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Biografia : Together (NL)

Apeldoorn is the city of Together, at least for 80s Dutch Heavy Metal fans. The name seemed obvious when the guys started the band in the 70s as they were literally together. First they called themselves "Together Rock". In those days the band was a coverband which played covers from Nugent, Gallacher and Status Quo.

After quite some line-up changes, the band was in 1978 in their classic line-up (see above) and started to make demo's. The band became directly well-known in their region because of their very great live shows. A fan base was growing and manager Jan Scheffers was promoting the band anywhere he could. Two demo's were made from the which the "Burn in Hell" demo had the most success. 1300 copies of this demo were sold in a very short time !! The song "Burn in Hell" appeared on the compilation tape "When the Hammer Comes Down". A compilation tape with demo bands looking for a recorddeal. The result was their vinyl debut in 1984 on the legendary "Dutch Steel" compilation LP with the song "Ready to Die". A great song which is Classic Heavy Metal in it's most pure form. This attracted the Belgium Mausoleum label and showed interest. However, the band already had plans to make an LP themselves, so the band took their fate in their own hands and payed the recording themselves.

The 4 songs: "Grab Your Mind", "Traveller", "I've got your Number" and "No Matter" were recorded in the Seagull Sound Studio in Den Helder with producer Niki Buzz pushing the buttons. Earlier in the year (still '84) they met Niki at a Lita Ford/Martyr concert in Amsterdam and they asked him to produce the album.
After this recording the band took the deal with Mausoleum. The only thing was that Mausoleum wanted to have a remix of the already recorded songs. For this they went to the Stable Studio from Jos Kloek and there the album got remixed with only the drums newly recorded. The total time they needed to complete the MLP was two weeks.

The result was the MLP "Playing Games". The first reactions were quite good, although most heard reaction was that Together was more a live band and didn't succeed to put their live energy on vinyl (the "RAVEN syndrome" ?).

But sadly the MLP didn't have the impact/success the band was hoping for. Although the band continued a few years, with a new drummer (Rob Visser), it meant the end of Together.

Nowadays most of the guys still live in Apeldoorn and still into metal. But, due personal problems, a reunion will not be possible, but their brilliant song "Burn in Hell" appeared on the 3rd HM Maniacs compilation.

Source : http://www.hollandheavymetal.nl/together.html