TSA - Heavy Metal World 12" Vinyl LP Album

- Mausoleum Records, Skull Records

Jos Kloek is the Belgian producer/sound engineer who put a hard edge on a whole slice of 80s European heavy metal. I keep seeing his name in the credits: producing Killer (1983-84, "Shock Waves"), Axe Victims, Fisc, Dark Wizard and Warhead (1984), and even signing as Jos "Speed Rat" Kloek on Warhead's "The Day After" (1986). He guided Crossfire through 1984-86 (remix work, then production), and in 1985 took the desk for E.F. Band while mixing Together's "Playing Games" EP. His peak run is 1985-87: producing/engineering TSA and then mixing, producing and engineering Kat's debut "Metal and Hell" (1986) and related releases into 1987. Later credits include Van Camp (1988), FN Guns (1990) and Asphyxia (1991, executive producer).

Alfie Falckenbach was a Belgian producer, label founder, and entrepreneur who gave European heavy metal a proper doorway instead of another damp rehearsal-room wall. I place him in the thick of the early 1980s, founding Mausoleum Records in 1982 with the label’s first run burning through 1982–1986 before its later revival from 1990–2016. Through Mausoleum he pushed bands such as Killer, Ostrogoth, Warlock, Anvil, Faithful Breath, Omen, and Nazareth into wider circulation. Later he built Music Avenue and Blues Boulevard, proving his ears were not welded shut at metal volume. He even stepped up as singer with Blues Karloff from 2014–2016. Not bad for a man usually spotted in the small print.

Stonne Holmgren, was co-founder of the Belgian record company Mausoleum Records, and that alone tells me he was more about building the machine than standing in the spotlight. In my head, he belongs to that early-1980s moment when small, stubborn labels could turn local noise into something that traveled across borders and ended up in collectors’ hands decades later. When it comes to “performed with bands,” I mostly run into his name on the label side rather than in band line-ups; if he had a performing chapter, it’s not a widely documented one compared to his Mausoleum role.

Eric Philippe, is a Belgian illustrator and graphic designer based in Liege, known for airbrush-driven cover art and graphic work that shows up all over the rock and metal ecosystem. I associate him most with that classic Mausoleum-era visual punch: he’s credited for cover illustration/artwork on releases connected to bands like Crossfire, Killer, Ostrogoth, and Dark Wizard, and his style nails that sweet spot between fantasy menace and clean, readable design. When it comes to “performed with bands,” I don’t see him documented as a band member; his performing happens on paper and paint, where he basically builds the stage before the first riff even lands.