Burden of Grief is a melodic death metal band that was formed in late summer 1994. The original line-up consisted of the singer Mike Huhmann, drummer Christoph Schellöh and the two guitar-players Oliver Eikenberg and Philipp Hanfland.
Bass-player Ulrich Busch joined the band several months later. Together with him the band recorded their first demo-tape “A Duet Of Thoughts” in spring ‘96. With a first musical sign of life, Burden of Grief entered the stages of the underground-clubs for the first time.
Spured on by the positive reactions so far, the band decided to enter the Stage One Studio to record their next album together with producer Andy Classen. As a result 5 songs came out which had been released as the “Above Twilight Wings”-MCD.
The reactions and reviews to this CD were absolutely great. Even the metal magazine Rock Hard recognized the huge development of Burden of Grief’s music and selected the band for their newcomer compilation CD “Unerhört-the best of the unsigned acts”.
The band played one gig after another and developed to become an impressing live act. Nearly two years after the release of their debut-MCD, Burden of Grief entered the studio again (this time the Ofen-studio in Kassel) to record their next album together with producer Carsten Schmerer who joined the band some months later as their drummer.
Besides four new songs and the re-recorded demo-song the CD should contain the old Iron Maiden classic “Prowler”. These songs have been released as a limited promo-edition, entitled “Eternal Solar Eclipse”.
In autumn ‘99, Burden of Grief signed a deal with Grind Syndicate Media. The first result of this co-operation is the album “Haunting Requiems”, a digitally remastered re-release of both MCDs. At the end of ‘99, drummer Christoph Schellöh left the band because of personal reasons and caused the first line-up change in the history of the band.
The new drummer who joined the band after a short time was Christian Nürnberg. Unfortunately he couldn’t take part on the forthcoming festivals-shows, because of his military service. Therefore the band decided to engage another drummer to play all gigs this year.
They found him in the person of Carsten Schmerer, who had already produced the “Eternal Solar Eclipse”-songs. Just after one rehearsal-session they had to play the biggest show in the history of the band at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig.
After this experience the band played two further festival-shows at the Party San Open Air and the Rocktown Open Air (co-headlining with Eisregen). After drummer Christian has finished his military service the band started working on the material for the second album, which has been recorded at the Stage One Studio again together with producer Andy Classen and co-producer Georg “Schösch” Classen.
Meanwhile the band has reached a deal with Massacre Records where the new album “On Darker Trails” has been released in September 2001. The reactions to this album were also absolutely great, the band gave dozens of interviews Europe-wide and got many sampler-appearances.
Burden of Grief’s cover-versions of “Prowler” and “Master Of Puppets” got on the Nuclear Blast Iron Maiden and Metallica tribute-records. Coincide to the release of the new album drummer Christian Nürnberg has been replaced by the help-out-drummer Carsten Schmerer.
Moreover guitarist Oliver Eikenberg also left the band. Bass-player Ulrich Busch changed over to the six-strings and Dirk Bulmahn, an old fellow of the band since the beginning, joined Burden of Grief as the new bass-player.
With a new power and energy the band played a bunch of very succesfull shows and in summer 2002 and 2003 (for example the Rock Harz Open Air (with Overkill, Blaze,…), the Summer Breeze Open Air (with Dimmu Borgir, Paradise Lost,…) and the Kaltenbach Open Air in Austria).
In June 2003 the band recorded their third album “Fields Of Salvation” in the studio of the Dark At Dawn-drummer and in September they mixed it in Denmark with producer-legend Tommy Hansen (Helloween,…).
Meanwhile the co-operation with Massacre Records has been finished and with the much more passionate Remedy Records the band has found a new home. “Fields Of Salvation” has been released worldwide in January 2004 and earned very overwhelming reactions again.
