Atro

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roving to be one of Germany's most enduring metal bands, despite having some of the most varied and unconventional recordings of any, Atro was called a death metal innovator in 1990 with the release of their debut Hallucinations under the membership of Michael Schwarz (drums), Richard Scharff (guitar), Oliver Klassen (bass), Alex Krull (vocals) and Mathias Roderer (guitar). Their dark and technical style was further expressed on the follow-up of Todessehnsucht (re-titled as Longing For Death against their wishes when released in 1992), an album that was missing Scharff and further pushed their popularity. But it was the next release, B.L.U.T. in 1994 with Markus Knapp taking over the bass that saw their unconventional habits show through by being loosely based on a vampire theme and sounding less like their past work. The album proved to alienate and just plain confuse many fans and critics alike. It was only the start of their experimentation for the succeeding years saw them fiddling around in all sorts of styles. Die Liebe (1995) saw Christiah Lukhaup assume the bass spot, while the band also collaborated with German New Wave duo Das Ich, where-as Calling The Rain (1995) featured Alex Krull's sister Yasmin as guest on vocals, while Thorsten Bauer joined on guitars and Markus Knapp return on some tracks for bass.