''Heavy Metal Breakdown'' is the debut studio album by German heavy metal band Grave Digger, released on 20 October 1984 via

Noise Records Noise Records is a German heavy metal record label founded in 1983 by German music industry personality Karl-Ulrich Walterbach as an expansion of his company Modern Music Records. It was sold to the Sanctuary Records Group in 2001 and ceased an ...

. The music in this album is strongly influenced by German heavy metal band Accept and its then-vocalist

Udo Dirkschneider Udo Dirkschneider (born 6 April 1952) is a German singer who first rose to fame with the Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Accept (band), Accept. After leaving the band in 1987, he formed the band U.D.O., in which he has also enjoyed commerci ...

. Although singer Chris Boltendahl was credited for all the music and lyrics, it was only a technical issue. "At the time we didn't have the money to enroll all four members to GEMA. So we only enrolled Chris", said Gerd Hanke then-manager of Grave Digger in book ''The Story of Noise Records''. "Lyrics had always been a problem for Chris" - added guitarist Peter Masson. "His school English was quite bad. During my time with Grave Digger, Gerd wrote most of the lyrics."

Track listing

Music composed and arranged by Grave Digger and lyrics by Chris Boltendahl, except where indicated. 1984 German version 1984 US version

Notes

The 1994 bonus tracks are from the following: * "Violence" is taken from the 1983 split album ''Rock from Hell - German Metal Attack'' * "Shoot Her Down", "We Wanna Rock You" and "Storming the Brain" are taken from the 1984 EP ''Shoot Her Down'' * "Shine On" and "Tears of Blood" are taken from the 1985 split album ''Metal Attack Vol. 1'' * "Don't Kill the Children" and "Girls of Rock 'n' Roll" are taken from the 1994 compilation album ''The Best of the Eighties'' * "Stronger Than Ever" and "I Don't Need Your Love" are taken from the 1986 album '' Stronger Than Ever'', in which case they were called Digger at the time

Personnel

;Band members * Chris Boltendahl –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* Peter Masson –

guitars The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

* Willi Lackman –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

* Albert Eckardt –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

;Additional musicians *Dietmar Dillhardt – keyboards on "Yesterday" ;Production *Karl-Ulrich Walterbach – producer *

Harris Johns Harris Johns is a German music producer, active since the late-1970s in the heavy metal and punk scene, working for a lot of big-name bands, such as Helloween, Coroner (band), Coroner, Tankard (band), Tankard, Sodom (band), Sodom, Voivod (band), ...

– engineer, mixing * Grave Digger – arrangements *Bernd Gansohr – cover painting

References

1984 debut albums Grave Digger (band) albums Noise Records albums Megaforce Records albums Albums produced by Harris Johns {{1980s-metal-album-stub