Paul Speckmann
Paul Speckmann (born September 28, 1963 in Chicago ) is an American metal singer and bassist . He showed an influence on early death metal in his role as bassist for the band Master .
In 1999 he left his home country and moved to the Czech Republic .
Life
Youth and musical career
On the high school his interest started Hard Rock and Heavy Metal . Especially bands like Black Sabbath and Judas Priest had caught his attention. He got into the cover band White Cross and played there as a bassist.
When he left high school in 1980, he formed the doom metal band War Cry with Marty Fitzgerald and Steve Ahlers . The band had two demos and a contribution to the " Metal Massacre IV " sampler from Metal Blade Records , which consisted of the song Forbidden Evil . Concerts for the bands Queensryche and Twisted Sister opened and a certain underground status was achieved. At War Cry Speckmann met Bill Schmidt.
The time at Nuclear Blast Records
Together with Bill Schmidt, Speckmann founded the band Master in 1983 . After a long search, a suitable guitarist was found in Chris Mittelbrun. Since all members were now fixated on young hard bands like Slayer and Venom , they also decided to play harder music than with War Cry. A short time later, in 1984, Speckmann and Mittelbrun founded the band Death Strike and recorded an album that was to appear on Combat Records , but was not released until 1991 by Nuclear Blast . In 1985 Speckmann founded the band "Funeral Bitch" with new musicians. Death Strike was dissolved after the disappointment about the non-release of the album " Fuckin 'Death " and Funeral Bitch only lasted two years until 1987.
At the beginning of 1987 Paul Speckmann only played with Masters. However, in the same year he founded the band Abomination , whose style consisted of a mix of Thrash Metal and Death Metal.
With Abomination, Speckmann released two demos before the band received a record deal with the German music label Nuclear Blast in 1989 . Here was debut album of Abomination published at the same time, this was the first official release, was involved in the Paul Speckmann. After that he also got a record deal for Masters. Speckmann released a total of six albums over the course of two years. Among them were two master albums, two subscription albums, the previously unreleased Death Strike album and an album by the band Speckmann Project .
The music press saw this flood of publications as a pure sell-out, especially since the song material from Death Strike and Speckmann Project was largely used and published by Masters. In 1993, Speckmann's last album, the Collection of Souls, was released on Nuclear Blast, with which the contract expired and Speckmann was again without a record deal.
Relocation to Europe
Only five years later, where a demo and a split - EP were recorded, Paul Speckmann got to master a record deal on Pavement Music . The split EP was released in 1996 together with the Dutch Excision , during which Speckmann got to know some Dutch musicians and founded the band Solutions with them . With this Speckmann published a mini album in 1997. A short time later, Solutions dissolved again. In 1998 Master completed a tour together with Malevolent Creation and Krabathor . Speckmann got to know the Czech musicians from Krabathor, which resulted in a close friendship. In 1999 Speckmann emigrated to the Czech Republic and was hired by Krabathor for Bruno, who had since left the company. In the same year Speckmann and a few other Krabathor members formed the band Martyr , which released an album in 2000.
All the albums from the Speckmann projects from the late nineties were released by the German System Shock label. However, the record deal with Master, Speckmann's actual main band, expired in 2004. As a result, Master finally received a new contract with the label "Twilight" in 2005. The last two albums were also released there.
Speckmann is currently still working as a tour manager and merchandiser for Bruchstein Tours.
meaning
Its importance for the development of Death Metal is particularly evident in the second half of the 1980s. At this time, the demos of his first three bands, Master , Deathstrike and Abomination, were copied into the tape trading scene. Many music groups greeted Speckmann or his bands in the thank you and greetings lists in the booklet of their publications. For example, greetings to him and his bands can be found in the booklets of Deaths Leprosy or Terrorizers World Downfall .
Other groups such as Pestilence , Disharmonic Orchestra and Defecation wore Master T-shirts on band photos long before Master's debut album was released in 1990.
When asked who invented death metal, Speckmann answered in an interview in Rock Hard magazine in 1993. There is a tribute sampler on which Benediction and Death covered songs by Master, among others . Which in turn shows by whom these bands were influenced.
When the debut albums by Master and Abomination came out in 1990 , numerous other death metal bands had already had record deals and releases (e.g. Possessed , Morbid Angel and Bolt Thrower ), which in turn led to the Music of the bands became available to a wider audience and they had become more influential.
discussion
Paul Speckmann was accused by many critics of having sold out. He responded to this criticism by pointing out that the releases of Speckmann Project and Death Strike were an idea of the then label Nuclear Blast . Speckmann Project was actually not a band of its own, but only brought into being by Speckmann to re-record Master's debut album , as the label considered the original quality to be too poor. The debut album was finally released despite the concerns, while the newly recorded version was released under the name Speckmann Projekt . Through these releases, Speckmann and his various music groups came up with a total of six albums that were released within just two years and on which the song material partially overlapped.
Discography
Was cry
- Trilogy Of Terror (Demo, 1983)
- Demo '84 (1984)
master
- Demo (1985)
- Master / Abomination ( Split-7 " - EP , 1990)
- Master (1990)
- On The Seventh Day God Created ... Master (1991)
- Collection Of Souls (1993)
- Demo (1995)
- Master / Excision ( split 7 " - EP , 1996)
- Faith Is In Season (1998)
- Live At Mexico City (Live Video, 2000)
- Follow Your Savior (EP, 2001)
- Let's Start A War (2002)
- Unreleased 1985 album (2003, original recordings from 1985)
- Pieces (Compilation, 2003)
- The Spirit Of The West (2004)
- Everything Is Rotten (Demo, 2005)
- Four More Years Of Terror (2005)
- Slaves to Society (2007)
- The Human Machine (2010)
- The New Elite (2012)
- The Witchhunt (2013)
- An Epiphany of Hate (2016)
- Vindictive Miscreant (2018)
Death Strike
- Fuckin 'Death (demo, 1985)
- Demo (1990)
- Fuckin 'Death (album, 1991)
Funeral bitch
- Demo 1 (1985)
- Demo 2 (1987)
- Funeral Bitch (demo, 1987)
Subscription
- Demo 1 (1988)
- Demo 2 (1989)
- 7 " split with Master (1990)
- Abomination (1990)
- Tragedy Strikes (1991)
- The Final War ( EP , 1998)
- Curses Of A Deadly Sin (1999)
Speckmann Project
- Speckmann Project (1992)
Walpurgis Night
- Live Demo (1997)
Martyr
- Murder X: The End Of The Game (2000)
Krabathor
- Unfortunately Dead (2000)
- Dissuade Truth (2003)
The Architects of Hate
- Pure Hate EP (2008)
more publishments
- Speckmann - God Created Master (Best of with songs from various bands) (2001)
- Masterpieces (Best of with inter alia Master and Abomination songs) (2005)
- Cadaveric Poison - Metal on Metal Records
Others
- All publications of the native American appeared on German music labels, only during the contract period with the German System Shock label were two master albums licensed for the American market by Pavement Music (USA).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Speckmann, Paul |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American metal singer and bass player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 28, 1963 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chicago |