Joe Hasselvander

Joe Hasselvander Biography:
Joe Hasselvander has been playing music professionally since 1966 starting at the tender age of 9 years old! A child prodigy of sorts, he started his journey in music on the violin and later the drums! He was self taught listening to his heroes, The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds! Joe regularly played the military club circuit in and around the Washington , D.C. area until 1973 when he was asked to join '50's crooners, The Platters after playing a show with them in Waldorf, Maryland! This offer was declined due to the fact that Joe had to finish high school! He later joined forces with a jazz fusion ensemble called the Ra Notra Sextet that was writing and performing extremely complicated music similar to Chick Corea or Mahavishnu Orchestra!
1975 found Joe back in to the hard rock genre playing with local D.C. rock legends The Boyz and creating quite a buzz in the Washington/Baltimore area! In 1976 Joe was asked to play in Mountain with Leslie West in a small club in Alexandria, Va.! This show became stuff of local legend in the D.C. area despite the size of the venue where it was held! 1977 Joe joined forces with Bobby Liebling and started a new and serious working version of heavy metal doom band, Pentagram! Joe's first single, "Living In A “Ram's Head" b/w "When The Screams Come"was recorded with Mr. Liebling and Joe H. sharing the production duties! In 1979 Pentagram opens for Judas Priest on the “Hell Bent for Leather” tour and later that year Joe forms heavy metal all-star band, Overlord with members of Pentagram and Link Wray's "The Pack"!
In 1981 Joe once again joins forces with The Boyz and sees the release of their first EP, “Bustin’ Out” which followed with a titanic gig with Richie Blackmoore’s Rainbow in Falls Church , Va.! Joe forms Death Row with axeman Victor Griffin in 1982 and once again recruits the services of vocalist Bobby Liebling and bassist Martin Swaney to write and record their first LP that eventually falls under the Pentagram banner on New York label Dutch East Records!
Joe moves to New York and records “Devil Childe”, “Phantom Lord” and Joe Hasselvander solo album, “Lady-Killer” featuring Joe on rhythm guitars, bass, drums and vocals with Ex-Virgin Steele axeman, Jack Starr playing the guitar solos! 1985 finds Joe working with British blues legend, Kim Simmonds performing 2 years worth of shows throughout the U.S.under the name Savoy Brown and or The Kim Simmonds Band! Only one studio demo and one live recording exists of this legendary line up including players from Blue Cheer , Cactus ,The Plasmatics and the Rods!
In September of ’87 Joe makes a cameo appearance on Pentagram’s second album “Day Of Reckoning” filling in on doom classic, “Burning Saviour”! Joe immediately records all drum guitar , bass and vocal tracks for 2nd solo album “Road Kill” on Bad Posture Records and soon after he records first demos with N.W.O.B.H.M. legends, Raven at Bearsville studios in Woodstock, N.Y.!
1988 Joe officially joins Raven and records the album “Nothing Exceeds Like Excess” for Combat Records and follows up with U.S. tour with Testament and European tour with Kreator in 1989! Soon afterward Joe rushes in to a Philadelphia studio to record with Christian metal band Armageddon for their 1st classic album “The Money Mask” and is released world wide! Raven switches labels and management over to Drakkar promotions and SPV Records in Germany and records classic metal album, “Architect Of Fear” and goes on support tour for this album with Germany’s legendary pirate rockers, Running Wild ending with gigs in Greece! Video from this tour is made in to an on-the- road “rock-umentary” entitled “Electro Shock Therapy” featuring very revealing moments with Mr. Hasselvander in his natural habitat and is released in tandem with “Heads Up” EP featuring out takes from “Architect Of Fear” and live songs from the tour! A tour with German band Risk follows in 1992!
In 1993 Joe is asked to play on a reunion album for Pentagram called “Be Forewarned” for London based Peaceville records after rerecording the drums for the 1987 album “Day Of Reckoning” to be released on CD! Soon after Joe and Victor Griffin are asked to fill in the guitar and drum slots for British doomsters, Cathedral as support band on the tour for Black Sabbath and their “Cross Purposes” album in the spring of 1994 across Europe! Joe returns to record Raven’s 7th album “Glow” on Japanese label Zero Corporation and is released in 1995! Joe travels to Los Angeles, Ca. to take part in the Foundations Forum with Raven and brings the house down! Joe is then off to Tokyo, Japan to make a live album, “Destroy All Monsters”(Live In Japan) with Raven and to make a Japanese MTV concert video! After many fire breathing super models and the Godzilla Police, “Destroy All Monsters” is released! In 1996 Joe records “Everything Louder” with Raven at Pete Evick’s studio (Guitarist of The Bret Michaels Band)! Joe and the guys fly to Europe once again to headline a tour for this album with great support acts, Tank and Hammerfall!
In 1997 Joe H. and Bobby Liebling are signed to Italian doom label, Black Widow and “Review Your Choices” is recorded with Joe playing the drums, guitar and bass guitar and Bobby doing vocal duties. Come the summer of 1999,Joe Hasselvander travels with Raven to Nashville , Tenn. To record “One For All” with the legendary producer Michael Wagner! A tour in Jan. 2000 with U.D.O. follows in Germany and later that spring in the U.S.! Joe again signs a deal with Black Widow records to record the Pentagram doom metal masterpiece, “Sub-Basement” and is released to rave reviews in 2001!
Joe plays many one-off shows with Raven in 2003 with Mark Gallagher sporting a leg cast from an injury sustained in a near death work accident in 2002! In 2003 joe travels to Florida with Jack Starr to record the album “Under Savage Skies” under the banner of Jack Starr’s Guardians Of The Flame featuring the searing vocals of Schmolik Avigal ex-Picture, The Rods! Joe Hasselvander is the producer on this album!
In 2004 Joe is asked to play two concerts in New Hampshire with his childhood idols, Blue Cheer! The shows went well and they got along famously! So much so that an album was recorded with Joe on the drums , “What Doesn’t Kill You”! 2005 comes and Joe plays the colossal German rock festivals “Keep It True” and “Bang Your Head” to an adoring crowd with Raven along side of the likes of White Snake and Foreigner! Bang your head and Keep it true are filmed and released on DVD in 2006!! Raven plays more one off festivals during 2006 and 2007!
Joe Hasselvander soon releases his 3rd solo album “The Hounds Of Hasselvander” on German heavy metal label Rock Saviour Records, this time performing everything on the album! In November,2007 Joe H. was off to England to play in the infamous ‘Hard Rock Hell” festival at the Butlins resort in Minehead! The review by Geoff Barton simply states that Raven took over the show from the likes of “Twisted Sister” “Saxon” and “UFO”! This was all followed up by a few choice dates in Holland and Belgium to very thankful and loyal fans who went wild for the band!
Joe Hasselvander plays out with a working version of his solo band, the Hounds Of Hasselvander to very enthusiastic audiences up and down the east coast of the U.S. who greatly approve of the new material featured on The Hounds CD!! Joe Hasselvander is now currently working on a brand new line up for the Hounds Of Hasselvander to tour Europe and Canada in the early spring of 2009 and is also currently gearing up for a show in Toledo, Spain with Raven along side of Doro in July 2008, and a few Raven shows in California with friends Hirax and again back to England in September for a Raven mini-tour!
“THE ROAD GOES EVER ON”