rohrmoser (drums)
Band-info:
S.E.D. from Stuttgart was founded in summer '88 by Rainer Rohrmoser. The first line up still is unknown, as I'm sure it won't be the same guys who recorded the selfproduced "Starvation" LP in January '91, coz two of the guys has been just 18 and 19 years old. The album features imbalanced raw underground Thrash with also melodic parts and not even bad vocals, but sadly without real structures, though it's not entirely bad executed. There are also song parts where the listener clearly can hear that the guys still lacked of experience. For a demo recording it's quite acceptable, but to manufacture vinyls I'm not so convinced. S.E.D. made 230 copies with neutral white sleeves that on front and back had large stickers glued on. In 1993 the band was grown to a quintet, by adding another guitarist and bassist and stylistically had turned into Death Metal. The guys was about to start recording the second album later that year, that was planned to be out on CD. Since such a CD wasn't discovered yet, I guess the lads never realized that plan.
S.U.M.P.
Lineup:
Dirk Felsenheimer (vocals)
Rod Gonzalez (guitar)
Michael Beckmann (bass)
Atze Ludwig (drums)
Band-info:
S.U.M.P. was a Crossover band from West Berlin, formed by members of the famous german Rock bands Die Ärzte (Dirk "Bela B." Felsenheimer) and Rainbirds (Rod Gonzalez & Michael Beckmann), together with Atze Ludwig in 1989. After recording their debut "Get wise, get ugly, get sump" for the Weser Label, they got signed by the Major Epic Records and changed name to Depp Jones to start recordings for a fullenght album. During the recordings for "Return to Caramba" Atze Ludwig left the band and Olaf Kobold joined instead. Just like Depp Jones' music, also S.U.M.P.'s style was a mix of Hard Rock, a bit Punk and Indie Rock.Discography:
"Get wise, get ugly, get sump" 10"/MCD 1989 (Weser Label)
Sabine Van Wel
Lineup:
Sabine Van Wel (vocals, guitar)
Band-info:
Quite obscure classic Hard Rock act formed by Sabine Van Wel, who was living in Essen back in the day and seemed to previously was active with the band Pace since the late 70's already. There's a Demo tape known of her on solo paths featuring that typical Glam style US Hard Rock with bluesy touch. She's still active nowadays and either reformed Pace when she moved to North Friesland in northern Germany in the 2000's. If you got more info, please get in touch.(Thanx to Rumblefist for recommendation)
Check out Sabine's homepage
Discography:
"Demo 1991" (selfreleased)
Sabre
Lineup:
Kenny Browder (vocals)
Kevin Marshall (bass)
Pat Murphy (guitar)
Snoop Tyler (drums)
Band-info:
One more of these bands that originally doesn't feature a single german musician, but the band itself was only active in Germany. Founded by 4 US soldiers who was stationed in Karlsruhe from 1983-1986, the guys started playing together in a Hard Rock band, doing live gigs in the Karlsruhe area and in 1985 recorded the "Keepers of the sword" album at the Katapult Studios in Karlsruhe, that was published in a limited edition of 500 copies, from which almost no copy can be found nowadays anymore. If they took the main amount of copies back to the US of A after their miltary service is most likely the case. The sound of the soldier boys was midpaced average Hard Rock with Metal influences here and there like on the title track. But the majority of the material featured nothing groundbreaking at all and sometimes I tend to smell AC/DC influences. But in the total "Keepers of the sword" was just another one these private common local US Hard Rock/Metal pressings.
Saccara
Lineup:
Daniel Giese (vocals, bass)
Norbert Schaffer (guitar
Matthias Tönjes (drums)
Band-info:
Saccara is a Crossover band from Meppen, that was a kinda equivalent to A.O.K., combining nonsense with heavy music, just with one difference, Saccara at least could play their instruments. They started back in 1986 and released 2 Demo tapes when Ingo Nowotny forced them to record the "Urbi et Orbi" LP for his Metal Enterprises label. Though the album is soundwise just a kinda vinyl Demo, the songs are somewhere residing between Thrash, Heavy Metal and Hardcore and that raw production still is giving them a little kick. But don't get me wrong, it's not meant as recommendation or something. This LP is as useless as the dick of a catholic priest. The trio afterwards produced several more albums but moved lyrically into the Nazi camp, with Daniel Gliese being member of acts like Kahlkopf or Stahlgewitter.Discography:
"Ketchup Metal" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"Deckel hoch, der Kaffee kocht!" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"Urbi et Orbi" LP 1990 (Metal Enterprises)
"6. Für Deutschland" Comp.-LP Tracks 1990 (Metal Enterprises)
"Hoch das Bein, das Vaterland soll leben!" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Sacrafice
Lineup:
Ace Gee (vocals)
Andreas Büker (guitar)
Martin Liebert (guitar)
Jörg Lange (bass)
Martin Hendig (drums)
Band-info:
Sacrafice's 12" shouldn't be too unknown to most of you, since it got extremely hyped by collectors. Musically the guys from Blomberg/Detmold offered the typical "german thing", Heavy Metal influenced by Accept with standard vocals, though the guitar work needs a special mention here, coz it's quite Metal sounding nevertheless. They have been in good company with bands like Arrow or Angel War. But at no point these lads ever reached the same level like f.e. Bloody Climax which would justify all the hystery. A good start for beginners though, it spreads that local charm that we all are hunting for. Some of the guys formed Tranquill in the early 90's.
Sacred Chao
Lineup:
Thorsten Bergmann (vocals)
Frank Fellinger (bass)
Fred (guitar)
Guido Richter (drums)
Band-info:
When Living Death after the "Worlds neuroses" album split into 2 camps in 1989, the Kelch brothers formed one part and Toto, Atomic Steif and Fred being the other half. But due to the Kelch brothers having the rights on the name Living Death, the other trio had to pick a new one and their choice was Sacred Chao. Atomic Steif's former bandmate in Violent Force, Lemmy, joined them on bass since VF had no more rehearsal room and therefore the guys called it quits already a bit earlier. Well, in a way Sacred Chao's style tried to continue where Living Death had stopped after somewhere between "Protected from reality" and "Worlds neuroses", adopting their classic Speed Metal sound and added a shot of technical finesse. The guitar playing was quite extraordinary, but something is missing on that MLP, the spirit. May it be the production that appears quite dry, may it be the modern influences that killed all last sparkles of hope, I don't know what it might have been. The material doesn't sound "round" to my ears. And guess the guys have recognized that themselves as well, as in 1990 Sacred Chao was already history.
Sacred Fight
Lineup:
Jean M. Seminata
Mike Gital
Ray Mc Lax
Band-info:
A White Metal band from Duisburg, formed around an former Axxis keyboarder, that was active during the late 80's and at least till the mid 90's as their last lifesign was the "One of a kind" CD released in 1995. Sacred Fight's style adopted the classic melodic US Hard Rock/Metal sound of the 80's reminding occasionally a bit of Stryper. Either on the last album 1995, the lads got a bit heavier with almost proggy edge. They most probably also released a Demo prior to their CD's, so further band info is welcome.Discography:
"5 to 12" MCD 1993 (Cap! Music)
Sacred Law
Lineup:
Thomas Janssen (bass)
Detlef Willms (drums)
Reinhold Lüppen (guitars)
Frank-Otto Conrad (vocals)
Band-info:
Traditional Metal latecomers from Emden, Lower Saxony, formed in 1992 after Thomas and Otto had left other Emden prog-Metallists Silence Creation. Many gigs were played and a demo was produced the same year, alas with little fanfare. The band split up shortly after, but you can check out a re-recording of one of the tracks + some visuals here.Discography:
"Close Your Eyes" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Sacrifice
Lineup:
Harry Cocetti (bass)
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal act from the Munich area, that was most probably active during the mid 80's and featured the later Stranger/Meanstreak/Pretty In Pink and Loud & Proud bassist Harry Cocetti. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Sacrosanct
Lineup:
Michel Lucarelli (vocals)
Randy Meinhard (guitar)
Milan Nyitrai (bass)
Marco Foddis (drums)
Maybe you wonder
Band-info:
Randy Meinhard (guitar) and Marco Foddis (drums), both just had left dutch formation Pestilence from Enschede during November 1988 and immediately formed the rather technical Thrash band Sacrosanct. After recruiting Michel Lucarelli on vocals and Milan Nyitrai and the quickly recorded Demo "The die is cast" from January '89, during spring the same year the guys again entered the Franz K. Studio in Witten and recorded their debut album "Truth is what is" for No Remorse Records. Michel Cerrone, the second guitarist, just joined the band 1 week before the recording session started. After the recordings both Nyitrai and Foddis left Sacrosanct again due to "musical differences", while Foddis returned to Pestilence. Remco Nijkamp (bass) and Ronny Scholten (drums) replaced them. Sacrosanct's technical style was the complete opposite to Pestilence's Death/Thrash. They musically tended more towards Darkness' "Defenders of justice" era with light hints of Testament. On the follow up "Recesses for the depraved" from 1991 they even slowed down the speed and delivered mainly midpaced Techno Thrash, after having exchanged almost the whole team. Haico van Attikum (drums), Christian Colli (bass) and Michael Kock (guitar) now built the line up with only Lucarelli and Meinhard remaining. That co-operation also continued on the 3rd album of Sacrosanct "Tragic intense", that hadn't much in common anymore with the former 2 outputs and offered modern style Power/Thrash, inspired by the recent albums of Pantera and early 90's Metallica as it seems. All the aggression was gone and harmonic/melodic sounds infected the band's sound, introducing the coming end, that followed in 1994. 2017 the to Germany returned Randy Meinhard re-activated Sacrosanct once again and 2018 released the album "Necropolis" on Rock of Angels Records. In case some might wonder why we feature a dutch band here, well Randy Meinhard was German and since he co-founded Sacrosanct, being the band's "leader" and either the Metal mags introduced Sacrosanct a dutch-german band, we'll give it a shot, openminded as we are...Discography:
"The die is cast" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"Truth is what is" LP/CD 1990 (No Remorse)
"Promo '91" Promo Tape 1991 (selfreleased)
"Recesses for the depraved" LP/CD 1991 (1MF)
"Shining through" Comp.-CD 1993 (This stuff's 2 loud 4 U)
"Tragic intense" CD 1993 (1MF)
Saigon
Lineup:
Martin Weikamp (vocals, keyboard)
Marko König (guitar)
Wolfgang Evertz (bass)
Bernd Syben (keyboard)
Michael Suthor (drums)
Band-info:
A quite odd band from Viersen in the Möchengladbach region, who couldn't just focus on one style, so they tried a very varied mix of all kinds of the Rock spectrum, starting from Jazz Rock, Pop Rock, Classic Rock and naturally Hard Rock. Their album “Pieces on my mind” was recorded independently between April and May 1987 in Cologne, but seriously, Saigon is only interesting for openminded folks. So better watch out…Discography:
“Pieces on my mind" LP 1987 (selfreleased)
Saint Attack
Lineup:
Frank Schepp (vocals)
Walter Moch (guitar)
Gerhard Schlink (guitar)
Uwe Uher (bass)
Ralf Rumpf (drums)
Band-info:
A White Metal unit from Bruchsal, a bit north of Karlsruhe, between Heidelberg and Stuttgart, that was active during the late 80's and early 90's and played several shows during that time frame. The guys had a rather Thrash influenced complex sound that they mixed with neoclassical influences and recorded their debut 4 song Demo 1989 plus another one in the following year. If you got more info, please contact us.Discography:
"The first" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"First watch" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
Saint Vania
Lineup:
Jens Alinia (vocals)
Hartmut Scholz (guitar)
Jochen Braun (guitar)
Thomas Schmitt (bass)
Oliver Fischhaupt (keyboard)
Sven Hieronymus (drums)
Band-info:
Saint Vania's (or St. Vania) birth refers back already to late 1984 or early 1985 (I've actually seen both info written on 2 different info sheets), and it seems they used the time to develop their musical skills since their first Demo got released 4 long years later in 1989 (even here 2 different info, one says Winter '89, another one Jan. '90). "Acta Sanctorum" contained 3 tracks plus some copies also featured a 4th bonus track "Wild Century", that due to the great reactions from sides of the Metal Mags and fans was pressed on Vinyl in 1990 as a 4 track EP called "Wild Century" incl. that extra track. They also was able to place their ballad "Rose" on one of the local "Mayence Rock" Compilations (the one from 1989, as ST. Vania). Saint Vania's style was typically german sounding melodic Power Metal with some hints of Helloween or Blind Guardian on the speedy parts. The 2 ballads on "Wild Century" are top notch either, so there's nothing you could do wrong with their EP.Discography:
"Rose" Comp.-LP Track 1989 (Mayence Rock '89)
"Acta Sanctorum" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
”Wild century” MLP 1990 (selfreleased)
Saintcatee
Lineup:
Thorben Jeschkeit (vocals)
Pete Roman
Band-info:
Yet another commercially influenced act from the sheer infinite Hamburg scene, that formed most probably around 1989/90. Their impressive "Slave to your charme" 4 track Demo from 1990 made it big in several magazines, praising Saintcatee's grasp for catchy refrains, despite their powerful Heavy Rock. The last track "Down by law" either finishes the tape in classic NWOBHM uptempo manner. Unfortunately the fourpiece went the other way on the follow up Demo "Tell me all your trouble" and added Funk and Groove parts. The tape was recorded as trio without Pete Roman and the same picture appeared once again on a selftitled Promotape that was sent to several magazines in 1995. Besides the previous Funk influences Saintcatee now had either added Rap vocal parts during the mid 90’s. Afterwards no more news appeared, even though the band still was active till at least 2004.Discography:
"Slave to your charme" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
"Tell me all your trouble" Demo 1991 (selfreleased)
Saints' Anger
Lineup:
Harald Piller (vocals, guitar)
Joachim Walter (bass)
Jürgen Knief (guitar)
Harald Reiter (drums)
Band-info:
A Speyer based Heavy Metal band active since '81, that sadly made just one album at the peak of the german Heavy Metal wave. Saints’ Anger was initiated by the trio Harald Piller, Joachim Walter, Harold Reiter and remained, that would establish the band’s name in their area by playing many shows f.e. with local heroes Trance, that got very positive reactions by the press, attesting the guys a very dynamic and rhythmical performance. With Jürgen Knief a second guitarist joined in during April ’83, completing the classic Saints’ Anger line up. With the Demo situation it's quite a mess, as the ones MA lists are more or less doubtable. I have 3 tapes in possession that are all of different sound, though just for one of them I know the correct year, which is the one from 1984, that contains 6 trax, which all later appeared on the "Danger Metal" album. The "Demo '82" I don't really have a correct year for, but due to a fanzine feature from 1983 the band just had one 9 track tape available at that time, so wether it was recorded 1982 or early ‘83. The second Demo should be a 4 track recording from around 1983 as well, featuring "Heroes", "The ghost's tale", "Exposured" and "Highway". In September '84 the recordings for "Danger Metal" started and the material in contrary to other german bands in the mid 80's pretty much offered an own handwriting in terms of songwriting and style. Sure, Saints' Anger right from the start was highly NWOBHM influenced, but the charm of their songs was the fact that they was able to create remarkable and timeless Metal bangers like "Highway", "The bullet", "The ghost's tale" etc., that made them to stand out of the mass for sure. Saints' Anger split up in 1987 but Piller, Knief and Reiter 1990 formed the band Palace.Here's a TV appearance from 1985: Saints' Anger
Discography:
"Demo '82" (selfreleased)
"Demo 1983" (selfreleased)
"Demo 1984" (selfreleased)
"Danger Metal" LP 1985 (Mausoleum)
Saitensprung
Lineup:
Bernd Prybusch (guitar, vocals)
Holger Benzner (guitar)
Band-info:
A classic Blues/Rock band from the southern ex-GDR, that was formed in 1983 in Grünhain/Schwarzenberg. The yet already deceased Bernd Prybusch (previously playing in Cord) and Holger Benzner belonged to the very first line up of the band. This live act during the mid 80’s on stage performed cover versions of several international Rock classics like Gary Moore, Deep Purple as well as national hits of Udo Lindenberg and either Accept’s “Princess of the dawn”, a diversified program so to say. After 1989 Bernd Prybusch became Saitenspring’s main vocalist, while their musical direction changed to keep the band going after the political change. Like so many other bands they focussed on performing mainly oldies and either developed an entire separate Pink Floyed set. During 2023 Saitenspring eventually after 40 years on stage decided to call it quits.Discography:
Salem
Lineup:
Thorsten Smul (vocals)
Roland (guitar)
Marc (guitar)
Martin (bass)
Christian (drums)
Band-info:
A Progressive Metal band from Himmelkron/Bavaria that used to play a quite difficult to digest style that changed from acoustic parts to metallic outbursts permanently with quite silly songwriting. The vocal presentation during the clean sung parts is either slanting sounding. Midpaced rocking Power Metal pared with strange acoustic parts, dunno if that was such a successful concept.Discography:
"Horizons" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Salem's Lot
Lineup:
Bernd Backhaus (vocals)
Frank Kui (bass)
Frank Schäfer (guitar)
Stefan Kuch (guitar)
Volker Wartusch (drums)
Band-info:
These Salem's Lot from Gifthorn was noone else than Power Metallers Salem's Law before they changed name in 1989 (probably) and released their "Tale of goblins' breed" album. The guys was featured with the track "Goblins" on a local compilation in 1988.
Salem's Lot (Wilhelmshafen)
Lineup:
Michael Beckers (vocals, guitar)
Peter Koobs (guitar)
Frank Nilges (bass)
Dirk Müller (drums)
Band-info:
A Speed/Thrash band with some melodic parts from Wilhelmshafen/Oldenburg that was founded in 1985 and was sounding somehow like a cross of Slayer ("Reign in blood") and early Paradox. Frank Nilges left to join Voluntary after the first Demo "Children of Anger" and got replaced by Ingmar Viertel (ex-Warnyng) on bass, whom they recorded the "The everlasting Fight" Demo with. On the "Winter of life" (recorded April '89) tape Michael Beckers handed over the guitar to Thorsten Seliger and fully concentrated on vocals, while Viertel made space for Steve Juds on bass. They quit sometime around 1990. I'm not 100 % sure if that "Demo 88", that Metal Archives lists, indeed is entitled like that.Discography:
"Children of anger" Demo 1986 (selfreleased)
"The everlasting fight" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"Demo 88" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
"Winter of life" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
Salem’s Law
Lineup:
Bernd Backhaus (vocals)
Frank Kui (bass)
Frank Schäfer (guitar)
Stefan Kuch (guitar)
Volker Wartusch (drums)
Band-info:
A Power Metal band from Gifthorn that formed in 1988 as Salem's Lot and was featured under that monicker on the "Hörfest '88" compilation with the track "Goblins". 1989 they recorded (as Salem's Law) their debut album for Zyx Metallic and "Tale of goblins' breed" still up to today remains a quite heavy, speed driven Power Metal album that sounds so typically german, like the old Gama stuff, but the same time also advanced in quality. Bernd Backhaus simply reminds me of the one and only Dark Avenger's Siegfried Kohmann, due to both their nasally way of singing, a phenomenal debut. The Salem's Law guys recorded even more material sometime between 1990-92, that remained unreleased until 2008, when guitarist Frank Schäfer released his "Generation Rock" book, whose soundtrack featured all those forgotten recordings, done by Frank Kubern (bass, vocals), Volker Wartusch (drums), Stefan Kuch (guitar), Frank Schäfer (guitar) and ex-Desaster Area Harro Müller (vocals). But the songs hadn't much in common with the "Tale ..." album, though all of them featured Heavy Metal, but slightly more common for the early 90's and missing the power of the album trax.
Salvage
Lineup:
Thomas Brexeler (vocals, guitar)
Peter Wagner (guitar)
Holger Frey (bass)
Stefan Krings (drums)
Band-info:
Despite it's widely guessed that Salvage was the continuation of Nytemare, it's not really the case. A local underground sampler, that just recently surfaced, proves that Salvage from the Hagen area was active since early 1985, founded by Thomas Brexeler (vocals, guitar), Peter Wagner (guitar), Holger Frey (bass) and Stefan Krings (drums) in Herdecke. Soon Peter Wagner got replaced by Frank Hilleringhaus (guitar) and during 1987 Roland Kluge joined on guitar, while Thomas Brexeler only took over vocal duties. In the same year fate hit Salvage hard when Stefan Krings tragically died in a car accident on his way from Witten to Wetter on the 31st of January ‘87, so the band was forced to hire Christian Ermecke on drums. Salvage got a spot on the compilation “Musikinitiative Wetter", featuring the 2 trax "Long live the Rock" and "Running out of time", that both are dedicated to Stefan Krings. The band also recorded some Demo tapes, one of them dating from April 1987. A bit later on the founding member Peter Wagner returned, replacing Frank Hilleringhaus on guitar. Soon after that Jürgen Tezlaff (guitar, ex-Nytemare) and Frank Brackelmann (drums) replaced Roland Kluge and Christian Ermecke. While being in the studio for recording the self titled CD, Frank Brackelmann was replaced by another ex-Nytemare musician, Georg Plattke. Peter Wagner and Thomas Brexeler subsequently left the band around the same time, so that Ergün Tasli (guitar, ex-Nytemare) and vocalist Dirk Hackenberg joined instead. Now the band featured mostly former members of Nytemare. The newly reformed Salvage with the line up consisting of Dirk Hackenberg (vocals), Jürgen Tetzlaff (guitar), Ergün Tasli (guitar), Marc Herrmann (bass) and Georg Plattke (drums) finished the production of their CD during 1990/91 at the D&S Studio, delivering brainmelting, outstanding, unique, upper league melodic Heavy Metal, that sets the standard quite high for bands who want to messure themself on bands like Salvage. There aren't many words needed, those who loved Nytemare, will adore the Salvage album, as this CD is the crown of their musical legislating. Sadly this album was their only output, coz the guys already quit in 1992.(Thanx to Tatjana Menk for additional info)
Discography:
"Musikerinitiative Wetter" Comp.-LP 1987 (Stadtjugendring Wetter)
”Salvage” CD 1991 (D&S)
Salyx
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Thrash Metal band from southern Germany (most probably Bavaria), that was actively playing live during 1988. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Sam
Lineup:
Christian Dürr (vocals)
Hans-Peter Herbel (guitar)
Thomas Matthes (bass)
Hermann Hofmann (keyboard)
Klaus Stumpf (drums)
Band-info:
Sam's vocalist Christian Dürr already recorded a single with the crazy sounding band Second P. in the early 80's and sung on Second P.'s Peter Zöller's solo LP "Paradise" (1984). With Sam then back in 1990 he recorded a quite nice single at the Face Music Studio, who also pressed the singles for the band. Sam was originating from the Mannheim area and not surprisingly performed a pretty melodic sort of Heavy Rock. Due to the keyboards both songs got a slightly radio friendly touch, but nevertheless they are both catchy and well done, like most of the private bavarian bands (Lifeline, Minestone, 2nd East, Dirty Laine and stuff like that) at that time. The good guitar work is bringing Sam back on the heavy side of melodic Hard Rock. Further info is required.Discography:
"Mary Anne" 7" EP 1990 (Face Music)
Samain
Lineup:
Peter Vorwerk (vocals)
Ralf Wiethoff (guitar)
Bernd Emsermann (bass)
Manfred Bayer (guitar)
Holger Neumann (drums)
Band-info:
A Hard Rock/Heavy Metal act from the Iserlohn area, that starting back in 1982, released the first Demo "Thunderbolt giants" in March 1984 and direcly got signed by the young Roadrunner label. "Vibrations of doom", their debut album, was available in September the same year already, featuring a for that time typical Hard Rock influenced midpaced Heavy Metal, that seemed to adopt several Accept approaches whenalso Samain indeed had an own identity due to Vorwerk's unique sounding voice, that mainly reminds to certain dutch bands of that decade. But sadly "Vibrations of doom" couldn't really set own standards in the still young Metal business and therefore got dropped quickly by Roadrunner. Samain tried with 2 more professional Demo tapes in February and September 1985 but remained unnoticed by labels. The band split up 2006 without any further releases. Just for info, Fred Bertram and Manfred Bayer are the same person. Please note, that "Thor" 7" EP 1985 (Roadrunner), that is listed on certain sites without pictures/release nr. seems to be a hoax, as we yet don't know ANYONE who's ever seen a single copy.(Thanx to Morton for corrections)
Discography:
"Thunderbolt giants" Demo 1984 (selfreleased)
"Vibrations of doom" LP 1984 (Roadrunner)
"Vibrations of doom" Comp.-LP Track 1984 (100 % Pure Metal Sampler)
"From now till doomsday" Live Tape 1985 (selfreleased)
"Today you're a lion" Demo 1985 (selfreleased)
"Vicious circles" Demo 1985 (selfreleased)
Samhain
Lineup:
Milo Van Jaksic (bass, vocals)
Thomas Priebe (guitar)
Sven Flugge (guitar)
Markus Hahn (drums)
Band-info:
The band Samhain is better known under their later name Deathrow, being one of the best german Thrash bands of the mid/later 80's. When this band from Düsseldorf formed in October 31st 1984, it was originally called Samhain and used to play a pretty rude chaotic Thrash Metal. Both Sven Flugge and Markus Hahn originally lived in Bremen and just had moved over to Düsseldorf, while Thomas Priebe was pretty unhappy with his recent band that was playing an Accept/Priest style Heavy Metal. When his old band split up, he just joined the other 3 to build the classic Samhain line up. During 1985 and 1986 the Demos "Lord of the dead" and "Eternal death" was recorded, that gained the guys a deal with Noise Records, leading into the production of the first album "Satan's gift" 1986, yet under the band's new monicker Deathrow.Discography:
"The lord of the dead" Demo 1985 (selfreleased)
"Eternal death" Demo 1986 (selfreleased)
"Live" Demo 1986 (unofficial)
Samsara
Lineup:
Sorin Badin (guitar)
Band-info:
A melodic Heavy Metal band from Stuttgart, that was active during the fall of thge 80's and mainly early 90's, featuring the former Cardinal and later Crystal Maze guitarist Sorin Badin. The band recorded a Demo tape during 1990 most probably and afterwards participated at the Metal Hammer Festival at the Rockfabrik Ludwigsfeld 1991, where they entered the 4th rank. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Sanctuary
Lineup:
Martin Jungverdorben (vocals)
Band-info:
Local Hamburg Heavy Metal band, most probably a very shortlived act dating from around 1983/84, that featured the former Blast Furnace vocalist Martin Jungverdorben, who still went to play with Stagefright in 1984 though. Further info is badly needed.Discography:
Sanvoisen
Lineup:
Francis Soto (vocals)
Hendrik Böttcher (guitar)
Joe Gassmann (guitar)
Horst Andree (bass)
Peter Hartung (keyboard)
Terry Wahl (drums)
Band-info:
The official story of Sanvoisen from the Mannheim area starts a bit suspicious. On their homepage they mention the year 1990 as year of the laying of their cornerstone, but it's also a fact that the band was already mentioned during late 1989 in a Metal Hammer issue. The band was post-Femine, most probably reformed under a new monicker after Femine's female vocalist Christine Black left the band to join Monsters. Furthermore, the homepage of the guys mentions just one Demo from 1993, while there is already a 4 song tape known from May 1990, that features material in a highly Queensryche/Dream Theatre inspired style. Nevertheless, the band experimented with several members including ex-Pharao's Reinhard Lehmann on vocals, before their "Exotic ways" Demo from 1993 was recorded with Ulf S. Gokeler (drums), Angel Schönbrunn (guitar), Horst Andree (bass), Hendrik Böttcher (guitar) and the new greek vocalist Vagelis Maranis, who would build the future classic Sanvoisen line up. The Demo received quite positive critics and featured just archetypical Progressive Metal like it's known from the late 80's. After playing some live gigs during summer '93, Luke Herzog (Scorpions keyboarder) produced 4 songs with Sanvoisen at the White House Studios in Cologne, that gained the band a deal with Noise Records. The album "Exotic ways" was recorded in summer '94 and released 1995. 1997 the second album "Soul seasons" followed, while it got silent around Sanvoisen after an unreleased Demo from 1999. If you could bring light into the first part of their history, please contact us.Discography:
"First Demo" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
"Exotic ways" Demo 1993 (selfreleased)
Sardonic
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Thrash band from most probably southern Baden-Württemberg, that was actively playing live in the early 90's. Further info is needed.Discography:
Sargant Fury
Lineup:
Andrew McDermott (vocals)
Olaf Grosser (guitar)
Kai Steffen (guitar)
Bauke de Groot (bass)
Alex Scotti (drums)
Band-info:
Melodic Heavy Rockers from Hannover featuring ex-Zenith/Desiree bass player Bauke de Groot, that formed in 1987 still with Alex Scotti on drums and released the Demo "United States of Europe" 1990, with new drummer Heiko Heike (ex-Amazone/Desiree) replacing Alex Scotti who joined Thunderhead already in 1989. Sargant Fury recorded their debut album for WEA Records that was available in the shops 1991 and featured well produced highly melodic, glammy touched 80's style Hard Rock and Metal in the vein of Def Leppard, Steelheart, Sleez Beez, Vice or Bonfire. The repeated the same on the second even heavier album "Little fish" also, but failed to sell enough copies, so the WEA dropped them afterwards. Bauke de Groot left the band 1994 and ex-Lawdy Carsten Rebentisch joined to record the last album "Turn the page", that was released in 1995 and subsequently continued their previous style. Sargant Fury split up one year later.Please note, since Kai Steffen, Olaf Grosser (ex-Lawdy) and Bauke de Groot already played together in Desiree during 1989, it's most probably the case that Desiree was a pre-stage of Sargant Fury.
Discography:
"United States of Europe" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
"Still want more" LP/CD 1991 (WEA)
"Don't you know" CD Single 1992 (WEA)
"Don't you know" Comp.-CD 1992 (German Rock Project - The Ballad Album)
"Little fish" LP/CD 1993 (WEA)
"Eagle" CD Single 1993 (WEA)
Sarkophag
Lineup:
Michael Nelebock (vocals)
Michael Nimmergut (guitar)
Mario Kurt (guitar)
Mirko Brauer (bass)
Sven Noak (drums)
Band-info:
An East Berlin (ex-GDR) based Thrash band that was founded in the mid 80's but was asked by the grading commitee to change it. After changing name to Sixtus they recorded a Demo track in December '89 that got airplay on the national Heavy Metal radio broadcast. It's not confirmed that Sarkophag ever recorded anything. If you got more info please get in touch.Discography:
Sarkophag (Annaberg)
Lineup:
Karsten Breitung (guitar, vocals)
Jörg Leitner (bass, vocals)
Rico Hein (drums)
Band-info:
Sarkophag was a Doom/Black Metal band from Annaberg-Buchholz (ex-GDR), formed by Jörg Leitner and Karsten Breitung already early in 1987. After collecting ideas and creating some first own songs, though the guys had no drummer at that time at all, Karsten “Zwerg” Breitung shortly later had to join the army and Sarkophag was put on ice, whenalso Zwerg and Jörg “Harriz” Leitner kept contact during those lost years. Nevertheless, Jörg Leitner in 1988 together with his friend André Morgenstern formed the band Wodan, who wrote their own chapter in Annaberg’s local Metal history. When Zwerg returned late in 1989, he firstly formed the band Eminenz together with other local metalheads, but when Harriz and Zwerg started rehearsing for fun during 1991, playing their old material, they decided to reform Sarkophag once again and now added the Wodan drummer Rico Hein. Their first recording "The end" was done at the wellknown local Annaberg Digan Tonstudio in August '91, featuring the 2 tracks "Zweitgeboren" and "Leichenzug zur Hölle", and was limited to just 13 copies. During May '92 another 6 song tape was recorded at the Digan Studio, this time the tape was spread within the underground, offering like the previous recording a doomy style of Black/Death Metal with influences of Asphyx and especially the finish Unholy, that Sarkophag sounded probably closest to. The lads also played several gigs in their area, but disappeared again around late 1992. Zwerg then besides still playing guitar in Eminenz, formed Opacity during 1993 and Belmez. Jörg Leitner was active in the obscure band Sharon during 1993 as well, but afterwards didn’t appear in any other band anymore.Discography:
"The end" Demo 1991 (selfreleased)
"The sign" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
"Zweitgeboren" Comp.-MC Track 1992 (Thrashing East Attack Vol. II)
Sasoon
Lineup:
Band-info:
A band from Duisburg or the Duisburg area, that was actively playing live during 1990. Further info is welcome.Discography:
Satan's Holocaust
Lineup:
Tormentor (vocals)
Violator (guitar, vocals)
Atomic Slaughter (guitar)
Virgin Ripper (bass, vocals)
The Master (guitar, drums)
Band-info:
From Gaimersheim (Ingolstadt area) came this horrific slaughter troop with the nastly name Satan's Holocaust, who seemed to be a bit obsessed by Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, as you can find several of HH/CF's elements and songtitles in Satan's Holocaust own material, ranging from musical influences on the doomy parts and especially in songtitles like "Lattensepp's return" or "To Mega Lattensepp". Either on these guy's final tape "Only death is real" a song entitled "Celtic wimp" might underline this impression. Nevertheless the SH guys created something really REALLY rude, when they started back in 1984 and unleashed their devastating Demos "Death's revenge" and "Lattensepp's return" during 1986, with members sharing vocals and instrumental parts, while these lads must be seen pioneers of german Death Metal/Grindcore. Occult doomy chants and creeping parts burst out into outrageous noise of grinding madness, that no matter unquestionable being beyond good and evil, in places deliver something impressive, though we are speaking of a basement combo here. During 1989 Satan's Holocaust returned with one more 4 track Demo, before the guys vanished into obscurity or most probably committed collective suicide ... further info is welcome.Discography:
"Death's revenge" Demo 1986 (Aids Productions)
"Lattensepp's return" Rehearsal 1986 (Aids Productions)
"Only death is real" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
Satanica
Lineup:
Robert Gonella (vocals)
Dinko Vekic (guitar)
Michael Hoffmann (guitar)
Markus Ludwig (bass)
Jason Kubke (drums)
Band-info:
Satanica was the first incarnation of the Düsseldorf Thrash legend Assassin, founded already in 1982. The band was consisting of Robert Gonnella (vocals), Dinko Vekić and Michael Hoffmann on the guitars, Jason Kubke on drums and Markus Ludwig (bass). Satanica was only active for a short time till around 1983/84, while most of the guys later founded Assassin in April '85.Discography:
Satans Servants
Lineup:
Band-info:
Pure Metal Enterprises swill not worthy of another rant, so I'm just gonna quote what I've written about them elsewhere: "Your half-wit uncle's 4-track demos from hell. Why in fucks name would anyone record an album under the moniker SATAN'S SERVANTS, dress it in a remarkably blasphemous sleeve and fill it with totally lifeless, after-ski bar-band covers of 'Mambo Sun', 'If you're going to San Francisco', 'Sugar Sugar' and the likes? Fuckin hell...". The tracks are however moderately hard rock-oriented so unfortunately we cannot escape from featuring them in this guide. No musical credits are found but we're guessing it's just the usual shadowy suspects, like Tanit studio engineer Matthias Raue, Ingo himself etc... If you got more info, please keep it to yourself.Discography:
"Satans Servants" LP 1988 (Metal Enterprises)
Satan’s Pharynx
Lineup:
Ralf Kuhnekath (vocals)
Christian Buttner (guitar)
Peter Beck (bass)
Nils Geller (drums)
Band-info:
Not sure if we could call Satan's Pharynx an early Black Metal band as these guys apparently seemed to be lyrically influenced by the horned one. The guys already released a Demo one year after they started 1981 in Moers (near Duisburg), that featured no less than 666 songs, no wait, my bad, just 21. The vocals performance appeared extremely aggressive but that's it when it comes to the debut. Dunno if I'd call that stuff pure Heavy Metal, Metal influences sure, but there's some other stuff included too. Some Hard Rock, 70's Punk and an absolutely crap guitar sound. The whole performance of the band didn't seem too well either. There's also a second Demo being recorded, but none of these 2 first steps was ever up for sale. On the band's only official Demo "Gates to Hades", recorded December '83, the aggressive vocals changed and so did the whole interaction of the lads. Now Heavy Metal could be thrown into the round, that kind of rhythmic headstrong Metal that bands like Saints Anger was known for, without ever reaching their level though. Well, if the band was ready for a first vinyl feature might be the eternal question, I guess not, especially not if you take all the other unsigned bands that was around in 1985. But D&S heard something in Satan's Pharynx that justified to use "Necropolis" and "Rock 'n' Roll" for their Break Out compilation. And it came as it had to come, the guys was amoung those bands that didn't leave a good impression with their uninspired common Heavy Metal.Discography:
"Satan's Pharynx" Demo 1982 (unofficial)
"Gate to Hades" Demo 1984 (selfreleased)
"Break Out - German Metal Tracks No.1" Comp.-LP Tracks 1985 (D&S)
Savage
Lineup:
Andy Oelfke
Band-info:
It's not fully confirmed yet that this band was indeed originating from Dortmund, as the booklet of the sole Demo "Nightmare", recorded in the early year anno Metal of 1982, of a band called Savage only features songtitles and no further info. But due to a short mention of a band called Savage with a Dortmund contact address in an early issue of Blitzkrieg fanzine from 1983, we are convinced at 90,28 %, that both bands are identical, whenalso a third party once threw in Hamburg as possible hometown of these Savage. Soundwise neither any of the 3 tracks "Cry like a lion", "Metal woman" and "Gettin' high" really fits to the old Hamburg scene's sound at all, which all 3 got a strong NWOBHM and Hard Rock edge, with the latter revealing occasional early Accept hints as well. Any further info would be highly appreciated.Discography:
”Nightmare” Demo 1982 (selfreleased)
Savage
Lineup:
Steffen Grau (vocals)
Mirko Richter (guitar)
Max Kundisch (guitar)
Heiko Köhler (bass)
Uwe Korm (drums)
Band-info:
Locals from Meerane (ex-GDR), who've been active between 1987 and 1989. The lads didn't compose own material and at their few local gigs they mainly performed Running Wild songs. Steffen Grau later after the political change played in T.S.C. Further info is badly needed.Discography:
Savage Fun
Lineup:
Max (guitar)
Bernd Spring (bass)
Don (drums)
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.Discography:
Savage Wild
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Metal band southern Germany that was actively playing live between 1986 and 1988. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
Scaffold
Lineup:
Norfried Kulawik (vocals, keyboard)
Maik Burkhardt (guitar)
Torsten Wendelken (guitar)
Alexander Wieczorek (bass)
Frank Alpers (drums)
Band-info:
A progressive Power Metal act that was long active in the Bremen 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 the band. 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.Discography:
"Fight for glory" Demo 1986/87 (selfreleased)
"Beyond eternity" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
"Beyond eternity" Comp.-LP Track 1988 (Teutonic Invasion Part Two)
"Illuzions of an eerie circle" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"Eerie circles" CD 1992 (Gorgon)
Scandium
Lineup:
Marjan Vidmar (guitar, vocals)
Michael Hoinke (guitar)
Hatty Schöner (bass)
Markus Lange (drums, vocals)
Band-info:
Thrashers from Essen, as it shouldn't be too hard to figure out at all. The band was founded during 1985 and quickly released 2 raw sounding speed driven tapes as a fourpiece. The debut "Cruel executer" from 1985 sounded close to early Vectom, with rather rough Speed Metal influenced sound, but already on "Frontiers of hell" Scandium propagated a much more Kreator alike sounding program at almost the same level like their famous "Pleasure to kill" album. But despite Kreator got famous for that kind of Metal, Scandium's critics wasn't earthshaking at all. The press pulled their early 3 Demos to pieces. "A world in decay", recorded in November '88, either was falling under that disastrous sentence by the big mags and alone with "Public nuisance" from August '89 the band could catch some first positive words by these ignorants. While from their former brutal Death/Thrash sound nothing was left anymore, the guys tried with common, almost melodic classic Bay Area Thrash Metal in the Wicca/Vio-lence/Death Angel vein, that imo hadn't much of an own identity anymore, whenalso technically they surely performed at similar level like the big guns of Thrash. The band at that time featured Harald Arnoldi (vocals), Marjan Vidmar (guitar), Manuel Schlüter (guitar), Josef Stagno (bass) and Markus Lange (drums), but either this line up didn't last long enough for the last tape of the band, that shrunk to a trio on "Out of silence" (1990) with only Harald Arnoldi (vocals), Marjan Vidmar (guitar) and Markus Lange (drums) remaining. When their long time member Marjan Vidmar also quit the band, Arnoldi and Lange tried a last time to revive Scandium with Urs Wiehager (bass) and Didi Waldick (guitar) in 1991, but split up eventually the following year.Discography:
"Cruel executer" Demo 1985 (selfreleased)
"Frontiers of hell" Demo 1986 (selfreleased)
"A world in decay" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
"Public Nuisance" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"Out of silence" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
Scanner
Lineup:
Michael Knoblich (vocals)
Axel Julius (guitar)
Thomas Sopha (guitar)
Martin Bork (bass)
Wolfgang Kolorz (drums)
Band-info:
The Speed Metallers Scanner from Gelsenkirchen was formed 1986 out of the ashes of Lions Breed, who already with "Damn the night" previously published an album on Earthshaker Records. The sound of Scanner though was way more intense Speed Metal like early Helloween with high pitched vocals. Both their 80's albums was equipoised by the same musicians, just that on "Terminal Earth" Knoblich was replaced by croatian vocalist Željko Topalović. But musically both albums are equal in terms of quality and power and everyone who's worshipping the 80's Speed Metal phase of Helloween, won't get any problems with the Scanner albums, they are even more intense. They guys also published 2 more albums in 1995 and '96 that fully fall under the same scheme and deliver trendfree Power Metal.Discography:
"Hypertrace" LP/CD 1988 (Noise)
"Round trip/Across the universe" Flexi Split 7" EP 1988 (with Rage, Noise)
"Galactos" Comp.-LP/CD Track 1988 (Doomsday News)
"Terminal Earth" LP/CD (Noise)
Scape Grace
Lineup:
Stefan Filter (vocals)
Oliver Riedinger (guitar)
Michael Filter (guitar)
Kai Raufeisen (bass)
Jens Frädrich (drums)
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band with heavy Punk edge was local Mölln's own Scape Grace from the wider Hamburg/Lübeck area. The guys only recorded 2 Demos and then disappeared again.Discography:
"Alternate realities" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"True confessions" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Scapegoat
Lineup:
Tosse Basler (vocals, guitar)
Joe Pomponio (guitar)
Daniel Herbert (bass)
Ingo Beck (drums)
Band-info:
Scapegoat was formed 1991 in Speyer and featured both ex-Defender Joe Pomponio and Daniel Herbert, as well as Tosse Basler from the Thrashers Poison Asp. The lads recorded their Demo "...'cos you believe" still in 1991, which was released in 1992, the same year when the fourpiece won the local contest "Speyerer Rockpreis", something that they repeated right in 1994 once again, when their second Demo "Free ya mind" was available. On "...'cos you believe" the band performed a complex, progressively touched Power Metal, with early 90's typical elements, switching from power parts to acoustic interuptions and back. The debut CD "Purify..." was produced independently on the indie Stanelle/Secoyah Records in 1995, while Scapegoat fully turned into the modern wind of the 90's by adding Funk influences. Guitarist Joe Pomponio afterwards quit, so Basler and Herbert reformed the band with new drummer Stefan Ostermayer and returned with the album "Goddog of prey" in 2001 on Rising Sun. Sometime around 2002/03 the last survivors disbanded Scapegoat nevertheless.(Thanx to Rumblefist for material)
Discography:
"...'cos you believe" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Scapegoat (Wolfsburg)
Lineup:
Michael Wehram (vocals)
Gunter Schwarz (guitar)
Mike Bolz (bass)
Elmar Korsten (drums)
Band-info:
A shortlived Metal band with Funk influences from Wolfsburg, featuring the ex-No Limits members Mike Bolz and Michael Wehram (ex-Access, later Inner Bleeding) on vocals as well as ex-Access drummer Elmar Korsten. A 4 track Demo entitled "The Diary" is known to be released in 1992. Further info is needed.Discography:
"The diary" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Scarecrow
Lineup:
Thomas Haller (vocals)
Jens Ribow (guitar)
Joe (guitar)
Andi (bass)
Chris Steinhoff (drums)
Band-info:
Freiburgs Crossover/Thrashers Scarecrow was founded in April '87 by ex-Beatifix members Thomas Haller, Jens Ribow, Andi and Stoffel (Chris Steinhoff) plus an additional new guy called Joe. Already in July they recorded the first 4 track Demo "Satyr" and one song of it was published on the "German Metal Fighters No. II" compilation, but basically Scarecrow wasn't much happy about that decision as they didn't really label themselves a Metal band at all. Ofc the selfproduced "Condemned to be doomed" vinyl album proved the contrary. In December '87 Stoffel and Andi left and Scarecrow found replacements in Christoph Pevec (bass) and Nico (drums), who both would record the album in February '88 with the guys. The LP was available in April '88 and limited to 500 copies. But already in July another edition of 500 copies was released since the first edition was sold quickly. Both editions do have different sleeves. One with black background and one with magenta coloured background. Basically I think the one with black is the first edition as this one turns up quite seldomly, but there was nowhere info to be found to say exactly. The album features well executed Thrash Metal with many technical breaks and Mosh parts, but got a kinda Crossover touch due to the annoying Punk vocals. In July '88 the 2 new trax "Never again" and "Pack of lies" was recorded, while the first one was used for several compilation tapes, and in fall '88 Scarecrow recorded "No reason to be sad" for the "Screaming for a better future" compilation on Campari Records. Right in January/February '89 the "No reason to be sad" 7" was recorded, that was produced for the band's own label Weed Productions, released in May in blue and green vinyl. Nick left Scarecrow after the 7", but returned 3 months later and the lads recorded together in December the second single "Scarecrow" (released in March '90) plus the track "Nuclear target" for the second part of the "Screaming for a better future" compilation. Originally in May 1990 Scarecrow planned to record their second album, but obviously, those plans wasn't realized at all, as no more releases turned up after 1990. Chris Steinhoff was founding member of Bethlehem in 1991, while Jens Ribow joined Lazzer after 1993 and recorded guitars for their "Tales of the Cosmoverse" CD 1995.Discography:
"Satyr" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"Repression" Comp.-LP Track 1988 (German Metal Fighters No. II)
”Condemned to be doomed” LP 1988 (selfreleased)
"No reason to be sad" Comp.-LP Track 1989 (Screaming for a better future)
"No reason to be sad" 7" EP 1989 (Weed)
"Scarecrow" 7" EP 1990 (Weed)
"Nuclear target" Comp.-LP Track 1990 (Screaming for a better future - Vol. 2)
Scarecrows
Lineup:
Nico (guitar)
Marco (guitar)
Andreas (drums)
Kissi (bass, vocals)
Band-info:
The Scarecrows from northern Germany (Kiel) recorded their Demo tape in November 1992 and it's one of those bands you don't know if you should like or hate them. They unite both in their music, the old and the new sound. Which should mean Scarecrows played a mix of german Power/Speed/Thrash like Vendetta (on "Brain Damage") but added some groovy parts as well, which doesn't promote their sound to the better. If they would have omitted the groovy parts it would have had suit them better imo.Discography:
”Volume 1” Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Scarfaces
Lineup:
Michael Unruhe (vocals)
Nico Wirtz (guitar)
Holger Wengler (bass)
Daniel Simon (drums)
Band-info:
With an average age of just 14 years the Scarfaces from Ibbenbüren (near Osnabrück) was announced as Europe's youngest Hard Rock band in the info sheet of the local compilation "Pink Pop presents Rocktage '86". At that time the teenager fourpiece just existed for about half a year, but already could open live on stage for local heroes Bee Jay. Their song "Metal fever" then indeed proves that sometimes it's better to rehearse a few months longer before entering a studio too early. Basically not a bad number at all, the limited skills of the musicians (especially of their drummer) then stopped all enthusiasm and clearly revealed the problems within the breaks.Discography:
"Metal fever" Comp.-LP Track 1986 (Pink Pop presents Rocktage 86 - Steppin' out)
Scarlatyna
Lineup:
Michael Rinn (vocals, bass)
Klaus Hardt (drums)
Daniel Horvath (guitars)
Band-info:
Scarlatyna started in 1987 as a trio with Michael Rinn (bass), Klaus Hardt (drums) and Daniel Horvath on guitar in Wetzlar and released their debut Demo in 1989 called "The Art of Metal". After the Demo there seems to have happened a big change in the band as with Chris Marino (vox), Jörg Weilinger (guitar, keybard) and Mike Stanzel (bass, keyboard) 3 new members joined in 1989 with only Klaus Hardt remaining of the first line up. With this team they recorded 2 more Demo tapes, "Scarlet Ball" and "Till the End", offering a pretty much exciting epic, progressive and professional sounding Power Metal style with strong US Metal note and Marino's vocals being able to cover a quite huge spectrum of singing, from high pitched to deeper nasty sounding tunes. Pure Underground Records re-released the last 2 Demos on a CD called "...till the End" in 2011. Scarlatyna folded sometime in 1994 but re-united in 2011 briefly for 2 more years.Discography:
"The art of Metal" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"Scarlet ball" Demo 1991 (selfreleased)
"Till the end" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Scarlet
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Heavy Rock band from East-Westphalia active around 1986/87. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
Scarlet Rose
Lineup:
Kurt Harley (vocals)
Frank Bulling (guitar)
Andy Keller (bass)
Michael Dorsch (drums)
Band-info:
A band from Mannheim/Heidelberg, that was founded in December 1988 by Frank Bulling and Andy Keller subsequently after their former band Scavenger just had called it quits. They found american singer Kurt Harley and the drummer Michael Dorsch to start working on their new vision of a melodic Heavy Rock band and recorded Scarlet Rose's debut Demo in April '89, plus a second tape already in October. In December '89 then Edgar Schmidt replaced Michael Dorsch on drums, while in July 1990 female keyboarder/singer Coco Augustin joined and female vocalist Steffi Brill joined for the departed Kurt Harley, who went back to the US of A. With the new line up the quintet produced Demo # 3 in February 1991, that gained the band first successful moments while being 2nd winner of a local band contest in September and also 2nd of the Metal Hammer newcomer festival in October '91. The Demo received overwhelming press in Germany, praising the songwriting and sound of Scarlet Rose and either the musical spectrum of the material ranging from Melodic Rock to Heavy Rock. Right in November the band could support the Sony Music recording act The Slags, while in May '92 played at a bigger festival with other german top acts Bonfire, Thunderhead, and Roko. During October that year the 3rd Demo then got re-released as "Second edition" with additional 5 live trax. 1993 Scarlet Rose could participate at a TV show and started their first tour through northern Germany, before they independently started recordings for their debut album "Prime" in November, which was finally released on House Master Records in 1995. Scarlet Rose furthermore released the CD single "The Sun in your eyes" in 1997 and was featured on a number of compilations during the 90's, before the band eventually was put on eyes during 2004.Discography:
"Some kind of Rock" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"Demo II" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"Demo '91" Demo 1991 (selfreleased)
"Second edition" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Scatergrace
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Metal band from northern Germany (Lübeck/Hamburg area), that actively played live during 1989/90. Further info is needed.Discography:
Scavenger
Lineup:
Frank Bulling (guitar)
Andy Keller (bass)
Band-info:
A band from Mannheim/Heidelberg, that was active during the late mid 80's and split up late 1988. Frank Bulling and Andy Keller subsequently formed the Heavy Rock band Scarlet Rose in December of that year. Further info is needed.Discography:
Scene X Dream
Lineup:
Andi Sommer (vocals, keyboard)
Andreas Lorz (guitar)
Stefan Fleischer (bass)
Frank Rotten (drums)
Band-info:
A local Offenbach band, that formed in 1989, initiated by ex-Wallop members Stefan Fleischer and Andreas Lorz, who teamed up with ex-Custom Pink drummer Frank Rotten and ex-Metower Andi Sommer. Rotten got replaced 1990 by Chris Lange (ex-Black Spirit) and 1991 Wolfgang Arnold came. Arnold also played drum parts on Scene X Dream's selftitled debut album from 1992, that features a melodic sort of archetypical Heavy/Power Metal with progressive touch and often reminds of STS 8 Mission, though the vocal type was surely completely different. Frank Rotten returned in 1992 and again became the band's drummer, while Mausoleum signed the guys but the timing was so unlucky, as it fell into Mausoleum's second insolvency, causing that the already finished second album of the band "Colloseum", that was planned for 1993/94, wasn't released before 2012 (Battle Cry Records). The "Identy" EP and fullenght followed 2013/15, while it got silent around again around Scene X Dream afterwards, but yet the guys seems to be still alive.Discography:
"Scene X Dream" CD 1992 (Perma)
Schizophrenia
Lineup:
Band-info:
A pretty good Death/Thrash Metal band from Altenholz-Klausdorf north of Kiel, sounding like a cross of Assorted Heap and old Sepultura (thus the name we guess), that was active during the fall of the 80's and beginning of 90's. Sadly no official recordings are known to exist. If you got further info, please get in touch.You can listen to a song of them here
Discography:
Schloss
Lineup:
Klaus Luley (guitar, vocals)
Roger Kaeschner (bass)
Willy Waid (drums)
Band-info:
Schloss was active since the early 70's and released their debut album "Weltschmerz" already 1975 (Oasis Records) prior to this Database's content starting from 1978. The LP featured Scorpions/Deep Purple (without organs) typical 70's Hard Rock and could be checked out by fans of that genre nevertheless. Their second album "Ready for the show" that was produced for Gama and released on Peak Records in 1981 sounded ofc more modern, though the Hard Rock roots wasn't completely laid off. On songs like the title track, that featured more speedy beats, Schloss sounded quite up to date. But the main material always adopted the 70's "Schunkel Rock" influences and delivered midpaced rocking Hard Rock of the common kind, which makes the LP more or less forgettable. In the beginning Schloss featured Klaus Luley, Roger Kaeschner and Willy Waid, but for "Ready for the show" it's hard to say who was playing there, as no line up info was printed on the sleeve. But Luley joined Hard Rockers Tokyo in 1981 to record their debut album and formed Craaft afterwards in 1983.Discography:
"Weltschmerz" LP 1975 (Oasis)
"Weltschmerz" 7"EP 1975 (Oasis)
"Ready for the show" LP 1981 (Peak)
Schnoogehooge
Lineup:
Michael Kroll (vocals)
Robert Seefeldt (guitar)
Michel Widmer (guitar)
Stefan Fabian (bass)
Peter Lersch (drums)
Band-info:
Schnoogehooge a Rock band from Rüsselsheim in the Frankfurt/Mayence area, picked a quite odd name respectively to their very own style, which was a sort of hardrocking Punk or punky Hardrock. Skillwise the protagonists neither convinced on any of the three featured tracks on the wide line with their DIY sound, so their self produced german sung single “Supermarkt” from the mid 80’s could be stored in the Crossover drawer easily and would receive the mark “least of all memorable”.Discography:
“Supermarkt” 7" EP 1986 (selfreleased)
Schreckschuss
Lineup:
Marco Ritter (guitar, vocals)
Matthias Wiewiorra (bass)
Band-info:
This band from Suhl (ex-GDR) was originally founded in 1984 as JFM as a shortlived schoolboy Rock band, but first during around 1985 Marco Ritter (guitar) and Matthias Wiewiorra (bass) formed Schreckschuss to play a much more Heavy Metal inspired sound. In the very beginning the duo used to play with a drum machine and already played a few local live gigs. The guys first found Jörg Wackes as vocalist, but it took the guys till April '88 to eventually pass the grading of a basic level amateur band. Afterwards Gerald Maak (vocals), Martin Köhr (guitar) and Jörg Aschenbach (drums) joined and the band was renamed to Tantrum. If you got more info, please in touch.Discography:
Science Project
Lineup:
Thomas Matiszik (vocals)
Björn Gralla (guitar)
Mario Reining (keyboard)
Oliver Emanowski (bass)
Thomas Schnermann (drums)
Band-info:
Science Project (or shortened SP) was a Dorsten/Dortmund based Metal band that originally was started as a kinda benefit project to collect money for a children's home in Romania, with local musicians of the band Blue Velvet being involved. But after some accurate feedback, a part of the musicians decided to carry on as a real band with a few other guys from their local scene. The selftitled 12" was released on the Off Limit label in 1990, featured an insert and was pressed in blue vinyl (1000 copies made). SP got often compared to the Pretty Maids, but was able to add enough power to their songs, that paired with the melody, the atmosphere created by the background keyboards and the excellent guitar riffing, developed an irresistible Heavy/Power Metal, that truly stood out of the common bands releases. There is a "conflict" due to the band logo showing "SP" everywhere on the sleeve, but on the insert the band made a statement "Die Gruppe Science Project bedankt sich ...", so due to this statement we list the band as Science Project and not as SP, like on other sources. But nevertheless after the 12" was published, the chapter Science Project soon was finished and some of the members joined forces with ex-Black Diamond guys to form Dorian Gray.
Scorpions
Lineup:
Klaus Meine (vocals)
Rudolf Schenker (guitar)
Matthias Jabs (guitar)
Francis Buchholz (bass)
Herman Rarebell (drums)
Band-info:
The Scorpions was founded in 1965 as a Beat band in Sarstedt by Rudolf Schenker and Wolfgang Dziony. The first steady line up consisted of Rudolf Schenker (guitar), Joachim Kirchhoff (bass), Karl-Heinz Vollmer (guitar) and Wolfgang Dziony (drums). They started writing own songs when Klaus Meine and Michael Schenker joined the band in 1969. All the rest is part of the Hard Rock history. The Scorpions belong to the small circle of the most successful Hard Rock bands worldwide ever. The Corroseum honestly doesn't think that we still need to introduce this Rock legend to anyone of the readers. In case someone doesn't know them yet, please check out the Scorpions HomepageDiscography:
Scottish Vice
Lineup:
Band-info:
A band from Oldenburg, that formed in 1986, initiated by a bunch schoolfriends who played in a melodic Hard Rock style with strong Party Metal feeling. A Live/Demo recorded 1987 also exists, entitled "The legions of Lohorst". If you got further info, please get in touch.Discography:
"The legions of Lohorst" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
Scout
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Southern Rock/Hard Rock band from the Bexbach/Homburg area, that was active in the early 90's and played several local gigs. Further info is needed.Discography:
Scrap Manufactory
Lineup:
Bernd Ferone (guitar)
Volker Herschbach (keyboard)
Jörg Schaufert (bass)
Rick de Soto (drums, vocals)
Band-info:
Neunkirchen Hardrockers, known for dressing notoriously in leather during the late 70’s, while the first steps of these guys are dating back to already 1972. The lads drew quite a huge fan crowd to each one of their gigs and quickly established their prominent status in their local area around Neunkirchen/Saarbrücken. After a few changes, the band eventually produced two songs with the final line up featuring Bernd Ferone (guitar), Albert Jochum (vocals), Volker Herschbach (keyboard) and Jörg Schaufert (bass), for their first single “Little Jane” with Ricky King in 1979, and subsequently would change their name to Lancelot for the single release, while a bit later on during the early 80’s the guys could support superstars Queen in Germany.Discography:
Screaming
Lineup:
Race (vocals)
Robert Balci (guitar)
Tommy (drums)
Vögli (bass)
Band-info:
Quite a technically experienced acting Power Metal band from Heidenheim with above standard guitar work much influenced by US bands of the 80's and diverse proggy Power Metal acts it seems. Robert Balci was formerly playing with Amnysha and is the ex-drummer of D.I.A. both from the Heidenheim area as well. Apart of the two songs "Screaming" and "Dangerous eyes" there are no other releases known so far. If you got more info please get in touch.
Screaming Demon
Lineup:
Eberhardt Paduch (vocals)
J. Brennauer (guitar)
K. Brabdmeier (bass)
W. Keller (drums)
Band-info:
A speedy Heavy Metal band from Peiting/Bavaria, that was active since 1982 and recorded their first Demo, incl. 2 songs plus a bass solo, in spring 1987. That tape received quite positive feedback for their melodic speed driven material within the scene, but the band didn't seem to have had the will to carry on, as their vocalist Eberhardt Paduch already one year after the Demo release appeared on swiss Stonefield's debut EP "The eyes of the dawn". Screaming Demon though in 1990 was seen playing live at the Feierwerk in Munich. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Demo I" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
Screamz
Lineup:
Bernd Abelmann (guitar, vocals)
Sven Götze (guitar)
Thomas (bass)
Andreas Ziegler (drums)
Band-info:
Screamz was originally founded in Luckenwalde (ex-GDR) as Viper, who started early trying form a band, back in 1984, not far from Jüterbog where Biest was originating from, south of Berlin, but officially appeared under the name of Viper firstly in August 1985 on the local scene. Less Thrash influenced than in their later prime phase, the band covered several NWOBHM acts like Judas Priest and mainly Iron Maiden, before Thrash Metal started getting bigger and bigger and infected the lads as well. Olaf Gassan originally fronted the band between 1987 and ‘88, who also went on stage to perform live during that time, but had to leave again, so guitarist and songwriter Bernd Abelmann took over vocals. It took a while for the first tape to be recorded, since the band wasn’t chosen by the GDR’s officials to produce material for the national broadcast service, surely connected to the fact that Viper used to sing in English, not German. During the political change in autum '89 "Rules of weakness" and the "Cry for justice” Demo was produced in 1990, both presenting a raw Thrash style quite close to Kreator on their late 80's albums, but less polished sounding, while either the guys themselves officially claimed to be influenced by bands such as Metallica, Sodom and the aforementioned Kreator. The lads received good feedback by the local press and started recording their debut album "Bringers of disaster" independently in summer '91, that would follow consequently the direction of the previous demos. The Viper sound had developed into an even more Death/Thrash style now with more breaks like Moshquito, Sadus or Incubus. Due to legal issues with a bavarian band of the same name the Viper guys had to change the band name to Screamz in August 1992, while only Bernd Abelmann (guitar, vocals) remained of the old line up, that now additionally featured Sven Götze on guitar, Thomas on bass and Andreas Ziegler on drums. These 4 Thrashers right within 1992 recorded the debut Demo of Screamz, entitled simply “It’s scream…”. The second tape “Stay alone” was produced the following year at the Musiclab Studio in Berlin and gained some good responses, so Screamz decided to produce their first album “Cash” independently with Jan on guitar replacing Sven Götze and Marc (bass). The guy’s style also had changed towards a more Power/Thrash inspired sound during the past years, much reminding of the very late 80’s, when classic Thrash elements more and more started fading. But either the newly joined Jan and Marc left Screamz right during the recordings for the second album in 1996. Abelmann and Ziegler paused Screamz for a while and united late in 1997 again with guitarist Uwe Klotz (ex-Biest), but only performed cover versions from that point on. Klotz then 2003 moved to Canada, causing another break for the band, while Bernd Abelmann recruited new members afterwards and continued with Screamz as a cover act.Discography:
"It's scream..." Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
"Stay alone" Demo 1993 (selfreleased)
Scum
Lineup:
Martin Seefried (vocals)
Johnny Hanke (bass)
Chris Huber (drums)
Burkhart Weiss (guitar)
Band-info:
A shortlived Death Metal band from Donauwörth. Scum at least could record a 7" EP during the early 90's Death Metal wave that features raw Death/Grind with some slower gloomy parts and vocals in the vein of Carcass or Prophecy of Doom. One track of the single was also used for the german underground compilation CD "Deathophobia".Discography:
”Gargoyle” 7” EP 1992 (Brickhouse Music)
"Infanticide" Comp.-CD Track 1993 (Deathophobia)
Scum (Bottrop)
Lineup:
Micha (vocals)
Pente (guitar)
Locke (bass)
Käfer (drums)
Band-info:
Another one of the bunch of german bands sharing the name Scum. These guys was hailing from Bottrop (Oberhausen/Essen/Gelsenkirchen area) and was friends with tuneful names of that area like Assassin, Darkness or Violent Force. And this brings us directly into the right direction of Scum's original sound. The guys who started sometime during 1986, labeled themselves a Hardcore band, while on the debut Demo "Hinder the sadistic war" from 1987, a hyperspeed Death/Thrash troop with Thrashcore elements would nail it better. Some very early Assassin influences are audible, but more or less the band reminds of certain brazilian underground Thrashers of that era like Blasphemer with hints of less punky Soothsayer. The following year a 7" was produced for belgian microlabel Vibration Records in a limited edition of 500 copies and a much more Crossover/HC edge. Last release of the band was a live cassette album with the title "Live 31/3/90" on swiss Resistance Productions, before the lads called it quits.Discography:
”Hinder the sadistic war” Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"Imitation of life" 7" EP 1988 (Vibration)
"Like a nightmare" Comp.-MC Track 1988 (No Slow Thrashification Vomit I)
"Let him out" Comp.-MC Track 1989 (Mutilador Compilation Volume II)
"Live 31/3/90" MC 1990 (Resistance Productions)
Second Hand
Lineup:
Jeanot Restayn (guitar, vocals)
Max Jllen (bass, vocals)
Don DiLemma (drums, vocals)
Band-info:
A pretty heavy Hard Rock band from Heuweiler near Freiburg who produced their selftitled 12" privately in March '84. All of the 3 guys sung at least one song on the EP and judging by the accent of Jeanot Restayn he might be indeed a french dude. "Equalizer" and "Star rider" on the A-side both are the heaviest trax and "Can't you see" on side B doesn't stand too much behind at all. Just the B side opener "Show business" doesn't fit in terms of heaviness to the rest. Besides a few very minor NWOBHM influences on "Equalizer", the lads pretty much had found their own style in the pounding Hard Rock/Metal, that spreads quite a healthy dose of power, due to the fat production. Truly a nice find for collectors.Discography:
"Second Hand" 12" EP 1984 (selfreleased)
Second Hell
Lineup:
Piet Sielck (guitar, vocals)
Kai Hansen (guitar)
Markus Grosskopf (bass)
Ingo Schwichtenberg (drums)
Band-info:
Piet Sielck (later in Iron Saviour) and Kai Hansen formed the band Gentry at around 1977/78 with the first real line up consisting of Frank (vocals), Peter "Piet" Sielck (guitar), Kai Hansen (guitar), Christian (bass) and Johannes (drums), who either won the first prize on a local festival during 1978. A bit later on around 1979 the band kinda broke while Sielck and Hansen was left alone searching for new members, till in 1980 drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg and bassist Markus Großkopf was recruited. Piet Sielck took the vox from this day. The band name got changed in 1980 to Second Hell and 1982 to Ironfist. Since Piet Sielck had to quit the band coz he went to the US of A for his studies, guitarist Michael Weikath took over Sielck's part inside the band late in 1983, who earlier had tried to make Hansen joining his own band Powerfool, but immediately changed plan. The band got renamed once again to Helloween in 1984. It's known that there are several recordings of Ironfirst or the early Helloween are available, but it's not completely confirmed if these indeed was officially spread as Demos of the band. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Second P.
Lineup:
Christian Dürr (vocals, keyboard)
Peter Zöller (keyboard)
Uwe Heinrich (bass)
Band-info:
A pretty obscure and in places scary sounding Rock trio from Herzogenried, that got supported by 2 guitarists and 2 drummers on their 7" with the promising title "Quadrology of the preachers night". Basically there's just the track "Preacher's night" that's of interest here, but this one's really cool Hard Rock/Metal with galopping beat. The sound of the 3 preachers can't be described so easily, as there are Kraut Rock, Psych elements, Hard Rock or just plain Rock mixed to a morbid brew like on "The devil's preach", that starts with almost funky Rock and turns into scary horror sounds during the refrain, that a cold shiver is running over your back, worth to be used for movies of the genre. The 2 flipside songs are completely out of the game, there the guys just play a sort of keyboard dominated Kraut Rock. But "Preacher's night" is worth alone the purchase I'd say. Christian Dürr later sung on Peter Zöller's solo LP "Paradise" (1984) and resurfaced with Heavyrockers Sam at the end of the 80's decade.Discography:
"Quadrology of the preachers night" 7" EP 1982 (Aircraft)
Second Sight
Lineup:
Antonio Torre (guitar, vocals)
Thomas Wiesner (guitar)
Michael Rautert (bass)
Ralf Bönig (drums)
Band-info:
Paderborn locals who performed a slow midtempo style Hard Rock with though heavy sound, but average songwriting and riffing on their song “Soldier of fortune”, that’s featured on the underground compilation “Pader Born Rock II” from 1985.Discography:
"Soldier of fortune" Comp.-LP Track 1985 (Pader Born Rock II)
Second Trial
Lineup:
Jürgen Nitsche (bass, vocals)
Walter Fussel (guitar)
H. J. Schreinemacher (guitar, vocals)
Josef M. Krause (drums)
Band-info:
A less known Melodic Rock band from Hürth/Cologne, that could well be active since already the late 70's. Their first vinyl appearance happened already 1981 on the compilation "Viele Grüße aus dem Underground", still with a different line up consisting of Jürgen Nitsche (bass, vocals), Walter Fussel (guitar), H. J. Schreinemacher (guitar, vocals) and Josef M. Krause (drums), than on the later selfreleased album from the mid 80's. Nitsche (now on guitar and vox) and Schreinemacher remained the only ones, teaming up with Klaus Tauscher (keyboard), Peter Minwegen (drums), Wilfried Verweegen (bass) and Rocky Rösberg on guitar, to resurface with "Mitläufer" on another local sampler called "Rock '84". Right afterwards the lads independently produced their selftitled LP (most probably dating from 1985 or 86), that should be interesting for AOR & Melodic Rock fans. Once again the german vocals giving it a strong Deutsch Rock touch, but more or less also because of the vocal style some of their songs remind of a less poppy version of Heinz-Rudolf Kunze (german Pop/Rock artist), that actually are quite well executed, above average. Still seen as a whole, Second Trial's album remains kinda poppy, hitparade oriented, but the quality of most of the featured material can't be denied at all either.Discography:
"Good Bye" Comp.-LP Track 1981 (Viele Grüße aus dem Underground)
"Mitläufer" Comp.-LP Track 1984 (Rock '84)
"Second Trial" LP 198? (selfreleased)
Secrecy
Lineup:
Peter Dartin (vocals)
Stephan Kerber (bass)
Manfred Dubbert (guitar)
Sascha Trödel (drums)
Band-info:
After the split of Bremen based Sweet Cheater, Manny Meccyca (Manfred Dubbert) and Alex Zazzo (Sascha Trödel) formed Secrecy in 1987 and got supported by Steve Kerby (Stephan Kerber) and Peter Dartin. The foursome recorded a Demo in 1988 that featured 6 songs in a softer, more progressive Power Metal style with the remarkable vocals of Peter Dartin, though they imo would fit more a Glam band than Power Metal. Secrecy's style was in places similar to Iced Earth's debut album, without the speed parts. Nevertheless Noise Records gave them a change and produced the debut "Art in motion", that was recorded in summer '90 with Jörn Schlüter on guitar and also featured a few songs of the previous Demo. The album received a good press and therefore Secrecy started recording the second album "Raging romance", which went even more proggy, though also slightly heavier produced than the precursor, delivering sentimental Power/Thrash. But the album was a flop and the band got dropped by Noise. A last Demo that led to nothing was selfproduced in 1992, before they split in the mid 90's. Alex Zasso during 1993 additionally drummed in the Power Metal band No Comment.Discography:
"Like burning one's boat" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
"Art in motion" LP/CD 1990 (Noise)
"Raging romance" LP/CD 1991 (Noise)
"Set the sails" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Secret Attack
Lineup:
Runhardt Scheffler (bass)
Band-info:
A shortlived Heavy Metal band from Spremberg (ex-GDR), that mainly covered NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden, Motörhead or Judas Priest in the beginning when they formed in 1987. Their own material was rather Power Metal inspired and the guys either played a few live gigs at that time. But during 1988 Secret Attack split up and Runhardt Scheffler learned to play guitar instead in order to form something more brutal sounding. He tried several times to gather musicians for that purpose but always failed, till he met drummer Jean Schulze in early 1990 and both formed Necromance.Discography:
Secret Fear
Lineup:
Marco W. (vocals)
Thomas Gehle (guitar)
Heino N. (bass)
Kai L. (keyboard)
Stefan K. (drums)
Band-info:
A Power Metal band from Flensburg, who've been active during the early 90's and most probably formed around 1991, coz when they recorded their 3 track Demo "Living inquest", they yet haven't been together that long. Originally planned as just a rehearsal room cut, the whole result convinced the bunch to spread it as official tape. Despite a few still audible debilities, the recordings are for the short time frame they've been created in, quite solid sounding. Further info is needed.Discography:
"Living inquest" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Secrets
Lineup:
Dimmy Scodralis (vocals, guitar)
Anja Kretzschmar (keyboard)
Roger Schüller (bass)
Toni Talevski (drums)
Band-info:
Düsseldorf based Heavy Rockers, active since 1983, that released a private album in 1991. What's still unclear, is if the band name actually was Secrets of the Universe or just Secrets, because their "Get crazy" CD from 1994 was released under the monicker Secrets of the Universe. But looking at the LP sleeve of their 91'er album itself it's not 100 % clear at all, though on the back there's the same picture, big Secrets logo plus "of the universe" below. So I tend to say the correct band name was indeed Secrets of the Universe, but nevertheless, the music will remain the same, no matter how these guys was called. There are 10 trax featured, that combine unspectacular melodic Heavy Metal and Hard Rock, using a few atmospheric keyboard parts as well, but all in all the LP will always remain lower middle league stuff. As mentioned above, in 1994 one more album got produced independently, before they split up in about 1996.Discography:
”Of the universe” LP 1991 (selfreleased)
Sector Madness
Lineup:
Steve (guitar vocals)
Arno Bretträger (bass, vocals)
Sweener (drums)
Band-info:
A Fun/Death Core band from Münster, that was "formed" in December 31st '88 and consisted of Sweenie and Steve, 2 US soldiers stationed in Germany, as well as Arno, the editor of Totentanz Mag. A Demo was planned for 1989 and song titles of these lads has been called "Torpedo cadaver" and "Massacre of the mummified". Further info is needed.Discography:
Seducer
Lineup:
Tomas Platte
Band-info:
A melodic band with members from Bremen and Oldenburg, that was active during the late 80's and at least till 1989 couldn't show any Demo recording at all. Our info source mentions the guys to play a very solid melodic Hard Rock/Metal mix that they used to call "Melodic Metal Rock", with strong Scorpions and Dokken influences. Further info is needed...Discography:
Segarty
Lineup:
Dirk Seeger
Band-info:
A Metal band from Solingen, that was active during 1987/88 and had Demo recordings scheduled for 1988. The band was influenced by the typical US american Hard Rock/Metal sound in the vein of Ozzy/Dio/Quiet Riot. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Seldom Refuse
Lineup:
Jürgen Müller (guitar, vocals)
Frank Prilipp (guitar)
Udo Kölz (bass)
Mitch Schmitt (drums)
Band-info:
A Thrash band from Erlangen that formed back in 1987 and released 3 Demo tapes.Besides "Another wasted face" (1988) and "Seldom Refuse" (1990), "Check your substitute2 was the last tape of the bunch, recorded 1994. Jürgen Müller joined Daargesin in 1991. Further info is needed.Discography:
"Another wasted face" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
"Seldom Refuse" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
Semen of Satan
Lineup:
Peter Fischer (vocals)
Hans Noll (guitar)
Vivi (guitar)
Patrick (bass, vocals)
Micki (drums)
Band-info:
An amateurish DIY Punk Metal act originating from the city of Münster, founded by Vivi and Hans Noll in 1981. Vivi was previously playing in a softer Metal band, but wanted to switch over to Black Metal. During the early days they just produced noise and recorded a first Demo with 11 trax during 1982/83, entitled "Schlachtet die Friedenstaube", that wasn't officially released, but a physical copy was recently seen at ebay, so at least the band recorded it to someone including a tape cover. Noll left the band band afterwards and the remaining guys continued without him. 1984 they dared to record another Demo tape, that musically, despite a very few sole Hellhammer (but worse) influences, tended somewhere amoung Metal and Punk and if anyone knows the Demos of the german "Black Metal" band Absurd, you might get a glimpse. Both bands shared same musical sense. MA mentions these lads indeed got a record contract before they eventually split up in 1986, and it seems SOS had increased their technical skills alot, when the band was seen live on stage in autumn '86 with Volker Angenendt on bass. Further info is welcome.Discography:
"Schlachtet die Friedenstaube" Demo 1982/83 (unreleased)
"Semen of Satan" Demo 1984 (selfreleased)
Sensual Impression
Lineup:
Markus Behnke (bass vocals)
Svente (guitar)
Florian Böhmke (drums)
Band-info:
Originally formed as Morbid in Wolfburg 1988, who sadly just released one Demo tape with the title "Returning impossible" recorded in summer the same year. The lads had a sound similar to a mix of Messiah's debut album and Sepultura's "Schizophrenia". Afterwards Morbid changed name to Sensual Impression in 1989 and tried with rather Progressive Metal, but didn't record any further Demos. Further info is welcome.Discography:
Sentinel
Lineup:
Michael Hack
Band-info:
A Judas Priest/Iron Maiden influenced Heavy Metal band from Düsseldorf active around 1986. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
Separate Reality
Lineup:
Holger Timm (bass, vocals)
Michael Gliese (guitar)
Thorsten Ritter (guitar)
Rainer Struck (keyboard)
Jürgen Schlotter (drums)
Band-info:
The already 1981 founded Separate Reality from Hamburg released a nice 7" on the Pirol label in 1988 that features the cool Heavy Rocker "Metal skies" and the more or less rather AORish "Enough", who's refrain could be compared to a heavier form of Bachmann Turner Overdrive's "You ain't seen nothing yet" in a way. The guys also recorded a 6 track Demo tape in 1991, who's drum parts was all done by still Jürgen Schlottau, but the booklet already mentions Michael Link (ex-MP) as new drummer. Additionally David Roth (keyboard) and Goetz Sucke (vocals) had joined the band while Struck and Gliese left Separate Reality after the single. That tape featured their wellknown blend of Prog Metal and Hard Rock sounds, offering either occasional Fates Warning hints. The guys later changed name to Entry. Further info is needed.
Septic Terror
Lineup:
Torsten Seifert (guitar)
Tino Röder (guitar)
Torsten Oettel (drums)
Mirko Oechsner (vocals)
Band-info:
Septic Terror was a shortlived east german Thrashcore/Crossover project formed in Schneeberg/Saxony (ex-GDR) in early 1989 by the schoolmates Torsten Seifert, Tino Röder, Torsten Oettel and Mirko Oechsner. They got influenced by bands such as Slayer, Kreator and also S.O.D. but musically viewed this band can't be taken too serious at all. None of them had learned to handle his instrument before. The boys wrote 2 songs till their decline in 1990, called "Satan unser Herr" (Satan our lord) and "Runaway". A rehearsal recording should exist as well but for the moment this recording is missing since they lost contact to each other over the years. The band broke after they finished school and Tino Röder in late 1990 went on to play with local Schneeberg Death Metal act Purulent Obduction and later formed the wellknown Pagan/Black Metal band Andras.Discography:
Seremon Heights
Lineup:
Martin Kröher (vocals)
Holger Schroth (guitar)
Markus Pfeffer (guitar)
Dirk Kühn (drums)
Band-info:
A melodic Power Metal band from the Kaiserslautern area that was previously formed as GO 90, featuring the 2 ex-Carissa members Holger Schroth and also Martin Kröher, who joined the band in early 1991. Already in autumn the guys changed name to Seremon Heights. The band wasn't active during a longer period, as Kröher already went to play with Rough Velvet the following year. Further info is welcome.Discography:
Sergeant "D"
Lineup:
Eric Neckermann (vocals)
Oliver Kerpa (guitar)
Thomas Link (guitar)
Claus Hönliger (bass)
Jürgen Link (drums)
Band-info:
Sergeant "D" was a Speed/Thrash band that was originating from Buchen/Darmstadt and recorded a Demo tape in spring '88, featuring 2 live and 2 studio trax, while the Demo in general came with bad sound quality. The studio songs are quite nice Thrash with good vocals, sadly the live cuts from their first gig ever can't really convince. Some of the guys later resurfaced with the Crossover band Miss Marple. Further info is needed.Discography:
"The holy Marie tapes" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
Serious Noise
Lineup:
Reiner Kubiczek (vocals)
Oliver Menn (guitar)
Jens Albrecht (bass)
Andreas Bednarski (keyboard)
Andreas Hüttebräucker (keyboard)
Andreas Kleiner (drums)
Band-info:
A local band from Lüdenscheid, that was featured with the song "California" on the local underground scene sampler "Listen and Dance - The sound of Lüdenscheid". The band formed during early/mid 1989, and all of it's members was active in other Lüdenscheid bands before. Musically their song belongs into the Hard Rock drawer, having a very driving riff and beat, but as you see, they had 2 keyboarders in their rows and the whole sound was trimmed rather commercial, so in the end it sounds like a Hard Rock bands wants to play Pop music and creates a sort of AOR.Discography:
"California" Comp.-LP Track 1990 (Listen and Dance - The sound of Lüdenscheid)
Sermon
Lineup:
Joachim Röhrich (guitar)
Peter Jägeler (vocals)
Andreas Sonntag (guitar)
Jürgen Navarro (bass)
Detlef Jakubigk (drums)
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from Bremen, formed in november 1983 by ex-members of two other local unknowns FERNROCK and RIFF, supposedly strongly influenced by Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. If you have more info, please get in contact.Discography:
"Live demo '84"
Serpent Taint
Lineup:
J. Riemann
Pit Schramm
Band-info:
A local Landshut/Bavaria Hard Rock band, who used to bookmark their their style as "Mystik Rock", whatever that means. The band was actively playing live during 1992 and either had recorded a Demo at that time. Further info is needed.Discography:
Setzei
Lineup:
Winfried Katscher (vocals)
Rainer Schossig (guitar)
Marcus Schloussen (bass)
Detta Herm (drums)
Band-info:
Even for Heavy Metal kids from ex-GDR like myself, the band Setzei from Fürstenwalde is quite unknown. Founded in 1977 as Pathos by Marcus Schloussen, Detta Herm (ex-Neumeyer Blues), Winfried Katscher and Rainer Schossig, Katscher didn't stay for long and quit already in 1978, to get replaced by Carlo Schröder. After relocating to Berlin around 1978, the band name was changed either to Setzei, which, said under 4 eyes, must be the most stupid name for a band ever. In the beginning the lads focussed on covering big Rock bands like ZZ Top, Rory Gallagher etc. Peter Scheffler became their second guitarist in 1979 and when Matthias Lauschus replaced Carlo Schröder on vox in 1980, Setzei started working on own material. With "Hallo Setzei" and "Der Mond und ich" two first songs was recorded for the national broadcast service still in 1980, while the first one mentioned was either used for the sampler "Auf dem Wege ... 2", released in 1981 and would remain the band's only vinyl appearance till their dissolving in 1984. New drummer Dietmar Ahrens joined for Detta Herm in 1980 and got also replaced by Jürgen Legal a year later. A couple of more songs was recorded for the national radio stations, but since the band still was rated an amateur band, they couldn't release any albums. Therefore 1982 Marcus Schloussen joined the profi band Reform, whose ex-bassplayer Mike Demnitz just had quit to form MCB as we all do know. Schloussen's substitute was Thomas Hergert. With Matthias Lauschus, Rainer Schossig, Thomas Hergert, Peter Scheffler und Jürgen Legal the band worked till 1984, when Legal left. After trying 3 more new drummers in shortest time, Lauschus called it a day and went on to play with Tutti Paletti, which caused the disbandment of Setzei. Hergert and Scheffler joined the band Mona Lise. Was the early sound of the band still Rock oriented stuff, their following recordings from 1982 to 1983 went obviously heavier ways and must be called a sort of Heavy Metal inspired Hard Rock like Regenbogen. Fortunately the lads was invited to perfom on stage for the eastgerman TV, so you better make your own picture of SetzeiDiscography:
"Hallo, Setzei" Comp.-LP Track 1981 (Auf dem Wege ... 2)
Broadcast Recordings:
"Der Mond und ich" (1980)
"Kofferpacken"
"Fliegst du weit"
"Onkel Grimmig"
"Wer ist von Zweifeln frei"
"Lust zu zweit"
"Falsches Spiel"
Seven Eleven
Lineup:
B. Heil
A. Sahihi
Band-info:
An AOR band that mixes Hard Rock and Pop/Rock. They mark themselves a Rock band and basically that is correct, but the guys combine Hard Rock beats with poppy sound, so it's honestly not easy to label their style. Though the AOR/Melodic Rock fans will find something new to check out.Discography:
"Backstrike" 7" EP 1985 (Glashaus Edition)
"Tin soldier" 7" EP 1986 (Glashaus Edition)
Seven Sisters
Lineup:
Thomas Hainmann (vocals)
Ralf Heyne (guitar)
Knut Poischberg (bass)
Carsten Tischer (drums)
Band-info:
A Hard Rock/Metal band from Münster, that was founded by ex-Virgin guitarist Ralf Heyne in 1987. The guys recorded a professional Demo tape in January 1988 at the Dierks Studios, that featured 3 commercial Metal songs with glammy edge. Heyne was searching for a label to produce the first album of the Seven Sisters but didn't succeed at all. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Seven Wishes
Lineup:
Alex Müller (vocals, guitar)
Frank Olbrich (guitar)
Claus Doll (keyboard)
Michael Bürstner (bass)
Joachim Doll (drums)
Band-info:
A Karlsruhe based Melodic Metal band active since late summer '86, that evolved from the ashes of Brainstorm. 2 weeks later the lads played already their first gig and soon made it on second rank of a local newcomer contest in November the same year. Their first Demo ”'s heaven vicious?” was produced in 1987. The tape features 4 songs of well executed melodic mainly midtempo Heavy Metal with formidable axework, even using keyboards. Despite the keyboards used, that's no poppy stuff here at all, except for the last track perhaps. Their main influences came from US american bands. The track "Carry on" appeared on the Break Out compilation LP and the band had good rankings in several local band contests. Inline Music then signed the band and produced the "1990" entitled Demo during 1989/90 to land a record deal at any bigger label. Since that undertaking didn't succeed, 1992 the guys once again tried with a another Demo called "Never enough", but vanished from the screen afterwards.Discography:
”'s heaven vicious?” Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"Carry on" Comp.-LP Track 1988 (Break Out)
"1990" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
"Never enough" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Seven X
Lineup:
Ritchie Wilhelm (vocals, guitar)
Knut Peters (guitar)
Joe Trageser (bass)
Jerry Müller (drums)
Band-info:
These guys from Frankfurt/Main was already making music since 1981 under the monicker of Protz and should be known to some for their track on the Rockactive 84 sampler. After a few line up changes they also changed name to Seven X in 1985/86 and released a first Demo in 1986. The early Protz style could be seen as godfather for Seven X's modern sound that's adopting a few Motörhead-ish influences on "Out of control", though less punky played. If you got more info, please in touch.
Sex Attack
Lineup:
Lutz Inkamp (vocals)
Steve Heyden (guitar)
Judas Cadaver (bass)
Rainer Gantz (drums)
Band-info:
Glam Metallers from Waldkirch/Freiburg who've been active since the mid 80's and published 2 Demos before they recorded their only album "Beyond belief" with Christophe Hoffmann on drums. Except of a few little problems in the vocal department, the LP wasn't utterly bad and I'm sure the boys was heavily influenced by US bands such as Mötley Crüe, but couldn't really implement the guidelines of their US idols. But that's the win for the Metal crowd, coz basically, even though there are US Glam influences featured, Sex Attack played a quite straight rockin' midtempo Heavy Metal with headbang compatible rhythm, that seriously got the german brand. The grade "listenable" is well deserved. Steve Heyden and bassist Jochen Bursy (Judas Cadaver?) afterwards formed the band Heyden during early 1990.Discography:
"Differences" Demo 1986 (selfreleased)
"Time bombs on legs” Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
“Beyond belief“ LP 1989 (Deltaphon)
Sexmachine
Lineup:
Steve Steibl (vocals, guitar)
Dieter Schischelski (bass)
Roland Becker (drums, keyboard)
Band-info:
A Melodic Metal band from Hanau, that privately produced an album in the mid 80's, which was recorded from January-March 1986. Guess the trio was extremely excited to do that step, but the lads just ignored one fact, they haven't been ready for it at that point at all. The interaction of the musicians and either the songwriting appears mainly quite amateurish and many ideas was just copied and repeated again and again. Either the vocal parts in places was completely out of tune. I don't wanna hide that there are indeed a few song ideas and guitar solos that sound listenable, but to view the whole of the album, it wasn't competitive at all.
Sexton
Lineup:
Dirk Mlynarek (vocals)
Oliver Bongartz (guitar)
Hartmut Kaukel (guitar)
Metal Pille (bass)
Christian Hellwig (drums)
Band-info:
A Metal band from Dortmund, that was formed early 1984 by the two guitarists Oliver Bongartz and Hartmut Kaukel. Dirk Mlynarek soon became their vocalist and 2 months later Christian Hellwig joined on drums. They apparently released an 8-song demo in November 1984, featuring promising titles like "Hills Of Force", "Fight With The Law" and "Heavy Metal Heart", that was influenced by the rather speedy side of Metal. After getting picked up by a management company they recorded another 6 track Demo in April 1985 that they released under their new name Torrent. If you have more info, please get in contact.Discography:
"Demo '84"
Shadow
Lineup:
Scott Burkett (vocals)
Tony Thornton (guitar)
Monte Starling (bass)
Kirk Strieter (drums)
Band-info:
Just like Sabre from Karlsruhe, this band called Shadow was founded by US soldiers who was serving in Schweinfurt/Germany. Originally the band's name was Brain Damage, but around 1987 they change name to Shadow, so I guess the band formed in around 1986. If we recall that their album "Iron umbrella" was made by german indie label Knock Out Music in 1989, it's most likely that the guys found together around 1986, as the usual service of US soldiers lasted 3 years. The first 4 track Demo "Brain damage" was recorded in 1987 and another session with the 2 tracks "The soldier" and "Iron umbrella" in 1988, that both still sounded a bit more raw in the mix compared to the cool epic US Metal on the "Iron umbrella" vinyl. After their army time was finished the guys re-located to Seattle. The question is just what happened with all the records? Coz the George LP, released on Knock Out Music also, turns up way more often than "Iron umbrella"...Discography:
"Brain damage" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"Shadow Demo Sessions 1988" (selfreleased)
"Iron umbrella" MLP 1989 (Knock Out)
Shadows In The Dark
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Hard Rock band from Niedersachsen active around 1986/87. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
Shakesbeer
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Thrash Metal band from most probably southern Germany, which was actively playing live gigs during 1989. If you got further info, please get in touch.Discography:
Shamane
Lineup:
Andy Homfeldt (guitars, vocals)
Nick Homfeldt (drums)
Band-info:
A Thrash band from Karlsruhe, that started in the late 80's, but changed name to Heatrash around 1990 and recorded the "Time bomb" 5 song Demo afterwards. Further info is needed.Discography:
Shanghai
Lineup:
Jürgen Bischof (vocals)
M.S. Daniel (guitar)
Mick Marple (bass)
Axel Bernhardt (drums)
Band-info:
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.
Shanghai'd Guts
Lineup:
Stefan Kraft (vocals)
Axel Lyn (bass)
Marcel Zürcher (drums)
Axel Kraft (guitar)
Ray Miller (guitar)
Band-info:
Sleaze Rockers from St. Pauli/Hamburg that started their career 1989 with the track "On the road" on the local Hamburg sampler "Elbground Vol. 2" back in 1989 and produced an LP as quartet at own costs (Ray Miller from the first line up left), entitled "With love from St. Pauli", in 1990. That debut album caught interest of the EastWest label who produced another album right the next year with the title "Out of tune" and their last CD was released in 1995, entitled "Life ain't nothing but a joke". All of the Shanghai'd Guts recorded material was sleazy Hard Rock with Southern Rock touch, similar to what the Black Crows did with a huge dose of the Rolling Stones.Discography:
"On the road" Comp.-LP Track 1989 (Elbground)
"With love from St. Pauli" LP 1990 (selfreleased)
"Out of tune" LP/CD 1991 (EastWest)
"St. Pauli girl" Comp.-CD Track 1992 (Das Herz von St. Pauli)
Shark Attack
Lineup:
Band-info:
A raw Thrash Metal band in the Kreator/Carrion vein originating from the ex-GDR, that was active during the late 80's. There is a live recording from 1989 known to exist, featuring songs like "I'm your hunter" and "Killer shark". If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Sharkfin
Lineup:
Jürgen König (drums)
Peter Brüning (guitars)
David Rebel (guitars, vocals)
Gerd Reese (bass)
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from Münster, Westphalia, formed in September 1982 by Jürgen König (drums) and Peter Brüning (guitars). Gerd Reese and David Rebel joined shortly after on bass and voals/2nd guitar respectively and their live debut followed on December 3 the same year. In December the following year their debut demo was recorded in a professional studio but it unfortunately did little to entice the record labels at the time. Instead it was the more primitively produced (apparently a rehearsal room recording) but musically more professional 2nd demo from October 1984 that finally got the attention of classic German label Wishbone Records. A mini-album with the working title "Rockblood" was recorded and set for release in 1985, but for unknown reasons this release never came to be. It's interesting to note that around this time a 3rd demo is mentioned in some mag reviews, said to contain 12 tracks of slightly faster and heavier (though certainly not Speed/Thrash) material than their previous pedestrial HM stock, so we can't help to speculate if this could be the same studio session as the scrapped album(?) The rest of the story is shrouded in mystery, other than the fact that one Jürgen König did turn up in another Münster act called Cherokee in the early 90's. If you have more info, please get in contact.Discography:
Demo 1983 (Selfreleased)
Demo 1984 (Selfreleased)
Demo 1985 (Selfreleased)
Sharon
Lineup:
Frank Liebscher (vocals)
Falk Lorenz (guitar)
Frank Haustein (guitar)
Jörg Leitner (bass)
Rico Hein (drums)
Band-info:
A shortlived local Death/Thrash band from Annaberg-Buchholz, featuring Jörg Leitner and Rico Hein (both ex-Wodan/Sarkophag), as well as the 2 former Carcinoma guys Frank Liebscher and Falk Lorenz. Sharon was active just between early ’93 till summer, and either played one local gig during that extremely short period of existence. There is at least one recording known as "unreleased Demo", featuring rehearsal room cuts with good sound, where the guys delivered a mix of classic Thrash Metal with certain Death Metal parts and Death Metal vox allover, reminding in places of Death in the later 80's mixed with doomy parts. After the split in mid ’93 Falk “Lorenzo” Lorenz joined forces with Zwerg of Eminenz and formed the sick Opacity, while later during the mid 90’s directly went to play with Eminenz.Discography:
”Demo 1993” (unreleased)
Sharon (Esslingen)
Lineup:
Klaus Burghardt (vocals)
Rüdiger Fleck (guitar)
Frank Schmidts (guitar)
Stephan Lüddemann (bass)
Jürgen Stahl (keyboard)
Bernd Heining (drums)
Band-info:
A Melodic Metal band from Esslingen in the wider Stuttgart area, founded in 1987, that was playing actively live during the late 80's. The band also recorded a 4 track Demo in March '88 with a slightly Queensryche influenced sound. Sharon was active till around 1990, before certain members went to play with other bands, like Rüdiger Fleck (later in Glenmore), Jürgen Stahl and Frank Schmidts, who founded/joined Letter X. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Sharon Demo" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
Sharona
Lineup:
Mathias Staub (vocals)
Sascha Paeth (guitar)
Peter Köhler (guitar)
Uwe Köhler (bass)
Björn Greinert (drums)
Band-info:
A shortlived Metal band from Wolfsburg, actually this was post-Black Tears, plus additional guitarist Sascha Paeth. The band just was active during 1987, playing a few shows and recorded an unreleased 5 track Demo, that was only given a few copies to friends, before the band split up already within the same year, while Paeth would join the newly founded Wolfsburg heroes Heavens Gate.Discography:
"Demo 1987" (unreleased)
She's China
Lineup:
Sherman Noir (vocals, keyboard)
Michael Langenohl (keyboard)
Pierre Struth (guitar)
Mick Lahcene (guitar, keyboard)
Stefan Von Chamier (bass)
Torsten Von Törne (drums)
Band-info:
A Melodic Rock/AOR band from Berlin, active since the late mid 80's, that released their debut album "The night of illusion" on the SPV sublabel Blue Turtle Records. The album contains extremely poppy, melodic, radio friendly AOR.Discography:
"The night of illusion" LP/CD 1989 (Blue Turtle)
"The night of illusion" 7"/12"/Maxi CD 1989 (Blue Turtle)
Sheer Greed
Lineup:
Gerald Wagner (vocals)
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from West Berlin, that was active during the mid 80's and featured the later Lanadrid vocalist Gerald Wagner. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Sheer Greed
Lineup:
Arthur Dlubak (vocals)
Andreas Schmitt (guitar)
Joachim Gassmann (guitar)
Bernd Wilkening (bass)
Sven Reiter (drums)
Band-info:
These are Sheer Greed from the Speyer/Mannheim region, featuring the ex-Defender guitarist Andreas Schmitt and former Sudden Darkness axeman Joachim Gassmann as well. The band was active since 1988 and released a softer, melodic Hard Rock/Metal Demo with strong US touch in 1989, before Sheer Greed already disappeared later in the same year. Andreas Schmitt subsequently went to join Axon and later formed Desire together with Bernd Wilkening, while Gassmann first joined Sanvoisen and later Letter X and Stormwitch. Further info is welcome.Discography:
"Far off troubles" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
Shine Dark
Lineup:
Olaf Klas
Band-info:
These Gelsenkirchen lads described themselves a melodic Heavy Rock band from the Essen area, who turned up around 1990 with their "The way to heaven” Demo, that featured 4 songs in total, though there's much more recorded material of the band available. Their style must be mentioned to appear rather experimental and progressive, yet Heavy Rock is the least fitting term at all I'm about to say. Progressive Power Metal would fit better here, whenalso to follow their complicated song structures isn't always an easy task. Soundwise the production comes pretty thin and doesn’t really underline Shine Dark’s complex creations. But the guitar work nevertheless is quite extraordinary so to say. No clue what happened to them after the Demo.Discography:
„The way to heaven" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
Shining
Lineup:
Harry Amthor (vocals)
Rainer Amthor (guitar)
Jens van Tonn (guitar)
O. Lee Scholz (bass)
T. Papst Offermann (keyboard)
Dicki Fliszar (drums)
Band-info:
A self-described "uncompromising, conservative Hard Rock" band from Bonn, formed in January 1983 by brothers Rainer and Harry Amthor on guitars and vocals respectively. The original line-up also featured T. Papst Offermann on keyboard, Jens van Tonn on 2nd guitar, O. Lee Scholz on bass and the austrian drummer Dicki Fliszar. They made their live debut at the Wesselinger HR-festival in 1984. In late '84/early '85 Jens was replaced by Ricolf Krückel, previously in locals CROSS. Receiving a good response to their supposedly classy and melodic brand of HR from the local scene, an LP was planned to be released on Bernie Productions (Cutty Sark, Trans Am) still in 1985, but it unfortunately never happened since both parties parted ways. This might either have been caused by or the reason for Harry, Scholz, Dicki and Ricolf to leave the band around this time, to form ROXX. Not letting a few setbacks stop him, guitarist and remaining founder Rainer Amthor reformed the band with the members Achim Ludwig (vocals), Achim Meyer (bass), Stephan Plaumann (drums) and recorded a 4 track Demo late 1988, where Nico Trznudel (bass) already had replaced Achim Meyer and Georg Wüst on keyboards. According to an independent opinion, the sound of the new Shining could be compared to Deep Purple and Whitesnake at that time. Later during March '89 the band booked the RA.SH studio in Gelsenkirchen to produce their debut album, with either several indie companies showing interest in a possible release. But just like on the earlier attempt, that project wasn't realized at all. Harry Amthor was later found in West Berlin's Tarot. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Shining (Erlenbach)
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Melodic Metal/Hard Rock act from Erlenbach that was featured with the two trax "Mistress of love" and "In the eye" on one of the German Metal Fighters compilations. "Mistress of love" is still a convincing melodic midpaced pounding number with commercial impact but the latter just a good sung ballad in the Scorpions vein. If you got more info, please get in touch.
Shiva
Lineup:
Doreen Deighton (vocals)
Horst Mayer-Thorn (guitar)
Alex Kraus (guitar)
Helmut Körber (bass)
Martin Ernst (keyboard)
Thomas Resch (drums)
Band-info:
A melodic Metal/Hard Rock band that Horst Mayer-Thorn formed early 1989 in Ingolstadt after quitting Bonfire in 1988, featuring another ex-Bonfire guy with Martin Ernst. Doreen left the band after just a few weeks but returned later that year, while Mayer-Thorn tried to hire a drummer and bassplayer during spring, that he eventually found in autumn '89 with Helmut Körber and ex-Talon drummer Tommy Resch. The band then immediately got in touch with several record companies. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Shockwave
Lineup:
Robert Schomaker
Band-info:
A Heavy Rock band from Wuppertal, that was active during 1986/87. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Sholtens, The
Lineup:
Walter Sholten (vocals, guitar)
Wolf Sholten (guitar, vocals)
Tom Sholten (bass)
Grid Sholten (keyboard)
Barb Sholten (vocals)
H.H. Sholten (drums)
Band-info:
The Sholtens got represented with the track "Night time" on an obscure sampler, released in 1989, that features east- and westgerman bands. Their style was a kinda sort of mainstream bluesy Hard Rock.Discography:
”Night time” Comp.-LP/CD Track 1989 (Das Ding)
Short Line
Lineup:
Sabine Hofacker (vocals)
Michael Höchst (keyboard)
Harald Rohm (guitar)
Manni Krebs (bass)
Jürgen Derenek (guitar)
Heino Würffel (drums)
Band-info:
An utterly obscure and widely unknown 12" released the female fronted Melodic Rockers Short Line from Gießen. The EP was published on the label of the recording studio Pauly, so it's more or less a private pressing. The 4 songs on the EP feature standard AOR with local charm and listenable female vocals.Discography:
”…meet me at the station…” 12" EP 1988 (Pauly)
Short Wave
Lineup:
Frank Brüning (guitar, vocals)
Stefan Griguleit (guitar)
Holger Carsten (bass)
Jens Hennings (drums)
Band-info:
The Bremen based Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band Short Wave started in 1981 and was permanently doomed to fight with several line up changes during their whole existence. Before they recorded the "Nightride" Demo with Frank Brüning (guitar, vocals), Stefan Griguleit (guitar), Holger Carsten (bass) and Jens Hennings (drums) in 1988, two other Demos prior to "Nightride" was recorded with different line up's as well. "Nightride" features 3 NWOBHM inluenced trax with slightly commercial edge. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Born to rock" Demo 1985 (selfreleased)
"Feeling all around" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"Nightride" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
Shortino
Lineup:
Paul Shortino (vocals)
Alexander Beyrodt (guitar)
Klaus Weber (guitar)
Frank Rummler (bass)
Roland Schmitt (drums)
Band-info:
Officially the band Shortino is introduced Paul Shortino's (ex-Quiet Riot/Rough Cutt) solo project, while under the desk the story looks a little bit different. 1992 the renowmed german musicians Alexander Beyrodt (ex-Wild Axes/Princess/Sinner), Frank Rummler (ex-Lancelot/Juicy Lucy), Klaus Weber (ex-Wild Axes/Princess) and Roland Schmitt (ex-Vice) formed a new band and recorded a 6 track Demo, yet they haven't had any vocalist. Their plan was to win an US-american shouter for the project so they went to the US to get one refusal after another till Paul Shortino accepted the offer and 1 month later jumped into the plane to Frankfurt to complete the vocal parts of the Demo, including a remake of Quiet Riot's "Don't wanna be your fool". The band was baptized Shortino and musically adopted a glammy style somewhere between Aerosmith and Whitesnake. Paul Shortino in the following years made the band it's solo project and changed musicians one by one till the release of the first album "It's about time" in 1997.Discography:
Shot
Lineup:
Isabel Viertler (vocals)
Dietmar Heinemann (guitar)
Boris Purge (guitar)
Matthias Hackmann (bass)
Ruppert Bender (drums)
Band-info:
A female fronted Metal band from Heidelberg, influenced by american Hard Rock/Hair Metal acts like Kiss, Ozzy and Kick Axe, which was active since November 1985, and found a stable line up during summer ’86 with Candy Foxx (vocals), Dean Wharton (guitar), Boris Purge (guitar), Roger Kayy (bass) and Rob Bender (drums). Shot didn’t really hide their passion for the american Glam Metal bands and either dressed like them on stage, when most guys in the audience thought they’d be posers. But the band fortunately acted way heavier than their american idols and would sooner or later remove the lipstick, leaving the coloured costumes and listels in the bags. Still inspired by heavier Dokken, early Ratt and Great White, the band recorded several Demo tapes in the mid 80’s, whereas either an indie label showed interest for a possible album production in the summer ’88. Prior to the "Second strike" Demo, recorded late '87, there should be a first Demo tape available as well. During 1989 their line up changed, and the band recorded another tape in 1991. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
"Second strike" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"Demo Tape 1991" Demo 1991 (selfreleased)
Shotgun
Lineup:
Sven Seeberger (vocals)
Jürgen Cliff Wagner (guitar)
Punky Klarner (guitar)
Mike Dennis Spauding (bass)
Ossi Muench (drums)
Band-info:
One more local heroes with just a scarce and totally unknown 7" from the early/mid 80's most probably, judging by the sound of these lads. Interestingly the band seemed to have had connections to California, as one mention of Frankfurt/Main based Cream Music vs. 3 californian Radio stations and companies.There could be a small chance Shotgun was hailing from the Frankfurt/Main area, but neither a contact address nor a year was printed anywhere. Musically the A side "Dealer king" got to offer a very solid Heavy Metal with slightly R'n'R edge, that's reminding me of Accept around 1979/80 minus the Dirkschneider vocals. Sadly the B-side "Bewitched" can't hold that standard at all and fell more into that R'n'R-ish Hard Rock with a bit of a punky touch. Any further info is highly welcome.Discography:
"Shotgun" 7" EP 198? (selfreleased)
Shotgun
Lineup:
Susanne Scholz
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from Düsseldorf, that was active since at least 1988. Not sure if that's the same band as the here featured Hardrockers with a 7" release, but we have doubts. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Shotgun M.G.
Lineup:
Anita (vocals)
Zaz (guitar)
Karsten (bass)
Baba (drums)
Band-info:
A female fronted Groove Metal band from Munich that could contribute the 2 live trax "Right of the great" and "Get on the race track" for the Feierwerk Split LP "Hard 'n Heavy Live im Feierwerk" with Mortality, Hot Stuff and Trick Or Treat. Shotgun M.G. was playing a very modern sort of groovy Hard Rock/Metal mostly comparable to bands like Rage Against The Machine etc. "Get on the racetrack" also appeared in a Demo version on another Feierwerk Räcords compilation entitled "Radikal Lokal (Für Ein Szene Radio)".Discography:
"Hard 'n Heavy Live im Feierwerk" Comp.-LP Tracks 1991 (Feierwerk Räcords)
"Get on the racetrack" Comp.-DLP Track 1991 (Radikal Lokal (Für Ein Szene Radio))
Shout
Lineup:
Jörn Spill (vocals)
Andreas Schatz (guitar)
David Gärtner (bass)
Harald (drums)
Band-info:
A Speed/Thrash Metal band from East-Berlin, formed 1983 by David Gärtner in the ex-GDR, plus additionally Jörn Spill and drummer Harald building the core of this troop, that worked with alternating guitarists throughout the following years. During the mid 80's Shout's sound went heavier, influenced by mainly Metallica. Despite the band is confirmed to play own songs in front of the national classification comitee 1985/86, live on stage they mainly performed cover versions. Recordings aren't known to exist, but the guys was playing several live shows. During summer '89 right withing the beginning political change, some of the members left the country, so Shout shortly afterwards collapsed around 1990 as well. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Shrettled Illusions
Lineup:
Max (guitar)
Bernd Spring (bass)
Don (drums)
Band-info:
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.Discography:
“This is the real enemy!" Split Demo 1989 (with Distract Reality, selfreleased)
Shulk
Lineup:
Peter Stickler (vocals)
Dan Shulk (guitar)
Helge Sondermann (guitar)
Joker (bass)
Werner Heckmeier (drums)
Band-info:
Seems like Shulk was a bavarian band somewhere from the Pfaffenhofen area deep in the south, who published a 12" on the indie label M.M. Records back in 1989. 3 of the 4 tracks do offer a kind of Hard Rock that could be seen as homage to AC/DC, but that shouldn't be meant in a negative way at all. These guys really sounded like from the "Highway to hell" era of the band with slightly more modern touch. For AC/DC fans worth a try for sure. Completely unexpected Shulk returned 20 years later with the selfproduced CD “Well done” (2008).Discography:
”Taste delight” 12" EP 1989 (M.M.)
Shurican
Lineup:
Dirk Novak
Michael Hirsch (guitar)
Band-info:
Shurican was a Witten based Heavy Metal band that published a Demo tape in 1988. The 4 songs slightly suffered by the rather primitive 4 track recording, but basically the band was playing a solid Heavy Metal style with melodic guitar solos. Guitarist Michael Hirsch later was active in Bloody Flesh and Ambivalenz. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Beyond the river" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
Shyboy
Lineup:
Alex Auer (guitar, vocals)
Hans Mappes (bass)
Maik Hahn (drums)
Band-info:
A local Hard Rock trio from Schwetzingen (Mannheim/Speyer area). Their bassist Hans Mappes was earlier playing with Frankenthal's NWOBHM rockers Rampage during the early 80's. Alex Auer started the band in the late 80's together with 2 schoolfriends, but since they haven't been satisfied with the original drummer, Maik Hahn was asked to join. Hans Mappes (ex-Rampage) was formerly playing in the wellknown german Rockband Jule Neigel Band and joined the guys on bass. Formerly they've been playing with a second guitarist, but decided that he had to leave the band after 2 years. Shyboy played a very american influenced Hard Rock with also Funk influences. Van Halen has been a major influence of Alex Auer. During 1991 a first Demo tape was recorded that sold in respectable numbers and the guys won a newcomer contest at the Rockfabrik. Right in summer the same year the lads simultaneously started recordings for their debut album "Best of wild thing". 2 more Maxi CD's was produced as well, before the band disappeared again.Discography:
"Demo '91" (selfreleased)
"Best of wild thing" CD 1992 (2Day)
"Just a little bit" MCD 1992 (2Day)
"Salty water" MCD 1993 (Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin)
Sia
Lineup:
Sia (vocals)
H. (bass)
Joe (keyboard)
Greg (drums)
Band-info:
A band from Recklinghausen, that used to press their first Demo from early 1990 on a CD to forward it to certain Metal mags. It seems too many wasn't produced, as you'll hardly find or even see copies of it. According to certain reviews you may expect 3 trax of american style commercial mainstream stuff ala Great White with a pinch of R'n'R. Later in autumn the same year, the lads produced another professional Demo (tape) with 6 new songs. Further info is needed.Discography:
Demo MCD 1990 (selfreleased)
"SIA" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
Sick Pack
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band that was actively playing live during 1989 and participated at the festival "1. Bergisches Rockkonzert" in April '89. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Sidewalk City
Lineup:
Holderried
Band-info:
A Hard Rock act from Regensburg, that's featured with one of their 87er Demo trax "Like an angel" on the locally released "Rock around Regensburg" compilation. The guys could convince with Ozzy-ish Heavyrock in typical commercially influenced, but still pounding US Hair Metal manner. Further info is needed.Discography:
"Like an angel" Comp.-Pic LP Track 1987 (Rock Around Regensburg)
Sieges Even
Lineup:
Franz Herde (vocals)
Markus Steffen (guitar)
Markus Burchert (guitar)
Oliver Holzwarth (bass)
Alex Holzwarth (drums)
Band-info:
Sieges Even from Munich started operating back in 1983 under the name of Sodom and even released an early Demo, before the other Sodom from Gelsenkirchen got their record deal, so the Munich Sodom changed name to Sieges Even in 1985. Initial founding members being Markus Steffen and Oliver Holzwarth, who got joined by Oliver's brother Alex on drums and vocalist Franz Herde. A first demo called "Symphonies of steel" (also known as "Demo 1986") was introducing Sieges Even in a more straight Power Metal vein, though the Demo suffered by a bad sound. With the "Bootleg Kassette 1987" and "Repression and Resistance" Demos they stylistically adopted a rather technical Thrash style which they developed to perfection on their debut album "Life cycle", that was released on Steamhammer in Roctober 1988. Sieges Even belong to the founders of what we call Techno Thrash now, showcasing a highly technical progressive mix of Jazz and Thrash Metal, similar to Watchtower or the underrated Mekong Delta. A Split CD with US Thrashers Napalm, that contains songs from "Life cycle", was released for the japanese market and in March 1990 the guys started recordings for "Steps", an album that to describe I simply got no words for. It features everything that I dislike and the term Metal won't fit her anymore. Uninspired riffs, soundshreds paired and wildly stringed together without meaning. Was it Prog Rock? I the hell can't tell. Same disaster on "A sense of change", though without the soundshreds. The former Thrash band was mutated to a Rock band. Guitarist Markus Steffen left Sieges Even in 1992. Oliver and Alex Holzwarth continued with the band and recorded a number of other albums before they eventually split up in 2008.Discography:
"Demo 1986" (selfreleased)
"Bootleg Kassette 1987" (selfreleased)
Repression and resistance" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
"Life cycle" LP/CD 1988 (Steamhammer)
"Napalm VS Sieges Even" Split CD 1990 (Teichiku)
"Steps" LP/CD 1990 (Steamhammer)
"A sense of change" CD 1991 (Steamhammer)
Sign
Lineup:
Jürgen Graaf (guitar, vocals)
Billy Parks (bass)
Martin Werner (drums)
Band-info:
A Hard Rock band that was founded by ex-musicians of Breslau, Bullet, Jutta Weinhold, Alex Parche etc. and could produce 2 pretty lame sounding albums in the later 80's. Due to the guys different musical backgrounds they mixed Rock, Blues, and Hard Rock influences to create a new sound and to revolutionize the Metal business, but in the total we got just 2 boring albums that for Heavy Metal ears are completely out of interest. On the second album "Sign II" there's ex-Stallion Andros Keuntje on bass guitar.Discography:
"Sign" LP 1987 (Energy)
"Glory of life" 7" EP 1987 (Energy)
"Sign II" LP/CD 1988 (Energy)
”Mastergame of love” 7” EP 1988 (Energy)
Sign of the A
Lineup:
Thomas Eickhoff (guitar, vocals)
Thomas Hinrichs (bass)
Jörg Klüver (keyboard)
Rainer Heubel (drums)
Band-info:
The Hamburg based "Sign of the A"was formed by ex-Airless/Mania members Thomas Eickhoff (better known as Thomas Eyck) and Thomas Hinrichs, who teamed up with their drummer from the last days of Mania, Rainer Heubel (ex-Roy Last Group), plus keyboarder Jörg Klüver around 1989/90. In autumn '91 the guys played their first live gig in Kiel and left a quite professional impression, which seen by the routine these lads could call their own, wasn't much of a surprise at all. They also worked on material to land a record deal, but that didn't happen at all, as the name "Sign of the A" isn't much known nowadays anymore. Further info is needed.Discography:
Sign Of Victory
Lineup:
Dirk Strube (vocals)
Alexander Rasthofer (guitar)
Bernhard Buchberger (bass)
Gerald Pimpl (drums)
Band-info:
Sign Of Victory was a local Munich NWOBHM style Heavy Metal band that was active during the mid 80's and played several gigs in their local area during that time. The band was formed by Dirk "Struppi" Strube, Alexander "Aki" Rasthofer, Gerald "Geri" Pimpl and Bernhard "Buki" Buchberger in October 1984, while till the band's decline in July 1986 Ingo Fellner (bass), Peter Kopf (guitar), Frederick "Stick" Empl (drums) joined or replaced leaving members. Their vocalist Dirk "Struppi" Strube later re-appeared in the Thrash bands Calvary and Rotten Bitch during the late 80's and joined Unchained Scarlett and Sub-Machine in the 90's. Apart from some rehearsalroom and live cuts, no official studio recordings exist at all.(Thanx to Dirk Strube for the info)
Discography:
Signature
Lineup:
Ralf Maurus
Band-info:
A Heavy Rock band from Lauben (north of Kempten), that was active during 1987. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Signifying Nothing
Lineup:
Tim Wameling (bass)
Enno Heymann (drums)
Jens-Peter Rose (guitar)
Volker Heuer (vocals, guitar)
Band-info:
A Power Metal act from Osnabrück, formed in 1987 and compared to both Helstar and Iron Maiden stylewise, albeit with a progressive touch. Both the band name and demo title alludes to a Shakespear quote, so at least ambitions were high. If you have more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Sound'n'Fury" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
Silence
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Metal band from the Speyer area, that was active in the mid/late 80's. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Silence Creation
Lineup:
Frank-Otto Conrad (vocals)
Thomas Janßen (guitar)
Arnold Fokken (guitar)
Matthias Koch (bass)
Klaus Engel (keyboard)
Thomas Feeken (drums)
Band-info:
Emden based Prog Metal protagonists founded by guitarist Arnold Fokken and drummer Thomas Feeken already during 1986, who could ultimately establish a steady line up in 1987 with Frank-Otto Conrad (vocals), Matthias Koch (bass) and Klaus Engel (keyboard). Thomas Janssen entered the group in 1988 on second guitar as well. Frank-Otto Conrad and Thomas Janßen then left Silence Creation in 1992 to form Sacred Law, while the remaining guys produced the Maxi CD “Between dream and reality” in 1993 privately just to split up a short while later within the same year.Discography:
“Between dream and reality” MCD 1993 (Rockwerk)
Silent Scream
Lineup:
Jan (vocals, bass, guitar)
Steini (guitar)
Meik (drums)
Band-info:
The best way to describe Silent Scream's style would be probably punky Hard Rock in the vein of The Honx. Their only 7" was released on Satyricon Records and the trio was probably coming from the Düsseldorf area. Though the single was a handnumbered limited edition of 500 copies in violet vinyl, it's seriously not a very recommended piece at all.Discography:
"Silent Scream" 7" EP 1990 (Satyricon)
Silent Scream (Hagen)
Lineup:
Karsten Ostrowski (guitar)
Frank Jubelius
Helmut Ebers
Band-info:
A Power Metal band from Hagen with a progressive touch, who recorded a 4 track Demo in 1990. Most of the songs got some longer instrumental parts with slightly complicated complex riffing. Further info needed.Discography:
"Silent Scream" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
Silent Scream (Landshut)
Lineup:
Michael Saller
Band-info:
These Silent Scream has been Melodic Metallers from Landshut playing a style similar to Firefox, Lifeline with neoclassical touch that especially on the title track reaches it's peak. We're speaking of Yngwie Malmsteen alike guitar solos on "Devils delight" to get more detailed. These guys indeed got the special something to stand out of the mass and proved this in an impressive way with their galopping Metal on "Tonight". A rare and obscure, but highly recommended piece...
Silent Strike
Lineup:
Marion Finke (vocals)
Thomas Pfeil (guitar)
Hans-Peter Bierlein (bass)
Roland Becker (drums)
Band-info:
Silent Strike's story starts with the story of the Hard Rock band Squealer from Abenberg (Nuremberg area), who formed in the early 80's and produced an early album privately with the line up Günther Bär (vocals), Gerhard Gerngroß (guitar), Thomas Pfeil (guitar), Hans Gerngroß (bass) and Jörg Billmaier (drums), that was recorded in April and October '83 and published at the recording studio's own label Altera Pars. The lads was active till the late 80's nevertheless, changing members and in the end shortly before they changed name, Squealer recorded a last Demo tape with a line up featuring female vocalist Charlotte Nordlander (also seen her being called Charlotte Götz!), Roland Becker (drums), Hans-Peter Bierlein (bass) and as the only original member left Thomas Pfeil (guitar), while the latter 3 formed Silent Strike in 1990 together with ex-Cronos Titan Marion Finke on vocals (refered as Marion Fynke). The very last Squealer Demo "Just time to rock" (1989) was posthumously re-released under the new monicker Silent Strike once again, while the band now started recordings for their album. Whenalso the early Squealer material was heavily AC/DC inspired, the band now had moved on to perform a clearly Heavy Metal oriented powersound. 1991 the foursome eventually had finished the album recordings and searched for a label to release the whole material, and in the meanwhile published another Demo with the title "Feel your own power", including 4 advance trax of the planned album, that featured even more aggressive sounding female vocals, yet soundwise offering solid classic midtempo Heavy Metal. Despite the average but hard hitting material, Silent Strike almost failed to convince record labels for a possible release, until during late 1992 D&S was ready to press the CD's. Why that did not happen at all has yet to be answered by another source. Maybe that was the reason that the band split up still later the same year.Discography:
"Just time to rock" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"Feel your own power" Demo 1991 (selfreleased
Silent Terror
Lineup:
Frank Spinka (vocals)
Joachim Müller (guitar)
Kay Osterloh (guitar)
Gregor Zielhardt (bass)
Gregor Joisten (drums)
Band-info:
Shortlived Thrashers from Aurich (northern Germany), that was active between 1989 and 1992. 1990 the lads produced a professional 4 track Demo with the help of Sodom's Michael Hoffmann, that offered a varied kind of Thrash, that reminds in the raw thrashing parts of Kreator. Especially the vocals do sound much like the late Mille, but nevertheless, a technically quite experienced band. Some members also played in other local acts Thrash/Death Metal acts Vomiting Corpses, Almighurt and Eternal Rest.Discography:
”Humanity … sold out” Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
Silk’N’Steel
Lineup:
Francis Paramore (vocals)
Aleks Baier (guitar)
Rory Martin (guitar)
Richy Mavro (bass)
Christoph Bosac (drums)
Band-info:
Silk'N'Steel was probably hailing from Bavaria or at least any place in southern Germany, as their only vinyl was published, like the ones of Abraxas and Violent Touch, on the New Media label, which was just the recording studio, who manufactured the records and the bands themselves had to sell them independently at gigs. Nevertheless, like most of the bavarian bands, also Silk'n'Steel's sound was quite melodic Heavy Metal with early 80's Judas Priest touch (I tend to hear), that well could be compared to Violent Touch or Wishes Burn's efforts at the same time, featuring a solid not so german sounding Metal, though in terms of quality they didn't reach Violent Touch's MLP at all. But after all, a solid mean I'd confirm them for sure. Francis Paramore was previously singing in the strange Mystery earlier, and later joined Sanvoisen in 1990, which leaves the impression, that Silk'N'Steel didn't survive much longer after the vinyl release.
Simon
Lineup:
Peter Swoboda (vocals)
Simon Sobkowiak (guitar)
Blur (bass, vocals)
Matthias Raue (keyboard)
Ralph Göldner (drums)
Band-info:
One more of Ingo Nowotny's fake bands consisting of hired musicians, and as usual it features the guys known from previous albums of Kalaschnikov, Thunderstorm, Expect No Mercy etc. Besides an Uriah Heep and Deep Purple cover version, the main material was written by Ingo Nowotny himself together with Matthias Raue (Thunderstorm, Breakpoint). Guitars of corpse was handled by Metal Enterprises' own maid for everything Simon Sobkowiak (Mallet, Expect No Mercy, Breakpoint, Kalaschnikov, Thunderstorm) and vocals being done by ex-Virgin Peter Swoboda, who's better known as Pete De Oliveira from bands such as Oliveira, Burning Vision and Expect No Mercy. Ralph Göldner (ex-Oliveira) was playing the drum parts. First of all, their "Shiva" album isn't that bad. "Shiva's slave" and "Monstermaid" are sounding like leftovers of Kalaschnikov's "The torture never stops" session, two quite cool Thrashers. The A-side has mainly midpaced Metal trax to offer, some are slow with almost a doomy feel. Except of "Wring that neck" and both instrumental intros "Jiva" and "Jingo", none of the songs of the album is really a sucker, fake band or not. I'd rate it purchasable...
Simoriah
Lineup:
Ritschi Smoothless (vocals)
Steve Potter (guitar)
Frank B. Miller (bass)
J. B. Cassell (drums)
Band-info:
Female fronted Hard Rockers from Hamburg that seemed to be highly influenced by AC/DC. At least their antiquated 70's influenced bluesy Hard Rock pretty much leaves no other impression. I guess the Demo tape should be from around the same time like the selfreleased 7", +- 1 year, coz if we'd ignore the pretty lame A-side "The ocean" and take "My fist your face" as reference, the Demo tracks pretty much fit with that style, though the Demo for sure features the better material, which shouldn't mean that Simoriah ever broke out of the lower middle league. A not so exciting band...Discography:
"Good time" Demo 8x (selfreleased)
”Simoriah” 7”EP 1988 (selfreleased)
Simson
Lineup:
Alexander Bittmann (guitars, vocals)
Karl Rasch (bass)
Christian Jelonnek (drums)
Band-info:
A bavarian Hard Rock band from Waging, that could release an early album on the PPM label who tried to get a piece of the growing Heavy Metal movement, after they already promoted the Austrians U8. But Simson wasn't playing on same level as U8, though on "Delilah" there are good approaches featured nevertheless. Wether the guys was still undecided what style they should focus on or the album features older and new material of them, because the song material ranges from 70's influenced Hard Rock to new age Heavy Metal with the instrumental title track being the heaviest of all. But also "Load it up" knows to appeal, all in all a pretty much streaky album.
Sin 7
Lineup:
Boris Prögler
Band-info:
A Heavy Rock band from Hemsbach, north of Mannheim, that was active since late '89 and recorded a Reh/Demo still within that first year. The tape featured 3 songs recorded with a 4-track recorder, that in places offered quite well arranged classic Heavy Rock. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Proberaum-Tape 1989" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
Sin City
Lineup:
Philipp (vocals)
Band-info:
Early Heavy Metal with Accept touch was offering Sin City from Düsseldorf. Their "Call me a rebel" belongs to the earliest Heavy Metal singles in german history and even their style was targeted to the future, by throwing off the usual 70's Kraut Rock influences that most bands of that time had to struggle with. These guys probably have been there a bit too early, as there wasn't really labels willing to promote that new power sound. Especially the flipside "No mercy for outlaws" is a timeless classic with aggressive high pitched screams. The single was selfproduced and came in orange vinyl. A groundbreaking landmark...Vocalist Philipp later re-appeared as Philipp Magoo in Bad Steve.
Sin Warrior
Lineup:
Stephan Zuber (vocals)
Oliver Zeller (guitar)
Jürgen Beck (bass)
Dirk Böhls (keyboard)
Renato Risek (drums)
Band-info:
Sin Warrior (or originally written Sin' Warrior) was a band of the mid 80's, originating from Stuttgart or surrounding cities, who recorded a quite obscure 12" with the title "We rock you" during 1986, which was released the following year, featuring the two songs "We rock you" and "Paradies of love". While the title track still features a typically mid 80's german sounding Heavyrocker in traditional Saxon manner, the flipside only hides a wretched attempt of a love ballad. If you remember that 3 of these guys, Stephan Zuber, Dirk Böhls and Renato Risek, would go to form one of the best late 80's german Metal bands with vinyl - Violent Touch - then it's hard to imagine these bands should be connected with each other as neither Zuber sounds like Zuber anno '89 on "We rock you". Quite a mystery, but nevertheless, more info needed please.(Thanx to emosteel for the recommendation)
Discography:
"We rock you" 12" EP 1987 (BMP)
Sinister
Lineup:
Band-info:
Yet we can't really say where this obscure band was originating from. For the moment only the 3 songs of their Demo tape recorded in 1985 are known, being "King and raven", "Bloody christmas" and "Prince of darkness". What's confirmed is the fact that 3 members of the Bremen based Triad, who formed in summer '88, was previously playing in a band called Sinister, which obviously would fit with the recent time frame. Musically all of the Sinister Demo tracks are basically taking the same line by offering an epic sort of classic typically mid 80's german sounding Heavy Metal, comparable to bands like the early Whetstone and Hammerschmitt, while on "Bloody christmas" clearly Accept influences are noticable. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Demo 1985" (selfreleased)
Sinner
Lineup:
Matthias Lasch (vocals, bass)
Calogero Rappalo (guitar)
Frank Mittelbach (guitar)
Edgar Patrik (drums)
Band-info:
To fully introduce Sinner from Stuttgart I guess isn't neccessary at all anymore. The band started late in 1980 and already in autumn ’81 made a larger tour through smaller concert halls throughout Germany, while quickly after that tour the band started recordings for the first album "Wild 'n' evil" still within the year 1981, which could be eventually finished in spring’82. The first steady line up was built by Matthias "Matt Sinner" Lasch (vocals, bass) and ex-Stuttgart guitarist Calogero Rappalo, Frank Mittelbach (guitar), Edgar Patrik (drums), who would all found Tyran' Pace a few years later. Support gigs for Accept, Samson, Whitesnake or Wishbone Ash would follow quickly, before the “Fast decision” album was recorded during Dec. ’82 and June ‘83. On the first 2 albums Sinner's sound was still Hard Rock and primarily NWOBHM inspired, especially on "Fast decision" the Judas Priest influences are undeniable. Tensions in the band caused a completely line up change since the most of the guys wanted to create softer rather AOR inspired material. But Mat Sinner, founder of the band, decided to rearrange the whole line up. Helmo Stoner and Frank Mittelbach had been hired as guitarists and Edgar Patrik on drums (ex-Powerhouse/Supermax/Lee Cooper Group), who was playing with Mat Sinner already in the “David Hanselmann Band”. After "Fast decision" the new Sinner produced a Demo tape and this way achieved a contract with Noise Records. By changing band members over and over again, the band's style changed too and this way on "Danger zone" (with Ralf Schulz on drums, who got replaced shortly afterwards by ex-Fargo/Fandango Bernie van der Graaf) and "Touch of sin", with ex-Accept axeman Hermann Frank, their sound turned quite up to date into typical powerful german Heavy Metal with slightly Accept-ish touch. On "Comin' out fighting" the Sinners (again with new team) started playing the sound they got later known for, Melodic Metal, though there was still Heavy Metal prevailing, but on "Dangerous charm" with Andreas Susemihl (guitar, later in Lazy/U.D.O./Ape), Bernie van der Graaf (drums), Armin Mücke (guitar) and Matt Sinner on bass, they developed their new melodic style to the maximum. From 1987 to 1992 a short break happened from Sinner as Mat Sinner was concentrating on his solo career, but then with the "No more alibis" CD subsequently returned 1992 to release countless of albums throughout the following years. Please note, we only list the albums of this band, there was numerous other singles and stuff available.Discography:
"Wild 'n' evil" LP 1982 (SL)
"Fast decision" LP 1983 (SL)
"Danger zone" LP 1984 (Noise)
"Touch of sin" LP 1985 (Noise)
"Comin' out fighting" LP/CD 1986 (Noise)
"Dangerous charm" LP/CD 1987 (Noise)
"No more alibis" CD 1992 (Mausoleum)
"Respect" CD 1993 (GSE)
Sinning Parson
Lineup:
Hellmut Wendelin Ruder (guitar)
Uli Bialas (drums)
Band-info:
A Hard Rock/Heavy Metal act from the wider Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden area, that was highly influenced by Ozzy Osbourne's albums, active since at least 1986 till 1991. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Sinus
Lineup:
Thomas Weber (vocals)
Holger Ziegler (guitar)
Uwe Romak (guitar)
Oliver Hess (bass)
Constantin Strelow (drums)
Band-info:
A local Darmstadt Heavy Metal band, featuring (future) members of other local acts like Kalögena, Obstsalat, Lunatic Dictator and Lost Boyz. The band was active since 1987 and recorded a 5 track Demo in 1989, while Thomas Weber's voice slightly reminded of Helloween's Kiske. After the Demo guitarist Uwe Romak left Sinus in late '89 and Matthias Al Talib joined instead. He's better known as Mc. Zimbo from his appearance in Extreme Napalm Terror. Further info is needed.(Thanx to Rumblefist for correction)
Discography:
"A genius Opus" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
Siren's Moan
Lineup:
Band-info:
Young Metal unknowns from Wiesmoor, Lower Saxony, active in the late 80's. If you have more info, please get in contact.Discography:
Sirens
Lineup:
Peter Quast (vocals)
Kalle Massow (bass)
Christian Fandrey (guitar)
Knut Genetzke (drums)
Band-info:
Sirens was a classic Metal act from Witten with a few Power Metal tendencies that gave their privately pressed vinyl in places an Running Wild-ish touch, though the Sirens acted more in midtempo regions. But nevertheless, the guys proved that even midtempo Metal could be executed in an entertaining way, and "The twilight zone" offers indeed quite typical German Metal of the more enjoyable kind. On the power banger "I'll draw the line" Peter Quast sounds exactly like Udo Dirkschneider, so you can imagine where the guys took their influences from. Definitely a Heavy Metal album that spreads a healthy dose of power.
Six Point Six
Lineup:
Dankward Zeh (vocals)
Frank Wörner (guitar)
Rainer Peschke (guitar)
Michael Stahl (bass)
Roland Hild (drums)
Band-info:
The Hardrockers Six Point Six from Stuttgart formed in 1982, but all of the guys was active previously in different bands of the Stuttgart scene like Schloss, Strull and "Dankward Zeh" (Dankward Zeh's own band). Though "Fallen angel" isn't 100 % a true Metal album, but the metallic Hard Rock that the guys delivered, is of the sort that enchants the listener easily, as it combines Hard Rock and Heavy Metal in an uncomplicated way so that both styles merge without anyone recognizing it. The guys was influenced by Rainbow, Dio and the Scorpions and basically that's a good guideline, Dio for sure had a huge impact on them and I'd say Dankward Zeh sounds like a cross of Dio and Steven Pearcey of Ratt. The band disbanded already in the following year 1985. Wörner and Stahl also appeared on the AOR band Passenger's 84'er album "Move time".
Sixtus
Lineup:
Michael Nelebock (vocals)
Michael Nimmergut (guitar)
Mario Kurt (guitar)
Mirko Brauer (bass)
Sven Noak (drums)
Band-info:
An East Berlin (ex-GDR) based Thrash band that was founded as Sarkophag in the mid 80's but was asked by the grading commitee to change it. They recorded a Demo track in December '89 that got airplay on the national Heavy Metal radio broadcast. The song offers a not uninteresting midpaced thrashy Power Metal with a few hints of mid 80's Venom and some for that time typical Mosh parts. Sixtus also participated at a local Berlin benefit festival during early 1990, where they presented a very Metallica/Slayer/Exodus and Sodom inspired program. If you got more info please get in touch.Discography:
”Love and horror” Demo Track 1989 (selfreleased)
Sixx
Lineup:
Band-info:
A band that was most probably originating from the greater Pforzheim area, active during the late 80's. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Sixx
Lineup:
Tony
Andrè
Berndey
Stubs
Winny
Jochi
Band-info:
A local Hard Rock band with Blues influences from Bavaria, most probably Coburg/Bamberg area, that was active during the mid 80's. Further info is needed.Discography:
Skelethor
Lineup:
Guido Brain
Band-info:
A Melodic Power Metal band from Aachen active in 1986/87. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
Skew Siskin
Lineup:
Nina Schultz (vocals)
Jim Voxx (guitar)
Jogy Rautenberg (bass)
Nik Terry (drums)
Band-info:
Jim Voxx, who already produced Jingo De Lunch, in the late 80's tried to form a Hard Rock band. Since that kind of music he wanted to play was just big in the states at that time, he moved to New York around 1989 (or perhaps even a little bit earlier) to find proper musicians. Since the whole procedure wasn't crowned by success, he returned to Berlin and accidentally found female singer Nina "Nina C. Alice" Schultz, who was looking for a band to join. Both decided to try with each other and quickly bassist Jogi Rautenberg (ex-Dark Avenger/Heartlyne) and drummer Nik Terry completed the classic fourpiece to produce a first Demo in early 1990, that pretty much caused furor in the local Metal mags and either most of the major labels immediately loved their very american style pounding Sleaze/Street/Glam Hard Rock'n'Roll inspired material, influenced by bands such as Cinderella or AC/DC. In the end Giant Records made the race around Skew Siskin and the band produced their selftitled debut during 1991/92, that lead into the support act for Motörhead's tour 1993. The following album "Electric chair music" though took till 1996 to be released and surely did cost the band some fans, but since then 4 more albums got recorded till 2007.Discography:
"Skew Siskin" LP/CD 1992 (Giant)
"Livin' on the redline" MCD 1992 (Giant)
Skin
Lineup:
Willi Kessler (vocals, keyboard)
Gernot Buselmeier (keyboard, vocals)
Andy Heil (guitar)
Gerhard Kraus (bass)
Theo Eberhard (drums)
Band-info:
A Hard Rock influenced Rock band from Augsburg that was actively playing live since 1984. Their live set featured several ZZ Top and Van Halen covers, but the band is known to have worked with Blues and Funk influences as well. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Skin Deep
Lineup:
Olie From Hagen (vocals)
Rainer Nestle (guitar)
Armin Mcfly (guitar)
Higgins Hochmann (keyboard)
Uli Braun (bass)
Charlie Burzler (drums)
Band-info:
A Hard Rock band from Frankfurt/Main, that probably formed around 1990 and recorded a Demo tape during that time, coz the following year the lads was invited to participate at the Metal Hammer newcomer festival in 1991. 1992 Skin Deep eventually produced with Mat Sinner their debut CD "On the rampage", that features just that typical melodic Hard Rock with US touch, that made other german bands prior to them already big sellers, but sadly it didn't work for Skin Deep it seems. The band also produced the MCD "Hot city" in June '93, again for On Air Records, as well as the slightly heavier album "Painful day" in 1995. Further info is welcome.Discography:
"On the rampage" CD 1992 (On Air)
"Hot city" MCD 1993 (On Air)
Skin Deep
Lineup:
Gerald Schiller (vocals)
Antonio Lucarelli (guitar)
Michael Rau (guitar)
Rudi Büttner (drums)
Band-info:
Not to be confused with the Frankfurt based Skin Deep, this band was a shortlived local Heavy Metal band formed in Augsburg during early 1990 by both musicians Gerald Schiller and Antonio Lucarelli, who after their former band Black Knights' decay in 1988, tried to get a new unit on the start again. The guitarist Michael Rau joined in shortly as well as ex-Overdose drummer Rudi Büttner rehearsed with the guys, but none of them would remain in the band for mentionable time at all. Frank Desantinis on guitar and basist Tristan Banini eventually completed the line up, yet the drummer position remained vacant so far, but the lads composed a number of own songs till autumn '90 in the meanwhile. In the end tensions arose, caused by the missing drummer and the usual musical deviations, as Banini and Desantinis wanted to do rather the Damn Yankees thing and playing much more commercial stuff. Schiller and Lucarelli intervened, to continue the metallic path of the band instead, which naturally led into Skin Deep liquidation after just about one year. A privately recorded rehearsal tape exists, but without any vocals and neither it was ever spread officially.Discography:
„The sessions 1990“ Rehearsal Tape 1990 (unofficial)
Skol Bandit
Lineup:
Andy Gustke (vocals)
Marco Philipp (guitar)
Thomas Kielwein (guitar)
Alex Zendel (bass)
Joe Hufeld (drums)
Band-info:
Skol Bandit or Skøl Bandit was a Heavy Metal band from the greater Stuttgart area, founded in the mid 80's and originating somewhere around Göppingen. In the late 80's they finally had found a steady line up and recorded their only album "Paralysor" independently in summer '91, that compiled a collection of US Metal touched archetypical 80's Metal rockers, delivering a sound very close to the melodic Power Metal department with epic undertones. Songs like "Squadrons of eternity" seriously belongs to the better stuff released in 1991, while the whole album benefits from a very decent guitar work and vocal performance. Unfortunately the troop split up quickly after the album was published. Thomas Kielwein nowadays works as a guitar teacher.Discography:
"Paralysor" LP 1991 (selfreleased)
Skruncen Head X
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Metal band from Bayrischzell, south of Munich, who recorded a Demo tape during late summer '88 and announced it as "the musical porn trip into hell". If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Skrupelos
Lineup:
Matthias Trapp (vocals)
Markus Höller (guitar)
Michael Hau (bass)
Alexander Götz (drums)
Band-info:
Skrupelos (Ruthless) was a local Fulda Crossover/Metalpunk act who used to label themselves “Commercial Crossover aus der Rhön”. The band was formed late '87 by Matthias “Karl” Trapp (vocals), Markus “Lemmy” Höller (guitar), Michael “Bimi” Hau (bass) and Alexander "Götz" Götz (drums) and was active till 1989. At least they managed to record a Demo tape in April '88, that featured 7 songs, before the band later returned as "Höllers Horden" in 1990.(Thanx to Andy Süss for the info)
Discography:
"Hänsche Senn Kai Mänsche" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
Skull
Lineup:
Skull
Line up:
Achim Nohl (vocals)
Roland Saager (guitar)
Band-info:
Cologne based Heavy Metal pioneers who got inspired as school kids by Kiss, Motörhead, Iron Maiden, Saxon, the Sweet and Judas Priest to form their own band, initiated by Roland Saager (guitar), that at last took form in late 1980 under the name of Skull. Their first gig would happen in 1982, still using German lyrix, but it happened that Achim Nohl would front the band right afterwards, already singing in English by that time. Between 1982/83 they played exactly 3 live shows and then subsequently added the word “Flying” to their name during early 1984 and became Flying Skull.Discography:
Skullcrusher
Lineup:
Thierry Randel (guitar, vocals)
Stefan Stolz (guitar)
Manni R. (bass)
F. Stürtz (drums)
Band-info:
A DIY Metal band from Erfstadt, south of Cologne, who recorded a Reh/Demo in April '93. Since the guys covered Metallica's "For whom the bell tolls" I guess they tried to play a sort of Power Metal, but it's difficult to figure out seriously, as their technical skills was quite limited and all they could acchieve was a number of midpaced rocking songs that all sounded the same and either got a slightly punky touch, while soundwise I'd throw in the old Hellhammer tapes here. But don't get me wrong, Skullcrusher wasn't any Hellhammer incarnation at all, just the rehearsal room spirit of these bands was probably the same.Discography:
”Skullcrusher” Demo 1993 (selfreleased)
Sky Hook
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Hard Rock/Metal band from West Berlin active during the late 80's. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Skyliner
Lineup:
Peter Wilcek (vocals)
Oliver Schröder (guitar)
Martin Hohmeier (bass)
Stefan Schaper (keyboard)
Norbert Rist (drums)
Band-info:
Skyliner from the Hamburg area, as far as I know, only had that quite unknown "Limited Edition" vinyl and as the title already reveals, it was most probably a limited edition. Skyliner was a Heavy Rock band, or at least something between Heavy Rock and AOR, with quite enjoyable material. The guitar work of Oliver Schröder and especially the solos, pretty much made their EP something worth to watch out for.Discography:
"Limited Edition" 12" EP 1989 (Touch Tone)
Skylla
Lineup:
Jörg Franke (bass)
Carsten Köhler (guitar)
Band-info:
A shortlived NWOBHM inspired band from West Berlin, active since around 1981/82. The band's sound was a rough mix of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Holocaust influences with a total repertoire of 10 own songs. Köhler and Franke (ex-Tantalos), who joined the band 1982, disbanded Skylla and instead founded Ballantinez 1983. Both would later play in Black Burn, and Jörg Franke additionally in Crypt/Calderone. There are no official recordings known to exist at all. If you got more info, please contact us.Discography:
Skyscraper
Lineup:
Band-info:
Another band that thought it's "funny" to not print ANY info on the booklet of their Demo tape. But fortunately Skyscraper participated on the Rockfabrik Newcomer Festival 1989 and therefore we can at least say that the band was originating from Hannover and consisted of 4 male and 2 female members. Their quite impressive Demo, that was released between 1988 and early 89, provides 3 songs of topnotch pounding Melodic Metal/Hard Rock with US influences and a german sounding vocalist (but here in a good sense). Two of the tracks are probably called "Rocking in the moonlight" and "The power of love" while the latter is a typical US style ballad with nice twin guitar leads. All of the 3 tracks could be little hits each to be honest. But despite getting picked up by a record label they just disappeared unheard.Discography:
”Skyscraper” Demo 198x (selfreleased)
Skyway
Lineup:
Band-info:
A local Metal band from the Dortmund area, not to be confused with the Hardrockers Skyway from Ebersberg/Bavaria. Skyway was seen playing live in their area during 1990. Further info is needed.Discography:
Skyway (Ebersberg)
Lineup:
Rene Kauska
Band-info:
These are the Hardrockers Skyway from Ebersberg, east of Munich. Not much known of this band, just a Demo release featuring 1 song in 2 versions, can be named from around 1989/90 most probably. The sound of these guys was quite a melodic, very listenable sort of Heavy Rock with influences of the common US scene and certain Van Halen like keyboard parts. Not that bad at all ... further info is needed.Discography:
"Rockin' to paradise" Demo 198? (selfreleased)
Slack Suckers
Lineup:
Markus Schneider (guitar, vocals)
Eberhard Weyel (bass, vocals)
Andre Schneider (drums)
Band-info:
A Crossover band from Wilsndorf/Siegen, featuring ex-Accu§er frontman Eberhard Weyel, so we could guess the Slack Suckers formed around 1991. After the "Demo '92" they also got a spot on 1MF's "This stuff's 2 loud 4 U" Promo CD, featuring a very groovy and heavy sort of 90's Power/Thrash on both. In 1994 still a selftitled CD was published on the indie label Soundgarden Tonträger Vertriebs GmbH, but afterwards the band wasn't seen anymore at all.Discography:
"Demo '92" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
"This stuff's 2 loud 4 U" Split CD 1993 (1MF)
Slam
Lineup:
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.Discography:
Slander
Lineup:
Sabine Retzlaff (vocals)
Michael Schub (guitar)
Peter Louvet (guitar)
Christiane Schub (bass)
Ralf Reger (drums)
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band of the old local Hamburg scene. Originally founded as Varos back in 1985 by female shouter Sabine Retzlaff, the band was undergoing several line up changes till they eventually could build a stable skeleton consisting of the people to the left during the end of the 80's, who recorded the Demo "Reflected image" in 1990 under the new monicker Slander. Musically the band prefered a more melodic sound including quite respectable twin leads reminding of Iron Maiden or early Tokyo Blade, while the vocals sounded much like Warlock. Further info is needed.Discography:
"Reflected image" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
Slappy White
Lineup:
Mike Markert (vocals)
Ronny Wick (guitar)
Egon (bass)
Andy Bulla (keyboard)
Roy Bittermann (drums)
Band-info:
A Melodic Rock band, that was originating from the Nuremberg area most probably, active during the beginning of the 90's till at least the mid 90's. Prior to their selfproduced CD with the title "Whapbabadübüdüdabdap" from 1994, the band also played live gigs in 1993. The material on the CD is quite typical 80's commercial Melodic Rock with pompish US american Hard Rock influences. Further info is needed.Discography:
Slas
Lineup:
Max (vocals)
Peter Haubrich (guitar)
Jan (guitar)
Heike (bass)
Dirk (drums)
Band-info:
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.Discography:
“Eye of confusion EP” 7" EP 1991 (Egocentric)
Slasher
Lineup:
Jochen Ruscheweyh (guitar)
Jürgen Huwe (guitar)
Andreas Herz (bass)
Tobias Meier (drums)
Karsten Kühling (vocals)
Band-info:
Badass Thrashers from Dortmund who started in 1985 and sadly only recorded one Demo "Sceptics unwelcome" in 1987. Karsten Kühling sounds almost similar to Schmier, it's incredible, even aping his high pitched screams. Destruction in general (pre-"Release from agony" phase) could be seen as major influence for them imo, they also adopted the technical Thrash style but played it more rude while the sound sadly isn't the best at all. But Thrashers will love this Demo!The band Flaming Anger helped them to record the tape and Kühling and Herz was also playing with Flaming Anger. Andreas Herz even joined Kreator on the vacant bass position in 1992. The rest of Slasher founded the also excellent Frantic in 1989. Please note, the Demo exists with 2 different colored covers and either band logos.
Discography:
”Sceptics unwelcome” Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
Slaughterhammer
Lineup:
Rotten (vocals, guitar)
Torment (guitar)
Band-info:
Originally the band Slaughterhammer was called Bloodslaughter and was formed during 1985 in Itzehoe by the brothers Rotten and Torment, plus T. Vangerow (Wange) on drums. When during 1986 Rotten and Torment had to move with their mommy to the city of Münster, they continued there as duo under the name Slaughterhammer. Every now and then they though went back to Itzehoe and rehearsed with Wange as Bloodslaughter. As Slaughterhammer they recorded a Demo with the title "Zombie surrender" in December 1986, that musically didn't stand behind the Bloodslaughter Demo recorded the following year. Despite the bad sound quality, these guys indeed had potential and could handle their instruments, compared to other early noise combos, and maybe if they would have had the money to enter a studio, they would be known to a wider audience now. The lads performed a very well done early Grind/Death Metal ala Holocausto's debut, comparable to some US Death Metal pioneers, but still a level more brutal. Despite Slaughterhammer is known to be a just a duo and there is no drummer mentioned, the recording definitely featured drums. Further info is welcome.Discography:
”Zombie surrender” Demo 1986 (selfreleased)
Sleazer
Lineup:
Dietmar Schulte (vocals)
Markus Lorenz (drums)
Chris Lorenz (guitar)
Gero Walkowiak (guitar)
Olaf Walkowiak (bass)
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from Münster, that was founded in 1986. The guys recorded a 2 track 7" in fall of 1987, that nowadays is a pretty hard to find piece and features classic Heavy Metal with powerful riffing and a not so typical german sound. The highlight of the EP is the B-side track "Hungry warrior". After the 7" the guys changed name to Avalon in 1988 or '89.
Sleazy
Lineup:
Dee Polz (guitar, vocals)
Dirk Bayer (guitar)
Danny Sacroni (bass)
Hans Krämer (drums)
Band-info:
Though their name would entrap your senses to think they are Sleaze Rockers, I can confirm that Sleazy was indeed a real Hard Rock band from Kaiserslautern that released an album on BEE Records in 1992. The CD features melodic Hard Rock in the good 80's tradition with quite some good numbers, stylistically reminding of Sleez Beez, Steelheart and similar bands. The guys released one more CD on BEE in 1996 entitled "Big A...".Discography:
"Wipe out" CD 1992 (BEE)
Slice
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Hard Rock or Metal band from the Heidelberg/Mannheim/Ludwigshafen area that was active during the late 80's. Further info is needed.Discography:
Slick Black
Lineup:
Jose Botans
Band-info:
A Hard Rock'n'Roll band from Cologne, that was active around 1990. According to the bands own info, they've been influenced by bands like Guns 'n Roses, Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin, and indeed their selfproduced 3 song Demo from 1990 features typical glammy/sleazy Hard Rock. The tape was recorded with a 4 track recorder, so the sound's still very rough edged. Further info is welcome.Discography:
Slyzzer
Lineup:
Uwe Hett
Band-info:
Slyzzer from Ennepetal (east of Wuppertal) are known only for their contribution to the German Metal Fighters 1 compilation. They only had 1 track featured but the guys fully concentrated on copying Accept minus the Dirkschneider vocals. During autumn 1987 the band announced a new Demo, that inluded a sticker as well and either during spring '89 another 10 song Demo tape was up for sale. If you have more info please get in touch.
Smash Palace
Lineup:
Band-info:
Local act from West Berlin that played several live shows around 1985. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
Snake
Lineup:
Willy Weper (vocals)
Peter Kocher (guitar)
Rüdiger Friese (guitar)
Raimund Schneider (bass)
Uwe Blaschke (drums)
Band-info:
Snake was a short lived heavy Hard Rock band from Minden, active since around 1977/78 and at first got featured with the 2 trax "Don't hang about" and "Sammy" on the "Rockland" compilation, that introduced bands from northern Germany. Till the phenomenal first album "New light" was available in 1980, Jerry Gieseking and Michael Beer replaced Rüdiger Friese on guitar. Also Klaus Gerd Goldstein came for Uwe Blaschke on drums and Raimund Schneider was replaced by Peter Koch. "New light" featured a quite lethal dose of in places even NWOBHM inspired powerful Hard Rock with early Metal touch and undoubtly belongs to the top german Heavy Rock albums in 1980. "Six-string devil" and Goodbye my friend" both from the album was also used for the Rock/Flash compilation on Snake's label Cain Records. The guys didn't waste much time and recorded their second album "The second step" in 1981 with new bassist Rainer Werner, but couldn't really repeat what they did on the masterpiece "New light". When also their style still featured good powerful NWOBHM inspired Hard Rock, imo the guys walked a step backwards by adopting mainly the british Boogie style Hard Rock instead of trying to develop indeed a second step (forward) by getting even heavier than on the debut. Nevertheless friends of the british Boogie style Hard Rock will surely enjoy "The second step", but imo it was the wrong step for the evolution of Snake. After the album the band split up and Rüdiger Friese briefly joined Hardrockers Hammerfest.Discography:
"Rockland" Comp.-LP Tracks 1978 (Klangstadt)
"New light" LP 1980 (Cain)
"Rock/Flash" Comp.-LP Tracks 1981 (Cain)
"The second step" LP 1981 (Cain)
Snakebite
Lineup:
Chris (vocals)
Klaus (guitar)
Gerhard Hippmann (guitar)
Georg (bass)
Kurti (drums)
Band-info:
After the Kaufbeuren Hardcore/Punk band Vorkriegsphase broke up in 1984, bassist Georg and drummer Kurt formed the traditional Heavy Metal band Snakebite. In April 1985 the line-up was complete with one Chris (voc), one Klaus (guitar) and one Hippi (guitar) - the latter formerly in Royal Flush. Their first gig followed in October '85 and by August 1986 their 6 song "Balance Of Power" debut demo was recorded. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
"Balance of power" Demo 1986 (selfreleased)
Snakebite (Düsseldorf)
Lineup:
Doro Pesch (vocals)
Frank Rittel (bass)
Peter Szigeti (guitar)
Wolfgang Böhm (guitar)
Thomas Franke (drums)
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from Düsseldorf active from 1980 to probably 1982, featuring later Warlock, Darxon, Stormwind, U.D.O. and Warrant members Peter Szigetti, Wolfgang Böhm, Frank Rittel and Thomas Franke. Rumours say Doro Pesch was member of this band too. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Snakebite (Ensdorf)
Lineup:
Norbert Güthler (vocals)
Michael Vogelsang (guitar)
Ferdi Ferber (guitar)
Andreas Wolf (bass)
Stefan Moor (drums)
Band-info:
Snakebite from Saarlouis in the Saarbrücken region, who formed during the beginning of the 80’s, recorded their "Nightdriver" single in January '83 and the guys have been active at least till 1987. The title track features just average Heavy Rock, but the song that makes this 7" a little gem is the B-side ballad "Layla", where the guys fired up an epic Hard Rock anthem with a lot of emotions put into heavy music.
Snakebite (Hamburg)
Lineup:
Sven Wendland (vocals, guitar)
Andreas Mühlenberg (bass)
Frank Berger (guitar)
Jörg Mühlenberg (drums)
Band-info:
With roots going back to 1982, Snakebite from Hamburg released their debut Demo "Shadows of the night" 1984 and either the title track was used for the Satan's Revenge" compilation on New Renaissance Records as well. Dunno why Anne Boleyn specifically picked up that track, coz "Snakebite" or "High & mighty" of the same tape do show a completely different powerbanging side of this troop, completely different to that acceptish "Shadows of the night". Especially the good vocal performance of Sven Wendland (later joined Mania) needs to be mentioned here. Ex-Blast Furnace/Stagefright guitarist Gottfried Jungverdorben was playing guitars in this band after leaving Stagefright. During 1988 their recent bassist Olaf Klinkusch got replaced by ex-Yetih/Exit bassist Jens Potent. Also guitarist Roland Feldmann quit in autumn '88 and Markus Beyer (ex-Lightning) joined instead. In the following years the lads released 3 more Demos till 1989 with Gunnar Wichmann (guitar) and Andy Syper (vocals) replacing Wendland, when Snakebite eventually split up. These guys and Düsseldorf's Snakebite (pre-Warlock) often got mistakenly confused, so better watch out.Discography:
"Shadows of the night" Demo 1984 (selfreleased)
”Shadow of the night” Comp.-Track 1985 (Satan's Revenge)
"Demo 1987" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"Fly like an eagle" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"Demo 1989" (selfreleased)
Snakemine
Lineup:
Band-info:
A local band that had two trax on compilations of the C.B.R. label. I couldn't find much info of the track from 1983, but "Devil's land" imo sounds quite common and reminds me a bit of bands like TNT or Steam. Not so heavy, but easy going middle league stuff. If you could provide more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Heroin" Comp.-LP Track 1983 (Die No 1)
"Devil's land" Comp.-LP Track 1984 (C.B.Rfrischungen)
Snow Dog
Lineup:
Gernot Wittig (vocals)
Jan Rehwinkel (guitar)
Hans Reichelt (guitar)
Martin Reichelt (guitar)
Robert Anwander (bass)
Thomas Troßmann (drums)
Band-info:
A classic Heavy Metal band from Augsburg, active since late 1987, when Martin Reichelt, Hans Reichelt, Jan Rehwinkel and Robert Anwander had just quit their previous Hard Rock band Mahailia. Gernot Wittig was ex-Hardware and Thomas Troßmann came from Katmandu. Further info is needed.Discography:
Snow Donia
Lineup:
Carsten Zech
Band-info:
6 guys from Bischofsheim/Mayence launched Snow Donia already during 1986 and the band was known to perform live on stage quite often in their area, which granted them special musical experience. A 2 Track Demo was recorded around 1989/90 featuring material comparable to Bon Jovi and Autograph and either the track "Out for love" made it on the local scene compilation "Mayence Rock '90". Further info is welcome.Discography:
"Out for love" Comp.-LP/CD Track 1990 (Mayence Rock '90)
Snowblind
Lineup:
Jochen Ludwig
Band-info:
A quite unknown Hard Rock band that was originating from Bingen, a bit west of Mayence/Wiesbaden, and most probably was active only during the early 90's. Once a Demo tape of them was found in a huge box with other obscure band's tapes, but sadly the 4 track Demo doesn't reveals any year or other useful info, at least due to their address we can confirm, that this tape was released after early 1993, because it already uses the new german zip code. Snowblind musically acted very late 70's inspired, adopting influences of Led Zeppelin and also AC/DC it seems, that just got a slightly more modern sound. If you got further info, please get in touch.Discography:
”Snowblind” Demo 9? (selfreleased)
Snowcat
Lineup:
Dieter Rehrl (vocals)
Martin Fuschs (guitar)
Rolf Posmik (guitar)
Horst Tessmann (bass)
Joseph Huhn (drums)
Band-info:
A melodic Heavy Rock band from Munich who released a 4 track Demo tape in 1985. The guys was seen still in early 1990 live on stage. Horst Tessmann later was active in Lizard/Steamhammer/StormHammer. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Social Disease
Lineup:
Joachim
Patrick
Band-info:
A Punk Metal band from Stutensee/Karlsruhe, active during the beginning of the early 90's. Further info is needed.Discography:
Sodom
Lineup:
Markus Burchert (guitar)
Markus Steffen (guitar)
Oliver Holzwarth (bass)
C.H. (drums)
Band-info:
These are the Munich Sodom, that was founded by later Sieges Even members Oliver Holzwarth and Markus Burchert in october 1982. In the summer of '83 the line-up was completed with Oliver Holzwarth on bass and a certain "C.H." on drums. The guys released a 3 track Demo that offeres a sound similar to Motörhead on "The angel will die" and there's nowhere to hypothesize that they would later create something like "Life cycle". It's very basic "homemade" stuff, while "Crazy horde" in places reminds a bit of Exciter's "Under attack". I got no clue who was doing the drums, as far as I know Alex Holzwarth joined at a much later stage. 1985 they changed name to Sieges Even and became pioneers of the german Techno Thrash movement. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
”Demo 1983” (selfreleased)
Sodom (Essen)
Lineup:
Frank Terstegen (guitar, vocals)
Thomas Such (bass)
Christian Dudek (drums)
Band-info:
Sodom was created in 1981 by Witchhunter (Christian Dudek) and Aggressor (Frank Terstegen) in Gelsenkirchen, shortly joined after a few weeks by Angelripper (Thomas Such) on bass guitar. In 1982 the band was officially known as Sodom, starting to record two Demo tapes that gained them attention in the underground scene for being fast and vicious, more than other bands back in the day. During summer of ’84 Aggressor had to leave due to his limited skills and later reappeared in local bands like Bloody Law and Gravedigger. A guy named Pepi should replace him but neither was willing to improve his skills nor to play faster than ever and left in January ‘85. Grave Violator (Josef Dominik) got the job afterwards, since Sodom had just landed a deal for an album production, after their manager provided the Sodom Demos to Steamhammer boss Manfred Schütz. The rest is history now and that band would become one of the most influential Thrash bands worldwide. The Corroseum honestly doesn't think that we still need to introduce this legend to anyone of the readers. In case someone doesn't know them yet, please check out the Sodom HomepageDiscography:
"Witching Metal" Demo 1983 (selfreleased)
"Victims of death" Demo 1984 (selfreleased)
"In the sign of evil" MLP 1984 (Devil's Game)
"Obsessed by cruelty" LP 1986 (Steamhammer)
"Expurse of sodomy" 12"/Pic EP 1987 (Steamhammer)
"Persecution mania" Pic/LP 1987 (Steamhammer)
"Mortal way of live" DLP/CD 1988 (Steamhammer)
"Agent Orange" LP/CD 1989 (Steamhammer)
"Ausgebombt" 12" EP/MCD 1989 (Steamhammer)
"Better off dead" LP/CD 1990 (Steamhammer)
"The saw is the law"12" EP/MCD 1991 (Steamhammer)
"Tapping the vein" LP/CD 1992 (Steamhammer)
"Aber bitte mit Sahne!" 12" EP/MCD 1993 (Steamhammer)
Soilent Green
Lineup:
Michael Kalks (vocals)
Jürgen Meincke (guitar)
Thomas Mirainski (bass)
Uwe Främcke (drums)
Band-info:
Hamburg's Rocker Soilent Green started back in 1985 and right from the start was known to be a live band, who tried to play any venue that allowed it. Very unusual in the Metal business the guys used to perform their songs in native german language and that's what you can hear on their debut LP, that was recorded in August '86. Soilent Green's style was a kind of Hard Rock/Metal mix with huge Rock'n'Roll dose, that could be compared best to certain midpaced Motörhead songs. The single "Bruno" contains 2 tracks of the album, before Soilent Green's last strike, the "TV Rocker" 12", was available in 1988, introducing new bass player Sven Pfaffenberger and Dirk Kludaß on 2nd guitar. The material got a better much more powerful production than the debut, but stylistically nothing had changed. They played their R'n'R ladden Hard Rock to the end, sounding like a mix of AC/DC and Motörhead.Discography:
"Soilent Green" LP 1986 (Kult)
"Bruno" 7" EP 1986 (Kult)
"TV Rocker" 12" EP 1988 (BMR)
Solar Flares
Lineup:
Bosa Hennig (vocals)
Wolf (guitar)
Jorkuweit (guitar)
Jörn Darkow (drums)
Band-info:
A band from East-Berlin, that most probably found together still in ex-GDR times around 1990. The band's rather unknown, yet their Demo "Interlude" got fabulous reviews back in the early 90's, getting compared to a mix of Megadeth and Annihilator, yet slightly more progressive Power Metal with also hints of Depressive Age. They possibly split up around 1995. Further info is welcome.Discography:
"Interlude" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Solitary Confinement
Lineup:
Guido Lohmar (vocals)
Michael Bleidt (guitar)
Alexander Mungenast (drums)
Christian Klein (guitar)
Dave Steffens (bass)
Band-info:
Solitary Confinement was founded in fall of 1987 by Guido Lohmar (vocals), Michael Bleidt (guitar), Alexander Mungenast (drums) and Christian Klein (guitar) in Bergisch Gladbach and Dave Steffens (bass) joined a while later. In August '90 the Party death" Demo was recorded and Frank Hirt replaced Dave Steffens afterwards on bass guitar. The "Polluted earth" 7" was produced by Uwe Baltrusch (Mekong Delta) and published independently by the band. Was the style of the guys still more Thrash rooted in the beginning, on the 7" they turned into raw Death/Thrash like old Pestilence or Disabuse. Another Demo ("Die Qual") was recorded in 1994 and their first CD entitled "Einzelhaft" was released in 1996.Discography:
"Party death" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
”Polluted earth” 7” EP 1992 (selfreleased)
Sonic Seducer
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Thrash band (most probably) from ex-GDR, that was active in the late 80's, playing live shows. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Sons Of Sacrifice
Lineup:
Band-info:
A local bavarian band most probably. We guess they've been rooted within the Speed/Thrash scene, since the Sons of Sacrifice shared the stage at the "Metal Thunder Over South Germany" festival with Grinder, Annoy and Screaming Demon in July 1990. Further info is required.Discography:
Sons Of Satan
Lineup:
Uli Häfner (vocals)
Boike Rehbein (guitar)
Peter Eistermeister (bass)
Peter Baumbach (drums)
Band-info:
Stuttgart Metal "hopefuls", formed late 1982 by Peter Baumbach (drums) and Boike Rehbein (guitar), who wanted to become the most heaviest and fastest band of all times, by creating a very DIY style Speed Metal, that they themselves used to call "Chaos Speed Metal". December '83 ex-Harlot Whore Peter Estermeier (bass) and Uli Häfner (vocals) joined. Their first Demo was released in 1984 still as a fourpiece and at least my copy is of utterly worse soundquality, that it's more than difficult to say something about it at all. If that "noise" was the result of 2 years of hard work then help us goat. Estermeier and Häfner got fired late in 1984 and Boike Rehbein then prefered to shortly to play in a Blues Rock band, but returned soon after. March '85 Peter Schneiderhahn (bass, vocals) completed the Sons Of Satan line up and as a trio the lads second tape "Live in the Cellar!" at least offered something listenable, still the skills of the guys seemed to be quite limited, though for that kind of Motörhead/early Mad Butcher inspired Speed Metal with punky edge noone has to be a Steve Vai on the guitar. When Bernd Armbruster replaced Peter Schneierhahn in 1986, the guys changed name to Speedrace and recorded one more Demo, while Boike Rehbein and former bassist Peter Eistermeier also had another side "Total Mosh Project" running.Discography:
"Demo 1984" (selfreleased)
”Live in the Cellar!" Demo 1985 (selfreleased)
Sophistication
Lineup:
Roland Stoll (vocals)
Roman Hebel (guitar)
Tino Bergamo (guitar)
Floh Miller (bass)
Markus Stöckle (keyboard)
Willi Kraut (drums)
Band-info:
Thrashers from Munich, who seemed to be active since around the beginning of the 90's and produced their debut album "Mental progress" privately. The CD features just standard Thrash with modern edge, very common for that time. 1998 Sophistication returned with a 3 song Demo but soon disappeared. If you got further info, please get in touch.(Thanx to Warpire for the recommendation)
Discography:
"Mental progress" CD 1993 (selfreleased)
Soulstorm
Lineup:
Bernhard Hlava (vocals)
Paul Abel (guitar)
Stefan Vetter (bass)
Nelson (drums)
Band-info:
A shortlived Crossover band from Augsburg, featuring the ex-Inferno veterans Stefan "Zong" Vetter and Bernhard „Howie“ Hlava, who founded the band after Inferno's last album "It should be your problem!" from 1990. More or less Soulstorm could be seen as the extrapolation of the Hardcore legend Inferno, who adopted more and more Metal influences during their later years. The selftitled Soulstorm album recorded in 1991, features a similar style like on Inferno's last output, Acid Rain Dance or either the late 80's Scarecrow releases, that combined Thrash Metal and Hardcore. In places the guys acted quite technically experienced, but still they've been far away from the classic Thrash sound of the 80's. For Crossover maniacs surely worth a try.Discography:
"Undignified..." Demo 1991 (Campary)
"Soulstorm" LP/CD 1991 (Campary)
Source, The
Lineup:
Winfried Machon (guitar, vocals)
Ralf Simon (bass)
Reinhard Joner (drums)
Band-info:
This quite unknown Bremen Hard Rock outfit produced their obscure single independently sometime during the early 80's, according to the sound of the trio. The NWOBHM alike sounding Hardrocker "Big black car" will certainly attract fans of that special genre. It's just the harp parts, that could appear slightly annoying for Metal ears. On the flipside a different picture of the band unfolds with the much more bluesy sounding number "Time", still rooted in the late 70's Hard Rock though. We need more band info.Discography:
"The Source" 7" EP 198x (selfreleased)
Southern Comfort
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Hard Rock band from southern Germany (Bavaria most probably), that was actively playing live during 1988. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Southwind
Lineup:
Oliver Roth (vocals)
Tino Cottado (guitar)
Oliver Kuka (guitar)
Jens Kreft (bass)
Mario Cottado (keyboard)
Dennis James (drums)
Band-info:
Southern Rock mongers originating from Walldorf, south of Heidelberg, who performed live at the "Rock aus der Penne” festival (“Penne” is slang for school) happening on September 17th 1983 in Heidelberg. Their song „Southern Rock is just alive” was recorded live and got featured on the same called compilation LP, that was released in blue vinyl. For fans into that genre not a bad discovery at all, since for such a small unknown local act the guys played at a higher level for sure.Discography:
„Southern Rock is just alive” Comp.-LP Track 1983 (Rock aus der Penne)
Sovereign
Lineup:
Marco Verführt
Tommy
Thorsten
Uli
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from Kleve, north-west of Duisburg, that was active during 1986. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Space
Lineup:
Jens Meinl (guitar)
Band-info:
A Thrash Metal inspired band from Markneukirchen, in the southern part of the ex-GDR that was at least active around 1987-89 and featured the later Nobody guitarist Jens Meinl.Discography:
Spanish Flies
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Street Hard Rock band from Dortmund, that was active during the late 80's and had a dirty R'n'R edge. If you got further info, please get in touch.Discography:
Speed
Lineup:
Jürgen Dittler (vocals)
Band-info:
Speed was previously known as the teenie band Speedy that already recorded an album back in 1981. Under the new more male sounding monicker Speed the boys are celebrating much more mature sounding good rocking Hard Rock in the vein of Kiss on their sole 7" from 1982. Even the Free cover on the flipside fully convinces sceptics. If you got more info about the band members, please get in touch.
Speed
Lineup:
Mike Schmidt (vocals)
Jürgen Graf (guitar)
Robert Eilenberger (bass)
Christian Ludwig (drums)
Band-info:
Founded early 1986 in Bad Dürrenberg by Mike Schmidt, Jürgen Graf, Robert Eilenberger and Christian Ludwig, the guys soon would rename the band to first MAD, and then finally M.A.D., before they in the following years would rise up to the top of the ex-GDR's underground Thrash scene.Discography:
Speed Metal King
Lineup:
Hexer (guitar)
Skelleton (drums, vocals)
Band-info:
Originally founded as Speed Metal King in Weimar (ex-GDR) by Hexer on guitar and Skelleton on drums during x-mas 1985, who soon would change name in 1986 to Hurricane and later to "Die Schleifers", before the final band name Disaster K.F.W. (stands for Klassischer Friedhof Weimar) ended their desperate endeavor to pick out the right one.Discography:
Speedball
Lineup:
Eddie McGrogan (vocals)
Ulrich Alte-Tiemann (bass)
Heiner Gastmann (guitar)
Richard Preinbergs (guitar)
Hanns Hanneken (drums)
Band-info:
Speedball should be a german band, though their only single was pressed in Switzerland. Both tracks feature 70's Hard Rock with naturally in places Boogie edge, but "5th Avenue" must be counted to the NWOBHM influenced songs, coz it's dominated by sweet twin lead parts, right the same sound that early british NWOBHM bands used to play during the late 70's. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Busted/5th Avenue" 7" EP 1980 (Inter)
Speedball Meets Frank The Tank
Lineup:
Christoph Heusel (vocals)
Frank Mayer (guitar)
Christian Ewald (bass)
Gernot Hopp (drums)
Band-info:
A Blues Rock fourpiece with the really odd name "Speedball Meets Frank The Tank", that originated from Friedberg, between Frankfurt and Gießen and released an independent 12" in 1989. All of these songs was recorded live in April '89 and the sound quality is quite good for that sake. Despite the classic Blues roots, there are also plenty of Hard Rock and Sleaze Rock influences, partly slightly reminding of either Guns n' Roses stuff.(Thanx to the emosteel for the recommendation)
Discography:
"In Concert" 12" EP 1989 (Launhardt Musikverlag)
Speedrace
Lineup:
Bernd Armbruster (bass, vocals)
Boike Rehbein (guitar)
Peter Baumbach (drums)
Band-info:
Speedrace originally firmed as Sons Of Satan since 1982 in the Stuttgart area and already recorded 2 previous Demo tapes under that monicker between 1984 and '85. The last Sons Of Satan line up with Peter Schneiderhahn on bass/micro, Boike Rehbein on guitar and Peter Baumbach behind the drums, changed name to Speedrace in 1986 when Bernd Armbruster replaced Schneiderhahn. With a second guitarist the only Demo "Argl" of this Thrash Metal troop was released in 1986, while Rehbein, Armbruster and the former Sons Of Satan bassist Peter Eistermeier (ex-Harlot Whore) also ran the Total Mosh Project since 1987. Further info is welcome.Discography:
"Argl" Demo 1986 (selfreleased)
Speedy
Lineup:
Jürgen Dittler (guitar, vocals)
Ralf Kunz (guitar, vocals)
Hilmar Moser (bass, vocals)
Oliver Maier (drums)
Band-info:
A teenager (Hard) Rock band from Heidelberg that probably was the Tokio Hotel of 1980/81 getting alot of press and TV presence back in the day and a smart manager thought it would be good to use the recent hype around the band to produce an album. Well, that album was entitled "Much too young to Rock'n'Roll" and yeah, they've been too young for that. The songs do sound like somewhat 70's inspired, like a cross of AC/DC and Status Quo without any own identity. But the hype didn't last that long and the boys disappeared as quick as they came, to return under the new name Speed in 1982 with the "Hurt my feelings" 7". The vinyl comes in clear vinyl and there is a huge poster and info map enclosed.Discography:
"Willy is back/Glad all over" 7" EP 1980 (Hansa International)
”Much too young to Rock’n’Roll” LP 1981 (Rocktopus)
”Much too young to Rock’n’Roll/Fight like a fighter” 7”EP 1981 (Rocktopus)
"Heroes never win" 7" EP 1981 (Rocktopus)
Sphinx
Lineup:
Rolando Scarponi (vocals)
Rocco D'Ambrosio (bass)
Rosario Condello (keyboard)
Thomas Kircher (keyboard)
Thomas Metzger (guitar)
Michele Catena (drums)
Band-info:
Basically Sphinx was an italian band, but as far as I'm concearned, all of the musicians was living in Germany at the time when the band was active. They either had 2 german born guys in the line up, which fully justifies for us to introduce the band here at all. Sphinx's only album was produced at Peter Garattoni's Spygel Studio in Nov./Dec. 1980 and published on the Peak label the following year. The music of Sphinx could be described a sort of proggy pompish Hard Rock like a mix of Toto, Rainbow or Deep Purple, with either early Heavy Metal hints. Especially the speedy doublebass driven oper "Burning lights" clearly entered Heavy Metal territory. 1985 when the band probably didn't even exist anymore, the album got re-released on Mausoleum and Camel Records under the title "Burning lights" with different artwork and tracklist.
Spicey Virgin
Lineup:
Carsten Vollmer (vocals)
Mostafa Masteri (bass)
Nick Witt (guitar)
Andre Ipar (guitar)
Matthias Meßfeldt (drums)
Band-info:
Spicey Virgin was the first attempt of the Speed/Thrash Metallers Recklezz, active in Hamburg from 1985-1986, before they changed their name. They aren't known to have released any Demo. If you got more info please get in touch.Discography:
Spinex
Lineup:
Hagen Rinde (guitar, vocals)
Heinz-.Markus Heiber (guitar, vocals)
Kai Klutz (bass)
Martin Egger (drums)
Band-info:
This highly obscure vinyl of the local band Spinex from the Bad Kreuznach area was a kinda farewell release, because 2 of their members died in a car accident earlier and the 2 remaining members Hagen Rinde and Kai Klutz wanted to send a last salute to their friends. The recordings was cut during band rehearsals but remixed in a professional studio. Musically the record features a sort homemade Hard Rock and Heavy Metal with "Destiny" and "Memories" being the songs that are on the Metal side, and especially "Destiny" develops a nice power till the final part.Discography:
”Destiny” 12" EP 1989 (selfreleased)
Spitfire
Lineup:
Andrea Dickhage (vocals)
Andy Hönig (guitar)
Lupo (bass)
Peter Assmann (drums)
Band-info:
This female fronted Heavy Metal quartet from Hagen was founded in March 1986 as ABH and right after 2 months they already released their first Demo featuring 6 songs incl. coverversions of The Sweet ("Set me free") and Free's "All right now" (A version with 10 songs is known as well). Basically ABH's sound was uptempo Metal in the vein of Tyrant with quite outstanding powerful vocals. The mastermind behind the band was ex-Bullet/Faithful Breath guitarist Andy "Bubi" Hönig. After the Berlin Heavy Metal Festival in August 1986 they changed name to Spitfire and recorded one more slightly more Demo during early '87 at the Dierks Studios with new member Volker Frech, featuring midpaced, melodic Heavy Metal. Several labels showed interest in them for a debut album right from the start, though it did not happen at all. Andrea Dickhage left the band sometime during summer '88. If you have more info please get in touch.(Thanx to Tatjana Menk for additional info)
Discography:
Spitfire
Lineup:
Martin Missy (vocals)
Band-info:
A local Wolfsburg Metal band, that Martin Missy (Golgotha/Inzest/Protector) used to be member of during 1984. Further info is needed.Discography:
Splattered Remains
Lineup:
Bernd Reiners (vocals)
Arne Berents (guitar)
Michael Radeiske (bass)
Lutz Gramberg (drums)
Band-info:
Young Deathmetallers from Aurich, Niedersachsen that only left some rehearsal room recordings behind during their short 1992-1994 career. Bernd and Arne later formed the similar Pain For Pleasure in 1993, of which at least one 1994 demo exists.Discography:
Splendid
Lineup:
Band-info:
A melodic Metal band originating from the Duisburg area, active during the mid/late 80's, that could be called the pre-stage of the more famous Centaur. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Splinter
Lineup:
Andreas Michera (vocals)
Rolf Müller (guitar)
Frank Lehmann (guitar)
Andreas Grahl (bass)
Volker Schultz (drums)
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from West Berlin that most of you might probably know from their "King of the road" track on the "Iron Tyrants III" sampler. Splinter found together in 1982 and released several Demo tapes throughout the 80's, starting with their debut "Dark night", that was produced 1986 at the Harris John's Musiclab. After the Demo the band played a promo tour in summer '87 through Germany and entered Harris John's Music Lab in May '88 to start recordings for their debut album, that was already announced and planned for 1988. In the end those 7 songs got released as the "Demo 89", while still during spring '89 the soon to be released album plans was still not canceled yet and certain mags still continued mentioning it to be out soon. The line up at that time featured ex-Torture Slave/Lawless Eberhardt Günther (vocals), Frank Lehmann (guitar), Volker Schultz (drums), Andreas Grahl (keyboard), Ralf-Axel Krause (bass) and Rolf Müller (guitar). Nevertheless Splinter haunted the underground scene for a few years longer with their melodic sort of Heavy/Power Metal mix. Michael Wolke of Torture Slave was previously playing in Splinter too during the mid 80's, as well as Frank Lebe and Mario Schneider, who both joined the band after Merlin's split late '89/90, shortly before Splinter became Gracious Violence during 1990.Discography:
"Dark night" Demo 1986 (selfreleased)
"Demo 87" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"King of the Road" Comp.-Pic LP Track 1987 (Iron Tyrants III - The European Blitz)
"Demo 88" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
"Demo 89" (selfreleased)
Split Brain
Lineup:
Band-info:
Heavy Metal band from Bochum playing live shows around 1985. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
Split Brain
Lineup:
Band-info:
Bochum melodic hardrockers/metallers possibly formed in 1984-ish, doing the odd gig around the Essen-Dortmund area. No recordings are known until the name-change to Magic Power in 1985, and the debut LP didn't happen until 1990, then under the more familiar Syntra-monicker.Discography:
Splitt
Lineup:
Band-info:
Splitt from East Berlin (ex-GDR) existed as a Metal band from 1985 to 1990, but it's not much known about them. They could produce a slower Metal rocker called "Der Chirurg" in late 1988 or early '89 for the national broadcast service, that went kinda successful on the national youth radiostation, but around 1990 the guys completely altered their musical direction and went on a classic Hard Rock path. Additionally the a female vocalist was added, coming from the band Ladys First. During the following decade the band's stage repertoire was altered as well, leaving Hard Rock paths and turning into a pure Rock cover act, mainly performing old GDR songs. Splitt is still active nowaydays.Check out Der Chirurg
Discography:
Broadcast Recording:
“Der Chirurg“ (1988)
Splutter
Lineup:
Band-info:
The Death Metal heads Splutter seemed to hail from the Ruhrpott area and played a few shows in that area during the early 90’s supporting acts like Acrostichon, Lemming Project and Eternal Dirge f.e., though it looks like that no recordings are yet to be known at all. Further info would be helpful.Discography:
Sprawl
Lineup:
Jens Maerker (bass, vocals)
Lars R. (guitar)
Maren W. (guitar)
Martin J. (drums)
Band-info:
The Sprawl EP is quite an unknown piece of vinyl, that even specialized collectors of German Metal don't have a clue of it's existence. This foursome from Rendsburg produced it privately in 1993 and the 4 trax featured do offer a mix of Speed/Thrash Metal plus a few Hardcore influences (the late 80's NYC Metalcore stuff) like it was common around 1989/90. For a private pressing (with insert and sticker enclosed ) it's pretty well done, especially since in 1993 not much speed bands still tried to play in the old vein. After the 12" Maren left and got replaced by Nase. In 1997 the guys released one more MCD entitled "Group pressure", also privately.Discography:
"Victims of science" 12" EP 1993 (selfreleased)
Squad
Lineup:
Burkhardt Schmallenbach (guitar)
Band-info:
A band that was originating from Siegen, active during the mid 80's. Whetstone's Burkhardt Schmallenbach used to play in this band till he joined Whetstone. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Squadron
Lineup:
Achim Mühlhaus (bass)
Ralf Weiß (vocals)
Judith Küssner (vocals)
Peter Ludes (guitar)
Klaus Prudlo (drums)
Band-info:
One of those bands that didn't mention any info on their releases. Although the band name and title sounds somewhat promising, Squadron was just a Boogie/Hard Rock band, whenalso with a pretty heavy guitar sound. But more or less imagine Status Quo would try some Heavy Metal and you'll get the picture. The girl on the band pic has sung the B-side track "Squadron Blues" that just like the title says includes an extremely bluesy guitar solo. Their single might be obscure as hell, but it's nothing essential at all.Discography:
"Nightmare" 7"EP 1984 (selfreleased)
Squandered Message
Lineup:
Rotze (vocals)
Achim (guitar)
Profi (bass)
Lars (drums)
Band-info:
Squandered Message was a Thrashcore band from West Berlin and will be unknown for most Thrashers I'm sure. Though the guys was more rooted in the Punk/Hardcore scene (and I don't wanna say they're not), their style on "Getting blunt" was similar to early D.R.I. and these guys pretty much had a name even in Metal circles. The whole comparison with the Dirty Rotten Imbeciles also comes to mind due to Rotze's vocals that at 80 % do sound close to Kurt Brecht's. "Getting blunt" features that kind of extremely raw american style Skatecore with Thrash edge, that quite a few Thrash fans do listen to as well, even though it's upper term would be Hardcore. The Metal edge got even bigger on the second album "Life" (with gatefold cover), that featured new members Flo on bass and El G on drums. Though the D.R.I. influences on this album was completely gone, but the fast thrashing Hard/Skatecore remained. Make sure that the "Getting blunt" vinyl features the huge A2 fold out insert.Discography:
"Squandered Message" Demo 1985 (selfreleased)
"Getting blunt" LP 1986 (Destiny)
"Life" LP 1988 (Destiny)
Squealer
Lineup:
Michael Küsters (guitar)
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from Ansbach/Bavaria that published the 4 track Demo "Pushing to the limit" in 1991. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Pushing to the limit" Demo 1991 (selfreleased)
Squealer
Lineup:
Band-info:
A quite obscure ex-GDR Heavy Metal band from Leipzig/Saxony, that is known to share the stage with two other locals bands Victim and Stahwerk at the “Open Air im Stötteritzer Wäldchen“ happening on September 20th 1987 in Leipzig. Further info could be useful.Discography:
Squealer (Abenberg)
Lineup:
Günther Bär (vocals)
Gerhard Gerngroß (guitar)
Thomas Pfeil (guitar)
Hans Gerngroß (bass)
Jörg Billmaier (drums)
Band-info:
These Squealer came from Abenberg (Nuremberg area), started in the early 80's and produced an early album privately, that was recorded in April and October '83 and published at the recording studio's own label Altera Pars. Sadly "Overheat" couldn't point with powerful Metal, something that would have had catapulted the name Squealer on every want list for sure. The quintet delivered almost antiquated sounding Hard Rock, mixing early 80's Accept and late 70's AC/DC influences, while Günther Bär's voice often reminds me of an early Bob Mitchell. The lads was active till the late 80's nevertheless, changing members and in the end shortly before they changed name, Squealer recorded a last Demo tape with a line up featuring female vocalist Charlotte Nordlander (also seen her being called Charlotte Götz!), Roland Becker (drums), Hans-Peter Bierlein (bass) and as the only original member left Thomas Pfeil (guitar), while the latter 3 formed Silent Strike in 1990. The "Just time to rock" Demo was distributed with 2 different covers and different monickers, first one as Squealer and after the name change as Silent Strike.Discography:
”Overheat” LP 1983 (Altera Pars)
"Just time to rock" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
Squealer (Schwalmstadt)
Lineup:
Andy Allendörfer (vocals, guitar)
Bernd Adam (bass)
Axel Fischer (guitar)
Michael Halbhuber (drums)
Band-info:
The Power Metallers Squealer from Schwalmstadt exist since 1984, founded by Andy Allendörfer (vocals, guitar), Bernd Adam (bass), Axel Fischer (guitar) and Michael Halbhuber on drums (who got replaced by Franky Wolf right after the "Squeal for your life" Demo) and are still active nowadays. The guys released 3 Power/Speed Metal Demos between 1985 and 1988 and then recorded the "Human traces" 12" independently, that featured hard Power Metal with speed parts close to Helloween or in the first Vendetta, that basically Squealer on "Human traces" reminds me of the most, mainly of the midtempo parts on "Brain damage". Same vocal style, same technical riffing and breaks, just Vendetta's Thrash was missing. With Lars Döring on the second guitar the Squealer guys recorded the "Make your day" MCD for Andy Allendörfer's label AFM Records, while they continuously followed their path on "Human traces" and delivered more thrashy Power/Speed Metal. Their most successful phase just started after 1992, when they started releasing numerous albums.Discography:
"Squeal for your life" Demo 1985 (selfreleased)
"Ready to fight" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"One beer too much" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
”Human traces” 12" EP 1989 (selfreleased)
"Make your day" MCD 1992 (AFM)
St. Mandrake
Lineup:
Kai Schlünsz (vocals)
Matthias Elvers (keyboard)
Band-info:
A band from northern Germany Flensburg/Kiel area, active during the late 80's and featuring the later Device members Kai Schlünsz and Matthias Elvers. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
St. Metal
Lineup:
Markus Reinheckel (vocals)
Marcus Graupner (guitar)
André Klengel (guitar)
Ralf Möbius (bass)
Steffen Bär (drums)
Band-info:
St. Metal was a Hard Rock band from Dresden (ex-GDR), officially founded in 1983 as Rockmetal, by some guys of the Dresden scene, who was previously playing together since already 1978. Influenced by Krokus and obviously AC/DC the band started writing own material during 1984 and debuted with playing live during 1985, when they also recorded their first Demo "The spider". On the Demo recording Ralf Möbius (army!) got represented by Kay Rühmer. Also drummer Steffen Bär, who left the country a bit earlier, got shortly replaced by vocalist Markus Reinheckel. After the Demo was finished, the band changed their name to St. Metal. Kay Rühmer 1987 then joined the heavier Doctor Rock and also the new guitarist Thomas “Bachmann” Walther went into Doctor Rock's direction during 1988. For a short time Marcus Graupner switched from guitar to the bass, before he left the country also. Uwe Meinhardt joined on drums and the ex-Na Und guitarist Galina Semenichina plus Ralph Hoeltzel (bass) in the meanwhile strenghtened St. Metal's rows, who recorded one more AC/DC inspired Demo "Touch down" during that time. But the chemistry inside the band wasn't pleasant, so a big break happened, causing that Reinheckel left and managed the band, while drummer Meinhardt should take care of the vocals in the future and either Galina Semenichina had to leave the band. Falk Möckel got the position of the new drummer, and with the line up Uwe Meinhardt (vocals), Ralph Hoeltzel (bass), Falk Möckel (drums) and Andre Klengel (guitar) the guys recorded their "Fun maker" Demo in early 1989. Since one the songs got airplay at the national Heavy Metal radio show, the Amiga had plans to feature a track of St. Metal on one of their samplers, but it wouldn't come to that anymore at all. After having changed their name to just STM during autumn '89, the band announced their end early November the same year. The track “Sex & violence” that appeared on the “Dresden History 1981-87” tape compilation (Zieh Dich Warm An Tapes) was recorded together with members of the band Kaltfront already in 1987. Falk Möckel subsequently joined Death Metallers Purgativ in 1991.Discography:
"Touch down" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
"Fun maker" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
“Sex & violence” Comp.-MC Track 1990 (Dresden History 1981-87)
Staccato
Lineup:
Rainer Pomlun
Band-info:
A melodic Hard Rock/Metal band from Niedersachsen with kinda AOR-ish touch due to the massive use of keyboards, but still there are enough rough edges. They got featured with the song "Look up" on a local compilation.Discography:
"Look up" Comp.-LP Track 1989 (5. Niedersächsisches Landesrockfestival '89)
"Look up" Comp.-LP Track 1989 (Deutscher Rockpreis '89)
Staccato (Essen)
Lineup:
Band-info:
A young Hard Rock/Metal band from the Essen area active around 1986/87. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
Stacy
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Hard Rock/Metal band from most probably Hessen (Frankfurt/Hanau area), that was actively playing live during 1990. If you got further info, please get in touch.Discography:
Staff
Lineup:
Band-info:
Continuing with unknown local singles that none has ever heard of yet, though they wouldn’t suggest any Hard Rock association at all by just looking at the sleeve. Still Aachen’s own Staff clearly belong in here, eventhough their sound features a rather Blues ladden Hard Rock with a little 70’s feeling. Their obscure “Empty house” entitled single must have been recorded during the mid 80’s as most of the Semper Idem label’s outputs originate from that time range.Discography:
“Empty house” 7” EP 198x (Semper Idem)
Stagefright
Lineup:
Martin Jungverdorben (vocals)
Chris Gattke (guitar)
Gottfried Jungverdorben (guitar)
Mike Facklamm (bass)
Frank Mölk (drums)
Band-info:
Power/Speed Metallers from Hamburg again, acting somewhere in the vein of early Helloween with doublebass driven power sound. Even the vocalist in places reminds of Kai Hansen when he still did vocals in the early days. They started in May '84 as Stagefright, though founding members Chris Gattke, Mike Facklamm, Boris and Gottfried Jungverdorben (ex-Blast Furnace) had previously operated under the name Genocide (unknown which version). Gottfried's brother Martin from the band Sanctuary joined on vocals, since they had both been playing already in Blast Furnace together. Boris and Gottfried left the band shortly after and was replaced by Frank Mölk (who also had a short stint in Blast Furnace) on drums and Eckhard Scholz on guitar. In April '85 they released the 6-track Demo "Entering the stage", a bit inspired by the NWOBHM (early Priest). You can also hear another 2 trax on the Metal Hour compilation. A full-length LP with the working title "Masters of Metal" was planned for spring 1986 as well, but it never happened. Too bad...Discography:
"Entering the stage" Demo 1985 (selfreleased)
"Metal Hour (Metal Tracks No. 3)" Comp.-LP Tracks 1986 (D&S)
Stahlwerk
Lineup:
Jens-Uwe Nobst (drums)
Band-info:
A quite obscure ex-GDR Heavy Metal band from Leipzig/Saxony, that is known to share the stage with two other locals bands Victim and Squealer at the “Open Air im Stötteritzer Wäldchen“ happening on September 20th 1987 in Leipzig. Stahlwerk continued playing gigs till at least 1988, but seem to have disappeared afterwards. Their drummer Jens-Uwe Nobst was also playing in several Hard Rock/Metal bands like Weissheim, Badboy and Fairplay, as well as in several local Punk troops, while Gelee Royal seemed to be his main act there in the genre.Discography:
Stained Class
Lineup:
Thomas Neumann
Wolfgang Bausch (vocals)
Band-info:
Stained Class from the greater Mannheim area released their debut Demo 1985 and got the possibility to record two tracks for the D&S compilation Break Out - German Metal Tracks 2 one year later. Both their contributions "Recovery" and "Back for more" was mid paced pounding Heavy Metal with an epic touch and a few post-NWOBHM influences while the usual rough low budget production of D&S did suit their style very well. In the summer of '88 Stained Class announced that they actually are in negotiations with a bigger company for a possible album release, who demanded a better vocalist. Some of the ex-members of Stained Class formed the band Celyphayr in 1987. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Streetfighter" Demo 1985 (selfreleased)
"Break Out - German Metal Tracks No 2" Comp.-LP Tracks 1986 (D&S)
Stainless
Lineup:
Klaus Opree (vocals)
Ronny von Assel (guitar)
Guido Robenek (?)
Willy Schwäbig (drums)
Wolfgang Mirbach (bass)
Andreas Rothe (guitar)
Band-info:
A band from Bonn, that featured later musicians of Trans Am and Forced Entry/STS 8 Mission. They started out as a threesome in September 1980 under the name ROSTFREI ("Stainless" in German), featuring Willy Schwäbig on drums, Wolfgang Mirbach on bass and Andreas Rothe on guitar. In 1983 Klaus Opree and Ronny von Assel (who both was previously playing in the bands Fractured Mirror/Vision) joined on vocals and solo guitar respectively. This is also where the band changed direction into the field of Heavy Metal and adopted the name STAINLESS. What's left of them is a Demo tape from 1984, featuring the 3 live trax "Stainless Heavy Metal", "Man of the universe" and "We rock". The sound is pretty good and Klaus Opree was a born entertainer on stage, heating up the crowd to the maximum. Except of the uptempo banger "We rock" that's somewhere in the vein of Mad Butcher and Future Tense, the other trax did feature typical mid 80's German Metal like Sacrafice or Arrow, but at least one level higher. If my tape is original, then the Demo had no booklet or any songitles mentioned. There's just Stainless written on a regular tape inlay and nothing else. The band just lasted from 1983-85 and Klaus Opree as well as Ronny von Assel subsequently formed the more successful Trans Am. Willi Schwäbig went heavier paths and joined Forced Entry. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
”Demo 1984” (selfreleased)
Stainless Steel
Lineup:
Ralf Scholz (vocals)
Thomas Müller (guitar)
Norbert Barton (guitar)
Carsten Kurz (bass)
Frank O. Schneider (drums)
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from Bielefeld that could produce their debut on Bonebreaker Records still in the same year as it was founded. They must have had written and recorded the whole album in no time. Seen from that standpoint it's not even a bad effort, but if you compare to other german demo acts from the mid 80's, it's only average material that in places reminds me of Metal Sword, Arrow, Sacrafice and such bands, not really justifying the vinyl honour they got rewarded with. The "Molten Metal" Demo with new bassist Ralf Huxhage (ex-Charger) and drummer Frank Uillrich (ex-Charger/Fairywhite/Mendacious Messiah) on the other hand offers way more up to date raw Power Metal, that's throwing a completely different light on the same band and proves that sometimes rehearsing is the key to success, though Stainless Steel's days was already counted. Both releases got re-published in the meanwhile in different forms.
Stainless Steel
Lineup:
Frank Heukemes (vocals)
Patrick Heinstein (guitar)
Yoshi Toscani (guitar)
Gregor Karch (bass)
Armin Scherf (drums)
Band-info:
Not to be confused with their Bielefeld and Krefeld namesakes, that appeared just a few years later on the local scene than this version of Stainless Steel from Ladenburg in the Heidelberg/Mannheim area from southern Germany. This young quartett performed live at the "Rock aus der Penne” festival (“Penne” is slang for school) happening on September 17th 1983 in Heidelberg and could either produce their sampler contribution „Praying mantis” for the festival’s own vinyl at a real studio late in 1983. For sure the best and heaviest troop on the album, Stainless Steel delivered a highly Priestish influenced sound, reminding strongly of the US force Tortured Dog, active at around the same time than them! If you might guess you’ve heard the name Frank Heukemes somewhere before, then this just proves your good internal historical Metal knowledge. He later reappeared with local Mannheim Metalrockers Aidean during the mid 80’s and recorded with them some songs in July 1985.Discography:
„Praying mantis” Comp.-LP Track 1983 (Rock aus der Penne)
Stainless Steel (Krefeld)
Lineup:
Band-info:
Not to be confused with the Bielefeld namesakes, these guys claimed the title "Krefeld's HM Act N°1" for themselves. They've been active during at least 1984/85. Further info is needed.Discography:
Stairway
Lineup:
Heinz Schaudin (vocals)
Klaus Ruth (guitar, vocals)
Frank Seraphim (guitar, keyboard)
Günter Petasch (bass, vocals)
Bernd Kütemann (drums)
Band-info:
One more extremely obscure Hard Rock band with an even more obscure vinyl release. Sadly they missed to print contact info on the sleeve of the 12", so it's impossible to tell where these guys came from. The "Tomorrow" 12" should be from around 1989 and there was only 200 copies made, thats what I found out already. There is even a number written on the upper frame of the cover, so it might be even handnumbered. Not only the artwork of the EP makes a collectors mouth wet like a nun after the daily football training, also their 3 songs sung by 3 different guys, do justify a purchase, although you can imagine that you won't see this vinyl very often. The title track offers some purplish influences, but in a modern way and Klaus Ruth who sung on it, sounds in a way a bit like Ozzy. The twin leads needs to be mentioned as it gives the band a kinda post-NWOBHM feeling, though their style was melodic Hard Rock nevertheless. If you get the chance to put your hands on it, just don't hesitate...
Stalin
Lineup:
Tommy Mayer (vocals, guitar)
Helme Miedel (bass)
Michael Schellberg (drums)
Ingo Pompe (guitar)
Band-info:
A quite long lasting band are Stalin from Ulm, who are active since 1981 already but didn't release much albums. The first LP is already from 1983 entitled "Friss oder stirb" and was still sung in german. Besides the obvious AC/DC Hard Rock edge that the album mainly suffers from, there are also a few fast songs that are apparently done in the vein of Motörhead. On the second album "Crazee nites" from 1985 their sound got slightly more modern but still has got that little early 80's AC/DC edge and the Motörhead influences when they raised the speed. Ingo Rose replaced Helme Miedel on "Crazee nites". They released the next album just about 10 years later in the mid 90's and are still active nowadays. The debut LP is quite hard to find nowadays.
Stallion
Lineup:
Achim Hopf (vocals)
Robert Jakubeit (guitar)
Werner Jakubeit (guitar)
PJ Clark (bass)
Thomas Franke (drums)
Band-info:
Stallion was formed in early 1984 by Robert and Werner Jakubeit in Neuss/Düsseldorf. They released in about 3 Demo tapes from 1984 to November 1985 that all are showing strong US Metal influences. Early 1988 the Stallion line up featured Achim Hopf (vocals), Andrè P. Baum (guitar), ex-Airwolf Markus Mulders (guitar), Chris van Schmidt (drums) and Andi Cointi (bass). 1997 the guys released a private selftitled CD as well. Markus Mulders late '88 or early '89 formed the band Frantic in Duisburg and Thomas Franke later resurfaced in Nightprowler. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Demo 1984" (selfreleased)
Stallion
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from the Bonn/Cologne area most probably, not to be confused with Stallion from Neuss. This band was active during the mid 80's and supported Trans Am on their tour 1986. Further info is needed.Discography:
Stampede
Lineup:
Franz Ullrich (vocals)
Ritchie Rynsteen (guitar)
Joe Costello (bass)
Frajo Kromeich (drums)
Band-info:
Hardrockers from the Würzburg area I guess, at least I know for sure they are from Bavaria. There is just one album that remained of this short lived band (1980-81), but that album indeed is interesting. Recorded in January '81 for the Rockport label, Stampede managed to create a sound, that sounded somewhat simply "too fresh for 1981". Though stylistically this foursome was playing common Hard Rock of that time with a few AC/DC and even bluesy influences here and there, but the sound of the album and the songs itself doesn't sound "antiquated", which is giving their LP a kinda "wow-effect". So in short, Hard Rock from early 1981 with a sound from 1985 f.e. After the LP nothing came from these guys anymore.Discography:
”Stampede” LP 1981 (Rockport)
Stampede (Kassel)
Lineup:
Martin Nethercutt (vocals)
Thomas Stolkmann (guitar)
Frank Spohr (guitar)
Ralph Spohr (bass)
Martin Großkurth (keys)
Steve Freitag (drums)
Band-info:
A Melodic Rock band from Kassel, not to be confused with the Stampede who released an album 1981. These guys only released two singles, while the "Morning comes" 7" features just poppy AOR, but needs to be mentioned here nevertheless. "Radio" the flipside track sounds quite listenable though. On the second single released the following year the Stampede guys added some more Hard Rock influences at least on the title track (bluesy B-side sucks though), but still of the same kind you could hear on the radio back in the day.Discography:
"Morning comes" 7" EP 1984 (Zun)
"35 Kassel" 7" EP 1985 (Iron Curtain)
Stanley Beamesh
Lineup:
Thomas Rump (vocals)
Uli Dieser (guitar)
Manfred Riehle (bass)
Hermann Kern (keyboard)
Jochen Volle (drums)
Band-info:
These guys with the utterly strange name Stanley Beamesh was based somewhere in the Freiburg area (Hugstetten probably) and recorded an obscure private 12" in March '84. The opener "California overdrive" (a sort of Pop Rock) will make you start thinking that you've just made the worst mistake of your life by purchasing the 12", but fortunately the other 3 trax will fully compensate your first fears. The locally bound Beamesh's managed to produce 3x hard rockin' AOR that I rather know from most of the private local US pressings, than from german bands. Also the musical level of their creations is obviously above standard of the common bands and the twin leads and especially the rough sound of the mix is giving their EP a special note. Early 80's AOR fans must definitely check them out.Discography:
"Stanley Beamesh" 12" EP 1984 (selfreleased)
Starbreak
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from the Hamburg area doing live gigs in 1986/87. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
Stardust
Lineup:
Th. Becker
Band-info:
A Heavy Rock band from Saarbrücken, that formed already back in 1978, but released their debut Demo "Heavy nights" not before 1984. Despite of still being quite young musicians, the 4 melodic yet commercial HM influenced trax could pass the critical view of the Metal press, comparing the band optically and musically to Def Leppard with a neat dose of Rainbow. Further info is needed though.Discography:
"Heavy nights" Demo 1984 (selfreleased)
Stargazer
Lineup:
Armin Fendl (vocals)
Paul Krieger (guitar)
Werner Eigner (bass)
Oliver Wulff (keyboard)
Peter Kei (drums)
Band-info:
Stargazer from Munich was founded by Paul Krieger and Werner Eigner in early 1986, while Peter Kei was quickly recruited as drummer. The band name was chosen due to the same titled Rainbow song. After Armin Fendl and Oliver Wulff completed them, they got signed by the Munich Maintown Project management and label who produced Stargazer's first 7", the outstanding "We start to play now", which was pressed in a very small edition only. Both songs feature above standard powerful Heavy Metal with virtuoso guitar playing and atmospheric keyboards and must be counted amoung the top 3 of all german Metal singles ever released. In summer '87 the guys started recordings for the debut album "Back on the street!", that was again produced by the Munich Maintown Project label and showcased Stargazer from a different, more melodic side. Nevertheless songs like "Break out" also showed parallels to old Rainbow, but the main material featured midpaced, hardrocking Metal with heavy use of keyboards and commercial edge. Oliver Wulff left the band after the recordings and Gerald Sailer replaced him. For the second album "Commercial gods" Johannes Bleibrunner did the keyboard parts. Stargazer recorded and produced this CD privately and turned way heavier again than the previous one, almost returning to "We start to play now" times. Some of the solos seriously could be compared to Yngwie Malmsteen's style and also the vocal performance of Fendl was on it's zenith. For the last album "Dinomania" the line up changed again. Long time fellow drummer Peter Klei was replaced by Klaus Leichtl and again a new keyboarder in person of Rainer Thanner was introduced. But sadly the recordings on "Dinomania" went way to modern, adopting Hard Rock roots once again and either Fendl's vocals focussed on that new style of singing that killed Heavy Metal in the early 90's. The "Stargazer" entitled CD from 1994 features the "Back on the street!" album plus other extra tracks.Discography:
"We start to play now" 7" EP 1986 (Munich Maintown Project)
"Back on the street!" LP 1988 (Munich Maintown Project)
"Commercial gods" CD 1991 (selfreleased)
"Dinomania" CD 1993 (Walk Music)
Starlett Scarlett
Lineup:
Rick Larsen (vocals)
Didi Schulz (drums)
Band-info:
A 5-piece hailing from the Hamburg area. Their 4-song demo was described as keyboard-dominated, melodic hard rock with occasional similarities to Charon. Vocalist Rick Larsen was apparently part of the Helloween road crew.Discography:
"Demo 1986"
Starlight
Lineup:
Uwe Ertelt (vocals)
Band-info:
Starlight was a project from Dortmund featuring ex-Chronos/later Pride vocalist Uwe Ertelt. It's possible this was just a shortlived, intermediate name of the band between a previous "Jealousy"-monicker and the later Pride-incarnation. An almost-full line-up did exist in 1988 though, judging by a drummer wanted-add we've come across. Influences mentioned were Mötley Crüe, Dokken and Great White. More info is needed.Discography:
Starstruck
Lineup:
Tommy Löwe (vocals, guitar)
Mike Bailey (guitar, vocals)
Klaus Schmuck (bass)
Frank becker (keyboard)
Andy Potter (drums)
Band-info:
One might think at the first impression that in the Karlsruhe based Starstruck was playing 2 british guys. If they didn't just used synonyms, then at least musically the 1983 founded band pretty much laid the foundations with their song material for that thesis either. I know the album wasn't and isn't a highly wanted piece amoung Metal fans, but seriously, there is really no reason for that kind of abhorrence at all. The guys was doing their job quite well, and had a huge spectrum of sounds from cool Metal like on "Rock salad" to the pounding Melodic Metal stuff and not even the well known british style Boogie Hard Rockers was ignored. As stated above, Starstruck's sound was closer to the post-NWOBHM bands than to common german ones. Tommy Löwe appeared again in the late 80's in the line up of the Dead Ballerinas.
Statement
Lineup:
Oliver Roth ((vocals)
Henry Mittnacht (guitar)
Ralf Bopp (bass)
Tom Geiss ((keyboard)
Michael Vogel (drums)
Band-info:
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.Discography:
"One for the money" CD 1993 (Face Music)
Station C
Lineup:
Band-info:
A local Heavy Rock band originating from the greater Offenbach/Frankfiurt area, that was actively playing live during 1988/89. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Steam
Lineup:
R. Danovski
B. Schmitz
Band-info:
Not to be confused with the early 80's troop from Frankfurt, these lads hailed from Mayence, and was featured on a local Mayence compilation album, with the quite good and dreamy love ballad "Feels like love". If you got more info, please get in touch.
Steam (Frankfurt)
Lineup:
Jee Pee (vocals)
Michael Wickler (guitar)
Freddy Haller (guitar)
Mike Fischer (bass, synth)
Thomas Gietzen (drums)
Band-info:
The Bruchköbel (Frankfurt/Main area) based Steam had its origin in another Frankfurt band called Overlord, but plenty of members were exchanged in their early years and few survived until their first vinyl appearance, the track "I don't know" on the "Rockactive I" sampler from 1983. The same song was also featured again on their one and only album "Can't get enough" and by now all old Overlord members were gone. It was produced for Vip Records by ex-Schloss drummer Willy Waid 1984 and while the LP wasn't any revelation in terms of heavyness, there are some trax featured like "Keep rockin'" that indeed used to animate the listener to nod satisfied. Steam did not fully try to revive 70's sounds (except of 2 hard boogieing trax) or copying Accept, but instead focussed on their style of melodic Heavy Metal/Hard Rock, reminding even of Angeles Del Infierno on "Bad guys", though "Can't get enough" remained their last sign of existence. Prior to the vinyl appearances the band already debuted with a Demo dating from March 31 1982 (5 trax) and another 4 track tape from the following year 1983.(Thanx to Rumblefist for additional info)
Steamer
Lineup:
Band-info:
A classic Heavy Metal band from western Germany (most probably North Rhine-Westphalia), that was actively playing live during 1988. If you got more info, please gt in touch.Discography:
Steamhammer
Lineup:
Hartmut Eltgen (vocals)
Band-info:
A "Barbaric Metal" band from Krefeld that released a demo in 1985. Hartmut Eltgen was also active in Bochum Speed Metal act Poison and later went to Thrashers Last Rites. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
"One step to hell" Demo 1985 (selfreleased)
Steel
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from Pirmasens, that was playing live gigs in the area in the late 80's. The style of the band was classic but average Heavy Metal with either speed elements, though on stage the lads was playing coverversions of Cinderella, WASP and Zodiac Mindwarp. As a special stage gag they entered stage as "PS Poser Band", dressed like Glam Metallers and performed Poison covers. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Steel Preacher
Lineup:
Mike Kocher (vocals)
Andreas Treichel (guitar)
Bernd Haber (bass)
Oliver Holzner(drums)
Band-info:
A classic Metal fourpiece of the mid 80's from Kirrweiler/Edenkoben (west of Speyer), who claimed their own style being "Heavy Steel Rock" and consisted of Mike "Steelborn" Kocher (vocals), Andreas "Drü" Treichel (guitar), Bernd Haber (bass) and Oliver Holzner (drums). A 4 track Demo from 1985 is confirmed, entitled "Born for the sound", that stylistically shows similarities to acts like Metal Sword, despite lacking a bit in the vocal department. Steel Preacher's active career lasted till around 1987, when Holzner and Treichel formed The Warning.You can listen to Steel Preacher here
Discography:
"Born for the sound" Demo 1985 (selfreleased)
Steeler
Lineup:
Udo Retzlaff (vocals)
Volker Krawczak (bass)
Axel Rudi Pell (guitar)
Volker Jökel (drums)
Band-info:
Steeler from Wattenscheid has been around since the beginning of the 80's as Sinner, founded by Axel Rudi Pell and Volker Krawczak. After trying several musicians and a pretty listenable NWOBHM and Accept influenced Demo tape as Steeler with Karl Holthaus on vox in 1982, Earthshaker Records took 'em under contract and with something like a stable line up that was found in both ex-Avenger members Peter Burtz (vox) and Jan Yildiral (drums), plus ex-Fallen Angel guitarist Thomas Eder, the debut "Steeler" was recorded January '84 in Bochum. Burtz' vocals was way more basic and typically german alike raw sounding than Holthaus' rather melodic and more advanced appearing voice. Musically the Demo path was continued, Steeler played a sort of Judas Priest influenced german style and also repeating the same on "Rulin' the earth" from 1985 as well. For the 86er "Strike back" album Krawczak was replaced by ex-Anthracite bass player Hervè Rossi. Steeler now had dropped the Judas Priest influences and started becoming a bit more powerful, sounding close to Tyrant on the powerbangers of the album like the title track or "Danger comeback", while the midpaced bangers, that ruled the album, led the listener to believe that there was a proximity to Accept's "Metal heart" or "Russian Roulette" albums. With ex-Axe Victims Roland Hag on bass the last album "Undercover animal" was published in 1988, that except of the powerful "Criminal" and "Knock me out" just offered slightly softer material like the midpaced songs on the previous album "Strike back", but almost showing influences of early Ratt. The band due to internal discrepances split up in 1989, while Axel Rudi Pell already called it quits after the last tour of the band in 1988. The other guys tried still for a year after Pell left with Vito Spacek (guitar) and Franco Zuccaroli (drums), but eventually gave up as well. Axel Rudi Pell started a very successful solo career in the 90's.Discography:
"Demo 1982" (selfreleased)
"Steeler" LP 1984 (Earthshaker)
"Rulin' the earth" LP 1985 (Earthshaker)
"Call her princess" Comp.-LP Track 1985 (Metallic Bunny's Fast Collection)
"Strike back" LP 1986 (Steamhammer)
"Night after night" 7" EP 1986 (Steamhammer)
"Undercover animal" CD/LP/Pic LP 1988 (Steamhammer)
"Undercover animal" 7" EP 1988 (Steamhammer)
Steelhunter
Lineup:
Geronimo Lutkemuller (vocals)
Micha Farkens (bass)
Marc Pape (drums)
Andre Borawski (guitar)
Band-info:
Formed in 1985 in Braunschweig, south of Wolfsburg, the band apparently released 2 lesser known demos before their more familiar "Spider On The Wall.." tape from 1988, though so far we don't have any significant info on them. Gero formerly sang in Inzest, but Andre is the member w/ the longest history in the local scene, having taken part in both Death Attack and Inzest and is even rumoured to having been part of a late Steeltower line-up. On the aforementioned "Spider.." tape we're presented with Manic and spikey, proggish Power Metal at times reminding of Terrahsphere or Flaming Anger, with DiAnno-like vocals + early Maiden-harmonies sprinkled about. Shortly after the release of this tape, the band changed their name to Shooting Gallery. If you have more info, please get in contact.Discography:
"Spider on the wall, which eats the fly" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
Steeltower
Lineup:
Thomas Rettke (vocals)
Ingo Millek (guitar)
Bernd Kaufholz (guitar)
Bernhard Zimkowsky (bass)
Jens Bauer (drums)
Band-info:
Steeltower was formed 1982 by Thomas Rettke (vocals, ex-Casey Jones), Ingo Millek (guitar), Bernd Kaufholz (guitar), Bernhard Zimkowsky (bass) and Jens Bauer (drums) in Wolfsburg, and all of the guys being members of the band String Eyes, that was active since the late 70's. The boys was hoping to score a record deal with their first 4 track Demo "We burn, let us show you!" in 1983, but failed and therefore decided in January '84 to record an album with private money at the Horus Sound studio in Hannover. But Zimkowsky and Bauer couldn't participate on the recording sessions that lasted till September, and therefore got replaced by Manfred Jordan (bass) and Thorsten Müller (drums, ex-Gents). Mausoleum Records in the end released the album in February '85 under their own banner. Still in early '85 Jordan and Kaufholz left to be replaced by Andre Borawski (bass) and Kai Achilles (guitar) who both would found the Thrashers Inzest a few years later. Steeltower released one more Demo for their Tour in 1985 and changed name first to Carrion in 1987 and one year later became Heaven's Gate. The sound of Steeltower on the album and Demos was typical german midpaced Heavy Metal, that more or less had it's roots still in the Hard Rock genre, though the title track of the album featured stone cold doublebass driven Speed Metal.Discography:
"We burn, let us show you!" Demo 1983 (selfreleased)
"Special" Demo 1984 (selfreleased)
"Night of the dog" LP 1984 (Mausoleum)
"Tour '85" Demo 1985 (selfreleased)
Steelwood
Lineup:
Band-info:
The band Steelwood is just known for a track on the "Schwarz auf weiß" compilation released on CBR Records. Though the band pic doesn't might really reveal that impression, but "Dark clouds" had a strong NWOBHM background. In general the kind of NWOBHM/Hard Rock from around 1980 or earlier with nice twin leads. That song could well have been on any of the early singles and noone would notice the difference. If you got more info of this band, please get in touch.Discography:
"Dark woods" Comp.-LP Track 1986 (Schwarz auf weiß)
Steelyard
Lineup:
Jochen Spengler (keyboards, vocals)
Gerald Schwarz (guitar)
Beasley Brössel (guitar)
Markus Sellmann (bass)
Stefan Heuser (drums)
Band-info:
It's somewhat "refreshing" sometimes that there are still early german Metal bands to discover, who didn't try to copy Accept or AC/DC and to this category belong the Steelyard boys from Marburg. Their privately produced album seriously doesn't turn up often, but it's worth waiting, coz even though it's been recorded in May '82 already, if someone would sell it to be from 1985 f.e. nobody would recognize at all. May it be the sound or their style, they have been a bit ahead of their time for at least 3 years compared to other german bands who recorded albums around 1981/82. For some strange reason I always feel reminded of swedish Metal gods Heavy Load when I listen to "1982". The way Steelyard composed their songs and the whole album sound just doesn't let come any other band to my mind. The LP comes with an insert.
Step Four
Lineup:
Frank Busche
Horst Hoffmann
Band-info:
An AOR/Heavy Rock band from Hildesheim that could contribute the two trax "Emergency exits the world" and "If I'll lose you" for the "3. Hildesheimer Rocksampler". The latter either was also used for the NDR Hörfest '88 compilation and offers leightweight Hard Rock. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"3. Hildesheimer Rocksampler" Comp.-LP Tracks 1987 (EC Verlag)
"If I'll lose you" Comp.-LP Track 1988 (NDR Hörfest '88)
Step Out
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Metal band from ex-GDR, that was active in the late 80's, playing live shows. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Sterling
Lineup:
Michael Keuter (vocals)
Band-info:
A local Hamburg Heavy Metal band of the very late 80's, that originally formed as Tscallenger and changed name to Sterling during early 1989, featuring the ex-Powerfool/Sunburst/Yetih vocalist Michael Keuter. Keuter though left the band in spring '89, who started a search for a new singer. Sterling's sound was influenced by classic stuff ala Yngwie Malmsteen, Dokken and Rainbow. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Stingray
Lineup:
Band-info:
Hard Rock locals from Bonn (or surrounding area), that was active during 1990/91. Further info is required.Discography:
Stingway
Lineup:
Martin Meyo (vocals)
Wolf Zenk (guitar)
Peter Fink (bass)
Peter Asang (drums)
Band-info:
Stingway's Metal legacy sadly are 3 tracks. This band must be from the Munich area, but for sure was a bavarian band. Their rare "Lost in a nightmare" single belongs to the creme de la creme of the german indie singles, though the guys didn't celebrate an excessively german sounding style at all. "Lost in a nightmare" offers strong US american influences with glammy note and "We pray for rock" is the smash hit on that 7". A fresh sounding well composed Heavy Rocker with great refrain and cool vocals parts. They could contribute another exclusive track on Outlet Music's compilation "Sunab 196" that was of the same quality like the single trax.Discography:
”Lost in a nightmare” 7” EP 1987 (Outlet Music)
"Come and go" Comp.-LP Track 1987 (Sunab 196)
Stitch
Lineup:
Andreas Rasche (vocals)
Carsten Collenbusch (guitar)
Burchard Pekeler (bass)
Siegbert Osterkamp (drums)
Band-info:
Stitch was a Heavy Metal band from Oldenburg who recorded their vinyl debut "The queen is back" from summer '88 to January '89. After the recordings Carsten Collenbusch, who was also playing in Adamantine, hired his fellow Adamantine bassist Kai Schillemat to replace Burchard Pekeler. The vinyl sold well and a second edition with different artwork was neccessary to be pressed in 1990. Andreas Rasche in places had a few problems to hit the right tones, but nevertheless, the material offered pounding midpaced Heavy Metal with slightly american influences, giving some of the trax a kinda glammy touch, but without being Glam Metal at all. In around 1992 or most probably first half of 1993 Stitch released another Demo with additional guitarist Stephan Klöpfel, recorded at the Bluebox Studio in Bonn, that featured 4 trax of the future "Freakshow Box" CD, which was released not before 1994 on Blue Noise Records.
STM
Lineup:
Uwe Meinhardt (vocals)
Andre Klengel (guitar)
Ralph Hoeltzel (bass)
Falk Möckel (drums)
Band-info:
A very shortlived Hard Rock band in the AC/DC vein from Dresden (ex-GDR), that was previously known as first Rockmetal and later as St. Metal. After St. Metal had recorded their 2nd Demo "Fun maker" early '89, they changed their name to just STM during summer/autumn '89, before the band already announced their end early November the same year.Discography:
Stone Age
Lineup:
Tom Garren (vocals)
Manni Porsche (guitar)
Harry Schmitz (guitar)
Frank Lauer (keyboard)
Wolfgang Bride (bass)
Freddy Radinger (drums)
Band-info:
Stone Age from Mosbach in the greater Frankfurt/Main area, was active since 1980 and got featured with the track "White witch" on the local Main Rock Sampler 1 in 1986. The guys was fronted by native US-american Tom Garren and delivered a sort of riff-oriented Hard Rock/Metal, that especially during the solo part knows to convince the listener. If you got more info, please get in touch.
Stone Cold & Crazy
Lineup:
Nopper (vocals)
Gary Schmalzl (guitar)
Rubbel (guitar)
Musch (bass)
Chris (drums)
Band-info:
I wonder where the Ruff'n Roll label digged out all the terrible bands they signed around 1990? After Vex and Weird Kong, Stone Cold & Crazy got the honor to produce an album for them. At least I have to admit these guys from West Berlin have been more Metal than Vex and Weird Kong together, but also Stone Cold & Crazy used to add a few crazy influences and song structures that made their "Who's your head" album pretty much difficult to like for most of us. What we got on the plus side is the fact that STC was a Speed Metal band and mostly even proved that on through the album. What makes the most of the songs "difficult to bear" are the R'n'R influences, the crazy breaks, silent parts with clean vocals. If they keep on playing the speed shit, they do remind even of early Megadeth ("Speed of life"), but ... well ... listen yourself. The band got mainly started by Rubbel, who retired actively from the Berlin Punk scene during 1988, to lock himself inside his own 4 walls and exercised guitar lessons. After finding Gary Schmalzl (guitar), they both started Stone Cold & Crazy in May ’89 with Nopper on vocals, Musch on bass and Chris on drums, and recorded 1990 a Demo tape that the Ruff & Roll label boss Stefan Groß liked alot. He signed the band and forced them to record their debut album, while Groß himself played all bass lines. Just after the sessions they found Steif to join on bass officially. Gary Schmalzl also joined Sleaze/Hard Rockers Lüde & Die Astros in 1990 and played guitar on their last albums "Denn sie wissen was sie tun" and "Die Hölle auf Rädern".Discography:
”Who’s your head” LP/CD 1991 (Ruff'n Roll)
Stoned Age
Lineup:
Fred Stieglitz (vocals)
Andy Lachner (guitar)
Clyde Schröder (bass)
Thomas Kupke (guitar)
Michael Sturm (keyboard)
Roland Buch (drums)
Band-info:
Stoned Age produced their sole album privately and it's said that just 200 copies was pressed of it. Being not 100 % Heavy Metal, the songs tend to range in a spectrum between Europe and Bonfire, somewhere in the twilight zone of melodic Hard Rock and Metal. But for a local band these guys offer quite listenable songs, that didn't need to fear their concurrence at all. The material strongly remind me of bands such as Mydra, Firefox, Vera Cruz with a shoot of the US melodic bands and seriously has to be seen in the upper league of the melodic Hard Rock bands from Germany. Therefore it's quite a shame that "Rockgasm" is a bitch to find nowaydays.
Stoned Angel
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band from Kiel, that actively was playing live around 1985/86 and also released a Demo tape during that period. Stoned Angel's sound was influenced by the late 70's Hard Rock with either a few R'n'R hints. In the late 80's some members continued as Keziah Mazon. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
Stonehange
Lineup:
Michael Hahn (vocals)
Nickpath (bass)
Dandesarc (drums)
Sven Schade (guitar)
Band-info:
A Death Metal side project of both Incubator musicians Michael Hahn and Sven Schade. Beside some Doom/Death passages that remind me slightly of Obituary or Xysma, the album has mainly got an experimental or almost progressive touch using many scene untypical elements, even Groove and Death 'n' Roll parts that made "Death is the crown of all" sounding quite unbearable, but many other groups adopted that style a bit later as well. Very unstraight sounding stuff...Discography:
"Death is the crown of all" CD 1992 (West Virginia)
Stonehedge
Lineup:
Wolfgang Karbe (vocals, guitar)
Martin Altenbeck (guitar)
Daniel Hoffmann (keyboard, vocals)
Thomas Hahn (bass)
Maik Rotthaus (drums)
Band-info:
Stonehedge was a local Heavy Rock band from Wülfrath that released a self titled Demo tape in 1992, which features 4 own produced trax whose style is ranging from bluesy Hard Rock to epic Heavy Rock, that appears quite simple at the first view, but the guitar solos are pretty much worth listening to and doesn't really fit (in terms of quality) to the common riffing of the songs itself. The faster "I don't like it" is even getting close to Metal territory, but in total Hard Rock would be the right description for these guys.Discography:
”Stonehedge” Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Stonehenge (Bobenheim)
Lineup:
Peter Kuntze (vocals)
Holger Jung (guitar)
Eckhard Koch (bass)
Christoph Becker (keyboard)
Peter Koch (drums)
Band-info:
Stonehenge from Bobenheim-Roxheim in the Mannheim area was 1987 formed by the trio Christoph Becker, Holger Jung and Peter Koch and started with playing cover versions to create a special direction, but soon changed that behaviour to focus on own material. After a long search the guys could eventually recruit Peter Kuntze for vocal duties and recorded a 3 song Demo in February/March '89 with the help of session musician Eckhard Koch on the bass guitar, who prefered to remain in his own band afterwards and wasn’t really part of Stonehenge at all. The songs on the Demo featured melodic Hard Rock and Heavy Metal with the equal use of keyboards all along. Further info is needed.Discography:
"The priestess' songs" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
Stonehenge (Marzling)
Lineup:
Peter Sieber (vocals)
Mark Schlaipfer (bass)
Peter Gesierich (guitar)
Wolfgang Beck (guitar)
Dieter Weissbach (percussion)
Martin Amm (drums)
Band-info:
Hard Rockers from Marzling, who released a MLP on the indie label OM Records in 1991. The song material was just average, even for a Hard Rock band. The guys couldn't point much, working with Blues Rock, a bit Southern Rock and the main riff of the title track and the instrumental "Touch down" in places reminds me quite a bit of old AC/DC.
Stonehenge (Troisdorf)
Lineup:
Helga Gerhards (vocals)
Holger Sträßer (guitar)
Patrick Stiepel (guitar)
Heinz Orth (bass)
Michael Raufuß (drums)
Band-info:
A female fronted Heavy Metal band from Troisdorf, near Bonn. The band around Holger Sträßer was active since 1978 and released at least 2 Demo tapes in the 80's, besides often playing live in their area. One tape was released at around 1985 and another one in 1988, when Micky Schmitt, formerly of Cutty Sark, joined the band on drums. Udo Hörsch (bass) replaced Heinz Orth sometime in 1987. Stonehenge's style was professional sounding melodic Hard Rock and Heavy Metal with vocals in the Lee Aaron and Doro Pesch vein. If you have more info please get in touch.You can listen to Stonehenge live here.
(Thanx to Rumblefist for the link)
Discography:
"Demo 1985" (selfreleased)
"Demo 1988" (selfreleased)
Stonehenge (Tübingen)
Lineup:
Torsten Quast (vocals)
Oliver Sauerbier (guitar)
Willi Baumgartner (bass)
Hubert Bubser (drums)
Band-info:
These Stonehenge from southern Germany are Tübingen Heavy Metal home-growns in the Stuttgart region, who formed during 1987 and struggled with several line up changes throughout the years. A first Demo was recorded already 1988, but then the old drummer got exchanged with Hubert Bubser in 1990. With the newly added vocalist Torsten Quast their second “Face the truth” Demo followed around 1991, leaving an average impression in the underground. Further info is needed.Discography:
"Back on the stage" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
“Face the truth” Demo 1991 (selfreleased)
Stonemade
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band that was most probably originating from the greater Bielefeld area and was active during 1987/88. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Stormbringer
Lineup:
Fabian Scheliga (bass, vocals)
Ben Scheliga (guitar)
Johnny Scheliga (drums)
Band-info:
A Witten based family business Hard Rock band that was playing a completely unspectacular sort of 70's influenced Hard Rock with R'n'Roll edge. The vocals on the flipside ballad "Woman" are completely out of tune. Even the A-side rocker "Rock'n'Roll" for 1984 sounds totally outdated, like the guys was still living in the 70's. The single is also known under the title "Rock'n'Roll".Discography:
"Stormbringer" 7"EP 1984 (selfreleased)
Störmtrooper
Lineup:
Adrian Brock (bass, vocals)
Simon Aaron Read (guitar)
Mike "Megadeth" (drums)
Band-info:
If you take a look at the cover artwork of Störmtrooper's "Head count" album, you automatically could get the idea it's just one of Ingo Nowotny's RAC bands that he supported with his labels in the late 80's/early 90's. But this (lyrically seen) Black Metal trio from Soest, that should be active since the mid 80's already, had more focussed on a raw Power Metal style that more than just once reminds me of kinda Motörhead on a Thrash trip. Honestly if Motörhead would have had developed their classic punky Speed Metal from the early 80's they should have sounded like Störmtrooper most probably in the late 80's. Nevertheless, the 3 Störmtroopers got the Metal Enterprises stigma and therefore I doubt that any Metal mag indeed gave them a real chance, but I need to add, that, just like in case of Think of Misery, "Head count" wasn't really as bad as most of us do think when the name Metal Enterprises turns up, whenalso it's not a classic either. But imo that satanic trio did the best with their limited musical possibilities and recorded a pretty listenable Motörhead-ish Speed Metal album.Discography:
”Head count” LP/CD 90 (Metal Enterprises)
Stormwind
Lineup:
Klaus Lemm (vocals)
Niko Arvanitis (guitar)
Rudy Kronenberger (bass)
Wolfgang Böhm (guitar)
Olly Kliem (drums)
Band-info:
A band from Düsseldorf, whose roots go back till 1980 when Niko Arvanitis and Rudy Kronenberger started jamming. It's still unclear if the band indeed was called Stormwind at this stage, as another source mentions Stormwind officially to be founded in January '84. That pre-version is said to have recorded a 3 track Demo in 1983. Wolfgang Böhm was previously playing in Snakebite. The guys got signed by Wishbone Records who produced 2 vinyls in pretty short time, one being the debut LP "Taken by storm" in February '85 and the "Warbringer" 12" in July the same year. Both featured pretty heavy Metal with good riffing like early Warlock and Klaus Lemm sounding like a cross of Rob Halford and Udo Dirkschneider. But just like for Warrant from the same city, the career of Stormwind was over before it begun. Warlock grabbed guitarist Niko Arvanitis and also Wolla Böhm left to join Darxon in 1986 and was later found in Universe and U.D.O. The other guys tried to keep the band going for a while but resigned in 1988. Klaus Lemm joined Darxon as well, Olli Kliem and Rudy Kronenberger formed the Metal band Energy right after the split.
Stormwitch
Lineup:
Andreas Mück (vocals)
Harald Spengler (guitar)
Stefan Kauffmann (guitar)
Jürgen Wannenwetsch (bass)
Peter Langer (drums)
Band-info:
Stormwitch from Gerstetten (near Ulm) was originally founded by Harald Spengler, Andreas Mück and Stefan Kauffmann 1979 as Lemon Sylvan. Jürgen Wannenwetsch and Peter Langer joined them a bit later and the band changed name to Stormwitch in March 1981. Wannenwetsch left in fall of 1983 and got replaced by Ronny Gleisberg. 1984 the guys visited Peter Garratoni's studio with selfrecorded songs in order to produce a Demo, but Garratoni offered them to produce an album for his label Gama Records. "Walpurgs night" was recorded live 1984 in his studio and featured quite powerfull occult touched powerful Heavy Metal in the Iron Maiden/Grave Digger vein, but with obviously better musicianship than the ladder. Gama extended their contract and Stormwitch recorded the equal "Tales of terror" album (1985), before with "Stronger than heaven" (1986) the lads created a german Power Metal milestone at the peak of their creative being, that made them entering the elite of the german Heavy Metal bands, with a mix of Running Wild and early Tyrant/Grave Digger sounds, creating a kinda dramatic Metal album, pearced with breaks and powerriffing on highest technical level. With "The beauty and the beast" 1988, Stormwitch made a little step backwards, dropping the power and went more melodic, just like on "Eye of the storm" that was recorded without long time member Ronny Gleisberg and featured Andreas Jäger on bass, who got replaced by ex-Rough Martin Albrecht in 1990 already. With the latest albums offering a more commercially influenced style, it became silent around the band, Harald Spengler quit and Wolfgang Schludi (ex-Manalishi) took his part in 1989. But he left too with Stefan Kauffmann in 1991, so the concept album "War of the wizards" had to be recorded 1992 with Damir Uzunovic (ex-Agent Orange) and Joachim Gassmann (ex-Sudden Darkness, ex-Sheer Greed, ex-Sanvoisen, ex-Letter X) on guitars. Due to the new axemen responsible for the musical line, nothing reminded of the classic Stormwitch style anymore, though the new sound was rather melodious progressive. After the heavier, but still melodic sounding Power Metal album "Shogun", recorded without Gassmann, the single musicians went their own ways in 1996, but Andreas Mück revived Stormwitch with new members in 2002 and is releasing albums starting from that year again.Discography:
"Walpurgis night" LP 1984 (Scratch)
"1. Rock-Fabrik Festival '84" Comp.-LP Tracks 1984 (Gama)
"Tales of terror" LP 1985 (Scratch)
"Heavy Metal Live in Germany Vol. I" Comp.-LP Tracks 1985 (Scratch)
"Stronger than heaven" LP 1986 (Scratch)
"The beauty and the beast" LP/CD 1988 (Scratch)
"Eye of the storm" LP/CD 1989 (Hot Blood)
"Heart of ice" 7" EP 1989 (Hot Blood)
"Magyarországon" LP/CD 1989 (T-34)
"War of the wizards" CD 1992 (Steamhammer)
"The Best of Stormwitch" CD 1992 (Polyband)
Straight
Lineup:
Band-info:
A Heavy Rock band from Wuppertal that was active during the later 80's and actively played live during that era as well. The band's sound was rather commercially influenced. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Straight
Lineup:
Jürgen Blackmore (guitar)
Band-info:
A local Hamburg Heavy Metal band that got initiated by Ritchie Blackmore's son Jürgen during late 1986. Already in 1987 he formed J.R. Blackmore's Superstition. Further info is needed.Discography:
Straight
Lineup:
Jörg Stein (vocals)
Rainer Lange (guitar)
Stefan Lange (bass)
Rüdiger Wulff (drums)
Band-info:
A local band from Karlsruhe of the mid/late 80's, who contributed with the track "Moonchild" on an underground compilation back in 1988. The guys introduced themselves mainly as a Guitar Rock band, while calling them a Blues Rock band with Hard Rock influences wouldn't be that wrong either. Further info is desired.Discography:
"Moonchild" Comp.-LP Track 1988 (Der Sampler 88 - Karlsruher Bands)
Straight Line
Lineup:
Wolfgang Schanda (vocals)
Erhard Dornreiter (guitar)
Klaus Michel (bass)
Martin Hausmann (keyboard)
Peter Ritter (drums)
Band-info:
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.Discography:
"Dreamin'/Give me a sign 7" EP 1989 (Scrabb)
Straight Shooter
Lineup:
Georg Buschmann (vocals)
Roland Haase (bass)
Günther Striepling (guitar)
Hans Plankert (keyboard)
Peter Kegler (drums)
Band-info:
Straight Shooter from Düsseldorf was formed by ex-Streetmark vocalist Georg Buschmann in the late 70's and released 5 albums on Sky Records plus numerous singles that we refuse to list here all. The guys sound was combining the classic 70's Hard Rock with AOR tunes and created a listenable sort of Pomp Rock with also progressive influences on all their albums. Friedhelm Misiejuk (ex-Prosper) replaced drummer Peter Kegler on the second album "My time - your time" already and on "Flyin' straight" Frank Kobe came for Roland Haase. Also Mark Wulf joined on guitars to support Günther Striebling, who got replaced by Peter Rabowski (ex-Sinclair) on "Rough 'n tough", but straight returned 1983 for Straight Shooter's a bit more melodic last album "5", that was just recorded by himself on guitar/bass, Buschmann on vocals and Hans Plankert on keyboards. Frank Kobe in the mid 80's returned with the band Brutus, that later became Tanis.Discography:
"Get straight" LP 1978 (Sky)
"My time - your time" LP 1980 (Sky)
"Flyin' straight" LP 1981 (Sky)
"Rough 'n tough" LP 1982 (Sky)
"5" LP 1983 (Sky)
Straight Stuff
Lineup:
Dirk Engels (vocals)
Florian Müller (guitar)
Markus Vögeler (guitar)
Michael Hülbusch (bass)
Sascha Kehren (drums)
Band-info:
A melodic Hard Rock quintet from Viersen in the greater Düsseldorf area, who released just one CD on the 1MF label and disappeared again afterwards.Discography:
"Stop the madness" CD 1993 (1MF)
Straightline
Lineup:
Volker Wilhelm
Band-info:
Melodic Speed Metal with high vocals from Riedstadt, Hessen who released a 4-song demo in 1987. If you have more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Serpent's kiss" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
Straightline
Lineup:
Andreas Vogel (guitar)
Thorsten Vollhardt (drums)
Andre Scharer (vocals)
Voller W (guitar)
Peter Daum (bass)
Band-info:
A young 5-piece from Riedstadt, Hessen, formed in 1985. The reviews of their 4-song 1987 demo tells of straight-up melodic Heavy Metal with a Scandinavian touch, though yet a bit underdeveloped. Andreas and Thorsten continued with the HM/Power-band Under Siege in the mid 90's, which later turned into Legal Hate in the 00's. More info is needed.Discography:
"Serpent's Kiss" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
Strange World
Lineup:
Jens Kleuckling (vocals)
Peter Weinold (guitar)
Frank Nekat (bass)
Steffen Grafe (drums)
Band-info:
Strange World was a band hailing from Frankfurt/Oder (ex-GDR) and existed since 1988 and decided to focuss on a classic Hard Rock style in April 1990. The guys had been more busy with writing own material and started playing live mainly after the political change during 1990/91. Frank Nekat was also playing with the band Boundless during that time. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Stranger
Lineup:
Gerd Salewski (vocals)
Wolfgang Rieger (guitar)
Wolfgang Heuter (bass)
Wolfgang Pleyer (guitar)
Thomas Imbacher (drums)
Band-info:
Since 1982 Stranger from greater Ulm area was active and shredded many musicians till the first steady line up was found with Gerd Salewski (vocals), Wolfgang Rieger (guitar), Wolfgang Heuter (bass), Wolfgang Pleyer (guitar) and Thomas Imbacher (drums). Due to their massive amount of live shows they didn't even needed a Demo to get offered a record deal by the Gama empire. "The bell" easily could be counted to the best albums released on that label, since the musical range of the band was huge. From Melodic Metal to Power/Speed like Helloween/Noisehunter or the creepy ultra heavy "Hazle the witch", these guys was playing on a different level. Thomas Imbacher already went away to join Gravestone in 1986, but Stranger found good replacement in Andi Hagmann. Unfortunately the years till 1989 when the second album "Pretty angels" was finally ready has been too silent and too much happened inside the band. Except of Wolfgang Rieger noone else was left. Ex-Mark Terry drummer Andre Kürzel was new in the band, as well as Kai Liebert (bass), Claus Zeller (guitar) and Steve Hirschbeck (vocals). The result was the total opposite to the powerful "The bell", a soft melodic Hard Rock album that was trying to realign it's songs on well known US acts like Stryper, Poison or Steelheart f.e. Stranger split up already in 1990, but several of the guys later was found in Chroming Rose again like Gerd Salewski, Wolfgang Rieger and Kai Liebert. Lots of their trax appeared on compilations, too many to post them all here.Discography:
"The bell" LP 1985 (Hot Blood)
"Heavy Hell & Metal" Comp.-CD Tracks 1988 (Imtrat)
"Pretty angels" LP/CD 1989 (Hot Blood)
Sträps
Lineup:
Crazy Daisy (vocals)
Markus Glanz (guitar)
Chris Lee Bear (bass)
Tommy Wagner (drums)
Band-info:
A Glam influenced Hair Metal outfit from Munich, that used to call their style themselves "Beach Metal" and was mainly focussed on having fun. Sträps was officially founded in February '87, but a former version of the band that already featured vocalist Crazy Daisy, was previously active, but with a completely different background. The guys recorded several inoffcial Demos, that all was used for promotional purposes only and mailed out to magazines and record companies, while the band was actively playing live on stage (many headliner shows) throughout Germany and Austria with their South Seas stage decoration. One of these Demos from early 1988, also featured a Metal version of Abba's "Gimme gimme gimme" and gained the guys some scene-internal attention. Sträps sounded quite close to all of these LA Sunset Strip Rockers and could be well worth being mentioned right beside similar german acts like Vice, Bonfire or mid 80's era Kiss. Drummer Tommy Wagner (aka Tom Ato) was also playing with Bonfire during 1987, while guitarist Markus Glanz (aka Sam Antha Fox) left Sträps around 1989 and started a solo career. After trying several candidates, the band eventually hired Achim Göres to cover the vacant guitar position. During several live shows Claudio Ghidini of the austrian AOR/Hard Rock band Fahrenheit played the keyboards and Suzi Pure was responsible for the background vocals. Spring '91, during the pre-production of their debut album with swiss producer Walter Zweifel, Sträps split up.(Thanx to Tommy Wagner, Markus Glanz and Claudia Hemmann for further info, help & material)
An old Sträps TV appearance: "Get ready"
Discography:
Stratford On Avon
Lineup:
Robert Kitmaschka (guitar, vocals)
Jürgen Schuster (guitar)
Vitus Schwägerl (bass)
Anthony Marb (keyboard)
John Litzl (drums)
Band-info:
A Hard Rock band from Meitingen in the Augsburg area, which was founded by ex-Abraxas members Vitus Schwägerl and Robert Klimaschka in February '87. Due to their extensive experiences in the Blues Rock band Abraxas, the guys right on their first band contest participation in March '88 won the first prize with their Van Halen and Scorpions inspired sound. After internal issues that splitted his previous band Cyclone, the guitarist Jürgen Schuster after Cyclone’s restructuring during December ’87 joined the band and Cyclone’s drummer Thomas Braunmüller went along a bit later on as well. Another drummer of Stratford On Avon has been Katsche Spann.Discography:
Street Fighter
Lineup:
Roland Micheli (vocals)
Uwe Rahlf (bass)
Hans Gropel (guitar)
Mario Liese (drums)
Band-info:
Roland Micheli, Uwe Rahlf, Hans Gropel and Mario Liese founded Street Fighter already 1976 in Essen/Hust and the young band won the local Dortmund "Festival der Jugend" in 1978, which opened for them the possibility to play more gigs in their area, leading into a record deal with an independent label. Streetfighter produced their debut album "Feel the noise" from July 1980 to April '81. The style of the foursome was quite NWOBHM inspired and in places pretty raw sounding, trying to leave the 70's sound behind. But that changed during the next 3 years when Dieter Dierks' Breeze Music signed the band, leading into their second album "Shoot you down". Though their sound became more modern and also melodic than the debut, they also stylistically added some commercial influences in form of pounding Hard Rockers with big refrains and in the end wasn't that german sounding anymore. On "Shoot you down" Street Fighter remind me more of dutch bands in a way. Roland Micheli appeared on the 88'er Demo of the Essen band Nero in the late 80's once again. The rest of Street Fighter vanished.Discography:
"Feel the noise" 7" EP 1981 (UP)
”Feel the noise” LP 1981 (UP)
”Shoot you down” LP 1984 (Polydor/Indisc)
"Rock City" 7" EP 1985 (Victoria)
Streetlife
Lineup:
Matthias Jasper (guitar, vocals)
Wolf Gödecke (guitar)
Dietmar Georges (bass)
Bert Droppelmann (drums)
Band-info:
A quite obscure Crossover act from Münster, that basically only deserves a marginal mention here for the spare Hard Rock influences on their independently recorded and released album from January '82 entitled "...out on the streets...". Originally Streetlife would suit more into the Guitar Rock genre as their material featured mainly a merge of guitar oriented Kraut Rock, Rock'n'Roll and the newly growing NDW movement, while occasionally those late 70's Boogie/Hard Rock influences pop up as well. Just for openminded people worth a try...(Thanx to emosteel for the recommendation)
Discography:
"...out on the streets..." LP 1982 (selfreleased)
Stretta
Lineup:
Rapha Piatkowski (vocals, guitar)
Norbert Kramarek (guitar)
Peter Teicher (bass)
Marcus Petrovic (drums)
Band-info:
Stretta was a Thrash band from Hanau, that started their career back in 1984 as Koroner. The first lifesign of Stretta was the "Into the abyss" Demo from June '87, that features raw Thrash in the vein of Kreator on "Endless pain" with vocals close to Ventor's on that album as well. The same line-up also produced the official 60 min "March Into Suspense" rehearsal/live tape one year later. On "The blue session" Demo Martin Kunz replaced Marcus Petrovic on drums and Andreas Ühlein joined as guitarist so Piatkowski fully could concentrate on vocals. But for the "Save me" Demo from 1990 Petrovic returned and Wegi took the second guitarist position. The band's style had slightly changed during these 2 years and was similar to Darkness on their first albums. The funny "Lets change guitarist and drummer game" continued once again, so that Ühlein and Kunz returned again to replace Petrovic and Wegi (Probably these guys have been the only Thrash Metal musicians in Hanau?). Rockwerk Records released the first Stretta album 1992, that was entitled "Alone in the blue", but sadly of their cool Thrash from old Demo days wasn't much left. The band's style had changed more towards modern Thrash sounds, including groove parts, clean sung vocals and got a much more technical note, leaving slightly the impression of modern Metallica influences. I don't think that it was that what real Thrash fans was longing for. Their last EP "Gofuckyourself" was available 1998, but that one really marked the end.Discography:
"Into the abyss" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"March into suspense" Reh/Live Tape 1988 (selfreleased)
"The blue session" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"Save me" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
"Alone in the blue" CD 1992 (Rockwerk)
Striker
Lineup:
Mike Fiedler (vocals)
Armin Schauß (guitar)
Wolfgang Stubenvoll (guitar)
Franz Haderer (bass)
Klaus Sebald (drums)
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from Amberg/Bavaria, that was founded in 1988 and started releasing Demo's with the beginning of the 90's. Surprisingly these guys used to perform a rather Iron Maiden and slightly Accept inspired classic Metal with good riffing, and wasn't much addicted to the usual melodic Hard Rock sound, like most of the other bavarian bands. 1994 a third Demo ("So what?") was the band's last lifesign, before they eventually disbanded 2005.Discography:
"Hard on the heels of time" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
"Down on the street" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
String Eyes
Lineup:
Thomas Rettke (vocals, drums)
Ingo Millek (guitar)
Bernd Kaufholz (guitar)
Bernhard Zimkowsky (bass)
Bernd Manthey (keyboards)
Band-info:
String Eyes was a Hard Rock band (AC/DC influenced) from Wolfsburg, that started sometime in the late 70's and recorded a self financed 7" in late 1981, which was limited to 1000 copies. Thomas Rettke, the later Steeltower vocalist, was still playing drums on the 2 tracks "Nightmare over you" and "Practice or die", but later would fully concentrate on vocals only when Jens Bauer joined as new drummer. A few months after the 7" was recorded, the guys changed name to Steeltower, but without Bernd Manthey.Discography:
"Night mare over you" 7" EP 1981 (selfreleased)
Stroker
Lineup:
Andy Timmes (vocals)
Jörg Gleba (guitar)
Bernd Nollenberg (bass)
Ulli Becker (drums)
Band-info:
The Hard Rockers Stroker from Borken/Bochum are rockin' since 1987 and published a nowadays rare indie 7" on the Confido label (a recording studio) that features strongly AC/DC influenced but unspectacular Hard Rock on "Follow me" but the B-side rocker "This love will rise again" at least spreads a good party flair and makes their single purchasable. 1991 Stroker also recorded a 5 track Demo tape at the D&S studio with new bassist Martin Balzer, that constantly continued the 7" Hard Rock style and sound and addionally adopted in places influences of the US Glam Metal scene.
Stryder
Lineup:
Siggi Zundl (guitar)
Jürgen Glauner (guitar)
Rolf Trautz (bass, vocals)
Rudi Ille (drums)
Band-info:
Stryder was an AOR band from Eisingen. The band after participating on a local newcomer festival in 1983, was chosen to contribute the track "Asbach Jack" to the sampler with bands of that festival. It took a bit till Woolfe Records produced their debut album "Herzattacke" in 1985 and the Stryder guys was combing Hard Rock with Deutsch Rock, playing a kinda mix of Crossover that I'd call AOR, that sometimes might appear harder, sometimes just Rock. Hard to find a categorie for the band, though some of the songs have been quite listenable like "Dieb in der Nacht" or "Fußball" .Discography:
"Asbach Jack" Comp.-LP Track 1983 (Radio 3 Südfunk Stuttgart Nachwuchs-Festival 1983)
"Herzattacke" LP 1985 (Woolfe)
Stryder
Lineup:
Band-info:
A local Pforzheim Hard/Southern Rock act formerly known as Zed Leppelin since the mid 80's with ZZ Top influences, who mainly performed coverversions of these kind of bands on stage, but changed name to Stryder around 1989/90 and kept on playing during at least the early 90’s. Further info is required.Discography:
Stryker
Lineup:
Olaf Niemann (vocals)
Peter Lehnen (guitar)
Thossa Büsing (keyboard)
Thomas Volz (bass)
Rainer Görgen (drums)
Band-info:
A Melodic Metal band from Bergkamen that published a Demo tape in the later 80's. The tape features 4 trax that are similar sounding to early Bonfire with in places even hints of AOR. Stryker additionally recorded more professional studio and also rehearsal material, but seems like none of these songs was published at all.(Thanx to Rumblefist for contribution)
Discography:
"Demotape" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
Stryker
Lineup:
Jürgen Brocks
Band-info:
A Heavy Metal band from the Paderborn area, that was featured 1984 with the track "Pussies and beer" on the local "Paderborn Rock" sampler. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Pussys and beer" Comp.-LP Track 1984 (Paderborn Rock)
Stryker
Lineup:
Markus Rosetta
Frank Middlehove (guitar)
Band-info:
A straight Heavy Metal band from Wuppertal, featuring the ex-Hard 'n Heart guitarist Frank Middlehove. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Strykken
Lineup:
Gerrit Schulte (vocals)
Olaf-Sven Busch (guitar)
Chris Gentchev (guitar)
Ralf Asseln (bass)
Manfred Spalka (drums, keyboard)
Band-info:
A Hard Rock/Metal band from Kiel that was around since the mid 80's and produced several Demos with the Scorpions and Cinderella being a main influence of the guys. Prior to the Demo from 1990, there should be 3 more Demos available. The tape from 1993 just contains excerpts of their selfproduced "Here comes trouble" CD from 1993, that features melodic Hard Rock/Metal with aforementioned heavier Scorpions influences and a light touch of the midpaced pounding US Glam stuff. Ex-Vitesse guitarist Ulf Glau participated on the album recordings as well. Strykken was active at least till the mid 90's and recorded 2 more albums, "The sense of expression" (1994) and "Best before end" (1996). Gerrit Schulte during 1993 additionally sung in the Power Metal band No Comment. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Demo '90" (selfreleased)
”Demo” Demo 1993 (selfreleased)
"Here comes trouble" CD 1993 (selfreleased)
STS 8 Mission
Lineup:
Xaver Drexler (vocals)
Rüdiger Blindert (guitar)
Thomas Schmitt (guitar, keyboard)
Roland Wedel (bass)
Willy Schwäbig (drums)
Band-info:
STS 8 Mission from Bonn was previously active since 1986 as Forced Entry (except of Thomas Schmitt and ex-Capital Rose vocalist Xaver Drexler), who already released an album in 1988. Rüdiger Blindert could be heard prior to Forced Entry on the Demo of a band called Red Hot. Due to legal trouble with the US band of the same name, they first changed name to The Pakk and shortly after coz of the same reason during summer '89 finally took the monicker STS 8 Mission as the final result. The lads haven't had trouble to find a label to publish their debut "They mystery of time", as the material on that album features quite excellent melodic Power Metal with driving guitars, that wasn't sounding like Helloween. Xaver Drexler's voice needs to be mentioned separately, as he was singing like a greek god, no matter what heights, he hit every note, sounding like an advanced professional version of Kai Hansen back in early Helloween days. The band got picked up after the debut by C&C Records, a sublabel of Major Records, and produced the "Slippin' into fiction" CD in 1992, that introduced new members Uli Henke (bass) and ex-Living Death drummer Rainer Schmitz. Once again STS 8 Mission delivered highly melodic Power Metal with great guitar work and twin leads. Also Xaver Drexler once again proved that he was one of the best german singers in Metal business. 1993 the guys produced the "Blind" album for japanese company Teichiku Records, that was searching for bands for their Heavy Metal sublabel Metal Mania. Rolf Sanders replaced Uli Henke on bass and Clive Borgards was sitting behind the drumkit this time. A Promotape was spread with 4 trax of the album in 1993, though the CD itself wasn't available before spring '94, but features basically the same style melodic Power Metal than on the albums prior to "Blind", just less speedy and focussing more on midpaced power riffing with almost a dark touch. But "Blind" remained the last album of this promising band, that split up sometime in the mid 90's.Discography:
"The mystery of time" LP/CD 1990 (Atom H)
"Slippin' into fiction" CD 1992 (C&C)
"Blind" Promo Tape 1993 (Teichiku)
Stuttgart
Lineup:
Calogero Rappalo (guitar)
Emil Wirth (bass)
Manfred Hirschbach (keyboard)
Werner Bohner (drums)
Band-info:
A sort of Blues Rock band with occasional Hard Rock roots, mainly 70’s influenced, which shouldn’t be much surprising since both Emil Wirth and Manfred Hirschbach already played together during late 70’s with the later Gama Records owner and southern Germany’s Heavy Metal guru Peter Garattoni in his band Peter Garattoni & Friends. The Hard Rock input we bet was mainly Calo Rappalo’s “fault”. He, after the shortlived Stuttgart disbanded quickly after the album release, joined the well known band Sinner and straight away recorded with the Sinner guys their debut “Wild ‘n’ evil” in 1982. After his time in Sinner he surfaced in Tyran’ Pace during the mid 80’s. “Airplay”, the only album of the band Stuttgart, offers a diversified mix of Blues, Hard Rock and Rock’n’Roll, making it hard to categorize in the whole. Their drummer Werner Bohner after the split reappeared with Stuttgart’s Helter Skelter, who recorded the album “Track 13” back in 1983, but disappeared as well afterwards.Discography:
“Airplay” LP 1981 (X Records)
“Cool summer breeze” Comp.-LP Track 1981 (An X-Tra For X-Perts)
Style
Lineup:
Willi Tüpprath (bass)
Celli Douven (guitar)
Karsten Schüller (guitar)
Henning Schwarzhoff (vocals)
Karsten Drexler (drums)
Band-info:
A Hard Rock band with a few Blues influences that was based in Cologne. They released a Demo tape in 1992 featuring 4 songs while "Bomb Attack" spreads a kinda Dio-ish flair. Henning Schwarzhoff gave their songs the right special note with his voice and he was a well known vocalist in the area till he tragically died in 2009 due to a heart attack. He was singing for several bands in the area incl. the Cover Rock band Savage Dream.Discography:
"Demonstration Tape" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Style, The
Lineup:
Stefan Gerdon
Band-info:
A Hard Rock band from Freimersheim featuring ex-Trance and Pegasus drummer Stefan Gerdon, active around 1985/86. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
Sub-Machine
Lineup:
Dirk Strube (vocals, bass)
Marko Lange (guitar)
Jürgen Feichtmayr (drums)
Band-info:
An early 90's Power/Thrash trio from Landshut, featuring 3 ex-Unchained Scarlett members, while also Sub-Machine's sound was close to Unchained Scarlett's. Classic Thrash Metal with Metallica edge merged with modern early 90's grungy Metal here. The band was formed in 1993, while Dirk Strube previously in the 80's already played with Munich bands Sign Of Victory, Calvary and Rotten Bitch. After the 1995er Promodemo "Horror under street", that featured 4 advance trax of the upcoming album "Horror under street" on D&S Recordings (released 1995), the guys afterwards recorded another 3 track tape entitled simply "Sub-Machine" with the songs "Naked fake", "Fuck Chirac" and "We did it", before the band eventually split up in 1997.(Thanx to Dirk Strube for the info)
Discography:
Subculture
Lineup:
Andrè Küppers (vocals)
Robert Fischer (guitar)
Thomas Pohren (guitar)
Michael Klöckner (bass)
Mike Schwinger (drums)
Band-info:
A Koblenz based modern Thrash band with Groove influences, that was active during the early 90's and featured the Royal Oak drummer Mike Schwinger. There are 2 Demos known to exist, the 93'er "Arabesque of light" and "Deep down inside" from 1994. Thomas Pohren later was member of Metal Inquisitor.Discography:
"Arabesque of light" Demo 1993 (selfreleased)
Subway
Lineup:
Pepe Wolthoff (vocals)
Bemy Bitzer (guitar)
Dany Beiersdorfer (bass)
Henry Sauter (keyboard)
Andy Weber (saxophon)
Tommy Strobel (drums)
Band-info:
A local Hard Rock/Metal band from Balingen, south of Stuttgart, that was formed in 1986 by Pepe Wolthoff (vocals), Bemy Bitzer (guitar), Dany Beiersdorfer (bass), Henry Sauter (keyboard), Andy Weber (saxophon) and Tommy Strobel (drums). Please don't get scared by the saxophone player in their line up, Subway was a just typical late 80's Melodic Metal band with commercial edge similar to Bonfire, Aidean, Vera Cruz, Mydra and other bands of the upper league. During spring '89 the guys recorded a first Demo, that opened doors for them, though not in Germany. The swiss label Pink 7 Music subsequently produced an album with the band, recorded in Switzerland and released there as well under the title "Dangerous games", while eventualy Subway played a big number of gigs to promote it in and outside of Germany. Afterwards during 1991 vocalist Pepe Wolthoff and bassist Dany Beiersdorfer had enough and got replaced by Martin Arnold and swiss vocalist Peter "Peach" Stöckli, who's been previously singing for the swiss bands Desaster and Danger. With this new line up the second album "Hold on to your dreams", again on a swiss label (Phonag), was published in 1992, offering the same melodic Hard Rock/Metal style known from the debut, produced by Fernando Garcia (Victory). While reaching the swiss charts, the album finally opened german backdoors and the new label GSE Records signed the guys and released the "Hear you cry" single. Then first Andy Weber left during 1993 and in 1995 also drummer Thomas Strobel, who both got replaced by Boris Matakovic (sax) and Björn Hodler (drums). When Peter Stöckli quit a short while later, Francis Soto took the vocals. They also recorded the albums "Taste the difference" (1994) and "Subway" (1998) and split up in Spetember 2003. The last singer of the band Francis Soto reactivated Subway during 2009 once again with different line up and another album "Lola's Themes" was released 2010 on Fastball Music.(Thanx to emosteel for the hint)
Discography:
"Dangerous games" LP/CD 1990 (Pink 7 Music)
"Hold on to your dreams" CD 1992 (Phonag)
"Hear you cry" MCD 1993 (GSE)
Suckspeed
Lineup:
Michael Bothe (bass)
Olaf Krebs (guitar)
Guido Steinchen (guitar)
Oliver Bertram (drums)
Band-info:
Suckspeed was a 1987 founded Crossover band from Hannover (featuring ex-Mottek Michael Bothe and ex-Enola Gay Guido Steinchen), that imo was more interesting for Metalheads in their early stage. Especially the selftitled Demo that Funhouse Records published and spread in 1988 features pretty cool Thrash with some Crossover influences and the Demo sounds more raw than for example their debut album "The day of light" that was also released on Fun House Records one year later. Originally the album was announced under the title "The raid" during spring '89. But nevertheless "The day of light" exactly adopts the Demo style and Suckspeed delivered some Speed Metal dominated Crossover Thrashers par excellence. That album seems to have been successful, coz the band changed to the bigger We Bite Records to release an EP with the Deep Purple cover "Stormbringer". But then something happened in 1990 or 1991 because both guitarists left and the new one (Ingo Schröder) was reponsible for a stylistical change in the band. Starting with the "Slow motion" album, Suckspeed's style got more modern by adding slow groove parts, though a few Speed Metal hints was embedded as well, but no way their sound was reminding of the entertaining early releases anymore. That whole drama was lasting for the next 3 years and affected all the other albums that was published after the "Stormbringer" 12". Personally for me the era Suckspeed ended with that vinyl. Suckspeed disbanded in 1993.Discography:
"Suckspeed" Demo 1988 (Funhouse)
"The day of light" LP/CD 1989 (Funhouse)
"Stormbringer" 7"/12" EP 1990 (We Bite)
"Slow motion" LP/CD 1991 (We Bite)
"Live 1991" Split LP/CD 1991 (with Emils & Capitol Punishment, We Bite)
"End of depression" LP/CD 1992 (We Bite)
"Unknown gender" MCD 1993 (We Bite)
Sudden Darkness
Lineup:
Mare Bery (vocals)
Jaroslav Krnac (guitar)
Martin Kramp (bass)
Volker Faust (guitar)
Udo Faust (drums)
Band-info:
Sudden Darkness was founded in summer 1985 in Lambsheim by Martin Kramp, Volker and Udo Faust. Mare Bery and Jaroslav Krnac joined a bit later and completed the first line up in middle '86. In the beginning of 1987 Andreas Neuderth replaced Udo Faust and they recorded the the first Demo "Lord Nightmare". In March that year Ueftho replaced Martin Kramp on bass and they lads started doing live gigs. A tape entitled "Livin in sin" was produced privately in 1986 as well. The band's style at this time was more Heavy/Power Metal based. Jaroslav Krnac left and a guy called Mathew joined on keyboards. Vocalist Bery left the band and the "Advanced madness" Demo was recorded in June '87 with Tom on vocals and contained the 3 trax "No tears", "Lord Nightmare" and "Satanic butcher", that featured a Metallica influenced Power Metal style with Speed Metal hints. When Tom left the band after his short intermezzo, Neuderth handled the vocals for a while till Alki was found as new vocalist. Guido Holzmann came for Ueftho on bass. With the line up Holzmann, Faust and Neuderth they recorded the "Fear of reality" Demo in early 1988 at the Zuckerfabrik Frankenthal, where on the first version that was sold for a short time Neuderth still sung all vocal lines. But when Alki joined on vocals a bit later on, the recordings was remixed with new vocal trax and Gama offered them a record deal. Unfortunately only 12 testpressings was manufactured of the "Fear of reality" LP, that wasn't offically released before 2016 on Diabolic Might Records. The band's sound on this Demo/album has completely turned into typical german Thrash'n Speed Metal that often reminded musically of Kreator's "Terrible certainty" album. Just the vocals more or less are pulling the album slightly down, because they do sound typically german as well, reminding of Vendetta's vocalist, but for Sudden Darkness' style that kind of voice just did not fit at all. After "Fear of reality" the guys only produced the "Iceflowered" Demo in 1992 with Roger Dequis on guitars, Guido Holzmann on bass, Axel Schott on vocals and Andreas Neuderth behind the drumkit, before they changed name to Economist. There are several re-releases avialable, made in the 2010's, including the vinyl edition of the "Fear of reality" album.Discography:
"Lord Nightmare" Demo 1986 (selfreleased)
"Livin in sin" Demo 1986 (selfreleased)
"Advanced madness" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"Fear of reality" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
"Fear of reality" Testpressing LP 1988 (Gama)
"Iceflowered" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Sudden Death
Lineup:
Detlef Gottmannshausen (guitar)
Frank Barz (guitar)
Michael Klöster (drums)
Arno Schamberg (bass, vocals)
Band-info:
Originally founded in West Berlin 1983 as Desaster the guys changed name to Sudden Death in autumn '84 and produced a first Demo tape in November at the Music Lab Studio that featured the trax "Sudden death" and Nightrider". Sudden Death started doing a number of live gigs and participated on band contests and even won the Berlin contest in 1986, that qualified them for the Bundesrockfestival as well, which they did not win at all, but being the only Heavy Metal band participating. The german TV channel ZDF broadcasted a 15 min special of it, but didn't even mention the winner. Instead they broadcasted live cuts and a short interview of Sudden Death. One of the songs performed ended up on the "Bundesrockfestival '86" compilation album. In April 1986 the band entered the Music Lab again to record 9 songs for promotional purposes, though Metal Enterprises was willing to produce an album, but the guys declined. 8 of the songs was released as the "All or nothing" LP, whose first privately pressed edition was limited to 1000 copies. But those got sold that quickly that their management MBP had to repress 2000 copies more. After the political change in the GDR Dan Uhden and Marcel Thiele joined Sudden Death, but nothing led to any further more releases. The band's style was typical german Heavy Metal, that due to Arno Schamberg's vocals was close to Running Wild on the more speedy trax on the album. But also Accept influences could be heard, they wasn't limited to just a special style of the genre. Detlef Gottmannshausen died at the age of 36 by a (attention!) sudden death at his workplace. The Promo tape from 1987 contains album tracks and was probably spread in order to land a record deal.Discography:
"Demo 1984" (selfreleased)
"Loaded Brain" Comp. LP Track 1987 (Bundesrockfestival 86 / Deutscher Rockpreis '86)
"Promo Tape" Promo 1987 (selfreleased)
"All or nothing" LP/CD 1987 (MBP)
"Dust in the wind" Comp.-Pic LP Track 1988 (Iron Tyrants III)
Suffocation
Lineup:
Alex Pretzer (vocals)
Bastian Herzog (drums)
Stefan Hanus (guitars)
Alfred Handke (guitars)
Johannes Agostini (bass)
Band-info:
Suffocation from Ulm started in 1987 as Morgöth and changed name to Suffocation in 1990 when they released their first Demo "Mummified thoughts". On the second tape "Festering flesh" Markus Amann (bass) replaced Agostini and with that tape they scored a co-operation with Morbid Records, but once again they had to change their name and the debut 7" "Lost in a grave" was released under the name Fleshcrawl. They haven't had much of luck with their choice of names, always picking something that another band already had chosen. However, with their choice of Death Metal the luck was bigger. Suffocation played a rather more southern Europe typical Death Metal like Unbounded Terror or Necrophiliac from Spain.Discography:
"Mummified thoughts" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
"Festering flesh" Demo 1991 (selfreleased)
Suiciety
Lineup:
Jörg Holzhauer (guitar, vocals)
Klaus Bergermann (bass)
Volker Schön (drums)
Band-info:
A Thrash Metal trio from Warendorf in North Rhine Westphalia, that formed during the late 80's and released 2 cool Demo tapes between 1990 and '91. The guys was obviously influenced by bands of the Bay Area like mainly Exodus and Testament, with vocals in the Cirith Ungol vein. Volker Schön left the band after "Badtime stories", while Andy Nahrstedt (drums) and Michael Cichoki (guitar) joined for the 3rd tape "For those who suffer" (1992). With that line up Holzhauer, Bergermann, Cichoki and Nahrstedt the lads also recorded their only album "The strategy of hate", that though featured way more modern sounding Thrash Metal with midpaced Groove parts. After Suiciety's end Holzhauer, Bergermann and Volker Schön once again found again together in the mid 90's to form a band called Nuke-O-Rama.Discography:
"Caution! Gamma Area" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
"Badtime stories" Demo 1991 (selfreleased)
"The Punisher" CD Compilation Track 1991 (Peace-Eater Vol. I)
"For those who suffer" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
"The strategy of hate" CD 1993 (Crypta Music)
Sunburn
Lineup:
Jogi Kreteck (vocals)
Deville Schober (guitar)
Buzzi Otto (bass)
Kurti Münch (drums)
Band-info:
A Sonthofen based Hard Rock band that partly also sung in german. The guys was featured with the 2 tracks "Road 266" and "Ohne Gewähr" on the local sampler Rock für Afrika in 1985. Both tracks do offer Rock'n'Roll influenced Hard Rock with either Southern Rock influences. If you got more info, please get in touch.
Sunburst
Lineup:
Michael Keuter (vocals)
Band-info:
A Hard Rock band from Hamburg that featured the later Yetih vocalist Michael Keuter. The band was active in the early 80's. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Sunburst
Lineup:
Thomas Hils (vocals, guitar)
Joe Elzer (bass)
Santo Galuzzo (keyboard)
Ludwig Mayer (drums)
Band-info:
Not to be confused with the Hamburg band Sunburst from the mid 80's, these lads was hailing from Kempten and released an independent Heavy Rock single in 1990. If you got more info, please get in touch.(Thanx to emosteel for the recommendation)
Discography:
"The price you pay" 7" EP 1990 (selfreleased)
Super Angel
Lineup:
Charles van Rijder
Harold Mac Wonderlea
Pudding B. Stanley
Band-info:
Super Angel was founded in 1978, but Stanley, van Rijder and Mac Wonderlea met already earlier in Amsterdam. Originally the guys are Dutch, but since they lived as Super Angel in Cologne, I'm tempted to list the band as a german one here too. After a few demo recordings the trio started working with a german team of producers and the result was the "Welcome to my Rock'n Roll" single 1979 that featured typical mid 70's style Glam Hard Rock. After a Split 7" with canadian band Promises and the "Roller-Skate-Rockin'" 7" 1980, Aladin Records (a label that's known for mainly german Schlager music) produced the, in the meanwhile increased to a quartet, Super Angel's debut album in 1982. The LP starts pretty powerful with Hardrocker "Ridin' on a hurricane", but then decreases in quality by using all the previous 70's glammy Hard Rock roots again. The quality goes up and down, "She's an angel" features good Hard Rock again, but that game repeats on the whole album. Basically the album is just interesting for people into the 70's Hard Rock stuff, it was released years too late for that kind of sound.Discography:
"Welcome to my Rock'n Roll" 7"EP 1979 (Crystal)
"Baby it's you/Welcome to my Rock'n Roll" Split 7" EP 1979 (with Promises, EMI)
"Roller-Skate-Rockin'" 7" EP 1980 (Strand)
”Super Angel” LP 1982 (Aladin)
Super Bad
Lineup:
Band-info:
One more of Ingo Nowotny's "All-Star-Projects", though this time no musicians are mentioned and you can bet your ass those band pictures on the back sleeve are faked, but for sure there will be his usual hired guys playing the instruments. I just wonder why this guy instead of signing underground bands, decided to produce albums of fake bands? Well, doesn't matters anyway anymore, besides a Grave Digger cover version ("Stronger than ever"), they covered hits of Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Barry Ryan and added 4 more own compositions, pretty much the same scheme like on the Simon LP, just that Super Bad was more focussed on Heavy Rock. The songs aren't utterly crap at all, but brainstorms you'll be searching in vain.
Supercargo
Lineup:
Carmen Dräger (vocals)
Thomas Heckmann (guitar)
Volker Maack (guitar)
Manfred Karger (bass)
Michael Bilgenroth (drums)
Band-info:
A classic female fronted Hard Rock band of the mid 80's originating from the wider Hamburg/Bremen area. Their independently released single "The famous theme" was recorded in Hollenstedt (south of Hamburg) back in October '84 and features a very solid A side, rocking in typical AC/DC manner with Boogie edge and pretty good vocals. The flipside "Never more" got a more melodic touch and sounds slightly softer. If you got more info of this local band, please get in touch.(Thanx to emosteel for the recommendation)
Discography:
"The famous theme" 7" EP 1984 (Supersongs)
Superior (Grebenstein)
Lineup:
Holger Van Geldern (vocals)
Frank Friedmann (guitar)
Matthias Van Geldern (guitar, bass)
Sven Herwig (drums)
Band-info:
This is the lesser known band with the name Superior, that was originating from Grebenstein, north of Kassel and has been active at around the same time since 1986 like the other band from Kaiserslautern. Despite they didn't make it back in the day, their sound wasn't less interesting than the Kaiserlautern outfit. Technically experienced Speed/Thrash with Power Metal influences was their business, and business was good, to say with Dave Mustaine's own words. The lads reminded occasionally slightly of swiss Carrion/Darkness, but with a more melodic type of vocals, nevertheless they indeed had the skills to rise up into the upper league of the german Thrash bands, but failed. After the recording of the demo, Frank Friedmann left and Daniel Facca joined on guitar and Bernd Schnell on bass. This line-up also recorded a semi-official 3-track rehearsal in August 1988. Sven Herwig joined the bigger Holy Moses in 1992.Discography:
"Inevitable victory - escapable end" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
Superior (Kaiserslautern)
Lineup:
Michael Tangermann (vocals)
Jürgen Walzer (guitar)
Michael Müller (guitar)
Peter Süss (bass)
Michael Bellum (drums)
Band-info:
Michael Müller was previously playing in the Kaiserslautern Metal band Asgard and there might be even the possibility that the 1987 formed Superior was post-Asgard, as one of Asgard's tracks ("Viking's fall") was part of the setlists at early Superior gigs. Since there are 2 sources saying different things about Superior's day of creation, we are willing to give both stories a try. First info we found was from Metal Hammer mag, saying the band formed late 1987, but another source mentioned that Superior was formed by members of the bands Chariot and Superior in 1987, while both bands already played together at a local Kaiserslautern festival in early 1987. The same source also said that Superior was active since 1984, which is hardly to believe as Michael Müller was member of Asgard during that time. We are almost convinced the story looks like that members of Chariot and Asgard formed Superior during indeed late 1987, after Chariot and Asgard played at that mentioned festival early '87. If there's someone out there who could bring light into the dark, please drop us a line. However, the band could play on stage with Craaft, Bon Jovi and Lita Ford at a benefit gig for the victims of the Rammstein disaster during 1988, that gave the band the opportunity to play in front of the larger audience. Next important step was the production of their excellent debut Demo "Moral alliance", that was professionally recorded at 32 tracks during 1989 and gained the band overwhelming critics, connected with pretty neat cassette sales. If you listen closely to the songs you will agree, that the level of their songs was higher than f.e. bands with recent albums on the market back in the day. Melodic Power Metal like Crimson Glory paired with Helloween-ish Speed Metal, while especially Michael Tangermann could be called the imaginary (voice) twin brother of Michael Kiske. Why the band failed to get signed after this showpiece of german Power Metal is unreproducible, but with "Bright as night" the lads tried again in 1990 with new bassist Martin Reichhart, though with more commercial edge, but once again no album deal was in sight, so the classic line up split up after that tape. Just Michael Tangermann, Michael Müller and Martin Reichart remained of the old crew and Thomas Meyer (drums), Bernd Basmer (guitar), Jan-Marco Becker (keyboard) was added to introduce the new Superior on their 3rd Demo "Timeshift" from 1992. The material though had changed into slightly modern sounding Progressive Metal and the guys released their long expected debut "Behind" indenpendently finally in 1995. "Ultima Ratio" (2002) and "Ultra - Live" (2004) followed later as well before the band split up in 2007. The "Moral alliance" Demo in the meanwhile got it's vinyl/CD fame finally in 2014, when Alone Records and Divebomb Records re-released this outstanding recording.Discography:
"Moral alliance" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"Bright as night" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
"Timeshift" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Superstition
Lineup:
Michael Bormann (vocals)
Jürgen Blackmore (guitar)
Malte Rathke (keyboard)
Band-info:
A local Hamburg Hard Rock/Metal band that got initiated by Ritchie Blackmore's son Jürgen during 1987, after he disbanded his former band Straight. The band was also known as J.R. Blackmore's Superstition. Michael Bormann (ex-Bonfire/Jaded Heart) joined the band late 1990, who eventually got renamed to J.R. Blackmore Group and recorded 1990 the album "Still holding on", that was published independently, featuring a very catchy sort of american melodic Hard Rock in the vein of heavier Heart and especially coz of Bormann's voice reminded alot of Bon Jovi (but heavier of corpse). Blackmore fed up with the music business disbanded the band in 1994.Discography:
Supremacy
Lineup:
Cornelia Wollek (vocals)
Torsten Boese (bass)
Ulf Klingner (guitar)
Ilja Funke (drums)
Band-info:
After the former Power Metal and later Thrash band Powerage from Rathenow (ex-GDR), a bit east of Berlin, had abruptly found an end in the middle of 1990, their female vocalist Conny Wollek and guitarist Ulf Klinger decided to form another band, but much heavier and rather Death Metal influenced. They found new members for this very aim in Torsten Boese (bass) and drummer Ilja Funke and strictly began to record songs for their first selftitled Demo still in the fall of 1990, yet finished to the whole eventually in early 1991. In contrary to the rather thrashy Powerage material, Supremacy took influences from bands like Death and Benediction to shape an at that time modern Death/Thrash driven sound, either following their intention up to the second output in form of “Together in the death”, recorded right one year later. Torsten Boese then in between until Supremacy’s 3rd and last Demo “Aggressional tendencies” was released in March ’94, quit or was exchanged with Lars Eggert respectively, and the band either involved a second guitarist, Alvar Schulze. The fivepiece still lasted till 1996, when the musicians in the end was scattered by the wind.Discography:
“Supremacy” Demo 1991 (selfreleased)
“Together in the death” Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Surcharge
Lineup:
Ingo Lahr
Band-info:
A "Thrash & Fun Metal project" originating from Leverkusen, with two Demo tapes released between spring '88 (first one) and 1990 (second tape). On the second 9 song Demo Surcharge moved into the "aggressive Power Metal" corner, as the guys labeled themselves. The band seemed to have been connected with the band Agony Curse. Both bands possibly shared certain members. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Surgeon
Lineup:
Frank Graffstedt (guitar, vocals)
Markus Boehm (guitar)
Peter Damm (bass)
Jörg Lassek (drums)
Band-info:
Power Metallers from Dorsten, featuring the ex-Xxaron bassist Peter Damm. The band started during the first half of the 80's in 1983 and published 2 Demos during 1988 and 1989, that delivered a great brand of progressive Power Metal with Thrash influences. After "See it work" Peter Damm got replaced by Marcel Willnat (ex-Venator) and released their only album "The sign of ending grace" in 1991. Despite the early passion for a much more thrashy sound, the Surgeon guys returned to a rather classic german Heavy/Power Metal style on the CD, slightly Running Wild inspired. Surgeon split up around 1992/93.Discography:
"Ite ad Infernos" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
"See it work" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"The sign of ending grace" CD 1991 (Sko Music)
Surgery
Lineup:
Oliver Naegler
Band-info:
A young (average age 16) Metal band from Bensheim, south Hessen that was actively playing gigs during 1988. Some rehearsals were made and circulated and reviews have described them as 'a kind of progressive Speed Metal', but no studio recordings are known. Last lifesign was them advertising for a rhythm guitarist, so it might have been a short-time affair. On the other hand, Oliver Naegler did turn up in Bensheim progressive thrashers Access Denied who released a mini-CD in 1999, so it's entirely possible this was an early incarnation of this band. If you have more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Surprises
Lineup:
Thomas Wellnowksi (vocals, guitar)
Hans Joachim Müller (guitar)
Walter Philippi (guitar)
Dieter Weber (bass)
Sven Thiedecke (keyboard)
Stefan Reinicke (drums)
Band-info:
A Melodic Rock band from Quierschied/Saarbrücken, that after a first single on BEE Records recorded their debut album 1986 "Together we are strong" for Mombi Records, but it wasn't released before 1987. Both vinyls featured that commercial sort of pompish Melodic Rock/AOR (like Starship f.e.), having too many poppy keyboards merged with their Rock sound to produce radio compatible material. There are songs featured as well that I'd rate quite listenable, and on creative base these guys indeed proved that Surprises was able to easily keep the international standards, but imo I'd say the Hard Rock songs really fit them better. Unfortunately Surprises, on their second album "Longing for the daylight", went the other way, dived even deeper into commercial depths and delivered, whenalso the vocal performance was top notch, just plain Melodic Rock.Discography:
"This time I'm sure" 7" EP 1986 (BEE)
"Together we are strong" LP 1987 (Mombi)
"Longing for the daylight" LP/CD 1989 (Musicolor)
"Pierre" 7" EP 1989 (Musicolor)
Survival
Lineup:
Rainer (keyboard, vocals)
Dittmar Clar (guitar)
Manfred Lobuscher (guitar)
Alfred (bass)
Ingo (drums)
Band-info:
Another unknown Prog Rock/AOR band from Seeheim, south of Darmstadt, that firmed under the KJS Records label. Means their sole 7" was privately produced and KJS Records pressed the vinyls for the band. The single isn't that uninteresting, despite the Prog Rock touch. Especially the track "Motion" develops a quite energetic feeling, offering that typical AOR-ish Hard Rock (also called Arena Rock in the States) of the early 80's and neither the rather proggish "Salvation army" on the flipside hides certain Hard Rock influences. We do not have any info of the band itself though.Discography:
"Survival" 7" EP 1983 (KJS)
Suspicious Insanity
Lineup:
Band-info:
Most probably a Thrash band from the Frankfurt/Main area that was active in the fall of the 80's. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
Suzan
Lineup:
Band-info:
Most probably a Hard Rock band, that was originating from the Saarbrücken/Mannheim area and actively played live during 1991. If you got further info, please get in touch.Discography:
Sven Horleman
Lineup:
Sven Horlemann (guitars, bass, drum programming)
Band-info:
Sven Horlemann (he added a second "n" later) from Ettlingen is active still today, releasing CD's with his instrumental music combining Rock and Metal tunes. For us it's mainly his Demo tape that qualifies him to be part here, as "Into the Atmosphere" features some fine instrumental Power/Speed Metal just the way Adamantine used to play and both bands suffered from just one fact, they did not add vocals to their songs. Wouldn't say Horlemann's creations was archetypical german sounding, they surely had a few german influences in the speed parts but overall he did his own thing, and he did it very well. I just miss the vocals...Discography:
“Into the Atmosphere“ Demo 1987 (Selfreleased)
Swamp
Lineup:
Mark Huber (vocals)
Stefan Kloha
Band-info:
A local Heavy Metal band from Eschenbach/Bavaria, northeast of Nuremberg, who started in spring 1985 and already had produced an unknown, only locally spread Demo prior to the 30 min, 6 track Demo tape "Take it for granted" from summer of 1988, featuring mid-league, mid-tempo HM with AC/DC style vocals, that the Rock Hard Mag labeled as "straight, unpolished Accept Metal". Early 1990 the lads recorded another tape with the promising title "Black mass", produced by Inline Music. The 4 songs according to the band's own info offered "merciless Heavy Metal with sawing riffs", while the Demo was two-faced. The A-side features pretty hard hitting Heavy/Power Metal, while on the other side Swamp almost drifted away into glammy Metal. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Take it for granted" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
"Black mass" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
Sweet Cheater
Lineup:
Björn Bargsteen (vocals)
Manfred Dubbert (guitar)
Olaf Rodeck (bass)
Michael Sebastian (guitar)
Sascha Trödel (drums)
Band-info:
Sweet Cheater from Bremen imo belong to the highly underrated german bands. If you hear people talking about german Power Metal, you will always see the same names falling, but you hardly will see Sweet Cheater among these, though the guys has been active since already 1983, founded by Manfred Dubbert and Alex Zazzo (drums), and released a pretty respectable Demo in 1985 (B. B. Beasty on drums), that featured a different sort of german Power Metal, without the usual Running Wild, Accept, Helloween or Tyrant influences. Their first bassist was Olaf Rodeck, who left the band in May '85, but got replaced by Andy M. Jones. These guys right from the start was cooking their own soup. Some of the guys was using still synonyms like Miki Virgin (Michael Sebastian), Manny Meccyca (Manfred Dubbert) or B.B. Beasty. The dutch label Flametrader recognized the class of the Cheaters and immediately released the "Immortal instant" LP, that was recorded in April '86 with Alex Zazzo (Sascha Trödel) on drums. Like expected and wrapped in great production "Immortal instant" featured upper league Speed Metal in perfection that could be compared to the first Angel Dust album, just with much better vocals and on higher level. Unfortunately the band split up right after the LP, so Zazzo and Dubbert formed the softer acting Secrecy in 1987.
Sweet Killer
Lineup:
Vincent Beck (vocals)
Adam Lomania (bass, guitar)
Ireneusz Loth (drums)
Chris Blashak (guitar)
Band-info:
A Hard Rock band that I couldn't find much info about. As far as it seems the band was from Germany, but musicians should be from Poland, Germany and the USA. The album itself was recorded in Poland. Interestingly the same album was released in the same year by West Virginia as well but as "The chasm" and the band was called Vincent Beck Group. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
"Woman for sale" CD 1992 (Toxo TCA)
Sweet Leaf
Lineup:
Thorsten Nestroy
Band-info:
A band from Bad Laer, in the Münster/Bielefeld/Osnabrück triangle, who according to their own words played a "freaky Hard Rock" on their 24 min Demo, recorded mid 1992. An independent source mentions the Sweet Leaf's sound to be dirty, basic and true classic Hard Rock. Further info is needed.Discography:
"You got me" Demo 1992 (selfreleased)
Sweet Lucy
Lineup:
Matthias Stengel (vocals, guitar)
Pius Lieb (vocals, bass)
Klaus Martin (keyboard)
Wolfgang Grießer (drums)
Band-info:
An AOR band with members being from Bamberg and Nuremberg, that released an album on the Pirol label. Musically Sweet Lucy acted quite poppy, though there are several Hard Rock influences featured as well, but basically we could call them an heavier Rock band. For my taste there are too many keyboard parts that diluted the whole album.Discography:
"The way to the future" LP 1988 (Pirol)
Sweet Pain
Lineup:
Michael Hampe (vocals)
Michael Neubauer (guitar)
Steven Hänisch (guitar)
Ralf Birken (bass)
Christian Gäbert (drums)
Band-info:
Obscure local Hannover Hard Rock/Metal act from Hemmingen/Devese who surprise with a widely unknown private pressing that was published on the Rockwerk label in 1991. The guys felt inspired by acts like AC/DC, Thin Lizzy and Judas Priest, but that doesn't reflect in their music at all. The 5 track EP features well played Heavy Rock and either delivers with "Res-Q-me" and "Love is like a gypsy" true Melodic Metal numbers. Sweet Pain afterwards continued their business and resurfaced in the mid 90's with a different line up (Animal Setter - drums, Steven Hänisch - guitar, Schenker - guitar, Franky - vocals, Marzo - bass) and two more CD's, namely "Sick and thirsty" (1996) and "If licks could kill" (1997), before 2016 the so far last release "Thieves of Rock" of the band appeared. Further info could be useful.Discography:
"...first take and done" MLP 1991 (Rockwerk)
Sweethard
Lineup:
Mike Liefold (vocals)
Henrik Wolter (guitar)
Eppi Schostock (guitar)
Golly M. Golla (bass)
Chris May (drums)
Band-info:
A shortlived Metal band from Hannover lasting just for a short period in 1985-'86, but at least got the opportunity to record an album. Henrik Wolter was playing lead guitar in Sweethard after he quit Talon and the band adopted a quite british connected post-NWOBHM style like f.e. Excalibur or Idol Rich used to play on their debuts, that got crowned by an extremely powerful sound. Seems like the "Sweethard" LP is a kinda underrated album, but imo it belongs to the best on that label. After the band disbanded, Wolter joined Viva for their last attempt.
Swiftwater
Lineup:
Peter Stoll (vocals)
Stefan Sailer (guitar)
Martin Baur (guitar)
Band-info:
A shortlived Metal band from Grafenberg, near Tübingen a bit south of Stuttgart, active in the late 80’s. They only recorded a Demo with the title "Kingdom of the death" in March ’89 and then when Stefan Sailer left the band around 1990, the remaining guys changed name to Diabolic Force. Further info is needed.Discography:
"Kingdom of the death" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
Syntax
Lineup:
Micha (guitar)
Stefan (bass)
Carola Wonke (drums)
Band-info:
A Hard Rock/Metal band from West Berlin, active during the early mid 80's, that most probably split up during 1985, coz Micha, Stefan and Carola Wonke formed the band Rough Angel in summer '85. If you have more info please get in touch.Discography:
Syntra
Lineup:
Michael Siebert (vocals)
Horst Stabenow (guitar)
Hakky Kommel (guitar)
Rainer Baudsus (bass)
Ulli Köllner (keyboard)
Alex Frick (drums)
Band-info:
This Bochum/Witten band started out as Split Brain in the mid 80's, then changed their name to Magic Power for a few years and by the end of the decade became Syntra. Thank goat Ingo Nowotny showed mercy for and published their selfrecorded album, that was fully recorded and produced at their guitarist Horst Stabenow's own studio. Stabenow isn't any unknown in the german music business, he's been playing with Faithful Breath since the early 70's. Rainer Baudsus came from Chris Boltendahl's Hawaii. Syntra didn't last long after the album's release, but nevertheless it features cool Heavy Metal, that got everything a Metal album needs. From melodic to powerful speedy passages, Syntra was swinging the axe and didn't show any mercy at all. Headbanger stuff...Discography:
Syracuse
Lineup:
Andreas Stoller
Thomas Stoller
Band-info:
A local Hard'n'Heavy band from the Düsseldorf area, that was actively playing live gigs during 1988/89 and either had an own Demo tape available in 1988. If you got more info, please get in touch.Discography:
System Decay
Lineup:
Claudia Jantos (vocals)
Christoph Pevec (bass)
Claude (drums, keyboard)
Goetz Adler (guitar)
Teddy (guitar)
Band-info:
System Decay was a quite strange sounding (I'd say) Metal band, because according to the Mischmasch that they published on their releases it's pretty hard to put this band into a special drawer. What's still more annoying are the female out of tune vocals, and I pretty much wonder if everyone in that band has been deaf or something? The lads was hailing from Freiburg, founded 1988. Christoph Pevec was previously active in the Crossover act Scarecrow. Their sound combined everything from Doom, to Power Metal, even thrashy tunes, but mainly the Progressive Metal genre would be the most fitting pond to throw System Decay's "music" in. A pretty strange brew for sure...Discography:
"Decay & descent" Demo 1989 (selfreleased)
"Inbetween all times" Demo 1990 (selfreleased)
"Human" Comp.-LP Track 1990 (The Best Of German Metal Newcomer)
"Fear of" 7" EP 1991 (Flight 13)
Systematic Marsmurder
Lineup:
Die Arschnase (vocals)
XXX (bass)
N.T. (drums)
The Posiforce (guitar)
Band-info:
Originally Systematic Marsmurder started as Systematic Massmurder 1987 in Osnabrück and after 2 Demos and diverse compilation appearances changed name in about 1989. Stylistically the guys also turned from the early days more Crossover style Hardcore/Thrash/whatever into first a strange sort of Hardcore/Grindcore on their "Nachgeburtgemahlt" 7" from 1990 and from that point adopted more Thrash influences, starting already on the "See the nun under the poison mask!" single and fully celebrating it excessively on their only album "Neuroziel", that was released on Disgraceland Records in 1992 as vinyl only. The lads right from the start had a sick taste, not just in music, but also their lyrics and songtitles was falling out the usual scheme. On "Neuroziel" their morbid material at least appears the most listenable, and SM showed that they was able to write actually songs. Dunno if progressive Thrash would be the right term, but in a way the songstructures appear quite complicated with lotsa breaks, a bit like Malhavoc on their "Shrine" session, but totally different also, mixing Thrash and Death Metal influences. If anyone wants to try Systematic Marsmurder, then "Neuroziel" would be the best choice for sure.Discography:
"Nachgeburtgemahlt" 7" EP 1990 (Shithouse)
"See the nun under the poison mask!" 7" EP 1991 (Disgraceland)
"Neuroziel" LP 1992 (Disgraceland)
Systematic Massmurder
Lineup:
Die Arschnase (vocals)
XXX (bass)
N.T. (drums)
The Posiforce (guitar)
Band-info:
Systematic Massmurder was a Crossover band from Osnabrück who started in 1987 and released their first Demo the same year, which features a sort of Hardcore mixed with Thrash, though musicwise a classic Hardcore band these guys haven't been at all. After the "Nazi Goreng" Demo they got featured on several compilations, including the local Osnabrück Punk/HC vinyl sampler "Sämpla City Os". Due to controversities coz of their name they changed it to Systematic Marsmurder in 1989 and recorded 2 more singles plus an album.Discography:
"Systematic Massmurder" Demo 1987 (selfreleased)
"Sämpla City Os" Comp.-LP Tracks 1988 (Durchbruch)
"Nazi Goreng" Demo 1988 (selfreleased)
"Break silence" Comp.-Tape Track 1988 (Speed Air Play 01-12-1988)
"Free" Comp.-Tape Track 1989 (Hardcore Hour - 5th. Anniversary Farewell Issue)
"Time is running out!" Comp.-Tape Tracks 1989 (no Label)
No Corroseum-feature would be complete without some proper sampler CDRs!
Straight from Prowler's personal archive we present thee...
download ~Volume West~
download ~Volume East~
(For more obscure German goodies, check out "Teutonic Evasion", the German edition of the Veterans Of The Various-Wars samplers...)
Straight from Prowler's personal archive we present thee...
download ~Volume West~
download ~Volume East~
(For more obscure German goodies, check out "Teutonic Evasion", the German edition of the Veterans Of The Various-Wars samplers...)
Keep exploring the olde German Metal scene on these other sections of The Corroseum:
