Continuing the History of Metal through short (trivia packed) chapters and accompanying playlists.
Thanks for all the support of Part 1 of these ongoing series! You asked me for more, here it is :)
Work in progress, will be posting irregularly (but...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Germany has been the main market for Heavy Metal in Europe. Not only have Metal albums found success in the country charts, many German bands have been at the forefront of the genre's development through the decades and found worldwide success. Rammstein, Helloween, Scorpions, Kreator, the list is long.There are many other bands, who's success in their native Germany rivals that of the bands we just listed, but that the majority of international metalheads have not even heard of before.
Don't get us wrong: some of these bands are considered lading bands in specific subgenres and have found some level of international success. But compared to their homeland, that success is definitely more modest. There are several reasons for this discrepancy in success. First up: most of these bands exclusively sing in German. It may have never held back Rammstein for conquering the world, but they are an exception, as most successful bands – no matter where they hail from – still sing in English. Secondly: several of the bands have mixed popular German musical influences (incl. stereotypical oom-pah melodies). Finally: several of these bands simply didn't attempt to take over the world.
Some of the bands featured here are pretty big in their respective subgenre (while still outselling, out-streaming, or being out-viewed on YouTube than many international acts), but some of them are genuinely huge in Germany! Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, Subway to Sally, or In Extremo all became widely popular and continue to draw massive crowds and score mainstream hits!
But then, there are the uncles...
Böhse Onkelz aren't just big, they are a proper musical institution. Their long career was plagued with controversy (especially in their early years) but filled with more best-selling albums and sold out arena shows. They played their farewell show in 2005 in front of 120,000 crazy fans. Obviously, they reunited and since 2014 they've again been the undisputed kings of German Rock... at least in Germany.
Many of these successful acts have included humorous elements in their music or lyrics, but we've omitted pure comedy bands in this list (no matter how popular they are) like J.B.O. or Knorkator. Which doesn't mean that we've blocked all humour: we've included Sodom mastermind Tom Angelripper's fun side project Onkel Tom and by way of intro we added Tankard alter ego Tankwart with their hilarious version of Tony Holiday's Tanza Samba Mit Mir!
Enjoy... und losgehen!
Playlist:
01. Tankwart: Tanze Samba Mit Mir (1996) - intro
02. Böhse Onklez: Terpentin (1998)
03. Subway To Sally: Eisblumen (2005)
04. Der Apokalyptische Reiter: Friede sei mit dir (2006)
05. Feuerschwanz: Metnotstand im Märchenland (2012)
06. Varg: Guten Tag (2012)
07. Contradiction: In Zaire (2014)
08. Equilibrium: Wirtshaus Gaudi (2014)
09. Onkel Tom: Prolligkeit ist keine Schande (2014)
10. Finsterforst: Mach Dich Frei (2015)
11. Saltatio Mortis: Wo sind die Clowns (2015)
12. In Extremo: Lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein (2016)
13. Null Positiv: Kollaps (2016)
14. Storm Seeker: The Longing (2016)
15. Varg: Achtung (2016)
16. Die Apokalyptischen Reiter: Der Roter Reiter (2017)
