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A Hard/Southern Rock act from East Berlin (ex-GDR) that was active at around 1985 and was influenced by ZZ Top. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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It's almost unbelievable that Jens Sonnenberg (ex-Baphomet) of Sacred Steel was playing in this Pforzheim band, because what they offered on their fortunately only Demo pretty much takes your breath away, but in a bad sense. Rumpel Thrash made by teenagers that didn't even know how to hold a guitar the right way. Avoid this band by any means. They even tried to cover "Born to be wild"! Scharmann and Masatsch after Zadok's split in the same year the Demo got released formed the Doom/Death Metal band Opposed to Violence while Sonnenberg and vocalist Thalhammer founded Power Metallers Cavillator.

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A band from southern Germany (greater Frankfurt/Main and Trier area most probably), that was actively playing live gigs during 1988. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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Zar from Stuttgart started as Rebel in the early 80's, after Thomas Clauss old band Requiem split up, and changed name to Zar in 1988. John Lawton (ex-Uriah Heep/Lucifer's Friend), Clauss' compadre from Rebel, used to sing their songs and he perfectly fit to their melodic Hard Rock/Metal that's featured on the debut "Live your life forever" recorded in 1989. Normally the material in the late 80's Whitesnake, Zeno, Bonfire, Aidean vein had everything for the american market to become a hit but probably they've just been there years too late. Nevertheless it's topnotch stuff for sure. For the second album "Sorted out" John Lawton quit, as rumours say some of the material (like "Marching with the black") was too heavy for him and he didn't want to sing those songs at all. However Thomas Bloch (ex-Stranger/Lazy) replaced him on vocals and Bernd Grünen (ex-Trans Am) joined on bass. Basically musically nothing much changed, still outstanding melodic Metal tunes dominating the album with here and there some heavier songs like "Marching with the black". Just the new vocalist in places sounded kinda like Bruce Dickinson. Same picture on the last album "From welcome...to goodbye", that despite the sound of the band doesn't differes much from the previous albums, the mix appears too modern here. The band recorded a few CD's after 1993 too but still the first 2 albums, especially the debut belong to the creme de la creme of melodic Hard Rock/Metal made in Germany.

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A local Pforzheim Hard/Southern Rock act of the mid/late 80's with ZZ Top influences, who mainly performed coverversions of these kind of bands on stage. They changed name to Stryder around 1989/90. Further info is required.

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A female fronted Metal band from Hamburg originally founded in 1986 by ex-Breslau vocalist Jutta Weinhold as Sedjago. The first line up consisted besides Jutta Weinhold of Tatch (bass), Gunnar Heyse (guitar), Jimmy Durand (guitar) and the ex-Roy Last Group drummer Claus Reinholdt, who's better known as Bubi. For the first album "From over yonder" they added a keyboarder as well (Hansi Kecker), but he left the band already before the second album "Pilgrimage" was recorded in '89. The band's concept was built around a story of Zed Yago, the fictional daughter of the flying dutchman. Musically they could be seen a kinda midpaced mainly creeping epic Hard Rock and Heavy Metal mix almost sounding like War Bride, somewhere trying to combine musical concepts of Dio and Manowar, especially on "From over yonder", that additionally also covers several Accept influences. Jutta Weinhold's raunchy voice isn't everyone's cup of tea at all, but she sings her parts quite impressive nevertheless and literally could be considered the german female version of Ronny James Dio. The band broke after "Pilgrimage", but Jutta reanimated Zed Yago under the new monicker of Velvet Viper in 1990 and carried on.

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Zenith was a Heavy Metal band from Hannover with certain Hard Rock influences in form of undeniable hints of their city mates Scorpions. Thomas Henkel and Kai Ulrich founded the band in 1984 with the strange idea to have 3 guitarists in a band. After a long search they finally found Dirk Rogon who met their musical requirements. Bauke De Groot from the Netherlands on bass and scottish vocalist Tom Jackson joined them so they could finish the album recordings for "Prisoner". To be honest Zenith didn't sound much like other german bands and I guess that either wasn't their aim. Just as mentioned above the more or less melodic Metal and Hard Rock songs show quite often similarities to the Scorpions and if a 3rd guitarist indeed was needed for that purpose is questionable. In the end "Prisoner" is just another melodic Metal album that just belongs to the category "standard". Not even the speedy title track or "Turn around" could pull them out there. Tom Jackson after the split went on to french Nightmare and Kai Ulrich joined the Nietenpapst Fred Otto's Random. Bauke de Groot formed the Hard Rock band Desiree afterwards and then got famous with Sargant Fury.

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Jochen "Zeno" Roth is the brother of Uli Jon Roth. He started playing back in the 70's in Hannover together with Ule Ritgen in a band called Black Angel. But that band broke in 1977 and Ritgen went on to play with Zeno's brother Uli. Their path had crossed in the early 80's again and together with Michael Flexig they started writing songs for an album when they already scored a record deal with a 2 track Demo that was sent to record companies. The debut album (with several session drummers) shortly entitled "Zeno" was available in 1986 and entered the US billboard charts. By the quality Hard Rock that the band delivered it wasn't any miracle as their sound was fully concentrating on the US market, delivering only topnotch melodic Hard Rock creations that equal bands like Survivor, Whitesnake or Kiss at the same time could only dream about having such songs in their own repertoire. For fans of german melodic Hard Rock bands such as Mydra, Aidean, Karo or Vera Cruz definitely a must to hear as Zeno pretty much overrounded them all with their awesome debut. During spring 1988 the message was spread that Zeno went into the studio again to start recordings for their second album, but strangely nothing further happened anymore. Then Flexig left Zeno and Tommy Heart (Thomas Conrad; ex-Heartlyne, later in V2) took his role, though the band went more or less inactive till they released the second album "Zenology" in 1995. A few more followed then but for that kind of music it had been too late already.

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A local, quite unknown Heavy Metal act from Wittstock in the northern part of the ex-GDR, between Rostock and Berlin, that was just shortlived

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A completely unknown local Heavy Metal act hailing from Perleberg, in the north of the ex-GDR, between Berlin and Rostock, who formed during the late 80’s and existed just shortly. Zeus didn’t record any material, but performed live on stage as contemporary witnesses say on a higher level of quality. Further info is needed.

(Thanx to Jens-Uwe Bernd for info)

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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.

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A Blues Rock band with german sung vocals from Koblenz that released an album on the Zellofon label and should be close to ZZ Top with their style. Another LP was planned for 1986 but seems never released. If you got more info, please get in touch.

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Despite acting technically on the same level and musically almost in the same fairway as other prestigious early ex-GDR (Hard) Rock acts like Prinzip or Berluc in the very beginning, the Zoe Band from Altenberg in the Leipzig region never, not even nearly, got the same recognition in terms of vinyl releases by the eastgerman authorities. Founded in 1978, the lads soon would gain attention at the Werkstattwoche in Suhl October 1980 with their Hardrock inspired sound, ending up instantly with the professionally recorded track “Himalaja” on the compilation LP “Auf dem Wege ... 2. Either Hans-Jürgen “Charlie“ Ludwig (ex-Magdeburg) put his stamp on Zoe’s sound shortly between 1980/81, when he was member of the band, replacing Wolfram Löser on guitar, before he would become founding member of the well respected MCB and later formed his own combo Charlie’s Crew. Besides “Himalaja” two more tracks had been recorded at the same time as well, while “Traumpilot” was already a kinda Metal rocker of MCB format! Manfred Votrubec since 1979 had been the band’s bassist and band leader and on the drums could be found Jörg Franke now, who also just would stay until 1981, before Christian Hofmann would take his place. Tom Leonhardt (ex-Schwarzer Pfeffer) then 1981 replaced Charlie Ludwig, but already one year later followed the call of the bigger Karussell from Leipzig, so Zoe had to start searching for a new guitarist once again, till they eventually found Jürgen Hofmeister in 1983, a year that meant a lot of trouble for the band, since half of the team left Zoe, namely Klaus-Dieter Grummt, Klaus-Dieter Probst and drummer Christian Hofmann as well. Schottstedt and Votrubec completely restructured the group, adding Achim Pöschel (drums) and Bernd W. Wuttke on vocals. Their early Hard Rock sound had now after Ludwig’s department changed towards much more Classic Rock/AOR inspired tunes, despite the Hard Rock guitar parts wasn’t ever completely banished at all and the guys would keep on playing in that AOR style for the rest of their days. By reaching the profi status in 1984 the Zoe Band gained several TV appearances as well as official recording sessions throughout the following years for the national broadcast service, till Hofmeister went to join Karussell too in 1985, making "Benno" Singer joining as guitarist immediately. During 1986 Stefan Schulze and Bernd Fleischer then handled the guitars, before they got replaced in 1987 by first Andreas Hoge and shortly after Sven Dietrich, while the latter would remain long time member until 1992. Falk Kotulla came in 1988 for Bernd W. Wuttke on vocals and the rather stable line up for the next years now looked like Falk Kotulla (vocals), Sven Dietrich (guitar), Achim Pöschel (drums), Reiner Schottstedt (keyboard), Manfred Votrubec (bass). One last change though happened 1992, when guitarist Jörg Lesse joined instead, because Sven Dietrich quit and with this very line up Zoe continued until the final end of the band in December 1998. The CD “Revisited” contains almost all of Zoe’s 80’s broadcast recordings and could be purchased directly at the band’s website.

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Undoubtly Zwally is one of the most controversial bands in this database and I'm not sure if adding them is indeed the right choice. But well, the B-side of their 7" "Zschungle Faze Zchake" clearly features Hard Rock sounds, though the whole presentation of these guys was all in all rather New Wave-ish. The title track just offers Pop music that at least got a Hard Rock guitar solo and just on "Next Zingle" you actually could hear a real drum beat. But as mentioned above, the soul of this track is Pop music rooted either. Be very very careful folks...

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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.