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FERDY DOERNBERG , who should be known as a member of the chartstorming AXEL RUDI PELL-Band but has also worked with many different artists like ULI JON ROTH ( ex- SCORPIONS ), DESTRUCTION, HELLOWEEN, TOM ANGLRIPPER ( SODOM ), CRMSON GLORY, JEFF KOLLMAN ( UFO ), JOHN WESLEY HARDING, GAMMA RAY, BRAINSTORM, DOMAIN, TARAXACUM and many others and has also released 3 soloalbums as a singer/songwriter so far has now reformed his first and main band ROUGH SILK .
The new bandmembers ANDRÉ HORT ( bass ) , MIKE MANDEL ( guitars ) and ALEX WENN ( drums ) are young and hungry musicians from the Hanover-area who bring fresh blood and ethusiasm into the band and the most important news is, that after the last albums before the split were very experimental, the new album scheduled for early 2007 will definitely will sound like METAL again !!!!!!!!!
ROUGH SILK were founded in 1989 by FERDY DOERNBERG ( keyboards, slide-guitars & vocals ), HILMER STAACKE ( guitars ), JAN BARNETT ( lead vocals, guitars ), RALF SCHWERTNER ( bass, vocals ) and HERBERT HARTMANN ( drums, vocals ) and have released 8 albums ( “Rough Silk†– 1991, Roots of Hate“ – 1993, „Walls of Never“ – 1994 , „Circle of Pain – 1996, „Mephisto – 1997, „Beyond the sundown“- 1998“, “Symphony of Lifeâ€- 2001 and “End of Infinity†– 2003 ) and one best-of-album ( „Wheels of Time“– 1999 ) before they split up after some line-up-changes in 2003.
ROUGH SILK have definitely created an own style. The name says it all : „Rough“ stands for the real heavy ( sometimes even trash- ) metal influences and „Silk“ for the unusual singer-songwriter-elements and piano-parts.
After the success of the first albums ( especially the band´s 1994-breakthru-album “walls of never†) they could build a good reputation as a live-act by suporting bands like HELLOWEEN , DEEP PURPLE , DIO , SAVATAGE, MANOWAR, FATES WARNING , ACCEPT , MAMA´S BOYS, WHITESNAKE , AXXIS , EUROPE, SAXON, CROSSROADS, and VICIOUS RUMORS as well as BOB GELDORF, ROGER CHAPMAN or JEFF HEALEY
The original members JAN BARNETT and HILMER STAACKE ( who unfortunately died in 2006 because of an asthmatic stroke ! ) left the band after the 3rd and the 5th album and had been replaced by THOMAS LUDOLPHY ( vocals ) and ANDREAS LASCHEWSKI who was later replaced ( after just one album – “circle of pain†) by NILS WUNDERLICH ( guitars ). The original drummer HERBERT HARTMANN left the band after the 4th album in 1995 and got replaced by Ferdy´s brother CURT before he rejoined the band in 2001 for the album „Symphony of Life“ , that was co-produced by JON OLIVA, the mastermind of the legendary US-metal band SAVATAGE, who also sang a duet with Thomas on the album. The band and Oliva became friends as ROUGH SILK were supporting SAVATAGE on two European tours.
In March 2002 THOMAS LUDOLPHY left the band due to personal reasons but only a few minutes later it was clear, that they would not look for a new singer. On the band´s last album before the split, “End of Infinityâ€, Doernberg, Hartmann & Wunderlich shared the lead-vocals. That worked pretty well and in the live-situation it also did but after more than 40 shows as a four-piece it was obvious, that Doernberg, who wanted to stick to the roots and keep the band heavy and the other 3 bandmembers, who were more into prog-rock and pop, had no common vision anymore.
So after a successful show at a metal-festival in Peine where they had performed the “old†metalsongs from the first albums plus some of the heavier newer tunes one more time, it was definitely over.
Doernberg stayed busy playing in the studio and on stage with acts like ULI JON ROTH ( ex- SCORPIONS ), DESTRUCTION, CHRIS CAFFREY ( SAVATAGE ), WARREN DE MARTINI ( RATT ), BOBBY RONDINELLI ( RAINBOW, BLACK SABBATH ), ROBBIE KRIEGER ( THE DOORS ), GRAHAM BONNETT ( RAINBOW ), DON DOKKEN ( DOKKEN ) , ROY Z, POWERGOD, TONY FRANKLIN ( BLUE MURDER / WHITESNAKE ), CHRIS POLAND ( MEGADETH ), JEFF SCOTT SOTO, DAVID PAICH ( TOTO ), BRAINSTORM, DOMAIN and many others as well as he toured again with AXEL RUDI PELL & JEFF KOLLMAN but even though he also performed his original music doing many solo-shows as a singer/songwriter something was missing.
So he started looking for young and hungry musicians to form a new metal band :
ANDRÉ HORT , who had been ROUGH SILK´s webmaster for a few years already, was an obvious choice. André had opened up for ROUGH SILK with his band A.O.D . a few times and after the band had split up, A.O.D .´s guitarplayer MIKE MANDEL also joined the newborn group. They started writing together and after a while it was obvious, that the music still sounded a lot like the metal-side of ROUGH SILK combined with some fresh new influences but definitely without the pop & progrock-experiences of the last albums.
Originally they had planned to give the band a new name but now Doernberg had to realize, that his songwriting style makes a metal-song automaticly sound like ROUGH SILK. So they decided to become the “new†ROUGH SILK !
A few months later they gave it a try opening up for the legendary american speed-metal-band AGENT STEEL. And it went very well !
It wasn´t too easy to find a drummer but after a few wrong choices they finally found the perfect guy : ALEX WENN , a talented young drummer, who had worked with Spencer ( Shark Island / MSG ) and many others before and also teaches at a drumschool.
Because Mike and André come from the trash- and death metal-scene their way of playing is very agressive and up to date and brings an exciting contrast to the old songs and Doernberg, who plays more guitar and less keyboards, is now the only lead singer and frontman of the band and because of the experience of his solo-shows and from the last Rough Silk line-up he surprisingly became a very good entertainer who really seems to enjoy his new position in the center of the stage a lot.
At the moment the band is recording their new album.
It will be called : “A NEW BEGINNING†( !!!! ) ...... and it will sound heavier than ever !!!!!!!!!
Stay tuned !!!!!!!!