Various Artists — Heavy Kraut! Vol. 2: Wie Der Hardrock

The second volume of music from Bear Family records looking at the heavier end of the Krautrock spectrum. This particular volume deals with the years 1977 – 1983 and looks at the hard rock bands that would go on to influence the explosion of heavy metal music that took place in the 1980s through the NWOBHM, Thrash Metal and beyond. 

Once again, Bear Family have put together an excellent compilation of music that mixes the celebrated (Accept, Running Wild and Sinner) with the underground (Fargo, Elfenbein and Prinzip) and everything in between.  This two-CD set also comes with a comprehensive ninety four-page booklet detailing information about each artist and each track, albeit written in German, as the set is aimed at a German market. 

Fargo open up the first disc with "Comin’ Together", a funky rocker with more than a slight similarity to mark 3 era Deep Purple. This is followed by Bullfrog and the excellent "Live", another classy hard rock track with some virtuoso keyboard work. Elfenbein are next with "Lost Son", an exercise in Kossoff-esque riffery that immediately leads to Free comparisons, and whilst they’re obviously not in the same league as Messrs Kossoff, Rodgers, Kirke and Fraser, it’s a very solid track. They’re followed by Prinzip, who are perhaps the first band on this compilation to have a truly metallic sound. The track, "Sieben Meter Siedenband" reminds me of The Sweet’s more metallic moments, and perhaps Judas Priest circa British Steel. Tollhouse and their song, "Johnny" represents another solid 70s hard rock band with a hint of Free or bad Company, while Set and their song "Kipper Keule", is a fairly average slice of proggy rock, that has a riff that reminds me of Jet by Wings. Epitaph ups the ante a little with "On The Road" an organ-heavy slab of hard rock that reminds of both Deep Purple and Uriah Heep without sounding like a pastiche. The next band is Berluc, and after a Hawkwind style opening, settles into something that sits somewhere in the middle of Hawkwind’s brand of space rock and Gun. Bastard are a very typical 70s hard rock band that draw influence from the likes of Bad Company, AC/DC, and Deep Purple. The track in question, "Back To The Nature" is a solid rocker with a nice groove and a catchy chorus.  Up next is one of the true pioneers of European metal, Swiss rockers Krokus with the track "Fire" from their acclaimed album, Metal Rendez-vous, a solid entry in the ever-developing metal scene at the time. Snake are next, with their song "Day of Solution", a solid country-tinged slice of melodic rock that wouldn’t sound out of place on rock radio next to Boston and Foghat. Requiem are next with their song, "Steven", a proggier track with long piano sections and a distinct similarity to what bands like Kansas and Styx were doing at the time. Disc one’s penultimate track, "Shoot Out" is a pretty good melodic metal track by Mass, sourced from their album Swiss Connection. The disc closes with Viva and "Break Out", a proper metal anthem with a Saxon-style guitar riff that recalls "Wheels of Steel". It’s a good way to close the first disc as it’s the first track on the album that I would describe as full-blown Heavy Metal, in the vein of what would follow during the 1980s.

Disc two kicks off with a classic slice of heavy metal guitar from former Scorpions guitarist, Uli Jon Roth and his band Electric Sun, "Fire Wind" is a great song that above all else highlights Roth’s ability to write great tunes and play guitar-like his hero Jimi Hendrix. Sadly, for us and him, his vocal chops aren’t quite up there but everything else about this one is top-notch. Faithful Breath is up next with the song "Rollin’ Into Our Lives", and it’s another solid melodic hard rocker that wouldn’t sound out of place on American radio at the time. Rampage are up next with "Victims of Rock" and they really take things up a notch on the Heavy Metal scale, featuring Roland Grapow, who would go on to replace Kai Hansen in Helloween, recording eight albums with the power metal masters before getting the boot. German Heavy Metal legends, Accept are next with "Starlight"from their acclaimed Breaker album, a raucous slab of classic heavy metal with duel lead guitars and testicle-crushing screams from the legendary Udo Dirkschneider, this is one of the best tracks on the set. Bullet are next with the track "Cold Hearted Woman", an AC/DC style stomp with Brian Johnson-esque vocals. This is a good song that deserves more attention than it has had up to now. Another AC/DC clone are up next in Hamburg’s Breslau and the song "Spinne", a mid-paced rocker with a female vocalist, Jutta Weinhold of Zed Yago fame. Bauer, Garn and Dyke are next with their Status Quo style boogie, "Pyro-Manni (Feueralarm!)", reminiscent more of what Quo were famous for in the 70s than the middle-of-the-road rubbish they were purveyors of by this time, it’s a fun sing a long tune that is never going to be anyone’s favourite, but you can’t help singing along. Straight Shooter are up next with "High-Speed Lover", a Deep Purple style rocker that features some of the best Jon Lord style keyboards outside of the man himself, and a racing Purple-esque riff that wouldn’t sound out of place on Machine Head. One of the underappreciated greats of German Heavy Metal are up next, Sinner, with the track "Ridin’ the White Horse" from their debut album, Wild ‘n’ Evil. It’s a solid track that stands up against anything that was coming out of Britain or America in the early 80s. Trance are next with "Confession", a solid 80s hard rock track that vocally reminds me of the Scorpions Klaus Meine, whilst Beast and the song "Time Machine" is much more metallic in sound, featuring high-pitched screams and Maiden-esque riffs, it plays much more into traditional metal territory and sits comfortably alongside Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Mad Max are up next with their song "Free Will", and much like Accept, Rampage or Sinner, they make classic Heavy Metal. Their album Heavy Metal was self-released in 1982 by the band, so it’s really nice to hear them included in this set as they are definitely an obscurity well worth checking out. We’ve reached our penultimate track, "Rock Blooded" by Rated X, a melodic slab of classic rock that recalls the 1970s heyday of bands like Status Quo and Bad Company. That leaves us one final track and it’s a banger, German power metal pirates, Running Wild, and the track "Chains and Leather", drawn from their album, Rock from Hell. This is typical of what we’ve come to expect from German power metal bands. Running Wild are as iconic as Scorpions, Accept, Helloween or Blind Guardian when it comes to developing that German metal sound, a big sing along chorus, catchy riffs and a good driving beat, it has everything you could want from a good metal song.

Overall, this set is a cracking way to get to grips with the evolution of how German hard rock music morphed into Heavy Metal. The set features some absolute crackers from some well-known names and other less-known ones, as well as some oddities that whilst not the best tracks ever written are still worth a listen. Bear Family have put a lot of love into these compilations and it truly shows. If only more companies put this much effort into their releases, the world would be a much better place for fans of this type of music.