''Heavy Metal Breakdown'' is the debut studio album by German heavy metal band

Grave Digger A gravedigger is a cemetery worker who is responsible for digging a grave prior to a funeral service. Description If the grave is in a cemetery on the property of a church or other religious organization (part of, or called, a churchyard), ...

, released on 20 October 1984 via

Noise Records Noise Records is a German heavy metal record label founded in 1983 by German music industry personality Karl-Ulrich Walterbach as an expansion of his company Modern Music Records. It was sold to the Sanctuary Records Group in 2001 and ceased any ...

. The music in this album is strongly influenced by German heavy metal band

Accept Accept may refer to: * Acceptance, a person's assent to the reality of a situation etc. * Accept (band), a German heavy metal band ** ''Accept'' (Accept album), their debut album from 1979 * ''Accept'' (Chicken Shack album), 1970 * ACCEPT (or ...

and its then-vocalist

Udo Dirkschneider Udo Dirkschneider (born 6 April 1952) is a German singer and songwriter who rose to fame with German heavy metal band Accept. After leaving the band in 1987, he formed U.D.O., with which he has also enjoyed commercial success. Biography Fo ...

. Although singer Chris Boltendahl was credited for all the music and lyrics, it was only a technical issue. "At the time we didn't have the money to enroll all four members to GEMA. So we only enrolled Chris", said Gerd Hanke then-manager of Grave Digger in book ''The Story of Noise Records''. "Lyrics had always been a problem for Chris" - added guitarist Peter Masson. "His school English was quite bad. During my time with Grave Digger, Gerd wrote most of the lyrics."

Track listing

Music composed and arranged by Grave Digger and lyrics by Chris Boltendahl, except where indicated. 1984 German version 1984 US version

Notes

The 1994 bonus tracks are from the following: * "Violence" is taken from the 1983 split album ''Rock from Hell - German Metal Attack'' * "Shoot Her Down", "We Wanna Rock You" and "Storming the Brain" are taken from the 1984 EP ''Shoot Her Down'' * "Shine On" and "Tears of Blood" are taken from the 1985 split album ''Metal Attack Vol. 1'' * "Don't Kill the Children" and "Girls of Rock 'n' Roll" are taken from the 1994 compilation album ''The Best of the Eighties'' * "Stronger Than Ever" and "I Don't Need Your Love" are taken from the 1986 album '' Stronger Than Ever'', in which case they were called Digger at the time

Personnel

;Band members * Chris Boltendahl –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

* Peter Masson –

guitars The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

* Willi Lackman – bass * Albert Eckardt –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

;Additional musicians *Dietmar Dillhardt – keyboards on "Yesterday" ;Production *Karl-Ulrich Walterbach – producer *

Harris Johns Harris Johns is a European music producer, active since the late-1970s in the heavy metal and punk scene, working for a lot of big-name bands, such as Helloween, Coroner, Tankard, Sodom, Voivod, Kreator, Exumer, Ratos de Porão, Slime, Daily ...

– engineer, mixing *

– arrangements *Bernd Gansohr – cover painting

References

1984 debut albums Grave Digger (band) albums Noise Records albums Megaforce Records albums Albums produced by Harris Johns {{1980s-metal-album-stub