Hittman (band)

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Hittman
General information
origin New York City , New York , United States
Genre (s) Power metal , progressive metal
founding 1984
resolution 1994
Founding members
Scott Knight
Jim Bachi
Michael "Mike Buccell" Buccellato († 2013)
Chuck Kory
Last occupation
singing
 Dirk Kennedy
Electric guitar
 John Kristen
Electric guitar
 Jim Bachi
Electric bass
 Michael "Mike Buccell" Buccellato († 2013)
Drums
 Mark Jenkins
former members
Electric guitar
 Brian Fair
Electric guitar
 Greg Walls
Electric bass
 Nick Mitchell

Hittman was an American power and progressive metal band that was active from 1984 to 1994, but was unable to develop during this time due to poor experience with the music industry.

history

Guitarist Jim Bachi, bassist Michael Buccellato (short: Buccell), drummer Chuck Kory and singer Scott Knight came together from various local New York bands in September 1984 to form Hittman in Huntington on Long Island . After a few months, the separation from Knight, who did not seem good enough to the other members, had to be carried out. Dirk Kennedy, who was involved in the creation of Anthrax , was attracted by an advertisement . A little later the formation was supplemented by a second guitarist named Brian Fair. In June 1985 the demo Metal Sport was created . The rehearsed material was used to open shows by Saxon , Poison , Black 'n Blue and Stryper, among others . Fair fell by the wayside in terms of professionalization. His first replacement was Greg Walls, followed by John Kristen. Around 1986 a second demo that was not intended for outsiders and was therefore unofficial was distributed to selected people from the music industry. Months then passed in ineffective conversations with a number of record labels . Meanwhile, Kennedy trained his voice under the guidance of opera - singing teacher and was then with the Queensrÿche singer Tate Geoff keep up.

On August 12, 1988, Steamhammer , which had accessed in March, released the self-titled debut album , although only the song of the same name had made it onto the album from Demo Metal Sport . Also includes a cover of the Johnny Rivers TV series tune Secret Agent Man . For the American metal listeners, Hittman's bond with the label, which was only based in Germany after a failed overseas expansion , was an obstacle, because they only got the album via import . In the interpretation of Allmusic the career was stalled, which in turn delayed the production of a second album. In contrast, the Encyclopedia of Popular Music thinks that internal group disputes have delayed the preparation of the second album. Dirk Kennedy himself explained it with the fact that the negotiations with the American label Polygram Records were initially problematic because of the requested takeover of the debut album, which had meanwhile been licensed extremely successfully by Roadracer Records , then Steamhammer reacted angrily to the poaching attempt and finally because of it Personnel change within the responsible Polygram department also jumped this company, which is why it was appropriate to stay at Steamhammer. As a result of the legal anger around the label affiliation, the upward trend stalled and the management dropped the band. The band had to abandon the planned album “Precision Killing”, but it seemed to the musicians in the meantime to be inappropriate to release an imitation-looking concept album after Operation: Mindcrime - (the mega-success of Queensrÿche) .

With the new drummer Mark Jenkins, the album Vivas Machina was started in November 1991, completed in May 1992, mixed in July, announced for August 1992 and released in the last days of January 1993. As an explanation, Kennedy said that producer Bob St. John had to deal with several jobs at the same time, including the priority production of the Extreme CD III Sides to Every Story . The appearances following the publication were sometimes very poorly attended. At an appearance in May 1993 together with Skew Siskin and Sargant Fury in Erlangen's E-Werk, which could hold around 900 visitors, only about 40 people were present. Meanwhile, the band had already written the first songs for a third album, which again had a heavier note. A tour was still carried out, but due to sagging sales and high financial commitment, the band broke up in 1994. At least that's how Allmusic sees it, the website Hotel 666 - where the metalheads reside… on the other hand, sees further legal entanglements and self-serving label politics as the cause of the separation. There was no official announcement of separation.

In 2004 Kennedy recorded the solo album Life is Now . In 2007 there were plans for a revival of Hittman, which should culminate in an appearance at the twelfth Keep It True festival. The performance was canceled due to a family bereavement that was not described in detail. So far there has not been a reunion . Mike Buccell had a fatal accident on November 11, 2013, making at least one reunion in the core cast obsolete (he was only replaced by Nick Mitchell for a short time). Kennedy cannot imagine a new edition at the moment without Buccell.

style

The Encyclopedia of Popular Music finds that the critics placed Hittman on the same level as Savatage and Accept , although there was no innovation . Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic assigns the debut to traditional Heavy Metal, which points in the demanding direction of Progressive Metal à la Queensrÿche. He sees the successor in the European power metal area. According to Stefan Gnad in the book US Metal Vol. 2 , the band called their music "Metal Sport", after which they named their first demo. The sound carrier is now considered a demo classic of the US metal scene .

The demo tapes only allowed one conclusion in finding the greatest source of inspiration, and that was Queensrÿche. Götz Kühnemund supplemented this with the musical association with Metal Church and the vocal association with Paul Davidson from Heir Apparent .

The comparison bands used to describe Hittman are in Rock Hard Queensrÿche, in Break Out also Queensrÿche, on hotel666.de Queensrÿche and Iron Maiden , in Metal Hammer Queensrÿche, Fifth Angel and Crimson Glory , on grande-rock.com first Queensrÿche, then Crimson Glory, toned down Judas Priest and, on the harmonies , Iron Maiden. Martin Popoff drew in his book The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal. Volume 2: The Eighties a comparison to the worse for him to the heavier songs by Judas Priest. Kennedy admitted the influence of Queensrÿche in Break Out , in Rock Hard he expanded his statement to include Iron Maiden and Accept.

On Vivas Machina is Hittman have detached from the model-clinging, takes hotel666.de . The rock-hard article also speaks of a move towards more commercial song structures. The song Words , for example, would have fit in nicely with Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell . This is repeated in the review , but once again pointed out that the voices are similar to Geoff Tate. According to Stefan Gnad, the album is more commercial than its predecessor. Instead of melodic Power Metal there are rockier tones with bluesy and “epic-symphonic sprinkles”, as is also the case with Queen . Kennedy's singing sounds like a cross between Bon Jovi and Geoff Tate. Mario and Stefan Flores could not have believed that the same singer was still singing on the second album. Instead, they thought the band was Bon Jovi. The break out believed to recognize a little extreme , as both bands were looked after by the same producer at the same time. Rockdetector.com even thinks that the direction they are taking is "Technical Metal". However, the Musikexpress and Andreas Schöwe ​​from Metal Hammer remained stuck with the old Queensrÿche comparison . While the Musikexpress claimed that the instrumentation tended "towards the Seattle sound ", Schöwe ​​interjected groups like Rush , Van Halen , Queen and Deep Purple .

In addition to the experiences that the band had to make over the years, the lyrics also reflect the social commitment of the politically interested vegetarian Kennedy. The piece Metal Sport , which opened most live shows, was written before Kennedy's entry; it's based on the movie Rollerball , only the game is called Heavy Metal and the players are the musicians.

Discography

  • 1985: Metal Sport (demo)
  • 1986 (?): Demo II (unofficial demo)
  • 1988: Hittman (album, Steamhammer / SPV)
  • 1988: Will You Be There (Double A Promo single, Steamhammer)
  • 1993: Vivas Machina (album, Steamhammer / SPV)
  • 1993: Words (single, Steamhammer / SPV)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Otger Jeske, Arno Hofmann, Sandra Eichner et al .: US Metal . 1st edition. tape 2 . IP Verlag Jeske / Mader GbR, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-931624-05-6 , Heir Apparent, p. 99 f .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Eduardo Rivadavia: Hittman. Artist Biography. In: allmusic.com. Retrieved December 15, 2014 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Hittman. Biography. (No longer available online.) In: rockdetector.com. Archived from the original on December 16, 2014 ; accessed on December 15, 2014 . 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
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Hittman - Heavy Metal - 372 hits. In: hotel666.de. Retrieved December 15, 2014 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e rockavlon: Hittman. In: grande-rock.com. April 5, 2014, accessed December 15, 2014 .
  6. ↑ a b Götz Kühnemund: Hittman . In: Overkill . Metal Hammer Extra. No. 2 (Summer Edition) [1986], Tape Terror, pp. 48 .
  7. ↑ a b Pat Prince: Stryper / Hittman . New York. In: Crash . The definitive hard rock & metal magazine. July – August, 1987, On Stage, p. 79 .
  8. ↑ a b Buffo [Schnädelbach]: Hittman . Hittman. In: Metal Hammer / Crash . August 1988, p. 71 .
  9. ↑ a b c Götz Kühnemund: Hitt Man . The earth in sight. In: Metal Hammer / Crash . June 1988, Overkill, p. 142 .
  10. ^ Steamhammer Presents . Hittman. In: Metal Hammer . August 1988, p. 124 (advertisement).
  11. ↑ a b c d e Buffo [Schnädelbach]: Hell á [sic] la Lindenstrasse . Hittman. In: Rock Hard . No. 69 , February 1993, p. 38 f .
  12. ↑ a b Colin Larkin (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Popular Music . 3. Edition. tape 4 : Herbal Mixture - Louvin Brothers. . Macmillan, London 1998, ISBN 0-333-74134-X , Hittman, pp. 2545 .
  13. ↑ a b c Andreas Schöwe: Hittman . Viva's Machina. In: Metal Hammer . March 1993, p. 135 .
  14. ↑ a b c d e f Christoph Kümmel: Hittman - something like an underground legend . In: Break Out . The Heavy Rock Magazine. (April – May), 1993, pp. 42 .
  15. ↑ Dirk Kennedy. (No longer available online.) In: underground-empire.com. May 24, 2004, archived from the original on December 15, 2014 ; accessed on December 15, 2014 . 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.underground-empire.com
  16. ↑ Hittman. (No longer available online.) In: underground-empire.com. January 15, 2007, archived from the original on December 15, 2014 ; accessed on December 15, 2014 . 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.underground-empire.com
  17. ↑ Hittman & Exxplorer (US) @ KIT XII. (No longer available online.) In: underground-empire.com. May 14, 2008, archived from the original on December 15, 2014 ; accessed on December 15, 2014 . 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.underground-empire.com
  18. ^ Stefan Glas: "Keep It True XII Festival". Lauda-Königshofen, Tauber-Franken-Halle. April 24-25, 2009. (No longer available online.) In: underground-empire.de. Archived from the original on December 15, 2014 ; accessed on December 15, 2014 . 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.underground-empire.com
  19. ↑ Michael R. "Mike Buccel" (sic) Bucellato †. (No longer available online.) In: underground-empire.com. November 12, 2013, archived from the original on December 15, 2014 ; accessed on December 15, 2014 . 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.underground-empire.com
  20. ↑ a b rockavlon: Hittman - Hittman. In: grande-rock.com. April 5, 2014, accessed December 15, 2014 .
  21. ^ Martin Popoff : The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal . tape 2 : The Eighties. . Collectors Guide Ltd, Burlington, Ontario, Canada 2005, ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5 , pp. 161 .
  22. ↑ Buffo [Schnädelbach]: Hittman . Vivas Machinas. In: Rock Hard . No. 69 , February 1993, 10x dynamite, p. 76 .
  23. ↑ a b Hittman . Viva's Machina. In: Musikexpress . No. 445 , February 1993, short & small, p. 71 .
  24. ^ Andreas Schöwe: Hittman . Viva's Machina. In: Metal Hammer . February 1993, p. 59 .