Thrash Legend Tankard - Hell’s Heroes VIII 2026 Interview

0:04 Hey, you love then too, Bear Censure four see Wow Crazy Your. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four cy Radio, and I'm here. With Garret singer of Tankard. Yes here at Hell's Heroes. I am super excited because I'm an old school thrash metal fan and you guys in Germany, you really did it right. Like I can't even believe it took till twenty twenty four for the four big four of thrash there to finally play together.

0:53 Yeah, it took a long time that all four bands played together. And yeah, it's ally was not so easy because every band has its own dates and activities and yeah, but that that was an amazing event in a big open air area in Germany. About it was sold out in between I don't know twenty four or forty eight hours and it was about six or seven thousand people. That was amazing. And I mean we are the smallest band of the big Toytonic four, but we would love to do this again, especially in other countries. I think that would be very interesting for especially for the old school thrash metal. I mean, you need to do here.

1:43 I do it in South America to do it some shows in Europe, but yeah, seldom have a break at the moment. And Destruction is touring together with Overkill and Testament in the States right now at the moment, so you see. But I hopefully one day we got we are able to do this again. I've completed the four. Now you're the last of the four that I've interviewed. So I've now completed the Teutonic Four. And I'm the most ugly of that four, right. But probably the best band, but probably the best band, right. Don't lie to me. Let's say you're probably the most fun man because it's all about beer instead of destruction and nuclear war. Although you started playing. One of your first songs was about that, but then like it's more fun to just have some.

2:38 You should do a tour with Bear and then you could do like the the Beer Tour. Yeah, of course we have that kind of Uh. We did everything for that kind of image with albums like Chemical Invasion in the Morning After and then in the nineties we wanted a little bit to get rid off of it, but we had totally failed, of course. But if you look back to the second album, Chemical Mason, we also had on this album some serious lyrics, and so Tanker tries always to do a good mixture of funny stuff and serious lyrics, still having a lot of fun to play that kind of music. Don't take ourselves too seriously. We are able to laugh about ourselves. And yeah, that's the way. That's all that really fits to us as persons. And yeah, hopefully later on we can have some we can have some a little bit fun with a thresh metal maniacs here tonight in Houston. We are really looking forward the very first time we play in tech.

3:43 We didn't play so many shows in the States, I think three or four. Two times we played in Baltimore at the Maryland Desk Festival, we played in Minneapolis, and today the first time in Texas, and so we are really looking forward. You're at the right place because, like Whiplash started almost the beginning of the day and there was already a serious pit. So okay, I'm. Challenging you to have a much bigger pit when you play. Yeah, we have much bigger guys, as you can see at my belly. And I just still have a great idea you could do a thing a tour that's like the Battle of the thrash. You could have the Big Four of Teutonic thrash and the Big Four here in the USA, and you have like a battle.

4:32 And you can organize it, right, I would. Be happy to listen. I commend you because back in the eighties I sang thrash metal and I really sucked. And it's hard. Like people don't realize how hard it is to do what you do. It's not so easy. I mean it's a very fast and heavy form of metal and it's not so easy to play it live. Yeah, especially especially for the drummer. Well that's true. I always wonder how the drummer can play after all these years, Like in the beginning, you're young. This is a different drummer because our normal drummer is not able to play today. So this is our producer, Martin.

5:23 He did our last tour two albums, One Foot in the Grave and Pavlo Stocks. And by the way, he's a great drummer. So yeah, see I love those stories. Somebody like him already a couple. Of times with us when the other drummer is not able. It's because we all we all have you know, we of hell have serious normal jobs in our in our lives and we do this kind of semi professional I mean still playing thirty forty show in a year, traveling around all over the world. But yeah, we are not able to do everything. So yeah, that's on the one hand, we are totally free independent. We can do what we want. Yeah, nobody has to tell us something what we have to do, how the next album should sound, or something like that.

6:20 On the other hand, it's yeah, it's very sad because we have so many offers to play all over the world, and yeah, there are still some countries are missing after forty four years, is. There one that you really want to play in that you haven't played yet? Yeah, we would like to play in Canada for example. We would like to play in China. We would like to play in South Caro, South Korea. We would love to play in India. I don't know. Nice. And how would you compare playing in Germany compared to playing here in the US. I mean everything is well organized here and yeah, same like in Europe. Everything is organized and especially the metal fans are all over the world. They have the same spirit.

7:08 You're the brother and yeah, I love this kind of music because if you if you, if you are you know, if you're yellow, white color, black color, if you have long hair, short hair, if you have one hundred and twenty kilos like me, if you have fifty kilos, yeah you're the metal brother and that's awesome. I love this kind of stuff. We will see tonight what kind of differences we have to Europe. I guess tonight there are some fresh metal fans, maybe also from Mexico. Yeah yeah, and there was a Mexican fresh metal band that played yesterday. Ah okay, so yeah, so we are really looking forward that there will be some old school thresh metal fans and to have a harbor party together. And yeah, getting.

8:01 More nervous now, yeah, but you know how it is. Once you get up there, I won't. If I won't get nervous, it won't be no more fun. And once you get if it be too normal to go on stage and I have to quit. But I still love this and I'm still nervous. You see it touch me. I'm still nervous. That's what creates the energy though. You know, hopefully what was it that got you into this, like going all the way back? What made it like this is what I want to do? Oh, this is a very difficult question. I think, so getting getting the very first record contract, and yeah, recording the first album. Then this kind of moment you've held your vinyl, your first own vinyl in your hands. I think that was a that was a moment in my life.

8:59 That was yeah, a little bit proud of it. And then yeah, we kept on going who is. Your favorite band? Before you were even a band. So we were Frank and me, we were really we were really grown up with a new wave of British heavy metal. My first metal show was sexon in Nice eighty one I think. And then of course we were really influenced at the all the bands coming from the Bay Area. First Exodus, first Layer, first Metallica album, and I always mentioned some of you say it's more speed metal, the first Excited album, heavy Metal Maniac, this is one of the five albums I love that all time faves albums.

9:52 And yeah, my these were really the influences. We heard the first Exodus, we said what the fuck is? Oh my god? Now first when we are about thirteen fourteen years old, the new wave of British heavy metal with all the big bands like Sex and Judas Breeze our Maiden, but also with the smaller bands, Tank Jaguar and yeah, all these bands and yeah, but when we heard the first Exodus, the first Slayer, the first Metallica, the first Venom album black metal, what the fuck is that? Well, you're gonna be jealous now, because I was at the first Slayer show ever and the forever and the first besides like at a backyard party, but first real show and Metallica's first show ever before they went to the Bay Area when they were in LA and then they ditched us for all those hair metal bands. So me and my bro used to hitchhike up to the Bay Area and that's where I saw Excess for the first time. I was like, oh my god, crazy, teach me a lesson in violence, that's what I wanted to know.

11:01 The first time I saw Metallica was in eighty four supporting Twisted Sister in my hometown city, Frankfurt, and then there was a tour Exodus, Venom and a Tom tom Craft was an English band. It was eighty five. I saw Exodus the first time. I was at the show where Venom, Slayer, and Exos played together. In the States, Venom was banned from the States for quite a while then they came and Kronos backstage punched out tom Ariah because you're like, you're not black metal, We're black metal, and it was it was so funny story, right, oh man. But see then that led me the bands like You and Creator and Destruction because I wouldn't know them in La But I used to this record store in the valley. I was telling I've told this story a lot this weekend because a lot of bands I played here they knew exactly what I was talking about. There was this record store called OZ Records in the valley and there was this record store clerk there and he used to say to me, here, listen to this. I remember when he gave me welcome the hell and he said, listen to this. I went home and I was used to like.

12:18 You, my record player is broken or something. I was like, I'm reading the lyrics, and I know it was pretty funny. I'm reading the lyrics. I'm like, oh, this is pretty scary because you know you're used to mate in and price to that, and this was like, oh my god. And then so he used to, you know, have all the imports too. So that's how I found out about your band and all the Teutonic Thrash. That was Brian Slagel metal Blade Records. When he first started it, he was just a record store clerk and he would recommend all the you know, albums that were on the label or the imports that were great, and how I found out.

13:00 So I thank him. So we we signed with Noise Records and they had Creator Halloween, Voivot, the Celtic Frost and was a very leading label in the eighties. So now what you got coming on the horizon? Are you going to do anything really cool? Next? After Hell's Heroes. We go to South America next, that's pretty cool. We're gonna play six shows Brazil, Argentina, uh, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. Nice and yeah, playing festivals in summer, playing some club shows, not so much in Germany this year with Novak and we're traveling around in Europe and yeah, so and next year maybe we tried to record a new album, but nothing, nothing is, nothing is ready to yet and yeah, well let's see.

14:02 There's always gonna be. You could talk about nuclear warlike in the eighties still now and there's always beer. So you got plain or right. About Yeah, we I think we don't change this kind of yeah, some funny stuff, a good mixture of funny stuff and wait and yeah. So looking forward next year, we're hopefully going to celebrate our forty fifth birthday. This is a blow your mind. With that kind of music. I mean, Frank and me getting sixty next year. I mean, this is really Did you. Ever even conceive of the fact that you would be even saying that when you first started this?

14:43 No, never, never, right, we thought never about that when we started in school. And yeah, forty four years later, we're still here and this is. Yeah. On the one hand, of course, we are really proud of it. On the other hand, we are really thankful for the people for their support. I mean, yeah, supporting such an old band, you know, such ugly guys. This is amazing. You know. It is kind of wild though, if you think about when we were kids going the shows, we wouldn't have gotten the shows if there were people our age there, like and it's cool now. I took my son in his first mash pit and two of my grandsons in their first mash pit, Like my dad would have never gotten into a mosh pit, like he was listening like Frank Sinatra or something he used to say, turn that shit down. But man, I'm so pumped that you're gonna be here at Hell's Heroes. I can't wait for your set and I thank you for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man.

15:41 Thank you for you kind woods, and we all meet us at fucking Hell. Yes, this is Garagna tank It. You're listening to Pipemin W four c Y Metal will Never Die. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin on W for CUI Radio.