Aaarrg Records Collector's Album Cover Gallery & Information

Axel Thubeauville is the kind of German metal operator I learned never to ignore: while digging through 1980s heavy metal albums, I kept running into his name on dozens of sleeves, and sooner or later it dawned on me that this was no minor credit but one of the men quietly shaping the heavy metal scene from behind the desk. Out of Essen, he opened Earthshaker in 1983 to get Steeler on wax, then produced Brainfever in 1983-1986, Steeler in 1984-1985, Warlock in 1984, and Living Death across 1984-1985. By 1986 he had moved into Shark and Aaarrg territory, helping bring acts such as Sepultura, Stratovarius, and Virgin Steele to the German market. In the 1990s he stayed active as executive producer for Virgin Steele in 1994-1995 and At Vance in 1999-2001. I never saw him as a mere office man; he was one of the engine-room characters who kept German metal pressed and moving.

Ralph "Ralf" Hubert is the kind of German studio hawk who makes a band sound sharper than they actually are (a compliment). Back in Sep-Nov 1984 I can place him behind the desk at Sound-Partner Studio in Kirchhellen, engineering Stormwind sessions with that clean, metallic bite. From 1985 onward he stepped out from the control room as bassist, writer and guiding hand in Mekong Delta, where precision riffing and surgical low-end are the whole religion. Across the late 1980s and beyond, his name keeps popping up in metal credits-usually where the drums are tight and the guitars stop flapping. Producer, engineer, musician: the link between sweaty rehearsal rooms and the cold, exacting final mix.