The whole story begins like those of all powerful bands. With sheer enthusiasm for music.
Harald, Stefan and Andy, who knew each other since childhood decided in the beginning Eighties to form a heavy metal band. To drive their parents just a little more crazy.
Two guitar players and a singer were searching for colleagues. Meanwhile they developed the first songs. As soon as the band was complete, the played at countless parties, in youth centers and clubs. The fan community was growing and the demand for a first longplayer as well.
In 1984 STORMWITCH recorded "Walpurgis Night". By refusing to use technical means they kept their sound as true as possible. They didn't use multi track recording. They just played in the recording room. A very exhausting job, especially for the singer who had to sing over and over again due to mistakes of his companions.
The name of the album is very well chosen: it was finished exactly on Walpurgis Night.
Fans surely know the back of the cover with reepers flanking the band. The live shows of STORMWITCH at that time featured those two guys, Schladdi and Tschitschu, in a battle on stage. The scythes were sharp and rusty, so everyone had to watch out. Especially because of all kinds of traps on the floor like cables, switches and pyros. Even more especially because of the hoods deep in their faces and the 15 beers they usually drank at each show.
STORMWITCH managed to record one year later "Tales Of Terror", tough they played live a lot.
Many fans describe this album as legendary. Perhaps is this opinion enforced by the fact that the master tapes were destroyed which made further pressings or CDs impossible. The songs from "Tales Of Terror" were restored recently from original LPs.
At this time Rockfabrik Ludwigsburg organized their first festival with TYRAN' PACE and CACUMEN, who later became the very well known BONFIRE. Singer of TYRAN PACE, Ralf Scheepers, later founded GAMMA RAY together with Kai Hansen, who had left HELLOWEEN. At the moment Ralf sings with PRIMAL FEAR.
1986 STORMWITCH released "Stronger Than Heaven", produced in world record time.
Stefan, who had to graduate, and Harald, who had to work much, composed the whole material in 14 days. After the release STORMWITCH was on tour with KILLER and STRANGER. By the way: the tour was started all over again. This time it was only Andy and Ronny who had to visit all the girls, they met the first time.
One song out of "Stronger Than Heaven" later played a significant role. 1997 the Swedish Chartbreakers and STORMWITCH-Fans from HAMMERFALL covered "RAVENLORD".
On their 4th album, "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST", released in 1987, STORMWITCH recorded their first ballad. "TEARS BY THE FIRELIGHT" became a cult song and was from there on an irremovable part of each and every live program. To emphasize the title of the album, the members of STORMWITCH decided to perform from now on in medieval costumes. Because of this romantic style they were very different from all the Speed- and Trash-Bands who flooded the market. THE MASTERS OF BLACK ROMANTIC, a title created by a fan, played bigger and bigger shows, among them OUT IN THE GREEN and LORELEY.
They toured Hungary. In times of the Cold War a real adventure. They almost missed their first gig, because the custom office wouldn't let them go.
For better communication they had an attractive female translater who was instantly the center of attraction for all the band members. While the rest of the band was still discussing how to score Peter made his move. He took her to Germany and married her.
Bad Luck for all the others!
Ronny left the band a short time later and he was substituted by Andreas Jäger.
STORMWITCH recorded "Eye Of The Storm" with Andreas 1989 and they also released "Live In Budapest" the same year as a tribute to all the fans in Hungary. In Germany one had to import the album.
"Eye Of The Storm" could not win too much of the fans' favor, because the label had changed the distributor and the record was only available in small record stores. That's a pity, because songs like "RONDO A LA TURCA", "KING IN THE RING" and "Eye Of The Storm" had the quality of "RUSSIA'S ON FIRE" or "Walpurgis Night".
The following live shows featured Wolfgang Schludi on guitar, cause Harald engaged himself as the manager of the band. Wolfgang really rocked the house on stage and was a hell of a drinker what he proved together with Stefan night by night. It was the time of sex, drugs and Rock'n'Roll for STORMWITCH.
One of the roadies had to stand behind Stefan to hold him while he played (prefectly, one has to add). The commentary of the organizer: "Good alcoholist, good guitarist!"
Unfortunately this phase was too chaotic for the bass player. He went to LAZY.
STORMWITCH posted an ad in METAL HAMMER and chose Martin Albrecht. His girlfriend became manager. With Martin on bass they played several shows in the CSSR, a tour with KROKUS and open airs in Bulgaria. To be able to immigrate there was a diplomatic masterpiece. STORMWITCH was the first band who managed that!
In the Sofia National Stadion STORMWITCH was frenetically celebrated by 60.000 fans, among them a 17 year old boy - Jordan. He left his home and followed the band to Germany. But that's another Story. Tough it has to be told that all, that will further happen, has something to do with Jordan. To present him a gift on his birthday Andy and Martin recorded the song "Dance With The Witches". But first, back to the history.
The songs for "War Of The Wizards" were ready and Sony was interested. But the old label GAMA had something against it. It took two years to win the law suit. The contract with Sony was lost.
It was a bad time for Heavy Metal, anyway. Everyone was looking to Seattle. Grunge dominated the scene.
Even Iron Maiden and Judas Priest didn't sell anymore and played smaller locations. But some labels didn't follow the trend. The boss of SPV, Manfred, signed STORMWITCH and finally, in 1992, "War Of The Wizards" hit the record stores.
Unfortunately Schludi left the band. Whoever saw him together with his new group, the HANK DAVIDSON BAND, will know, that his musical skills and all his heart belongs to them. Stefan said a sad good-bye, too. He knew that with the new deal there had to come many shows and he wasn't able to play them due to his work. But you can still hear him on War Of The Wizards. On the ballad "FATE'S ON THE RISE" he is playing the acoustic guitar.
The new guitar players Joe Gassmann and Damir Uzunovic didn't have much time to prepare for the recording, but still performed great in the studio. The album was released at the scheduled date.
Apart from the ballad, that made it into the reader charts of METAL HAMMER magazine, you will find nice songs like "TIME", "MAGIC MIRROR", "WOODEN DRUM" or "War Of The Wizards".
If you are interested in lyrics you will find out that the whole album War Of The Wizards deals with "The Lord of the Rings". Altough the names had to be changed to avoid copyright problems, e.g. Aragorn became Aaron and Arwen became Arleen.
Live "WAR OF THE WIZARD" featured real sword fighting on stage that once lead to a heavy wound in the face. Blood was spilled, but the brave fighter continued to act until the last chord was played. Then the light went out and he was transported to a hospital.
As soon as STORMWITCH started to write songs for a new album a problem occured. The musical ideas of the two guitar players were miles apart from each other. WAR OF THE WIZARD was composed by the old line-up, everybody knew how to play. But now the band couldn't find a compromise. They decided to continue with one guitar player: Damir, who fitted better to the musical ideas of the others.
James Clavel's novel "Shogun" was the basis of the new album with the same title. Apart from Flamenco style in "SEVEN FACES AND TWO HEARTS" "STRANDED" and "KING OF WINDS" can be recognized as classical STORMWITCH material. The main difference is the sound. To underline the sometimes very thrilling story of the novel the band didn't toy around with sound.
At New Year's Eve party 1994 an uninvited guest appeared at the door of the house in which STORMWITCH used to practise. The friend of a friend. She felt a negative energy, asked about the history of the house and finally gave the advice to leave this house. Isn't that a crazy story?
But there was a grain of truth in the advice. The band started to argue and finally split up.
Each of the above found a new musical project that fits better to his musical ideas. Andy was able to do some things he always wanted to do. He started to write a musical for example.
Certainly STORMWITCH still played a major role in Andy's life. Apart from many fans labels asked Andy to bring the band together again. One day Markus Wosgien (Nuclear Blast) invited Andy to a HAMMERFALL show in Stuttgart, were the guys met the first time and became friends instantly. Oscar proposed that Andy should sing "RAVENLORD" at the HAMMERFALL show at the "Bang Your Head" festival. As you can see on the HAMMERFALL DVD/VHS "The First Crusade" the concert was big fun for everybody.
After this show Andy was urged by many people to relive STORMWITCH, but he denied each and every time. The right musicians were missing. What a band needs is two or three people who really stick together.
Everything changed as Martin Winkler started to produce Andy's musical. Martin and his friend Marc Oppold (Ex TYRANT and DEATH IN ACTION), both die-hard STORMWITCH fans, were exactly what Andy was looking for. After producing the song "Dance With The Witches" as a gift for Jordan the whole thing developed. Markus Wosgien brought introduced Fabian and Dominik Schwarz and Alex Schmidt to them and the WITCH was born again. Andy: "It's the right thing when you are really looking forward to the next rehearsal, because it's so much fun!". Martin and Andy started to compose and Fabian contributed songs and ideas, that were further developed by the three of them.
Dance With The Witches was entirely produced in Martin's home studio. Achim Köhler (House Of Music: BRAINSTORM, SINNER...) mixed and mastered the album, that contains many hits like the hymn "DANCE WITH THE WITHES", the rhythmic "DEVIL'S BRIDE" or the breathtaking ballad "NOTHING MORE". There's also a German version available of this song as a bonus track on vinyl.
A smashing comeback of a great and fully functional band, that regained the pure joy of playing. Their first show was a headliner job in Alta Badia/Pedraces, South Tyrol. They delivered a great set full of new songs and classics like "Eye Of The Storm", "PROMISE OF OLD", "RUSSIA'S ON FIRE" and "Stronger Than Heaven". The next show was in Wacken, but due to the very early time only a few fans were able to attend the rather mediocre show. The killer show at "Summer Breeze" coped for that. STORMWITCH were presented in the light they deserve.
A band that wrote history, but is still bursting with ideas and creativity and will bring us some more classics. The WITCH is alive!

Source : www.stormwitch.de