- Year End Update And Favorite Albums 2011 -
Hello, thrash heads,
the most spectacular year in our history comes to an end, and it was a wild ride!
Apart from playing a bunch of great shows, the highlights have of course been the European Tour with british thrash metal flagship Onslaught and leading German folk metal band Suidakra - and the performance on the main stage of Metalfest Germany in Dessau.
The tour was almost beyond belief. Truth is, we had never even played two consecutive shows before. You can imagine that twenty shows with such great and experienced bands in sixteen European countries have been quite a challenge - but it was the time of our lives so far. We've been treated great by everyone on the tour, learned a damn lot and although almost nobody in the audience did expect us, it was a major success for us. Thanks, everybody, and especially to our mates of The Very End for making the contact!
It shall not be concealed that this tour also had a sad note to it: turned out our bass player Tobias has a life planning that doesn't meet ours, so we had to part ways. Alex, the replacement for the tour, fitted in immediately and we could announce him as our new permament member in summer!
The spring season was crowned by the show at Metalfest Germany. Not only did we have a blast on the biggest stage so far, the trip was also a tremendous staff outing. Just one cue: Grim Reaper's eggnog...
We took a break from live shows in summer to finish composing our second album and the final show before the break was a support slot for Arch Enemy in a packed Matrix Bochum. However, Dennis went on the road a bit and played three shows in two days with our mates Harasai at Dong Open Air and The Very End at Ragnarock and Summernight Open Airs.
The break ended at Exile Festival, where we performed with a.o. Cripper in September. November saw a show with The Very End and the new band of former Sodom drummer Bobby Schottkowski, Hungöver. We finished the 2011 performances by being the last band to play at Mysteria Metal-Pub, owned by Exumer drummer Matt K., and a garage show at the birthday party of Exile promoter Hoschi. Very special!
Now here's the major plan for 2012: the second album!! Post-production began in the end of November, we'll have a show in Krefeld in January and retreat from performing after that until the end of spring to record the album.
There are zillions of people we have to thank for this incredible year, and maybe it's a bit unfair just to mention a few names here. But first and foremost we'd like to thank our wrecking crew Hannes, Jürgen and Sascha. These guys are in place of all the support we received from everybody throughout the year.
To everyone we met in 2011: we wish you a Happy New Year and a thrashin' 2012!
Interested in what made us bang our heads the most this year? Check this out:
Dennis "Blaze" Baron:
1. In Flames - Sounds Of A Playground Fading
2. Machine Head - Unto The Locust
3. Trivium - In Waves
4. Onslaught - Sounds Of Violence
5. DevilDriver - Beast
Oliver Hey:
1. In Flames - Sounds Of A Playground Fading
2. Onslaught - Sounds Of Violence
3. Trivium - In Waves
4. Machine Head - Unto The Locust
5. DevilDriver - Beast
Alex Voß:
1. Onslaught - Sounds Of Violence
2. Iced Earth - Dystopia
3. Machine Head - Unto The Locust
4. Obscura - Omnivium
5. Suidakra - Book Of Dowth
Tristan Maiwurm:
1. Origin - Entity
2. Tesseract - One
3. Animals As Leaders - Weightless
4. Blotted Science - The Animation Of Entomology
5. Obscura - Omnivium
