Morbid Jester - Biography
Biography
Morbid Jester was founded in 1988 as a German punk rock band under the name "Milzbrand". The founding members included Matthias Georg (vocals), Thomas Strömmer (guitar) and Markus Hain (drums). The band was eventually completed by Michael Weitzel (bass), Olaf Reichmann (guitar), Heiko Diehl (guitar) and Mario Bäcker (guitar). After playing German punk rock in the beginning, it soon became clear that everyone was more inclined to heavy metal. So what then followed was a change of style and a name change to Morbid Jester.
After a few gigs - including the legendary Ready for Rock Festival in Herborn - and a few minor line-up changes, the band was finally complete with the following musicians:
Matthias Georg - Vocals | Mario Bäcker - Guitar | Thomas Strömmer - Guitar | Udo Krause - Bass | Markus Hain - Drums
In this cast of members, Morbid Jester applied, inter alia, in a tendered by the IG-Metall, Herborn band competition and achieved notoriety taking 2nd place. Encouraged by this success, Morbid Jester ventured in August / September 1992 and stepped into a recording studio to produce the first demo tape.
"First Audience" was recorded at the Jacca Music Studio in Kreuztal. As a first considerable success, the band was able to sell this self-produced demo around 400 times. In addition to several appearances, of course, a lot of new songs were written because the band's stated goal was to release a complete full-time CD. So, in April 1994, they booked into the Dust Music Studio in Hilchenbach and produced together with S.L. Coe (ex Scanner, Angel Dust) said silverling. Under the title "Until The Battle Is Won", this in-house production sold, after all, with about 2,000 copies. They not reached customers found only in Germany, but also in Japan and Greece.
Through this CD and the consistently good press reaction to it, the band was the first pure heavy metal band to get a commitment to the nationally known Haigerer Altstadtfest. The highlight, however, was a performance in the supporting program of the NWOBHM icons "Saxon" in Erndtebrück-Birkelbach. Encouraged by the success of the two in-house productions, they decided to produce another new album in May 1996.
For the "Until" successor "Irony Of Fate" they rented in the Red Stone Music Studio in Biedenkopf. As a producer you could - as already with the 1992 demo "First Audience" - win for this polycarbonate disc Markus Schneider. Again, Morbid Jester was able to sell about 2,000 units of this CD to metal fans all over the world. Unfortunately, singer Matthias Georg left the group in the following year due to musical differences.
However, a suitable successor was quickly found in Stefan Scholl. In addition to a few appearances, "songwriting" was again on the agenda, as the somewhat rough vocals demanded even rougher songs. So, intensive work was done on new material, which was also recorded in the Dust Music Studio in Hilchenbach under renewed cooperation with producer S.L. Coe was fixed on tape in September 1998. With the finished recordings, the search for a record company began. This was found quite quickly with "Iron Glory Records". Thus, the release of "Gates To Valhalla" in the spring of 1999, nothing stood in the way, which was presented live at over 400 enthusiastic headbangers at a due release party. After numerous appearances, among others with Dr. Death, Ulan Bator, Chateau Disaster, Reactor and many more. Unfortunately, vocalist Stefan Scholl had to leave the band for professional reasons in 2000.
As luck and fortune would have it, along came vocalist Stephan "Addi" Eichert, and was a more than adequate front man as a successor, where he had gained experience, among other things, in bands such as "Jack", "Heavens Gate (LDK)" or "Testiness" in more than 15-year career. Since the band's stated goal was the production of a new longplayer, they devoted themselves to songwriting.
Shortly before the planned production in 2002, the band was struck by a heavy blow. Singer Stephan was killed in a fatal work accident.
This misfortune "paralyzed" the band for a long time. However, it was decided - certainly in the sense of Addi - to look out for a new voice. Unfortunately, this endeavor proved to be very tedious.
The search for a singer ended in late 2004 before a charismatic shouter became available again with Allan Bunnell. With the new front man on board the emphasis was placed on working on new song material. This was - in addition to numerous "classics" - presented to the public for the first time on 03.12.2005 at the "Auf die Ohren" festival in Breidenbach.
In the summer of 2006, Sebastian "Buddy" Eisentraut joined the band as the third guitarist. In retrospect, this turned out to be a real stroke of luck, as Mario "Wusel" Bäcker had to leave the band in the spring of 2007 for professional reasons.
In the same year, however, Sebastian left the band again and so began the search for a second guitarist. Until the re-entry of Mario Bäcker in late 2009, this part was filled by Chris Bunnell.
n June 2012, Chris Bunnell again replaced Mario Bäcker as a guitarist who left the band for personal reasons.
Currently, the band has finished recording for the next longplayer. For a small taste of the upcoming new album, you can already get the three songs as a stream on the "Promotion-CD", which was released in April 2013.
In April 2014, the 1992 demo tape "First Audience" with 4 bonus tracks was released as a re-release on CD.
The new album titled "Something Wicked" was released in October 2016.
In December 2017, Davin Schuh took over the lead guitar post from Chris Bunnell, who has dedicated himself to another musical project.
http://www.morbidjester.de/history.html
After a few gigs - including the legendary Ready for Rock Festival in Herborn - and a few minor line-up changes, the band was finally complete with the following musicians:
Matthias Georg - Vocals | Mario Bäcker - Guitar | Thomas Strömmer - Guitar | Udo Krause - Bass | Markus Hain - Drums
In this cast of members, Morbid Jester applied, inter alia, in a tendered by the IG-Metall, Herborn band competition and achieved notoriety taking 2nd place. Encouraged by this success, Morbid Jester ventured in August / September 1992 and stepped into a recording studio to produce the first demo tape.
"First Audience" was recorded at the Jacca Music Studio in Kreuztal. As a first considerable success, the band was able to sell this self-produced demo around 400 times. In addition to several appearances, of course, a lot of new songs were written because the band's stated goal was to release a complete full-time CD. So, in April 1994, they booked into the Dust Music Studio in Hilchenbach and produced together with S.L. Coe (ex Scanner, Angel Dust) said silverling. Under the title "Until The Battle Is Won", this in-house production sold, after all, with about 2,000 copies. They not reached customers found only in Germany, but also in Japan and Greece.
Through this CD and the consistently good press reaction to it, the band was the first pure heavy metal band to get a commitment to the nationally known Haigerer Altstadtfest. The highlight, however, was a performance in the supporting program of the NWOBHM icons "Saxon" in Erndtebrück-Birkelbach. Encouraged by the success of the two in-house productions, they decided to produce another new album in May 1996.
For the "Until" successor "Irony Of Fate" they rented in the Red Stone Music Studio in Biedenkopf. As a producer you could - as already with the 1992 demo "First Audience" - win for this polycarbonate disc Markus Schneider. Again, Morbid Jester was able to sell about 2,000 units of this CD to metal fans all over the world. Unfortunately, singer Matthias Georg left the group in the following year due to musical differences.
However, a suitable successor was quickly found in Stefan Scholl. In addition to a few appearances, "songwriting" was again on the agenda, as the somewhat rough vocals demanded even rougher songs. So, intensive work was done on new material, which was also recorded in the Dust Music Studio in Hilchenbach under renewed cooperation with producer S.L. Coe was fixed on tape in September 1998. With the finished recordings, the search for a record company began. This was found quite quickly with "Iron Glory Records". Thus, the release of "Gates To Valhalla" in the spring of 1999, nothing stood in the way, which was presented live at over 400 enthusiastic headbangers at a due release party. After numerous appearances, among others with Dr. Death, Ulan Bator, Chateau Disaster, Reactor and many more. Unfortunately, vocalist Stefan Scholl had to leave the band for professional reasons in 2000.
As luck and fortune would have it, along came vocalist Stephan "Addi" Eichert, and was a more than adequate front man as a successor, where he had gained experience, among other things, in bands such as "Jack", "Heavens Gate (LDK)" or "Testiness" in more than 15-year career. Since the band's stated goal was the production of a new longplayer, they devoted themselves to songwriting.
Shortly before the planned production in 2002, the band was struck by a heavy blow. Singer Stephan was killed in a fatal work accident.
This misfortune "paralyzed" the band for a long time. However, it was decided - certainly in the sense of Addi - to look out for a new voice. Unfortunately, this endeavor proved to be very tedious.
The search for a singer ended in late 2004 before a charismatic shouter became available again with Allan Bunnell. With the new front man on board the emphasis was placed on working on new song material. This was - in addition to numerous "classics" - presented to the public for the first time on 03.12.2005 at the "Auf die Ohren" festival in Breidenbach.
In the summer of 2006, Sebastian "Buddy" Eisentraut joined the band as the third guitarist. In retrospect, this turned out to be a real stroke of luck, as Mario "Wusel" Bäcker had to leave the band in the spring of 2007 for professional reasons.
In the same year, however, Sebastian left the band again and so began the search for a second guitarist. Until the re-entry of Mario Bäcker in late 2009, this part was filled by Chris Bunnell.
n June 2012, Chris Bunnell again replaced Mario Bäcker as a guitarist who left the band for personal reasons.
Currently, the band has finished recording for the next longplayer. For a small taste of the upcoming new album, you can already get the three songs as a stream on the "Promotion-CD", which was released in April 2013.
In April 2014, the 1992 demo tape "First Audience" with 4 bonus tracks was released as a re-release on CD.
The new album titled "Something Wicked" was released in October 2016.
In December 2017, Davin Schuh took over the lead guitar post from Chris Bunnell, who has dedicated himself to another musical project.
http://www.morbidjester.de/history.html