With their first releases "Shakra" (1998), and "Moving Force" (1999), and by touring with Great White and Uriah Heep, the early career of this Swiss band was a steep learning curve with dramatic success but the real breakthrough came with their third record "Power Ride" (2001) when singer Pete Wiedmer was forced to leave the band because of ill health, replaced by Mark Fox. Mark immediately put his stamp on the following album "Rising" (2003), which saw Shakra rise higher on the career ladder than ever before and hit the German and Swiss album charts. But it was out on the live circuit that Fox really delivered. The band played several concerts and festivals, one of which was the prestigious "Bang Your Head" event and all doubters were silenced. Critics in the press were further silenced in 2005 as the band then released the album "Fall" which also charted in Switzerland. With the controversial video clip for the song "Chains Of Temptation" showing singer Fox giving himself a heroine injection, this band was the talk of the Metal scene.

And, after supporting Iron Maiden at the Swiss "Spirit Of Rock" festival, Shakra then took the now famous decision to tour through 12 countries with Hammerfall and Stratovarius.

Every night, Shakra showed their incredible power on stage before huge audiences and gained a lot of new fans. Further highs were still to come. The band played a huge show in Zurich with Guns N' Roses in 2006.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakra