Factory of Art

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Factory of Art
FoA Logo 2020 - 30 years Factory of Art.png
Factory of Art (2019)
Factory of Art (2019)
General information
origin Leipzig , Saxony , Germany
Genre (s) Artrock (initially), Power Metal , Progressive Metal
founding 1990
Website http://factory-of-art.band/
Current occupation
Ronald "Ron" Losch 1990 – today
Gunter Lange 2019 – today
Jens "Petri" Schmuellen 1998 – today
Ralph-Marcel Dietrich 2019 – today
Thoralf Schulze 2004 – today
management
 Polo 2018 – today
former members
Electric guitar
 Heiko "Flecke" Flechsig 1990-2004
Drums
 Thorsten Wolf 1991–1998
Vocals, keyboard
 Gunter Lange 1991–1998
Electric guitar
 Bernd Fleischer 1991–1993
Electric guitar
 Joe F. Winter 1993-2005
Drums
 Ralph-Marcel Dietrich 1998-2004
Keyboard
 Ekkehard "Ekky" Master 1998-2006
Drums
 Henry Weihrauch 2004–2006
Electric guitar
 Jens Legler 2005-2006
Keyboard
 Marc Hückstädt 1990–1993
Drums
 Michael Kühne 1990–1991
management
 Polo 1991-1998

Factory of Art is a Saxon power and progressive metal band from Leipzig , which was founded in 1990, was dormant from 2006 and has been active again since 2019.

history

The band was founded in 1990 as an instrumental art rock band. In the following year, Heiko Flechsig on electric guitar, Ronald Losch on bass, Torsten Wolf on drums and Gunter Lange as singer and keyboard player formed a permanent line-up. The band won the 1990/1991 campaign by Roadrunner Records , which was called "Thrash the Wall" and was supposed to enable four East German bands to make professional recordings under the label. Since it was too tricky for the label to record entire albums with the bands, a sampler consisting of songs from these four bands was planned. However, since there were legal problems with one group and only three appeared to the label as not enough, this idea was also rejected. Alex Krull from Atrocity tried to put the two already finished songs that he had recorded in the Vielklang studios in Berlin on other labels, but it didn't succeed either. Instead, in January 1992 under the name … No Better World! recorded a first demo and released it that same year. It consists of three studio recordings and a live song. In the same year Bernd Fleischer joined the line-up as the second guitarist. The group also had an unplugged session on the radio station DT64 and was seen on the youth program Elf 99 . In 1993 the group made it to the finals of the German Rock Prize and finished sixth. In mid-1993 Fleischer left the band and returned to his previous band, Berluc . Joe F. Winter joined in as a replacement. The single … No Better World !! and the demo Roadrunner Session was published and a tour of Germany with Grave Digger was held in autumn / winter 1992/1993 . The demo contains the two songs of the "Thrash the Wall" competition and was created together with ... No Better World !! sold. The recordings for the single took place before those for the demo. Martin Köppl from Munich was the producer for the single . In 1994 the group made it to the finals of the South German Rock Prize and finished fourth. In addition, performances continued, including with Grave Digger Blind Guardian , Depressive Age , Yngwie Malmsteen and Threshold . The group continued their live activity the following year, playing with Gamma Ray , Morgana Lefay and X-Wild , among others . In 1996 the debut album Grasp followed via AFM Records !!! . The recordings had taken place again with Köppl. Then are Roni Pilgrim , Alex Krull of Atrocity and Chris Boltendahl be heard as a guest musician of Grave Digger. Boltendahl recorded his recordings in the L.ET studio in Cologne . When Sacred Reich and Skrew were on a European tour together in the late spring of 1996 and AFM Records was allowed to provide the third participant, Squealer , owner of the label, and Factory of Art, which had started their concert series a little earlier , were used once . There were also occasional appearances with bands such as Iced Earth , Nevermore and Crematory . Also at AFM Records in 1997 the EP Point of No Return followed. That year the band played with Uriah Heep, among others . Lange and Wolf left the band to join "The Art of Voices". A suitable replacement was found in 1998 in the form of singer Jens SchmISCHE, keyboardist Ekkehard Meister and drummer Ralph-Marcel Dietrich. In the same year concerts with Grave Digger, Richthofen and Monkey Cab were held. In 1999 the single Story of Pain was released and a song was contributed to the rock-hard sampler Unerhört Vol. 5 . The group could be seen live together with Metalium , Primal Fear , Double Action and Mosquito. In 2000 the group won the competition Unheard of! 2000 from Rock Hard and took third place at Hardsampler 2000 / Vol.1. The group also held a TV special on NBC GIGA . This year she played live with Knorkator , Warhead , Raise Hell and Rage and, among others, together with Destruction and Raise Hell in Ludwigsburg. In 2001 the band was represented at the Hardlive Festival and began recording their next album, The Tempter , while auditioning for various labels, including CCP Records . With this label, the band signed a record deal in 2002, about which the album was released that same year. It was published internationally by SPV . The publication was celebrated with a Leipzig TV special. In the same year the band could also be seen with Freedom Call and Electric Eye. In 2004 Dietrich and Flechsig left the band, joined Four Roses and were replaced by guitarist Thoralf Schulze and drummer Henry Weihrauch. Another exit followed in 2005 by Winter, who was replaced by Jens Legler. The last known performance was held on February 24, 2006 in Leipzig . Former members of the Factory Under Cover cover band have been active since 2012 .

style

According to rockdetector.com , the band initially played art rock before devoting themselves to a mixture of power and progressive metal with influences from speed metal and thrash metal . Stefan Glas from Metal Hammer wrote about … No Better World !! that the first thing you notice is the dense and powerful production. The group play powerful Power Metal with memorable melodies. In a later edition the music will be referred to as Queensrÿche and Vicious Rumors style power metal . According to Andreas Schöwe ​​from the same magazine, the band got together with … No Better World !! presented as the Saxon answer to Queensrÿche and Helloween , before more modern influences were processed on the debut album. In an interview with Schöwe, the band stated that they also incorporate various influences on Point of No Return . The band draws its inspiration from touring with various bands. In his review of Story of Pain Schöwe ​​wrote that the band still sounded disoriented and diffusely diverse on the debut album, but now compact, powerful and very melodic. In the songs, the bands process keyboards in the style of Helloween, vocals that are slightly reminiscent of Metallica and a Metal Church- like "heaviness". In a later edition Schöwe ​​described the music on The Tempter as melodic Power Metal with slightly progressive elements. The style has hardly changed since the first sound carrier was released. The group processed "brisk tones" in the style of Squealer , At Vance or the Angel Dust album Of Human Bondage as well as sound elements from harsh Dream Theater and early or rough Savatage . The singing is rude, "Thrashy" and rarely expressive. Tim Hofmann from Rock Hard found that the group combines “honest heavy rock”, melodies in the style of Queensrÿche and “rusty-rough Ur- Metal ”.

Discography

  • 1990: … No Better World! (Demo, self-publication)
  • 1993: Roadrunner Session (demo, self-publication)
  • 1993: … No Better World !! (Single, self-published)
  • 1996: Grasp !!! (Album, AFM Records )
  • 1997: Point of No Return (EP, AFM Records)
  • 1999: Story of Pain (Single, In Any Case Records )
  • 2002: The Tempter (Album, CCP Records )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Facts. factoryofart.com, accessed May 7, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b c Tim Hofmann: Factory of Art . The Ossi himself is! In: Rock Hard . No. 82 , March 1994, p. 60 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Volume: Factory Of Art. Biography. metalinside.de, accessed on May 8, 2016 .
  4. ↑ a b Biography. (No longer available online.) Rockdetector.com, archived from the original on March 6, 2016 ; Retrieved May 7, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rockdetector.com
  5. ↑ a b screamers . In: Metal Hammer . November 1994, p. 10 .
  6. ^ Sacred Reich + Skrew . In: Rock Hard . No. 108 , May 1996, schedule. Rock Hard Presents, S. 71 .
  7. ^ Markus Müller: Sacred Reich, Skrew, Squealer. Offenbach, port railway . In: Rock Hard . No. 110 , July 1996, Live Reviews, pp. 133 .
  8. ↑ [Uwe] "Buffo" [Schnädelbach]: Squealer. No blue eyes . In: Rock Hard . No. 107 , April 1996, Smalltalk, pp. 67 .
  9. ^ Factory of Art. In: deutsche-mugge.de. Retrieved May 8, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Factory of Art + Screamz . In: Rock Hard . No. 108 , May 1996, schedule, p. 70 .
  11. ↑ Detlef Dengler: Destruction . + Raise Hell + Factory of Art. In: Metal Hammer . July 2000, p. 142 f .
  12. ↑ News. factoryofart.com, accessed May 7, 2016 .
  13. ^ Stefan Glas: Factory of Art . … No Better World !! In: Metal Hammer . June 1994, p. 106 .
  14. ^ Andreas Schöwe: Factory of Art . FFEN for everything. In: Metal Hammer . November 1996, p. 117 .
  15. ^ Andreas Schöwe: Factory of Art . Story of Pain. In: Metal Hammer . April 1999, p. 92 .
  16. ^ Andreas Schöwe: Factory of Art . The Tempter. In: Metal Hammer . July 2002, p. 96 .