Hi Folks!

You haven’t been hearing from me in a while since I was and still am loaded with work. Nevertheless I think it’s about time to give you an update of what has happened or is about to happen. Well… a couple of months ago together with ex-Sanctuary staff Christine Stephan and Dirk Putzke I founded our new record label Dockyard1. This idea has been on my mind for a long time and now that this great opportunity popped up I just grabbed it. For further information on this matter feel free to visit our homepage www.dockyard1.com.

But this isn’t the only news… For quite a while by now I am working on a production, which – so are my hopes – will catch some interest. Besides Jens and Emil of PERSUADER from Sweden (I produced their last album) and little Piet there also is another old friend of mine involved. Ex-Blind Guardian Thomen Stauch. Yes, correct… ex! And here we are coming right to the point, because the information about this collaboration was supposed to see the light of the day later. The split with Blind Guardian, for me not too surprising but yet unexpected, indeed changed our planes regarding SAVAGE CIRCUS (name of Thomens new band). Starting out as a “job-on-the-side” SAVAGE CIRCUS now turned into Thomens top priority main band.

All started out on a weekend in Andalusia during my vacation last year where Thomen, based in Madrid, was visiting me. He played some quite convincing raw songs composed by him self to me, which actually reminded me quite a bit of the “Tales…”/”Somewhere…”/”Imaginations…” period of BG. As an “answer” to that I put on the PESUADER album. Thomen being quite impressed right away asked me to establish contact between him and the guys. Thomen new, that his songs wouldn’t fit too much to the direction BG was and still is heading… too many different tastes within the BG camp. Therefore he was determined to form something besides BG based on his 3 songs. Some time later he asked me, if I would be interested in adding some input. “Battering Ram” was just finished, so the timing was good and I agreed. In August we all met for the first time at powerhouse, to get used to each other and to record one song as a demo. After four days of intense, funny, hearty and creative work we ended up with two songs instead of one. Well… this was the birth of SAVAGE CIRCUS. After multiple meetings and exchange of ideas using the internet (mp3) we came up with nine songs. Most of the recordings are done by today. Right now I am already mixing. Within the next days you will be invited to listen to some samples on www.iron-savior.com, www.dockyard1.com and www.thomen.de. Enjoy!

Of course I personally guarantee that the IRON SAVIOR will continue on just like before. Because of the BG split SAVAGE CIRCUS is not linked to their schedule anymore and all the planning is in Thomens and my hands. Therefore problems like with Kai and later on also with Jan when he joined MASTERPLAN are banned completely from the very first minute.

If you want to learn more about Thomens split with BG, check out www.thomen.de and www.blind-guardian.com.

For now my best regards from Hamburg and again a big thanks to all our fans for your support!

Heavy Metal is the law

Piet.