Various Artists - Bassinvaders – Hellbassbeaters

Markus Grosskopf has been a busy man for more than twenty years and he is an even busier man now. The bass player of Germany’s melodic metal legend HELLOWEEN has just released the 12th studio album called “Gambling With The Devil” with his band and is preparing for yet another extensive world tour with one of the most successful metal acts of the present. And Grosskopf has one more ace up his sleeve: it is called Markus Grosskopf’s Bassinvaders and it shows a completely new side of his musical talent. Bassinvaders has been a creation of Markus while sitting in a bar and enjoying a few drinks.

There it was that he got inspired to an impressive idea: a heavy rock record without any guitars at all. Could such a concept work out? Indeed it can! As you will experience on this first Bassinvaders-record called “Hellbassbeaters” lying in front of you. It contains all basic elements a heavy rock song really needs and so much more. You got the strong vocals, rhythmic bass, intoxicating drums and even bass & twin bass solo parts. What you hear is what you get: 100 % genuine heavy / rock record with absolutely no discordant guitar note on it at all. To guarantee a great variety of different influences Markus invited some well-known singing bass players from the German metal scene to join the band. And they didn’t need an extra invitation. In DESTRUCTION’s enfant terrible Schmier, SODOM’s frontman Tom Angelripper and RAGE boss Peavy, Markus found some real Bassinvaders-friends. To push it even further Markus invited a few of his bass heroes to play solos on some of the tracks.

When he started searching for support making this album excellent he expected to get a cautious response of 2 or 3 musicians. He ended up organizing more than 13 people for a solo appearance on the album. They named themselves – like the album title – the Hellbassbeaters: Billy Sheehan (Steve Vai, ex-Mr. Big, ex-David Lee Roth), Rudy Sarzo (DIO, ex-Ozzy Osbourne, ex-Whitesnake, ex-Quiet Riot), Lee Rocker (Stray Cats), Marco Mendoza (Thin Lizzy, ex-Whitesnake, ex-Ted Nugent), DD Verni (Overkill), Wyzard (Mother’s Finest), Dirk Schlächter (Gamma Ray), Joey Vera (Armored Saint, Fates Warning, ex-Anthrax), Stig Pedersen (D.A.D), Nibbs (Saxon), Tobias Exxel (Edguy), Jens Becker (Grave Digger, ex-Running Wild), Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69), Peter Baltes (Accept), Jan S. Eckert (Masterplan) and Michael Müller (Jaded Heart). Markus has also invited some guest singers for the songs he wrote: Apollo Papathanasio (Firewind, Time Requiem, Evil Masquerade, Majestic) and the frontman of the legendary Danish stadium rock band D.A.D – Jesper Binzer. While the guest drummers are André Hilgers (Rage, Axxis, Silent Force) and Stefan Arnold (Grave Digger).