It all started back in the spring of 1996 when two young metalheads named Dennis and Sven asked themselves: “Why the hell we ain’t gonna form our own band ????”… … Yes, and after a long, beer filled night on the playground in Wolf (a small village in the middle of Germany near Frankfurt) the whole thing was perfect. Björn was cursed to be the bassist and Sebastian took over the drums – thefirst rehearsals were more like drinking sessions and the band spent the whole summer in the little cellar of Dennis’ mother to experience the noise and brutality they have missed besides the Grunge-wave and other whimpy trends that were going on at that time.
Soon the first song “Angel in Hell” was born (a kind of very “rocking” song re-recorded for the band’s debut-album “In Pain We Trust – Relicts For Revenge”) and some others followed as well as covertunes of mainly german Heavy Metal- and Thrashbands like Tankard, Angelripper, Sodom, Running Wild and also the Misfits. A really crappy rehearsal tape was recorded and sent to a few friends including 5 songs (“Angel in hell”, “Departure from the wolves”, “Breeze of death” + 2 Coverversions. This was in fact not something “official” like all of the following rehearsal- and livetapes that obviously went their ways into the trashcan until these days with many songs that never will be heard again. – Rest in pain !!!)… Soon after these first experiences – exactly in the beginning of Winter 1996 – the horde split up because of some differences with girlfriends and warfare between some of the bandmembers. So for half a year the band was dead and buried under the graveyard of hate…
But finally the “love and grace for musical terror” was victorious and the bandmates came together in spring 1997 for a few noise-meetings and finally with a singer and good friend of the band named Marc “Hotti” Hottenrott who was in fact only a session member for only 5 or 6 rehearsals. Soon after his departure Sebastian also decided to leave the drum-position and was replaced by Glenn Heinrich who also brought in the “session-member until today” Blackskin.
LINE-UP 1997 – 1999:
Blackskin – vocals,
Glenn – drums,
Sven – guitar,
Björn – bass,
Dennis – guitar
The first live gig followed in the club “Black Inn” in Ranstadt on December 31st, 1997. Mainly coversongs and only 6 own compositions received several responses from the “crowd” – for the band it was a disaster because Blackskin was reading his lyrics from diverse sheets of papers which often fell to ground and therefore he only was grunting some strange words (obscene as fuck and really loud – nowadays even louder, something like the old trademark of the band !!!) but never singing the original lyrics – what a shit !!!
But luckily the band wasn’t really impressed by this sort of problems (Drink a lot and forget your problems !!!) and continued with more gigs within the following two years throughout the landscapes of Middle-Hessia which became more and more better. Not only that Blackskin learned to vomit into the micro without any sheets of paper but there were also many people that were asking for a demotape or something they could hear at home from the band. But until then nothing has been recorded well and the rehearsal tapes were too bad…so what had to be done ?
Right, the studiosession should start at the beginning of Winter 1999 and 6 songs for a demotape were chosen…but immediately the next accident occurred !
During the recordings to this tape (which should be entitled “The Sky burns red” including 6 songs of melodic but yet agressive sound) and another gigseries throughout some places in the Frankfurt/Gießen-Area in the spring of 1999 original member Dennis unfortunately left the band due to differences with singer Blackskin who was soon after also fired because of his violent behaviour towards his surroundings and his non-presence at the rehearsals.
It weren’t the worst times so this was really surprising – but the rest of the band didn’t waste any beer on thinking about giving up the whole thing – Metal on !!! The band continued as a 3-piece writing the most brutal material up to this point and bringing forth the aggression the circumstances have shown them over the past months. The style changed much into a more Death- and chaotic styled direction (“Rise of the nihilist”, “In pain we trust” and “Place of no return” for example were written within this period…)
The demo recordings were never finished but a few songs of it without vocal-tracks have survived and the then recorded version of “Metal unites” (resung by Blackskin in 2002) can be found on the debut-album.
LINE-UP 1999
Glenn – drums,
Björn – bass,
Sven – guitars
Up to the year 2000 nothing really happened. The 3 remaining members rehearsed together for themselves and tried out several guitarists and vocalists. A new comrade on the 6 hellstrings was found in Sebastian who was playing in some other bands before and even known to the band by meeting him from time to time at clubs and concerts – so he was in fact the best choice at the worst time !
Only a vocalist could not be found and the 4 bandmates realised that Blackskin was – even if he was a “riotbrother” and the strangest human being someone can meet in a lifetime – nearly irreplaceable because of his aggressive and diverse-styled vocals and terrifying, sometimes controversial lyrics.
So the band met him in Ranstadt’s “Black Inn” in the beginning of 2001 where he was working as a barkeeper and he came back soon after the first session. He liked the latest brutal material and was “reintegrated” into the clan !
The year 2002 is now filled with the recordings for the debut-CD “In pain we trust – Relicts for revenge” and livegigs shall follow again. 90 Promotapes were sent to underground-metalmags and fanzines and received some really good reviews – even more than the “Thrash-Band from the stinky neighbourhood” ever might have thought. The demo-CDR “Awaiting the storms” (lim.200) which contained rough mix-versions of some CD-tracks is nearly sold out and went their ways mainly out of Germany (South America/Australia and some in the Netherlands) – contact the band if you are searching for it. Write letters for gigs, send hatemails for more information (every writing will be answered !) and keep up with the spirit !!! – Death prevails…
official Website: http://www.eternalpain.com