Darkness

At the beginning of the eighties, a new kind of
Heavy Metal music coming from the USA spread over good old Germany: THRASH METAL
!
The band DARKNESS formed in December 1984 and became an integral part of this
movement which initially took place in the underground. But in March 1985, the
band already went public with its first demo tapes. Under the name of THE EVIL
CURSE, they released three songs on tape: "Victims", "Infernal
Declaration" and "Armageddon". Although the sound quality left
much to be desired, the band won high praises. Some live gigs followed…



At the beginning of 1986, the band already
launched a second demo tape. Under somewhat bad studio conditions the songs
"The Evil Curse", "Hear The Cry", "Iron Force" and
"Kingdom Of  Death" were recorded on a tape called TITANIC WAR.
The band consequently received good reviews without exception and sold over 800
copies before the end of that year. Compared to today, that was an outstanding
achievement!



Then there was a major change: suddenly Lacky and
Olli, the latter had joined the band shortly before, were the only band members.
But then, they quickly found a new qualified band member in their circle of
acquaintances: Bruno. After Pierre was enticed away from a band they were on
friendly terms with, the line-up was complete again. New songs were written and
immortalised on the demo tape "Spawn Of The Dark One". A short time
later, Arnd boarded the ship and the journey began.



An American label made the offer to release three songs of the
last demo tape on a sampler. For this purpose these songs were recorded anew in
a studio in Duisburg and send overseas.  Besides, the band added another
new song to these songs and sent them to national record companies. Then, they
received the award of contract of the label GAMA Records from the south of
Germany.
In 1987, the debut LP "Death Squad" was released featuring an intro
and 8 songs with a running time of something more than half an hour getting to
the heart of the music. The first LP was sold worldwide and paved the band’s
way out of the underground.



In 1988, the second LP "Defenders of  Justice"
followed. The first bass player Bruno quit the band, but they quickly found an
appropriate substitute in Thomas. But, as soon as he gained a glimpse of the big
wide world, he left them to play for the band "Holy Moses". Although
countless live shows followed, planned tours did not take place again.
Unfortunately, agreements with the band "Dark Angel" had to be
cancelled due to an accident of their musicians. An agreement with
"Wehrmacht" also came to nothing and a joint tour with "Kreator"
failed to take place because of insufficient financial support of the record
company.



After many internal problems and changes of band members, the
band decided to break up at the end of 1988. A last concert at the "Zeche
Carl" (Coal Mine), a youth and culture centre in Essen, was supposed to put
an end to "Darkness".
Despite the split the record company insisted on a third album and due to this
the original band members Arnd and Lacky and the bass player Timo changed their
minds. They brought in the new singer Ray and wrote new songs. The last album
"Conclusion and Revival" was supposed to mark the end and a new
beginning at the same time.
After the release of the LP, they realised some concerts and finally toured
through Europe with the band "Mucky Pup" from New York. But on this
tour new problems developed which could hardly be overcome, so that the band was
hit by the “bad curse” some time later. "Darkness" broke up! 
Today some of the original members are playing in a German Thrash Metal Band called EURE ERBEN. They're playing old Darkness songs with german lyrics!