Alright, so I know there has been a topic about this label and their/his antics before, but that was years ago. For those who don't know, there's a nice summary of everything here:
http://thecorroseum.org/features/metale ... /index.htm

So what's the real deal? The big questions have imo never really been put forward. Who is this Ingo guy and what on earth was he thinking, making the fake bands, especially, and signing completely perplexing stuff like "Satan's Servants". I also wonder if anyone from the original Thrash Queen, Godzila, Killer Fox, Fucker and so on was aware of what was going on with the fake albums under their name? Did they just sign away their rights to the name with their record contract? Did he purposefully look for the kind of people who might be so embarrassed by their band activities that a few years later they wouldn't even bother putting up a fuss when a terrible album was released under their moniker? Who the hell is that crazy woman on the fake Thrash Queen album anyway and how on earth did anybody convince her to make those noises on record? Did they sell any copies?

It's not just the fake records, either, but the total dumb-fuckery that seems to have been involved in the entire label process. It goes beyond the level of mere cash-in into outright absurdity. I'd be curious to know if people at the time actually bought these records and what they thought of them. As sad as it is to say, I can't really imagine the Real Thrash Queen (that is, the original one), for instance, having many fans, so the idea of people being duped by the fake one is also absurd.

By the way, most of these bands are on youtube in some capacity, if people are curious.

From what I understand, the guy would print very short runs of these albums (generally 1000) at a time when metal was very popular and anything that looked heavy would sell. The whole thing was totally weird though. I have no idea if what he was doing was legal but I guess a bunch of tiny bands with only a single album to their names weren't likely to sue or seek legal action against him. Did anyone ever track the guy down?

There was an interview in the German That's It fanzine with this guy (if I am not mistaken, might be the That's Metal zine as well, the successor/predecessor of That's it), written in German.

Seemed a normal guy, but I remember also some really strange answers... last time I've read it like 10 years ago, but I am sure I've sent it as a scan to thecorroseum back then...

oh man this is great. My roommate just got one of those Hammers Rule albums and it' actually sweet

Yeah, a couple of the records were actually legit; but it's a very bizarre tale.

An interview with Ingo would be great. maybe at least some of the enigma would be answered. Although perhaps ... some of it should remain obscure ... forever!!!

I had only heard of two or three bands before learning about the label's story, namely Crossfire and ... one of those oi bands they signed, with a German name that now eludes me. Also Extreme Napalm Terror (lol). I found the Black Virgin album on the internet the other day and listened to it in its entirety, as a friend told me it was probably the best actual music ME had to offer. It wasn't bad; rather Venom-ish. Not great either, though.

"LET'S MAKE LOVE ON ZE ELECTRIC CHAAAAAAIIIR!"

Somewhere out there, the woman who did vocals on those fake albums is waiting to be discovered in all her terrifying madness.

yeah, it's all so odd.

I find it difficult to believe that, even between 86 and '90, when this stuff was really going on, he could have sold 1000 copies of some of this stuff. maybe that doesn't sound like a lot of units, but -- well, I know a lot of great bands/musicians who would struggle to sell a thousand copies of something. People sometimes gripe about "limited editions", but if there's only one edition, and it's "limited" to whatever, there's usually a good reason for it. And there's almost no data on this ME stuff, it seems. Did they send consignments to record stores? Did they have a print catalog? I just can't even imagine how this could be properly marketed.

I really don't have much to add to the discussion, other than the fake Killer Fox album has one of the most horrendously glorious cover artworks of any 80s metal album (yes it's from 1990, close enough).

That seems like fairly typical con artist behavior in "underground" publishing.

You rip off lots of authors for tiny amounts of money, so that the amount they'd spend on lawyers is greater than the amount they'd get by suing you. Creation Books did exactly this for years.

Ah yes, I think I heard of the Creation fiasco.

How about the girls in the American (real) Thrash Queen then? Where are they now? Still manslaying?

i remember reading somewhere that there were some subsidies involved too.

I guess then that the German government never knew about the white power albums?

Excluding those white supremacist/National Socialist record labels, this has to be the worst metal record label of all time.

Oh, don't worry, they jumped on that particular band-wagon too. Aside from releasing stuff from a few real racist RAC-type bands (although I'm only guessing here about the content), according to that article, one of the fake bands/studio projects hijacked the name of a real band on the label with a black singer, and turned it into a white power thing. Although the album was called Making Love on Electric Chair, so, you know, I'm sure noone took it very seriously.

"Making Love on the Electric Chair" was a common meme among Metal Enterprises bands. For example, the Thrash Queen album used that lyric (on the imfamous "People Look Like Trash" song) and I think they even had a song with that title.

I was well aware that a handful of Metal Enterprises albums were white supremacy based lyrically. Which is strange, considering two or three bands on the label had members of black ethnicity.

I was mainly referring to the labels that exclusively release NSBM and white supremacist bands.

Some things are just too good not to repeat, apparently.

Talking of which, one of the weirdest decisions on that Trash Queen album (you know, the fake one) is to loop bits of the songs over and over again so they're torturously long. The whole thing just causes one giant expression of WhatTheFuck?!?!?!

you know, things were way harder to get hold of before the internet, especially these relatively low-key releases/labels/genres with limited editions and distribution.
also, it's important to know that, if there were any subsidies involved, they were probably granted by some state, regional, or even local authority, whereas the BPJM (federal office for youth-endangering media) is a federal authority. classic german bureaucratism.
also, one of the reasons why so many things have flown/fly under their radar is that not everyone is allowed to report potentially youth-endangering media to the BPJM, it's just schools, local youth offices, police and the like, so no private citizens. thus one of these "youth experts" needs to get aware of an item first and report it to the BPJM. the other way for media to get "banned" in germany is when a court decides in the course of a penal lawsuit to have an item confiscated, and the BPJM reacts to this.

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Thanks for that elucidation. I only went by hearsay that the German government was very keen to publicly stamp out that sort of stuff. But what you say makes a kind of bureaucratic sense.

Also, just had a taste of Godzilla II. Holy shit, I don't even know where to begin. THis is some seriously whacked music. The idea that someone thought they could make good money off this is really something.

you're welcome. comparatively speaking, german authorities (=BPJM) are probably relatively keen on banning media (legally speaking, it's always on the grounds of "youth protection", so it's all irrelevant if you're 18+). I'd say most stuff banned is WP/NS stuff and gore movies, games and music.
in metal circles, that's probably best known for the crusade one certain german teacher specifically led against cannibal corpse in the 1990's, which led to some curious outcomes, like CC being allowed to tour, but not announce song titles in between, and them being "banned". which by the way, like in CC's case, means in most cases ("list A") that media are prohibited from being publically promoted, displayed in stores, listed in mailorder catalogs and the like. or a gore-ish front cover needs to have a neutral, "censored" front sheet to be sold (like the censored edition of the hammer smashed face EP). you can still get them by request or under the counter. only items in "list B", most of which are hardcore WP/NS stuff, are completely banned from sale and distribution inside germany (you can still legally own them though when you're 18+ ). [/nerd]

I can't scan at the moment, so here is a picture of the interview (!!3MB, That's It Zine #11, 1997). About his right-winged shit releases: "no comment".

But whoever can read a bit of German... fun to read. Letting Asgard sleep in the studio on the floor (instead of a youth hostel) and then complaining why they behaved like pigs and shitted even in the flowerpots of the studio.

https://imgur.com/gcUITWE

The lines in "Vox of Thrash" towards the start of the song were "Let's make love in the pool! Let's make love in the refrigerator!"

The closing song is called "Making Love on Electric Chair", and for the most part, seems to be in no language, with only the lines "Listen to the words spoken" and "Let's make love on the electric chair" being easy to make out.

Ah! You know what this means? Thrash Queen are as sophisticated as magma!!!

I wonder if that is Our man Ingo singing on the fake Godzila and kalashnikov (sp) albums. If so, he doesn't really have a bad rock voice at all. i can definitely tell it's the same guy, and well, none of the melodies are actually good, but you know....

I tried to find tracks from the fake Kalaschnikov album, but with no luck.

On the Godzilla tracks posted above, the female vocalist on "Helter Skelter" is the same one as on the Thrash Queen album. I'd love to at least know who she is (out of morbid curiosity).

That whole thing is very...entertaining, is the word I would use. Certainly not "Good" in any musical sense, but definitely entertaining in its own bizarre, off the wall kinda way. Like some late night cabaret show you would watch on a public access TV channel at 1 AM while really, really stoned.

I dimly recall that the fake Thrash Queen album is better than the real thing. It's still absolutely fucking horrible, of course.


I think back when I created separate pages for the fakes (they used to be included on one page along with the genuine releases/groups), in order to verify that it was actually metal I managed to track down that album after some considerable searching.* Back then there was some debate as to whether these "bands" deserved entries at all, but it was decided that they technically qualify and that it's in the interest of encyclopaedic documentation to have them.

If you want the album, I'll be back home in a couple of days and can PM you a link.


*You'll notice that the addition date for the fake K entry is over nine months after the ones for KF and TQ.

Send me a link, then.

I would love a link to that fake TQ album! And I can't believe I just said that.

My friend and I even re-gifted each other the "Manslayer" LP repeatedly as a running joke. We each had a copy but at some point one of us wound up with a second (how?!), so back and forth it went on every birthday or Christmas, ha ha.

I'm pretty sure Holger Schmidt produced most of the fake albums. He has a credit on "Maniacs" by Break Point and "Desert Storm" by Kalaschnikov. Schmidt also sung on "Maniacs" another cash grab album. Just compare the live Tiger B. Smith voice with that on "Maniacs".

I just find the concept of fake metal albums fascinating. But yes, at one time labels did that, this label wasn't the only one. Jack Starr and David DeFeis both recorded fake albums (though those were at least good.)

Pretty funny to see someone bumped this thread. I actually made a video on my YouTube channel about Metal Enterprises.