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W.B.I. stands for Wismars Bart Inferno and was an extreme Noisecore act from northern Germany. The band was actually formed in Wismar (ex-GDR), but adresses printed on their later releases mentioned first Flensburg and later Hamburg. Guitarist Tarri previously had a band called Pentagramm. They recorded some Demos and Split EP's with Necrophiliacs (with members of W.B.I.), Meat Shits and the Cripple Bastards before their debut MLP was recorded in 1992 and released 1993 on Rödel Records/Schnauf Records. Stylistically W.B.I. pretty much sounded like Napalm Death on "From enslavement to obliteration" with even some Death Metal hints on the later releases. The title on "Arschbombe des Monats" was refering to the Rock Hard Magazine, that each month nominated the worst release for the title "Assbomb of the month". Guess they knew themselves they wouldn't make it into the top ten with their noise...

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

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A shortlived Hard Rock act from Augsburg, that was active during the late 70's from 1976-78, who had their personal highlight 1977 as opening act for the Scorpions. Helmut Treichel later replaced Erwin Jänsch. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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A local Metal band from Fulda, that formed during 1992 and featured Frank Kempf of Rawhead on bass. The guys recorded their first Demo "Eyes of war" right in 1992 and later exchanged Chris Kehl and Frank Kempf against Martin Schaffrath (guitar, vocals) and Volker Rössler (bass, vocals). Both also appeared on War 'n Pain's only album "Nothing left to die for" from 1997, released on Rockwerk Records.
(Thanx to Andy Süss for the info)

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Wardance originally started their career as Destroyer back in autumn '86 in Herxheim. After just 6 months of rehearsing they already played their first live show. And a countless number of live gigs later and fans asking for Demo's of the band, Destroyer decided to enter a studio September '88 in order to produce their first Demo. Markus Wawersich had replaced Thomas Glaser on bass in 1988. At the same time they also changed the band's name to Wardance as they wasn't that happy with Destroyer. When they heard the result of the session, the idea of a Demo was dropped and instead they pressed it on a vinyl entitled "Crucifixion" that was available in November '88. No Remorse Records got interested in the troop and sent them into a studio again in 1989 to record the fullenght "Heaven is for sale". They consequently continued their Speed Metal mission like shown on the debut, but also on "Heaven is for sale" the weak point of the band was Sandra Schumacher's thin voice. Musically itself Wardance could be put in the upper standard drawer, playing a straight forward Speed/Thrash to the bone with slightly melodic touch, comparable to early Angel Dust. The band for the first time split up in 1991 when they was about to record their second album due to musical differences. But Sandra Schumacher, Markus Wawersich and Stefan Humbert reformed Wardance with Karsten Schulz (guitar) and Michael Leiner (bass) and recorded a last Demo in September '95 called "Dance to the beat of life with the spirit of youth" but due to a long lasting lawsuit with the production company it was never officially released and the band split up for good in 1996.

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Warlock originally started as Beast in Düsseldorf 1981, with founding members Doro Pesch (vocals), Rudy Graf (guitar), Peter Szigeti (guitar), Michael Bastian (drums) and Thomas Studier (bass), but the latter 2 left in 1983 already before they recorded the first Warlock Demo. The band was renamed to Warlock in September 1982. Frank Rittel (bass) and Michael Eurich (drums) joined and with them both the Demo was recorded, that was the starting shot for Doro Pesch's big career in the Metal business. The Corroseum honestly doesn't think it's neccessary to introduce this well known Metal legend to any of our readers.

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Though I'm not sure if this "band" Warlock (later called Jon Symon's Warlock) was indeed a real band or just a project, we have to add it to the database neverthless because it clearly belongs to the Hard Rock spectrum. Jon Symon was a natural born britishman who came to Germany within the 60's and stayed here in Hannover. In the early 70's he was on stage as a one-man-show and either released several singles (which are not of interest here). 1978 he started working on the album "Warlock - Memories of a white magician" with Klaus Peter Matziol (bass), Eloy member Detlev Schmidtchen (keyboard), Epitaph drummer Jim McGillivray and Hajo Hoffmann (violin). In the early 80's Symon and the director of the Hannover ballet ensemble met each other and started working on two Rock ballets which for two albums was produced either. On the first one "Warlock" from 1983, Symon got supported by Charly Maucher (bass), ex-Mountain Ash Detlef Klamann (guitar), ex-Jane Werner Nadolny (synthesizer) and Peter Panka (drums). For "Lady Macbeth" ex-Mountain Ash Eckhard Wahlmann (keyboard) replaced Werner Nadolny and Bernd Klamann (drums) joined for Peter Panka. Due to both albums are more or less Rock ballet soundtracks, the musical width is different, but songs like "Eye of the witch", "Forever and a day" or "Banquet" will catch every epic Hard and Prog Rock fan's heart, as these are prime examples of how medieval pompish Hard Rock must sound like. For openminded guys worth a try...

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A Heavy Metal band originating from the Heidelberg/Mannheim/Ludwigshafen area, that was actively playing live during 1988/89. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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A Power/Speed Metal band from Schortens active since mid '85, that got already the chance to contribute a track of their debut Demo (July '86) to the "Teutonic Invasion" sampler in 1987. Originally Willi Pauer was the first singer but he left the band soon to get replaced by Ingmar Viertel in January '86. The same year they recorded another Demo "No chance for the weak" that either didn't change anything for them though Warnyng's style and sound was exactly what Metal fans wanted to hear, the sheer power that electric guitars and doublebass drumming was able to deliver. Imagine Accept would write another "Fast as a shark" and then another song of the same caliber. That was what Warnyng's sound was made of. A shame they couldn't record an album. Summer '88 Holger Kullik left the band and Rüdiger von Scheven (ex-Voluntary) joined on guitar, but the end of Warnyng was just a question of time. Ingmar Viertel subsequently joined Salem's Lot and recorded a Demo with them.

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A Hamburg based Power/Thrash band that more and more drifted into the Hardcore business with each album. The band was formed in 1991 by ex-Bleedfort, Jesse Hoyah and Rat Salad members and released a first Demo right the same year. West Virginia Records signed them straight away and "When war begins..." was available in 1992, followed by "Massive", the second album done by a completely new band, this time on Steamhammer Records. On all of the outputs you can hear their development from the slower Power/Thrash to almost Hardcore sound on "Massive". The band right from the start picked up that new "modern Thrash" style that bands like Pantera developed in the early 90's and could be compared to early 90's Metallica meets Biohazard, with especially the vocals being totally Hardcore sounding. The band kept on releasing albums till '98 and disbanded while several members joined Sabina Classen's Temple of the Absurd.

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Warrant from Düsseldorf started 1983 as foursome, but autumn '84 the original vocalist got fired and Jörg Juraschek handled vocals besides the bass guitar too. A Metal Hammer info also mentioned Randy Tomlin being drummer in the band, but he joined Metal Sword before Warrant recorded something. The guys was rehearsing in the same building like Warlock and though the band got pretty good feedback from the Metal press right with their first effort, the "First strike" MLP in early '85, but in the end after releasing the "The enforcer" album with additional guitarist Oliver May just a few months later, the chapter Warrant was already closed. But as we all do know, it's better to smell success at least for a short period, than never at all. Warrant's style adopted the quite bonecrushing typically german sounding Power/Speed Metal that's getting a hell of love by many people and even though the debut already offered convincing material, with "The enforcer" the lads could even top that, combining early Running Wild-ish alike midpaced bangers with speed attacks and who knows what could have happened with them in the german scene if they wouldn't have split up that early. In May '86 Juraschek shortly returned live on stage with completely new line up - Oliver May (guitar), Frank Hellenbroich (bass), Uwe Deges (drums) - and announced that they are actuallly about to prepare the second album, but seems those plans got cancelled quickly after. Former members Wieners and Klein formed the much softer acting Monroxe, while Juraschek revived Warrant in the late 90's with new musicians.

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A Hard Rock/Metal trio from Mömbris founded by the brothers Stefan and Ulrich Reichenbecher in 1979 and being active till 1983 when they changed name to Avalanche Danger. There are no recordings of this band confirmed yet.

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A melodic Heavy Metal band from Nuremberg active since 1985 that released just a Demo in 1986 and a nowadays really rare MLP with 4 trax featuring quite typical german Heavy Metal with nice powerful guitar work but sadly a pretty childish sounding vocalist. If you like the mid 80's pounding Mad Max stuff then you could try them blindly. I don't even wanna imagine how these songs would sound with a real vocalist. Tommy Bauer in the 2000's joined Domain and even the aforementioned Mad Max.

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A Power Metal band with in places melodic touch from Eislingen/Stuttgart that released 2 Demos and disbanded in 1992. For 1990 their sound was quite "modern", even adding a few groovy parts beside the mainly early Gammaray-ish tunes or influences of Metal Church, that must be a "fault" of Roland Seidel's voice. On the second Demo their sound went more into the US Metal direction plus the Helloween-ish ripper "Deceide your destiny". Both Demos are available on a CD made by Iron Glory in 2002 called "Warriors of the wasteland". Klaus Sperling later played with Primal Fear, Freedom Call and Sinner while most of the other guys formed Kashmyr.

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A cover band from Gelsenkirchen that released a private 12" with only Deep Purple and Uriah Heep song excerpts mixed into a program on both sides, featuring hits like "Smoke on the water", "Easy livin'", "Black night" or "Woman from Tokyo". Dunno who really needed this but it's done quite in a good way. There is no year mentioned on the record but since they dedicated this EP to the deceased David Byron (and he died in 1985) it must have been released in 1985 or later. I thought I've seen it's from 1985 somewhere but hey, even gods could fail...

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Tempest from Schweimke in northern Germany emerged from another local band called Waterproof. Basically Waterproof was just the successor of the band Baracuda, that Thorsten Dierks (vocals) and Mathias Weißbrod (guitar) brought up into being in 1982 together with some friends, but none of them except of Weißbrod knew how to play any instruments. Most of the guys for that reason lost interest quickly, while Dierks and Weißbrod hooked up with local beerdrinker Ingolf Otte, who was willing to learn playing drums and this way created the band Waterproof. In late December 1982 the wild bunch decided to do first recordings, so Thorsten Dierks asked his brother Stefan to handle the bass on that session, who would become a steady member of the band, that 1983 changed name to Tempest.

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Despite the quite Metal fooling artwork, this unknown trio called Waving Tan, prefered a rather melodic sort of Hard Rock, though really straight forward rocking, with AOR-ish hints. Guess the keyboards hindered these guys to enter Metal territory in the end. Despite those, these fashion interested (the single was sponsored by a fashion boutique) rockheads sounded quite convincing after all. Both songs, especially the heavier “The bill", know to attract fans of the melodic faction! No additional info could sadly be found on the 7" at all.

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A local Augsburg Heavy Metal troop, that back in 1984 when the band formed, was rated Augsburg's heaviest Rock band ever. Achim Zwirner was ex-Request/Meridias and formed Waxx with the 2,08 m tall drummer Alwin Rainer, who was previously member of the local Hard Rock band Grim Reaper and rockers Knüppelhart. A Demo tape was recorded during late 1984 too. According to certain newspaper features Waxx' sound was pure Heavy Metal with either complicated breaks and arrangements, driven by twin lead duels. During summer '85 the band played their last gigs, and Alwin Rainer afterwards joined Manalishi and played live with Veto as well. Jörg Blank continued with Basanostra. In the very beginning of the 90’s Waxx reformed with Jörg Blank and Alwin Rainer initiating the whole undertaking. Female singer Gaby Weihmayer (ex-Generation N) was added and the new Waxx recorded the 5 track Demo “The second time”, offering now a Hard Rock touched, rather modern looking sound. Again the band seemed to take a longer pause during the main part of the 90’s, but in the year 2000 Waxx resurfaced once again with the 2 selfproduced CD’s “Analogue” and “Still loud”, this time featuring besides Alwin Rainer and Jörg Blank the ex-Mephisto/Timebreakers guitarist Manfred Blank, Walter Krüger, Stefan Drescher and female vocalist Inge Eberle. But seems this final line up went on hiatus around 2003/04 as well.

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A Hard Rock band from Georgsmarienhütte (Osnabrück area) that could participate with the two songs "Shut down" and "Stay out" on the local CD sampler "Wizzards From OS". Way 'n' Law's sound was a solid, Scorpions influenced Heavy Rock, with either AOR touch and that typical underground charm that all these locals bands spread.

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Wayward from Munich was founded in 1990 by ex-Heartline members Christian Kwauka and Toni Edlbauer and performed a melodic sort of Heavy Metal. The guys recorded a first Demo in 1991, that featured 4 songs. Guitarist Tom Stiegler got replaced in 1991 by Joe McKilgus and Michael Cordier also left the band in 1993. Mark Tobler became their new singer and still remains the same up to today. After a long silence without further releases, Wayward returned with new line up in 1999 with the selfproduced album "Creation" and produced the Demo "Movements" in 2004. Either their second album "Headlines" (2009) was produced independently. If you got further info of their early days, please get in touch.

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A sleazy Hard Rock band with heavy Rock'n'Roll edge and a style that's adopting kinda old AC/DC influences, but played in a modern way. Doesn't do much for me to be honest. After the album I.G. Farrano (bass) and a second guitarist with the name Dan joined the band who was about to write material for a second album in the year 1991. But seems those plans got canceled. Chris Van Helsing joined similar 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".

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A local band from Bavaria (Burghausen/Rosenheim area), that actively played live during 1990. Further info is needed.

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Weissheim was founded by Thomas Rosanski, who’s been previously playing in Foclas (1980-1982) and later Dead Head Crew (1984), together with Jens-Uwe Nobst in May '85. The guys was active till late 1987, when Rosanski formed the band Badboy with members of Victim. Weissheim drummer Jens-Uwe Nobst (ex-Gelee Royal, Stahlwerk, Quido, Fairplay) followed him a bit later on as well. The band name was chosen by Thomas Rosanski after a Rainbow song, which is almost giving you a hint of the sound that this band from Leipzig (ex-GDR) was trying to achieve.

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This band just lasted 1 year, they formed in 1988 in Kreuztal and disbanded after their Demo "Quest for light" which was released in May '89. I guess they heard the "dilemma" themselves when mentioning on the booklet "Maybe this Demo is not perfect, but you can bet your ass, we had a great time". There are good approaches for sure in their slow and midpaced slightly epic sounding Heavy/Power Metal creations but the realisation lacked of practising probably. Maybe they should have had rehearsed a bit longer before recording anything. Nevertheless they quit the same year and Martin Redieske (ex-Guardian) co-founded the Power Metallers The Immortal and after his retirement in 1990 Inner Sanctum.

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A Southern/Hard Rock band from Bexbach in the Homburg area, who already formed in 1980 and guitarist Kalle Hartwig being one of the founding members. Wells Fargo was mainly a Southern Rock cover band who played the clubs of the US army bases with a repertoire of about 200 songs, ranging from Black Foot up to ZZ Top. Either the classic Mainstream Rock caught their interest and that’s what you get to hear on their 7" “I’ll be the one”, released on the indie label Blue Cue Records in 1989, which also exists in Cassette form. Both songs was composed by Peter Diehl and feature a very pleasant sort of melodic Hard Rock with AOR edge. Quite a neat single for fans of that style. The guys also supported the GDR’s nr. 1 rock band Die Puhdys during one of their concerts in the western part of Germany and got a feature on the private TV channel EPF, as well as radio airplay. A bit later on in the early 90’s Wells Fargo released another tape, that featured amoung others also a cover of Black Foot's "Highway Song".

(Thanx to emosteel for the recommendation and especially their ex-roadie Sven Stübinger for the band info)

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A classic Heavy Metal band from Erlangen/Bavaria, who surfaced in their local area around 1985/86 and recorded just a 4 track tape in 1987, that featured common German Metal in the Darxon/Steeler vein. The Demo was available with booklets in red and green. Further info is welcome.

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Quite obscure german Hardrock troop from Bad Mergentheim, between Würzburg and Heilbronn, who recorded a quite odd looking LP in April/May '82. With "quite odd looking" we refer to the artwork and also the german sung vocals, that both might lead you into a rather NDW direction, that at that time reached it's peak, but that guess is totally wrong. Westend play a very enjoyable sort of pounding Heavy Rock, mixing classic Hard Rock and a few Metal riffs of the NWOBHM era. Mangold, Ulfik and Zaczyk 1980 already released the album "Crawler" with their previous Kraut/Hard Rock band Second Page on the Rockport label as well. What happened to Westend after their "Trotzdem" entitled album is yet a bit uncertain. The trio Mangold, Ulfik and Zaczyk appeared right in the same year on another more Folk/Country album with the title "Gedanken im Kerzenlicht" together with Jürgen Jaensch and Gerald Block, so there might be a chance that Westend didn't survive 1982 at all.
(Thanx to emosteel for the suggestion)

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Wet 'n' Wild was a kinda fun project of the Voracious Souls guys that they started sometime in late 1990 to play Party Hard Rock with sleazy touch. In the end the session went a bit heavier, but if you want Thrashers to play Sleaze Rock you can't expect another Guns 'n Roses. Basically it's the same kind of Hard Rock with R'n'R edge that made these US Sleaze bands big back in the day. There was another recording session in July '91 featuring 11 more trax of the same kind before they quit in 1992.

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After Michael Voss (ex-Hydra) quit Mad Max in Sept '87 he tried to play with several cover bands and subsequently formed a new band with the name What? during late 1988 (or very early '89) together with the not so unknown Niko Arvanitis (ex-Stormwind/Warlock) and Michael Eurich (ex-Warlock), plus US american bassist Chris Fedoruck from New Jersey. What? immediately recorded a selftitled Demo tape, featuring an american style melodic Hard Rock, that gained them attention by considerable persons of the US music business, who offered them to manage the band and either Gene Simmons started negotiations for a possible album release. The band was just shortlived as we know, since both Voss and Eurich formed the similar Casanova in 1990 (or either most probably Casanova was the continuation of What? under just a different name). If you got more info, please get in touch.

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A Hard Rock/AOR band from Munich founded around 1977 that toured with Uriah Heep and Meat Loaf and afterwards released an album on WEA. Roger Glover of Deep Purple produced the album that was recorded in 1978/79 and contains some late 70's Hard Rock songs with a not so german sounding vocalist, that sound even like from the early 80's. There are still the usual Boogie hints included as well but the guitar sound is quite heavy.

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Whetstone easily could be counted to the hottest unsigned german Power/Speed Metal bands of the whole 80's decade.
This promising act was founded in summer 1984 in Siegen by Martin Schlagner, Jörg Gudelius, Frank Andrzejewski and Uwe Bensch. In 1985 Sebastian Beaumer was recruited as vocalist since Schlagner wasn't convinced his voice was the right one for their style and finally in 1986 Stefan Neuser joined them. With Neuser as new permanent vocalist they recorded the first Demo tape "United blood" that was released in December '86. The tape contained 4 epic Power bangers which was stylistically to see somewhere between Running Wild and Manowar while Neuser's voice in places was sounding like a cross of Rolf Kasparek and Charlie Steinhauer (Paradox). In July '87 Gudelius, Andrzejewski and Bensch decided to leave Whetstone due to the lyrics, which they couldn't agree with due to their christian belief while only Martin Schlagner and Stefan Neuser remained which usually had to mean the end for the band. They started again from zero and added still in the same month Axel Büdenbender as new bass player. Hubertus Stricker (who was playing in a band called "Mom" at that time) helped Whetstone out on drums in the meanwhile. Burkhardt Schmallenbach (ex-Squad) became the second guitarist a few weeks later so they just needed a steady drummer. After testing several drummers, Stricker in August '87 finally decided to quit Mom and join Whetstone instead. They started doing live gigs again with the new line up and due to the fresh blood in the band Whetstone's style progressed into a more Speed Metal dominated direction. In that period they created an own term for their music - "Ancient Metal", which also would become the title of the second Demo that was recorded in 1988. The band now had completely thrown the early hymnic Metal roots over board and adopted the classic Speed/Thrash sound which pushed them even more into a category amoungst bands such as Blind Guardian and Paradox, while Whetstone was well able to competite with those. Whetstone played their last gig together on 18.3.1989 before Martin Schlagner and Stefan Neuser quit in July. Büdenbender followed shortly after, while Schmallenbach and Stricker tried to revive the band once again for another 8 months with Alex Wintjes on bass. In early 1990 they called it quits. Most of the members was later found in The Immortal and Axel Büdenbender joined Wycked. Both Demos incl. live cuts got re-released 2017 on Cult Metal Classics in vinyl and CD format under the title "Ancient Metal".

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A late 70's local Augsburg Hard Rock formation, that was active from 1976 till '78 and performed live on stage cover versions of Deep Purple and Cream. The guys later evolved into Rock`n`Roll Express. Further info is welcome.

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Hardrockers from Giessen, north of Frankfurt, that was active during the early 80's and probably around even since the late 70's, as according to their 70's influenced sound, that idea pretty much suggests itself. A selfproduced 8 track album with the title "Cruisin'" exists, recorded and mixed between August and November '82 at the Music Farm Studios in Kiesberg, that's driven by nice raw distorted guitars. Naturally and no way in negative sense here, the lads also had an heavy Krautrock edge, as well as certain AOR/Prog Rock influences being the godfathers of the classic White Line sound, that basically everyone into heavy 70's Prog/Hard Rock is invited to check out. On Anabis Records the following year another exclusive track of White Line (introduced on the sleeve as Whiteline though) appeared on the rare local compilation "Rocksampler von der Lahn". More footsteps in time of White Line yet couldn't be tracked down. If you got other info, please get in touch.
(Thanx to emosteel for the suggestion)

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A Metal band from West Berlin, active since 1985, that released at least 4 Demos in the late 80's and disbanded around 1990. The band was acting very solid on their instruments and played a just typical german style Heavy Metal in the vein of Gravestone, Talon, V2 similar troops. For the last tape "Phantasmagoria" Stefan Schneider handled the bass and Torsten Reich replaced Steffen Kohlmeier on vox. If you have more info please get in touch.

(Thanx to Rumblefist for additional info)

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A selfdescribed Hard Rock band from Herne, that recorded a Demo tape in 1988, whose 2 tracks "Run for cover" and "Love for nothin'" was taken for an underground CD sampler released in 1989. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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A Heavy Metal band from greater Kiel area playing several live shows in around 1985/86. If you have more info please get in touch.

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White Tears was a melodic Hard Rock/Metal band from Neunkirchen/Saarland, that recorded 5 guitar driven tracks 1992 for BEE Records, while the CD was published 1993. The band just had formed in 1992 either and changed name to Feetless Hands in the mid 90's.

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A local Düsseldorf Heavy Metal band that felt inspired by Mercyful Fate, Iron Maiden and Dio. The band was active at last during 1984/85. Further info is needed.

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A female fronted Hamburg Melodic Metal band, that was founded in August '88. With Sammy O'Thomas of Canadyan they produced a 3 song Demo late '89, featuring the fantasy Metal hammer "Wizard" and the Heavyrocker "Rock 'n' Roll star", performed in a very professional way with catchy hooklines, that gained them positive critics. If you got further info, please get in touch.

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Thrashers from Konstanz that started back in 1985 and released two Demos in 1987 and '88 while "Speed enforces!" directly lead to a record deal with the indie label Steps Records who released "Splended deed" in 1989. Martin Schlegel was added as second guitarist and Wicca presented a fresh, strongly Slayer, Overkill and Metallica influenced thrashing style, that was sounding not that typically german at all. Surprisingly the band already split up in 1990, while in summer the guys was already recording their second album at the Frank K. Studio in Witten. Robby Schmidt as well as Mario Schmid joined Curare. Right now the band got reactivated again.

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A young München act that released a rehearsal demo in 1984 (or possibly early 1985). No proper descriptions other than "not bad" and "weak vocals" have surfaced so far. If you know more, please get in contact.

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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.

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A Heavy Metal band from Neunkirchen winning the Rockfabrik Festival in 1985. Originally formed as Wild Axis by Markus Müller (bass), Jens Meyer (drums), Klaus Weber (guitar), Alexander Beyrodt (guitar) and Thomas Horst (vocals) in Elversberg 1981, Beyrodt, Horst and Weber must have changed name to Wild Axes sometime after 1982 and added a new bass player and drummer. They recorded an official Demo in 1984 that gave them the possibility to release a 7" on the belgian label Rainbow Records, and either a Promotape with the title "Veranstalterdemo 84/85", featuring recordings from 1984 and '85, was just, as the name already suggests, was given to club owners to score live gigs. Wild Axes' sound was close to what Scorpions did at that time, nothing really earthshaking. The band disbanded after 1987, as during autumn the guys still was seen live on stage. Beyrodt, Horst and Weber subsequently formed the shortlived band Princess, while Alexander Beyrodt later teamed up with Sinner in 1990, before he joined Jaded Heart and Primal Fear in the 90's.
(Thanx to Rumblefist for additional info)

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A short lived Hard Rock/Metal band from Elversberg founded in 1981 that was inspired by Deep Purple, Kraan etc. They was featured on the compilation "Dem Nachwuchs eine Chance!" with the strongly NWOBHM inspired rocker "Wild Axis". Beyrodt, Horst and Weber afterwards changed the band name to Wild Axes and added a new drummer, keyboarder and bass player.

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Wild Cat was previously known as Maggie's Madness, originally founded in Nuremberg 1974 and they released 2 albums with Maggie's Madness before their label Roadrunner changed the band's name to Wild Cat in 1985 when they was about to release the 3rd album, to avoid complications with the band Madness. They constantly carried on where they started with Maggie's Madness and fully focussed on the midpaced Heavy Rock and Heavy Metal, with diverse song parts sounding close to Scorpions, Maiden and either didn't forget to bring some power bangers like "Run for your life" or "Turn on you" (very Maiden-ish). Michael Andrasch left the band shortly after "Love attack" was released and their ex-bass player Peter Tobolla returned. After the band dissolved the contract with Roadrunner, Bleicher and Hans Georg von Schuh left as well and the latter got replaced by ex-Dynasty Daniel Zimmermann (later Gammaray, Freedom Call) and they kept on playing till 1987 when they called it quits.

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A Wiesmoor based Hard Rock/Metal with Glam influences that was originally called Champagne from 1988-1990 when they found out that there's another Champagne band around so they expanded name to Wild Champagne. All of the 4 guys was active since the mid 80's as Prowler and Frank Jürgens from '87-'88 in a band called Lovehunter either. After the name change they recorded a first Demo "Password paradise" and got picked up by West Virginia Records who produced their first CD "From now for ever" in 1992. When West Virginia went bankrupt Rockwerk Records released the second album "Wipe off your tears" the next year and both albums stylistically are the same brew, mixing Hard Rock and Heavy Metal with glammy influences but still keeping the "german touch". The band also released more albums till 2018 when they disbanded.

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A Heavy Metal band from Kirchheim/Teck that was active since the mid 80's and changed name sometime in 1988 to Shanghai. They released the album "Yesterday's tomorrow" as Shanghai on Metal Voice Records 1989. One of their bass players (Chris Peter Hänsel) joined Tyrant for a short period during early 1988. The band was also written sometimes as Wildchild. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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A Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band from Hamburg or surrounding area, that was active during the late 80's featuring the later Lightning/Champagne guitarist Heiko Schröder. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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A melodic Hard Rock/Metal band originating from West Berlin, which was active during the late 80's and recorded 2 Demos during that phase, that led into negotiations with Atlantic Records from New York for a possible album release during 1989. But the deal never came off. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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A Hard Rock formation from Waldshut, south of Villingen-Schwenninen and near the swiss border, that was active during 1987/88 and seemed to have recorded either studio material during that time. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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A Ludwigshafen hard rock/metal band formed in May 1981 by Chuks Okere and Daniel Dujmovi. They recorded at least one 7-song demo and used to gig in the Ludwigshafen / Mannheim / Heidelberg area. If you have more info, please get in contact.

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A highly obscure and rather unknown female fronted Heavy Metal band, originating from the Erfurt region (ex-GDR), featuring the later Caiman drummer Rico Sauermann. These guys would have had remained forgotten forever, if not a tape of them would had been found in the inheritance of the 2021 passed away ex-hoster of the “Tendenz Hard bis Heavy” radio show Matthias Hopke. Wild Witch “secretly“ had recorded a 4 track Demo in May ’88, stylistically influenced by Warlock/Accept with german vocals, that makes them appearing accidentally sounding slightly like Plattform, but way heavier though. Sauermann then during late ’88 went to Caiman, so Wild Witch probably found an end that time as well.

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A Metal band from Delmenhorst in northern Germany, that was active since at least 1989 and decribed their own style as "melodic Heavy Metal with Thrash influence and adventurous". Wildest Dreams released a 2 track Demo with the title "Uncertain" in 1991, but the band shortly afterwards around 1993 dissolved. If you got further info, please get in touch.

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A local band from the Stuttgart area I think, that was active since 1986 as Toxin and released the "The biker" 7" in 1986. The guys was playing common Hard Rock in the vein of Kiss on the title track of their 7" "Burning", that should be from the later 80's, and the B-side "Dirty dolls" offering slightly heavier stuff. After 2 singles female vocalist Ellen Ritz joined the band, who changed name to Wild Excess during 1989. Seems like at a later point they withdraw that decision coz the third and last single "Can't find me on the radio" from 1991 was released again under their original name Toxin. The musicians on that one being Matz Ulmer (keyboard), Uwe Fechle (bass), Stefan Schmidt (guitar), Armin Mücke (guitar) and band leader Holly Drambar (drums). But in contrary to their "Burning" single, the "Can't find me on the radio" material was way more poppy, though still Hard Rock/AOR but using annoying keyboards that made them sounding like a band for the charts. The first single is the harder to find item.

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A classic Heavy Metal band that formed around 1983 in Ingersheim, north of Ludwigsburg and nowadays still is haunting minds of certain vinyl collectors, because their phantom LP "Guardians of eternity" persistently remains on their wantlists. The guys was playing live on stage during the mid 80's and recorded their 5 song Demo "Metal flash I" in February '85, which made the newly formed label Bregenzer Records interested, who tried to enter the Heavy Metal vinyl business during 1985 with a couple of releases all scheduled at the same time for autumn. Winged Messenger recorded their "Guardians of eternity" album in August 1985 in Ludwigsburg and either album reviews could be found f.e. in Metal Hammer, that got unjustified bad feedback (bad Demo production, crappy cover artwork etc). It's right that the album has got a rather Demo-like production, but probably that's the reason the recording sounds so rough and authentic, close to Grave Digger's midpaced stuff back in the day with a heart-warming NWOBHM touch and quite riff-oriented. Nevertheless, after a couple of adverts in bigger mags the label silently folded and all victimized bands connected went down the drain as well, except of Czakan, who returned at the fall of the 80's once again. Maybe the bad reviews has been the reason why the label pulled the plug and stopped all further scheduled projects, who knows ... officially the company run out of cash. The reason the album is still known nowadays is coz the guitarist of Winged Messenger started selling CDR's of the album in 2010. So enjoy at least those and curse the ones who write non-objective reviews.
(Thanx to emosteel for the recommendation)

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Wintergoat was an early Black Metal unit from Essen, that formed during 1992/93 and was active till 1996, when they changed name to Angel Death. Their Demo "December moon" was released in spring 1994 and featured norse sounding Black Metal with diverse Burzum and Megiddo (UK) influences. Lord Pentagramm left the band in 1995, who got problems by german police for using swastikas. Winter later was active in different bands and nowaydays plays in Khthoniik Cerviiks.

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An Melodic Rock band from Brohl featuring Jürgen Winter of Covergyrl. The band existed since the early 70's. Besides some own creations their live program contained mostly cover versions of f.e. Bon Jovi, Loverboy, Judas Priest, Billy Idol or Europe. Jürgen Winter had a little success with the Electronic Rock band Covergyrl in the mid 80's. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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A local Nuremberg Hard Rock/Metal band that was active since around 1986/87 until the mid 90's. When Thomas Eder left the guys in 1988, the ex-Crying Days drummer Thomas Seber joined. Further info is welcome.

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Wise Man (or Wiseman) was a Hard Rock/Metal band from Gelsenkirchen that started in 1982 and I remember they received quite some positive feedback by the german Metal Mags back in the day. Though it's a mystery for me why, their common Hard Rock/Metal, that wasn't much heavier than f. e. the Scorpions at that time, truly didn't stand out of the slowly rising underground Metal bands. Alone "Sweet dreamer" from the album might be named to have the special something that made the song going easier into people's ears. One interesting note, the back sleeve of the "Paranoid" (yep, a cover version) 12" says, that both trax was taken from the "First warning" LP, BUT both songs in the end wasn't featured on the album at all. Furthermore the album mix and the sound on the 12" are completely different. So the album originally was recorded in 1985 already and they must have had remixed it at a later time point. During autumn '87 the band announced their separation, coz Willi Wrede wanted to mainly focus on his manager job for Darxon. The rest of the crew was said to continue under a different monicker, but Werner Büscher joined Preacher in 1988 and formed the band Black Rose together with Dieter Hoffmann in summer '89. Axel Ritt subsequently entered the stage again with Kingdom/Domain in the late 80's.

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Wishes Burn released only one album that was recorded at the D & S Studios in February '89. The LP features good melodic Heavy Metal just how it was common at that time with a number of good and well arranged songs but the big hit is sadly missing. For my taste the keyboards are quite a bit too much, but on the other hand a pluspoint truly are the sweet twin leads and the guitar work in general. If you wanna buy the LP, better watch out that the sticker, printed inner sleeve and insert are all enclosed.

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A band from Weingarten/Bad Waldsee, near Ravensburg, who produced a quite obscure single with the title "Longing for freedom" in August 1984. Apparently strong Iron Maiden influences accompany the track "Longing for freedom" in form of massive NWOBHM-ish twin leads. "Living your own life" on the flipside either offers that classic NWOBHM sound of the early 80's on the island, paired with Lucifer alike sounding epic Hard Rock backbone. A nice addition to any collection, though we got no real clue what happened later to Witch.
(Thanx to emosteel for the recommendation)

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A late Metal band from Saarbrücken, who published their first 4 track MCD independently 1991, before Leico Records produced the band's second album "You" two years later. Witch Burning's last output, the "Impressions of life" MCD, again on Leico Records, was available 1994 before this promising troop disbanded. The sound of Witch Burning was basically 80's style melodic yet epic, powerful Heavy Metal, but accompanied by a dominant keyboard, that was giving the band's creations a slightly symphonic touch. An insider tip!

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A melodic Heavy Metal band from I dunno where coz as usual the sleeve of their only single doesn't mention anything. Both trax are quite solid Metal with melodic Hard Rock influences and keyboards used as well. Nevertheless the sound appears raw enough but unfortunately they had a little problem with the vocalist. He sounds typically german and wants to sing parts that his voice spectrum doesn't always allowed.

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A Power/Speed Metal band from Aachen, featuring the later Venice shouter Frank Stumvoll. There's just one Demo tape known of these lads, who was active since the mid 80's and the 3 tracks of the tape tend into the old Iron Angel direction.

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A Power Metal band from Oldenburg who later changed name to Leifforce during the late 80's and played a Savatage influenced style of Metal with Speed Metal influences. Their drummer Ralf Wolinski is known to have started "drumming" back in 1984, so we could expect that Witness formed around 1985/86. Ingo and Jens were previously in other Oldenburg Metallers Sanctuary. If you got further info, please get in touch.

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A Heavy Rock band from Buchholz, south of Hamburg, that was active during the late 80's and played on the 4th Oxmox/Metal Star band contest in Hamburg '89. The 7-piece recorded a Demo tape during 1989, featuring a very Heart inspired guitar oriented Heavy Rock sound with keyboards playing a not so big role in Wizard's musical book. The band was fronted by female Gabriele Barz, who brought both her sisters into the band as backing vocalists as well. If you got more info, just get in touch.

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A melodic Heavy Metal band from Karlsruhe, that was active since mid '87 and could contribute the listenable track "Too late" on a local compilation back in 1988, featuring a kinda Ozzy sound, but with massive keyboards, that's making their contribution sounding a bit commercial. Further info is desired.

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The Wizard was a Heavy Rock band from Gelsenkirchen that released a self financed 12" in 1990. The EP contains 4 trax in the melodic Hard Rock/Metal vein, that are easy to bear. They didn't focuss too much on technical crap, but put more attention to catchy melodies and structures. The Wizard was in good company of similar sounding bands like 2nd East, Big Problem or other diverse bavarian melodic acts, though these guys was just acting in the middle league. The stand out track on the vinyl is surely "The Wizard".

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Death/Thrashers from Annaberg/Saxony (ex-GDR), founded already in 1988 by André Morgenstern and ex-Sarkophag Jörg Leitner. In the summer of ‘89 Rico Hein joined the duo as drummer, and in October 7th the guys had their first live performance. Wodan together with Eminenz, who appeared slightly later on the local scene, built the skeletal structure of the Erzgebirge Metal scene. Roy Berghäuser completed the band on bass. They started playing a rather doomy influenced Thrash style in the beginning and later changed towards hyperspeed death/thrashing chaos ala Sadus with ex-Eminenz Jan Hubert, who had joined during December ’89, grunting like a wild boar, while still falling back into those Doom parts occasionally. The guys quite often was seen on local underground gigs in the surrounding areas, often with Eminenz naturally, but also shared stages with Deathtrap, Morbid or international acts like Benediction and Dismember in Aue, as well as being one of Mayhem’s support acts on their small Germany trip in November ’90, when MCB, Eminenz and Wodan opened the evening for the later BM legend. Prior to the legendary Mayhem gig, the fourpiece had recorded a private Demo/Rehearsal in May 1990, entitled “Don’t mosh”, that though never was spread at all. When the Digan studio eventually opened it’s gates in Annaberg late in 1990, the band right in February '91 recorded the "Chemical death" Demo, with only 6 songs of that session becoming the official Demo, while the other 5 trax they had recorded as well, remained unreleased and then Wodan once again entered the studio during August for the recordings of their "Brain decay" Demo. Untill the beginning of 1991 Roy was still playing bass, but he relocated to Hannover, so Jörg Leitner switched from guitar to bass instead. Sometime then in 1992 most of the guys lost interest in continuing the band and Wodan was over. 2 of the guys reactivated the Doom/Black Metal band Sarkophag, while Jan Hubert went to join Carcinoma, another legendary Annaberg Death Metal act.

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A local Glam/Sleaze Metal outfit from Bad Mergentheim, north of Stuttgart, that was active around 1989/90. According to their own info the band's style was influenced by Skid Row, Mötley Crüe and Aerosmith. Further info is welcome.

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Not to be confused with the band Wolfen from the Stuttgart area, this band was active at the same time (1989/90), but in Hannover. Further info is welcome.

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Obscure Karlsruhe locals who contributed the track "Kaltes Glas" to the underground compilation "Karlsruher Rockszene 84", initiated independently by the Andromeda studio, while most of the participating musicians entered a studio the very first time ever. Wolkenreise's (Cloud Journey) sound could be described as a mix of rough edged Hard and Prog Rock with epic touch. Further band info is required.

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Not sure where these lads came from, but they nevertheless left us a widely unknown AOR single as heritage, that's quite hard to locate a copy of nowadays. The rather poppy flipside track “Differentiate" doesn’t know to attract heavier ears at all. The better and "heavier" "I love this woman" on the A side on the other hand’s an well sounding AOR-ish Heavy Rocker in the vein of bands like Dominoe with even hit potential, though we’re still speaking of radio friendly sound.

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A West Berlin based Thrash band, founded in December ‘85, that released a handful of Demos in the 80's and in the early days they've been strongly Hellhammer/Celtic Frost influenced. Chris Mosch (originally called Chris Speich) of Calderone was part of the band as well, playing on the "Sense ... of life" tape. Sadly the sound on the early tapes isn't that good. I think with better production and recording equipment Wotan's (World of Terror and Nausea) name would have spread easier because basically the songs appeared quite brutal. But later they changed towards more classic Death/Thrash and even recorded a full album in 1992 that was never released at all. D & S Recording picked up the band in a time when noone wanted to hear that kind of (80's) Thrash that Wotan still used to play and "Tranquility" even featured old re-recorded Demo trax. Straight forward deaththrashing Metal, partly a bit in the Slayer/Sadus vein mixed with technical outbursts. The last album "Children of technology" was released in 1999.

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A bluesy Hard Rock band from Hannover having 2 tracks on a local compilation. Wotan is just acting in the twilight zone of Hard Rock, Boogie and Blues, but the song "Harley Liberty" at least features nice NWOBHM leads.

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A Hard Rock act with strong Blues background from Blomberg (Paderborn/Bielefeld area), that was active during the early 90's.Till 1992 the band had so far recorded 2 Demo tapes and started searching for a professional management. They claimed their influences ranging from Great White, Bruce Springsteen up to Guns N' Roses. Further info is needed. Here's clip of Wylde Turkey.