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Damn the Machine - The Story of Noise Records
Damn the Machine - The Story of Noise Records is the tale of Europe's most groundbreaking—and important—heavy metal record company of the 1980s. Founded in the shadow of the Berlin Wall by self-proclaimed anarchist Karl-Ulrich Walterbach, Noise’s key bands—Celtic Frost, Coroner, Gamma Ray, Grave Digger, Hellhammer, Helloween, Kreator, Running Wild, Sabbat, Stratovarius, Tankard, and Voivod—were brash, innovative, and highly influential, helping shape the global metal scene as we know today.
With first-hand accounts from Walterbach, his bands, employees, and fellow music industry comrades, Damn the Machine provides an unflinching look at the tumultuous history of Noise Records. Amidst the classic albums and legendary bands came court battles, contract squabbles, botched tours, disastrous shifts in sound, and complicated, sometimes strained relationships between Walterbach and the bands he was responsible for. Damn the Machine shows few metal record companies have a legacy comparable to Noise’s.
With first-hand accounts from Walterbach, his bands, employees, and fellow music industry comrades, Damn the Machine provides an unflinching look at the tumultuous history of Noise Records. Amidst the classic albums and legendary bands came court battles, contract squabbles, botched tours, disastrous shifts in sound, and complicated, sometimes strained relationships between Walterbach and the bands he was responsible for. Damn the Machine shows few metal record companies have a legacy comparable to Noise’s.
- GenresMusicNonfiction
770 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 24, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 1, 2018
Telling the story of a record company through the stories of bands involved may not be the best way to do it but still it is insightful. If u are into 80s metal, a must read.
June 3, 2018
Too much raw historical data. Not enough insights into either the details of the music industry or the personality of Karl Walterbach.
July 6, 2019
German label Noise Records, with creator Karl Walterbach at the helm, gave a shot to several groundbreaking bands in the 80’s, like HELLHAMMER/CELTIC FROST, HELLOWEEN, RUNNING WILD, KREATOR, CORONER, WATCHTOWER etc, playing a huge part in shaping the metal landscape. The German metal scene, especially power and thrash, wouldn’t be the same without Noise. In the 90’s they released more important melodic metal, such as albums by GAMMA RAY, STRATOVARIUS, KAMELOT and VIRGIN STEELE. Noise also made some mistakes, such as trying their hand at nu and alternative metal, with less than satisfactory results. And who could forget the legal clashes with HELLOWEEN and CELTIC FROST?
This book tells the story from an impressively wide set of aspects, with all major characters getting to tell their angle. The ascent, success, internal strife, break-up of HELLOWEEN and CELTIC FROST, for example, being discussed by almost all band members, managers, producers, label employees, and of course Walterbach. It’s interesting to get a more whole picture of the situation and relationship between band and label, as there are common goals but also differing objectives, and both try to pursue their agenda without wanting to compromise. This, of course, leads to discord and strife, and some choose to adapt and some don’t. All this leads to evolution through a learning curve for both parties, with the occasional casualty in terms of relationships. It ain’t all black and white, peeps.
We also get a personal history of Walterbach, who came from an anarchist background, and was involved in the German punk scene in the late 70’s/early 80’s. There’s also a passage about the fall of the Berlin Wall, the legendary thrash show in East Berlin right after, and some personal insights into the cultural and daily-life differences between West and East Berlin, which is very eye-opening.
The book’s shortcomings are hard to avoid with this kind of story to be told; the repetitive nature of the band stories, the unsexy (yet interesting) matters of money, contracts, legal matters, offices opening, offices closing, employees coming, employees going etc etc… Had Gehlke decided to omit these things, the story wouldn’t have been complete. Still, those weren’t the most enticing pages I’ve read in my life.
All in all, this is an interesting read that maybe isn’t as gripping and entertaining as some other music historical books, but it is highly informative and sports a high quality in journalism and scope. Recommended.
This book tells the story from an impressively wide set of aspects, with all major characters getting to tell their angle. The ascent, success, internal strife, break-up of HELLOWEEN and CELTIC FROST, for example, being discussed by almost all band members, managers, producers, label employees, and of course Walterbach. It’s interesting to get a more whole picture of the situation and relationship between band and label, as there are common goals but also differing objectives, and both try to pursue their agenda without wanting to compromise. This, of course, leads to discord and strife, and some choose to adapt and some don’t. All this leads to evolution through a learning curve for both parties, with the occasional casualty in terms of relationships. It ain’t all black and white, peeps.
We also get a personal history of Walterbach, who came from an anarchist background, and was involved in the German punk scene in the late 70’s/early 80’s. There’s also a passage about the fall of the Berlin Wall, the legendary thrash show in East Berlin right after, and some personal insights into the cultural and daily-life differences between West and East Berlin, which is very eye-opening.
The book’s shortcomings are hard to avoid with this kind of story to be told; the repetitive nature of the band stories, the unsexy (yet interesting) matters of money, contracts, legal matters, offices opening, offices closing, employees coming, employees going etc etc… Had Gehlke decided to omit these things, the story wouldn’t have been complete. Still, those weren’t the most enticing pages I’ve read in my life.
All in all, this is an interesting read that maybe isn’t as gripping and entertaining as some other music historical books, but it is highly informative and sports a high quality in journalism and scope. Recommended.
September 29, 2018
I have to admit it took me a while to finish this book. It's a thick book, consisting of almost 600 pages. I explain why below.
The book is structured in several chapters, some covering the story of how Noise Records was formed and how it evolved throughout the years (with important milestones in the late 80s and end of the 90s). Other chapters focus more on Noise Records' bands. These other chapters normally feature interviews with some of the band's main members, where they are asked about Karl Walterbach (founder of Noise Records) and their times at Noise.
About the book itself, I especially liked the first 4 chapters that explain the origins of Noise Records and how Karl Walterbach ended up founding the company that will shape the future of heavy metal in Europe. I think David E. Gehike does an awesome job at bringing the spirit of those convulsive years. Until I read this book, I was completely ignorant how West Germany was like in the 70s. A country with a very vivid political scene, where up to 3 left-wing terrorists groups co-existed (2 of them almost no active). Walterbach, an eager reader of philosophy and politics, was a member of one of these left-wing groups. That cost him to be jailed and spend several months in prison. Upon release, Walterbach distanced himself from politics and got interested in punk, a less political movement but which aimed to defeat the status-quo through music, art and expression.
I found the chapters about bands less interesting, although they form most part of the book. I read the book cover to cover, however since the chapters about bands are self-inclusive, I used to jump from one chapter to another depending how much appealing the featured band was to me. In any case, although I knew little or almost nothing about certain bands (Tankard, Hellhammer, Kreator, Celtic Frost, etc), I recommend everyone to read the chapters about those bands you may know less (or you haven’t heard of them before). All of them add something to the history of Noise Records.
On the downside, I think the book is hard to follow some times. The reason is that most of the content is built through interviews with musicians, producers, journalists, former Noise members, etc. It's easy to get lost in such shuffle of names, know who is who at every moment, especially when reading about a band you're not familiar with.
All in all, I think this is a book every fan of Noise Records must read, and in general, any heavy metal headbanger interested in the roots of German Metal / European Metal. I congratulate David E. Gehike for his fantastic work.
The book is structured in several chapters, some covering the story of how Noise Records was formed and how it evolved throughout the years (with important milestones in the late 80s and end of the 90s). Other chapters focus more on Noise Records' bands. These other chapters normally feature interviews with some of the band's main members, where they are asked about Karl Walterbach (founder of Noise Records) and their times at Noise.
About the book itself, I especially liked the first 4 chapters that explain the origins of Noise Records and how Karl Walterbach ended up founding the company that will shape the future of heavy metal in Europe. I think David E. Gehike does an awesome job at bringing the spirit of those convulsive years. Until I read this book, I was completely ignorant how West Germany was like in the 70s. A country with a very vivid political scene, where up to 3 left-wing terrorists groups co-existed (2 of them almost no active). Walterbach, an eager reader of philosophy and politics, was a member of one of these left-wing groups. That cost him to be jailed and spend several months in prison. Upon release, Walterbach distanced himself from politics and got interested in punk, a less political movement but which aimed to defeat the status-quo through music, art and expression.
I found the chapters about bands less interesting, although they form most part of the book. I read the book cover to cover, however since the chapters about bands are self-inclusive, I used to jump from one chapter to another depending how much appealing the featured band was to me. In any case, although I knew little or almost nothing about certain bands (Tankard, Hellhammer, Kreator, Celtic Frost, etc), I recommend everyone to read the chapters about those bands you may know less (or you haven’t heard of them before). All of them add something to the history of Noise Records.
On the downside, I think the book is hard to follow some times. The reason is that most of the content is built through interviews with musicians, producers, journalists, former Noise members, etc. It's easy to get lost in such shuffle of names, know who is who at every moment, especially when reading about a band you're not familiar with.
All in all, I think this is a book every fan of Noise Records must read, and in general, any heavy metal headbanger interested in the roots of German Metal / European Metal. I congratulate David E. Gehike for his fantastic work.
August 30, 2020
Very much enjoyed this, Noise Records was one of my absolute favorite metal labels in the 80s and had an enormous influence on me, one of the finest rosters of bands in the genre. So for me reading all of these little details of the bands, often answering some questions I always had, was priceless, and I appreciate that Gehlke gave equal footing to both Walterbach and the artists and employees he worked with, as well as interviews with other associated labels. I learned so much. There might have been a chapter or two near the very end that was of less interest, but still important to round out the story, and the discography included in the closing pages would be handy if you're a collector or new to the bands and want to explore them. Good amount of photos in here too, both color and b/w.
October 19, 2018
This book is such a flame war that it's surprising you don't get caught in the crossfire!! An interesting read at first, and it geets deep into the bands so you get to know details about cool outfits such as Celtic Frost or Kreator, at the end it gets a little boring because Noise at the end only signed uninteresting bands (mostly Power Metal), but it makes an entertaining read.
January 12, 2019
A very interesting read especially if you grew up on 80s German Metal, but the chapters dealing with the various legal battles dragged on a bit too long.
February 17, 2024
Great book. Great storytelling. I would have given this a 5-star had it not kebanyakan cerita sejarah band-2 binaan Noise!
March 29, 2025
Fine book undermined a bit by the awkwardly translated text. A bit like reading lyrics of German 80s thrash bands.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews