Bassinvaders (also known as Markus Grosskopf's Bassinvaders) is the

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

-focused side project of

Helloween Helloween is a German power metal band founded in 1984 in Hamburg by members of bands Iron Fist, Gentry, Second Hell and Powerfool. The band has at times been called one of the most influential European heavy metal bands of the 1980s. Its first ...

bassist

Markus Grosskopf Markus Grosskopf (born 21 September 1965) is a German musician best known as the bass guitarist, backing vocalist and a founding member of the power metal band Helloween. Biography Grosskopf started playing bass at the age of 15 when he became ...

. The project is a unique heavy metal experiment which features only the bass guitar and does not include any conventional six-string electric or acoustic guitars. The project focuses on the bass guitar showcasing lead solo bass guitar, rhythm bass guitar and actual bass guitar along with accompanying drums. The original project line-up consists of only Grosskopf himself, although many guest bassists, vocalists and drummers are featured in the debut album of the project.

History

The side project was created and in the actual line up only features

, most notably the bass player for German

power metal Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within a symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in co ...

band

and also a bassist for

Tobias Sammet Tobias Sammet (born 21 November 1977) is a German musician, songwriter, and music producer. He is the singer and primary songwriter of the power metal band Edguy, and the founder of the metal opera project Avantasia. Career Sammet founded Edgu ...

symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-genre style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitars ...

project

Avantasia Avantasia is a German Supergroup (music), supergroup rock opera, metal opera project created by Tobias Sammet, vocalist of the band Edguy. It has been characterized as a rock opera, as it features the contributions of various vocalists and music ...

and

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

group Kickhunter. While he was sitting in the bar and drinking, Grosskopf was inspired to create a bass guitar based band, which would feature no guitars at all, and instead will focus on the bass, and will feature a lead solo bass guitar, a rhythm bass guitar, and an actual bass guitar to play the bass parts, along with accompanying drums, and vocals. He came to Frontier Records with the idea in the beginning of 2007 and presented the concept to them. The record label was immediately intrigued and gave it a go. For the project, Grosskopf invited some well-known singing bass players from the German heavy metal scene to join him and record with him. Those are

Tom Angelripper Thomas Such (born 19 February 1963), known professionally as Tom Angelripper, is a German musician. He is the lead vocalist, bassist, main songwriter and only original remaining member of the thrash metal band Sodom (band), Sodom and also a me ...

( Sodom), Peavy Wagner ( Rage) and Marcel Schirmer (

Destruction Destruction may refer to: Concepts * Destruktion, a term from the philosophy of Martin Heidegger * Destructive narcissism, a pathological form of narcissism * Self-destructive behaviour, a widely used phrase that ''conceptualises'' certain kin ...

). To push the project ever further and add to the variety of the record, Markus invited some of his bass heroes to play solos on the record. He expected to get a response from two or three musicians, while ended up more than a dozen people to have a solo appearance on the record. Those include Billy Sheehan,

Rudy Sarzo Rodolfo Maximiliano Sarzo Lavieille Grande Ruiz Payret y Chaumont (born November 18, 1950) is a Cuban-American musician. He remains best known as the bassist for Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne, and Whitesnake, and has also played with several well k ...

and

Lee Rocker Leon Drucker (born August 3, 1961), professionally known as Lee Rocker is an American musician. He is a member of the rockabilly band Stray Cats. He is the son of the classical clarinetists Stanley Drucker, the late former principal clarinet ...

. The band's first studio album, '' Hellbassbeaters'', was released on 25 January 2008.

Band members

— bass guitar, upright bass * Marcel Schirmer — vocals, bass guitar *

— vocals, bass guitar * Peter "Peavy" Wagner — vocals, bass guitar

Discography

References

Information from Frontier Records official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bassinvaders Musical groups established in 2007 German heavy metal musical groups German experimental musical groups