In 1983, the melodic hard rock and metal band TOX started up in the Stuttgart area, releasing albums in 1985 and 1986. The brains behind the band were the highly talented guitarist and singer Werner Dannemann, who is now internationally renowned as a blues musician, and drummer Peter Garattoni (sadly recently deceased) from the group Eulenspygel, who later played with several heavy metal bands from GAMA Musikverlag (Veto, Maniac), but was also active with John Lawton (Uriah Heep, Les Humphries Singers) in Rebel. Bassist Wolfgang Kallert (only on 'Prince Of Darkness') joined the cult group Volks-Musik in 1973 and can be heard on the album 'Morgens um 7 - Abends um 8'. It's clear that you shouldn't expect flawless, merciless heavy metal from TOX. As the album title and the cover might suggest just that, the melodic hard rock disc may have reached the wrong audience in 1985. Even if the title track could be labelled as melodic epic metal today and would also have suited Zed Yago well, it is more of a hard, but also very melodic record between hard rock, AOR, as well as powerful classic rock and German metal. If you listen carefully, you'll even notice that TOX sounded quite unique and didn't conform to the standardised sound of the time. In heavy metal communities, both albums enjoy cult status in South America and in some Eastern European countries. Golden Core was able to get hold of a live bonus track from a sampler, which is impressive proof of Werner Dannemann's quality.
