ABSTRACT
Introduction Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, Accept, Doro, Helloween, Blind Guardian: these are all bands that began during the early wave of heavy metal music in Germany which continue to be successful in the global metal scene and the international festival and touring circuit. Almost all of these acts started their careers in the first half of 1980s as a part of the then rapidly expanding West German heavy metal scene. Accept are the exception, being precursors of the 1980s scene, already on the go in 1971. The GDR also had a vibrant heavy metal scene that emerged in the first half of the 1980s, evolving out of a hard rock scene that had been active since the revocation of the beat band ban in the GDR in 1971.1 However, no East German heavy metal band that had already been active in the GDR gained international success or even significant nationwide prominence after German reunification. Therefore, given limitations of space, it seems sensible to focus on the West German heavy metal scene. This paper provides a brief account of this early metal scene in Germany and maps some of the heavy metal activity in West Germany during the 1980s.
