Wardance

Wardance
General information
origin	Herxheim , Germany
Genre (s)	Speed ​​metal
founding	1986
resolution	1996
Website	www.wardance-germany.de
Founding members
singing	Sandra Schumacher
guitar	Franz Römer (until 1991)
guitar	Thomas Heyer (until 1991)
bass	Thomas Glaser (until 1988)
Drums	Stefan Humbert (until 1995)
Last occupation
singing	Sandra Schumacher
Bass, guitar	Markus Wawersich (from 1988)
guitar	Karsten Schulz (from 1994)
bass	Michael Leiner (from 1994)
Drums	Georg Michaelis (from 1995)

Wardance was a German speed metal band. Wardance was founded in 1986 in Herxheim near Landau ( Rhineland-Palatinate ) and dissolved in 1996.

history

In August 1986 the band was founded under the name Destroyer . The guitarist Thomas Heyer was found as the last member by advertisement and so the band made their concert debut in a discotheque a few months later , followed by performances in youth centers. In 1988 Markus Wawersich replaced founding member Thomas Glaser on bass. Since there were several bands with this name and to differentiate them from a hooligan group from the area, the name - based on the anthrax song Indians - was changed to Wardance . In 1988 the band released the mini LP Crucifixion, which was produced at their own expense in the Katapult Tonstudio ( Karlsruhe ) . The debut was only available as a vinyl edition .

The band became an insider tip across borders and played in the GDR in the summer of 1989 . Charly Rinne signed Wardance with his record company No Remorse Records . In August 1989 the album Heaven Is for Sale was recorded in the Katapult recording studio . The Warlock / Doro / Rage guitarist Rudy Graf contributed solos to three pieces as a guest musician . In addition to their own compositions, the band adapted the 1964 song The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals . The album was released in February 1990. Unlike the amateurishly drawn Crucifixion cover, which was also called "cult", this cover was designed by the artwork artist Andreas Marshall and caused a media stir because of its "funny details".

Wardance played in the opening act for Overkill , Blind Guardian , Tankard , Living Death and Angel Dust , among others . Towards the end of 1990 there were artistic and personal differences between the musicians, which led to the band breaking up in the summer of 1991 while working on the third album.

In 1994 Wardance made a comeback . Sandra Schumacher, Markus Wawersich and Stefan Humbert were still there from the original cast. Karsten Schulz and Michael Leiner completed the line-up and the style developed from speed metal to more complex compositions. Hans-Georg Michaelis replaced Stefan Humbert on drums in 1995 and the demo Dance to the Beat of Life With the Spirit of Youth was recorded in September of the same year. In addition to the new formation's own compositions, the neverending story was also an unpublished, German-language piece that was created under the original line-up. In 1996 Wardance broke up after a lengthy legal battle with the production company of the demo.

style

For Matthias Mader (co-author of the book Heavy Metal - Made in Germany ), Crucifixion is "quite boring, somehow disoriented Melodic Speed ​​Metal" and Heaven Is for Sale is "ordinary Speed ​​Metal mediocrity". "[M] elodious Speed ​​Metal" was Frank Albrecht's style definition in Rock Hard . He missed independence, however, and where this was even rudimentary, as with House of the Rising Sun , it turned into embarrassment. The Metal Hammer also objected. Its editor Matthias Breusch recognized a lack of willingness to take risks in the form of a static way of playing the consistently conventional arrangements. Jan Michael Dix once described the style in the Metal Star as "flawless, no-frills speed", another time as "interesting, cleverly arranged speed metal". He highlighted the "beautiful Harmony leads" that provided melodiousness, and gave Blind Guardian and the early Helloween as references .

Wardance did better in the fanzines than in the established subscription magazines. In Livewire Jörgx wrote that there is "groovy melodic speed numbers", but also quieter pieces such as a blues . The daring adaptation of House of the Rising Sun also met with approval. Crucifixion trumps with “hard heavy metal and speed metal”, wrote Jürgen Tschamler in Thunderbolt . One remains “close to the melody; which is strongly supported by really good rhythms [sic] and breaks. In Heaven Is for Sale if it were "Speed Metal in reinster form." The (unnamed) Speedgickerl reviewer chose the characterization "melodious, versatile and very energetic Heavy Metal".

Sandra Schumacher's vocal performance was even more controversial. Tschamler was also aware of this when he spoke of a "point of contention". He himself found that he heard a “voice worth hearing with that certain touch”. It was marked by aggression; she just didn't have a “fabric softener timbre”. The spectrum of judgments ranged from “competitive” to “by no means mature, but bursting with youthful energy” to “squeaking” and “annoying”. Within the Metal Hammer there was a cautiously positive and an unreservedly positive assessment. Breusch said in his Crucifixion review: "[T] he singing by Sandra Schumacher actually goes through (with some reservations) as singing". A year later, an article about female metal singers said that Schumacher had a "fresh, cheeky and fresh, but above all powerful voice that put the finishing touches to both Wardance's speed metal material and mid-tempo songs".

In a retrospective album review from 2009, Frank Heise put his conclusion in the headline in the online magazine the-pit.de : “A strong piece of German Melodic Speed ​​Metal”. Heise also mentioned the controversy surrounding the singer's singing style in his retrospective. He considered whether this could have been the reason for the lack of success, and considered it to be "original and unbent". His review ends with the following summary: “What a shame, with the right label behind you, who knows where the band would be today”.

Discography

Crucifixion
Studio album by
Publication (s)	February 1988
admission	1987
Format (s)	LP
Genre (s)	Speed ​​metal
Title (number)	8th
production	Kai Schlünz
Studio (s)	Katapult recording studio, Karlsruhe

Heaven is for sale
Studio album by
Publication (s)	February 1990
admission	August 1st to 15th, 1989
Label (s)	No Remorse Records (NRRD 1013)
Format (s)	LP, CD
Genre (s)	Speed ​​metal
Title (number)	10 (LP) 12 (CD)
production	Kai Schlünz
Studio (s)	Katapult recording studio, Karlsruhe

Dance To The Beat Of Life With The Spirit Of Youth
Studio album by
Publication (s)	unpublished
admission	September 1995
Format (s)	MC
Genre (s)	Speed ​​metal
Title (number)	5
production	Franz Römer
Studio (s)	Jablowski recording studio, Billigheim-Ingenheim

Crucifixion

1. Intro: crucifixion
2. Neverending Nightmare
3. Chonda's Dream
4. Killing Snow
5. Don't play with fire
6. Friday the 13th
7. Serious negroes and his mossy egg molesters
8. Outro: Fuck Off

Heaven is for sale

1. Heaven is for sale
2. Destroyer
3. Believe
4. Neverending Nightmare
5. I don't love you anymore
6. Overture
7. Don't play with fire
8. Death Caress
9. Paris In Fear
10. House Of The Rising Sun (Original from The Animals, 1964)
11. Friday The 13th (CD only)
12. Blues (CD only)

Dance To The Beat Of Life With The Spirit Of Youth

1. Megalomaniacs
2. Wild beauties
3. the never ending Story
4. Friend Of Mine
5. HTW (Honky Tonk Woman) (Original by The Rolling Stones )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thomas Heyer: Wardance. 1986 - 1996. One Decade of Speedmetal. The first time. In: thomas-heyer-hh.de. Retrieved April 23, 2018 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Jan Michael Dix: Wardance . In: Metal Star . Europe's Leading Hardrock Monthly. April 1990, p. 76 f .
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Matthias Mader: Wardance . In: Matthias Mader, Otger Jeske, Arbo Hofmann et al. (Ed.): Heavy Metal - Made in Germany . 1st edition. IP Verlag Jeske / Mader GbR, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-931624-08-0 , p. 208 .
4. ↑ Wardance. The story of Wardance. In: thomas-heyer-hh.de. Retrieved April 23, 2018 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Stefan Glas: Wardance. Heaven is for sale . In: Metal Hammer . The international hard rock & heavy metal poster magazine. No. 15-16 / 1990 , July 27, 1990, LP reviews, p. 58 .
6. ↑ ^{a b} Metal Queens. Women in Rock. Fantastic All-Girl Fan Mag . In: Metal Hammer . Hard rock & heavy metal poster magazine. No. 9/90 , April 27, 1990, Sandra Schumacher, p. 45–56 , here p. 52 .
7. ^ ^{A b} Frank Albrecht: Wardance. Heaven is for sale . In: Rock Hard . No. 42 , August 1990, pp. 51 .
8. ^ ^{A b} Matthias Breusch: Wardance. Crucifixion. Self-distribution . In: Metal Hammer . Hard rock & heavy metal poster magazine. No. 18/1989 , August 25, 1989, LP's, p. 42 .
9. ^ ^{A b} Jan Michael Dix: Wardance. Crucifixion . In: Metal Star . Europe's Leading Hardrock Monthly. No. 3/1989 , March 1989, LP's.
10. ↑ Jan Michael Dix: Wardance. Heaven is for sale . In: Metal Star . Europe's Leading Hardrock Monthly. No. 7/1990 , July 1990, LP's, p. 58 .
11. ↑ Jörgx: Wardance. "Heaven Is for Sale". NRR / Virgin . In: Live Wire . January 19 / February / March, January 1990, Metal on Vinyl, p. 45 .
12. ↑ ^{a b} Jürgen [Tschamler]: Wardance. Crucifiction [sic] . In: Thunderbolt . April 1989.
13. ↑ ^{a b} Jürgen Tschamler: Wardance. Heaven is for sale . In: Thunderbolt . 1990.
14. ↑ ^{a b} Dieter: Wardance. Crucifixion. Mini-LP (self-distribution) . In: Speedgickerl . March 1989.
15. ↑ Frank Heise: Wardance: Heaven Is for Sale. A strong piece of German Melodic Speed ​​Metal. In: the-pit.de. Alexander van Stein, November 8, 2009, accessed August 10, 2018 . 

Web links

• Website