Best German Metal

(1994 – present)

Melodic death metal. The original line-up consisted of the singer Mike Huhmann, drummer Christoph Schellöh and the two guitar-players Oliver Eikenberg and Philipp Hanfland. Bass-player Ulrich Busch joined the band several months later. Together with him the band recorded their first demo-tape “A Duet Of Thoughts” in spring ‘96.

Three best albums in my opinion:

Essen, Germany (1982 – present)

Thrash metal. Originally started under the name Metal Militia, later Tyrant and Tormentor, finally Kreator. Starting their career in 1982, they played Thrash Metal with Venom influences. Their style of music is similar to their compatriots Destruction and Sodom, the other two big teutonic thrash metal bands from Germany. All three of these bands are often credited with helping create death metal.

Three best albums in my opinion:

Munich, Germany (2001 – present)

Folk metal. They released a very positively acclaimed demo at the beginning of 2003, which brought them a record deal with the label Black Attakk. Their debut, Turis Fratyr, was released on February 15, 2005. In October 2006 they signed with Nuclear Blast. They recorded their new album ‘Sagas’ in January 2007. The album was made available worldwide on July 8, 2008.

Three best albums in my opinion:

Coburg, Germany (2005 – present)

Pagan metal. Their lyrical themes include Germanics and Germanic paganism. In norwegian and swedish, “varg” means wolf.

Three best albums in my opinion:

Berlin, Germany (1994 – present)

German metal. Consists of Till Lindemann (lead vocals), Richard Kruspe (lead guitar and backing vocals), Paul Landers (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Oliver Riedel (bass guitar, “Ollie”), Christoph Schneider (drums and Electronic percussion, “Doom”) and Christian Lorenz (keyboards, “Flake”). The band is widely accepted as part of the Neue Deutsche Härte scene, alongside bands such as Oomph!, Laibach, and Die Krupps. Their songs are performed almost exclusively in German.

Three best albums in my opinion:

Germany (1997 – present)

Metalcore. Was formed under the name Never Again. After 6 months of playing together, the band recorded their first two songs for a compilation, which was never released. The songs were sent to several record labels, and Lifeforce Records was the first to offer the band a record deal. The band’s first self-titled MCD came out in the summer of 1998. To promote the CD, Caliban played many shows all over Europe and a few support shows for bands like Morning Again, Earth Crisis, and Cro-Mags.

Three best albums in my opinion:

Saalfeld, Germany (1996 – present)

Was formed the name ‘Consense’. With the recording of their second demo in early 1997 the band changed their name to ‘Heaven Shall Burn’. The name is taken from a Marduk album titled “Heaven Shall Burn… When We Are Gathered”. In an interview with the band at decoymusic.com, the band said: “It’s not that we’re huge Marduk fans, but we liked the name. It sounds a bit provoking and so people ask us again and again for the meaning behind our name. It has been like that since the very beginning.

Three best albums in my opinion:

(1994 – present)

A fundamental question came up for DISILLUSION only a few months after the release of BACK TO TIMES OF SPLENDOR: What does this band want? Where does it want to go?
At the end of day, all participants knew that the final chords on BTTOS set the seal on the inevitable: All has been said; it has been done. You could improve the sound, write even better riffs, you could sing even more pompously of pain and suffering and pathos; but nothing substantial could be added to the record.

Three best albums in my opinion:



(They've released only these two thus far)

(2003 - present)

Their music can roughly be described as melodic black metal with strong melodic death metal influences. Since the foundation in 2003/2004 the band played more than 60 gigs, with the bands performances granting lots of positive reception and loyal fans. They released two full length albums so far, “...The Die Is Cast” (2008) and “Wine Will Turn To Blood Again” (2009), which both recieved great reviews and were commended for the production, the artwork and most of all, the music itself.

Three best albums in my opinion:

Thuringia, Germany (1995 – present)

They're incorporating Black-, Death-, Thrash- and Power Metal, as well as Rock and Folklore in their music. Die Apokalyptischen Reiter means “The Horsemen of the Apocalypse” in english.

Three best albums in my opinion:

Germany (2000 – present)

Gothic metal.

Three best albums in my opinion:

Krefeld, Germany (1984 – present)

Speed metal/power metal. They're credited as being among the most influential artists of the genre. While early Blind Guardian belongs to speed metal style, in later releases the band has moved towards epic power metal.

Three best albums in my opinion: