ROUGH SILK: (1993) Roots of Hate

ROUGH SILK were founded in 1989 by FERDY DOERNBERG ( keyboards, slide-guitars & vocals ), HILMER STAACKE ( guitars ), JAN BARNETT ( lead vocals, guitars ), RALF SCHWERTNER ( bass, vocals ) and HERBERT HARTMANN ( drums, vocals ) and have released 8 albums ( "Rough Silk" - 1991, "Roots of Hate" - 1993, "Walls of Never" - 1994 , "Circle of Pain" - 1996, "Mephisto" - 1997, "Beyond the sundown"- 1998", "Symphony of Life"- 2001 and "End of Infinity" - 2003 ) and one best-of-album ( "Wheels of Time"- 1999 ) before they split up after some line-up-changes in 2003.
ROUGH SILK have definitely created an own style. The name says it all : "Rough" stands for the real heavy ( sometimes even trash- ) metal influences and "Silk" for the unusual singer-songwriter-elements and piano-parts. After the success of the first albums ( especially the band´s 1994-breakthru-album "walls of never" ) they could build a good reputation as a live-act by suporting bands like HELLOWEEN , DEEP PURPLE , DIO , SAVATAGE, MANOWAR, FATES WARNING , ACCEPT , MAMA´S BOYS, WHITESNAKE , AXXIS , EUROPE, SAXON, CROSSROADS, and VICIOUS RUMORS as well as BOB GELDORF, ROGER CHAPMAN or JEFF HEALEY.The original members JAN BARNETT and HILMER STAACKE ( who unfortunately died in 2006 because of an asthmatic stroke ! ) left the band after the 3rd and the 5th album and had been replaced by THOMAS LUDOLPHY ( vocals ) and ANDREAS LASCHEWSKI who was later replaced ( after just one album - "circle of pain" ) by NILS WUNDERLICH ( guitars ). The original drummer HERBERT HARTMANN left the band after the 4th album in 1995 and got replaced by Ferdy´s brother CURT before he rejoined the band in 2001 for the album "Symphony of Life" , that was co-produced by JON OLIVA, the mastermind of the legendary US-metal band SAVATAGE, who also sang a duet with Thomas on the album. The band and Oliva became friends as ROUGH SILK were supporting SAVATAGE on two European tours.
In March 2002 THOMAS LUDOLPHY left the band due to personal reasons but only a few minutes later it was clear, that they would not look for a new singer. On the band´s last album before the split, "End of Infinity", Doernberg, Hartmann & Wunderlich shared the lead-vocals. That worked pretty well and in the live-situation it also did but after more than 40 shows as a four-piece it was obvious, that Doernberg, who wanted to stick to the roots and keep the band heavy and the other 3 bandmembers, who were more into prog-rock and pop, had no common vision anymore.
So after a successful show at a metal-festival in Peine where they had performed the "old" metalsongs from the first albums plus some of the heavier newer tunes one more time, it was definitely over.

Tracks:
1. the grapes of wrath
2. roots of hate
3. in the deep of the night
4. calls of the world
5. when the thunder roars
6. candle in the rain
7. cemetary dawn
8. sentimental trust
9. wasteland serenader
10. through the fire
11. ups and downs
12. why
13. eyes of a stranger
14. forever

pass = hmbreed

D-load album :-) http://lix.in/f98d35
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