German band Frontline formed in 1989 and released a few albums between 1994 and 2006. Two of those albums from the 90’s are now being re-released by the AOR Heaven label. The debut album “The State of Rock” was re-released on 27th April along with some bonus tracks, whilst the third album “Heroes” which was previously only released in Japan is due to be released on 25th May. The track “It’s Not Over” from “The State of Rock” was included on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 11th May.


 

Frontline released their debut album “The State of Rock” in 1994 and it featured Robert Böbel on guitars and keyboards, Stephan Kämmerer on vocals, Thomas Riess on bass and Stephan Bayerlein on drums. The album did well, particularly in Japan, and the band toured Europe and opened for bands such as Gotthard, Bonfire and Tyketto. An acoustic album called “Two Faced” was released in 1995, before Riess and Bayerlein were replaced by Thomas ‘Hutch’ Bauer and Rami Ali respectively. The following album “Heroes” was released in 1996 in Japan only due to problems with the label in Europe.

 

In 2000 Frontline signed to AOR Heaven for the first time, releasing “Right Attitude” (featuring some of the tracks from “Heroes”) the same year and then “Against The World” in 2002, the compilation “Almost Unreleased” in 2003, “The Seventh Sign” in 2004 and “Circles” in 2006. That was to be the band’s final studio album. Another compilation on a different label, “Ultimate Salvation” appeared in 2010.

 

Both “The State of Rock” and “Heroes” have been re-mastered by guitarist Robby Böbel and are being re-released through AOR Heaven as limited editions of just 1,000 copies.


 

About “NI Rocks Recommends”

The simple idea behind “NI Rocks Recommends” is to acknowledge and promote some of the great music being submitted to Rock Radio NI. The albums that I’ll be recommending are those that you’ll hear me playing tracks from on my shows. I'll not be giving marks or ratings or analyzing the tracks in great detail; just telling you something about the artist and the album. It’s a personal recommendation to go check something out, not a traditional “review”!