Where Are You?

Hazzard
Five mysterious German metal merchants

In 1984, they came, from out of nowhere: Five mysterious metal merchants with an uncommon talent for fusing seemingly all of the genre’s most admirable attributes into one breathtaking but enigmatic package. They secured a recording contract with a small Belgian record label, and then proceeded to drop one of the unsung classic albums of the metal genre on an unsuspecting world. And then, before the listening public even had a chance to become aware of the masterpiece this mysterious band of rogues had wrought, they were gone.

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating on the enigma bit. Hazzard didn’t come out of nowhere; they hailed from Germany. And they didn’t entirely disappear after their eponymous 1984 debut. The alchemist responsible for most of the music on this underground slab has made a bit of a name for himself.  His name is Herman Frank.

Now known in metal circles as the technically adept lead guitarist of Victory and Moon’ Doc, Frank served a handful of brief tenures with other German bands during the 1980’s. The most well-known of these was his appearance on Accept’s 1983 release Balls to the Wall. In 1985, he repeated this feat on Sinner’s 1985 release, Touch of Sin. But what happened in the time between those two albums is an often overlooked chapter in the story of Herman Frank. And it’s a crying shame, because Hazzard, in the opinion of this author, is one of the most unspeakably, yet understatedly beautiful things ever heard (or not heard) in the Heavy Metal genre. Maximum Metal hopes to rectify this situation, and see Hazzard (the band and the record), finally get their just due.

Herman Frank’s exploits are fairly well-known in the metal realm. Following his stint with Sinner, he joined the respected hard rock act Victory for several albums, before forming his own band, Moon’ Doc in the nineties. More recently, he has been involved in a Victory reunion album and tour, in addition to producing several other bands.

But what of the rest of the band? Despite their collective talent, there isn’t a single other member of the band whose name I have heard before or since that hallowed debut LP. If you have any clues as to the whereabouts of vocalist Malcolm McNulty, guitarist Gunter Sander, bassist Wolfgang Hettmer or drummers Dieter Schmidt and Tilo Heider (Heider is credited as having played drums on all but one of the album’s songs, though Schmidt is listed as the band’s official drummer), or if you happen to be one of the aforementioned musicians, please drop us an email.


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