Mad Alien - Power Prog Hard Rock Metal

[Raico]

In the mid-80s bands like IRON MAIDEN, QUEENSRYCHE, VAN HALEN and DIO were predominant in the metal scene and formed a musical backround for Raico Ebel. In those times he still played and sang mostly German Rock, which was called „Neue Deutsche Welle“.
Raico met singer Michael Kiske, who asked him if he wanted to be second guitarist with ILL PROPHECY. About two years later a record company was interested in this small and unknown prog-metal band from Hamburg, so they decided to record a demo.
At the same time the Band MANIA was looking for an opener for several concerts in Germany, so their manager visited ILL PROPHECY in their rehearsal room. The manager was fascinated by the singer and made another appointment with Markus Großkopf to listen to the band at rehearsal. The end of the story was that Michael Kiske joined HELLOWEEN; with their new singers, Chris Klauke and Ralf Scheepers, Ill Prophecy could not get a record deal, because the singers both soon found more famous bands to join.

Raico joined the band NOT FRAGILE as guitarist. This band was known as the fastest band in Northern Germany and could be listened to on several samplers. They were ready to conquer the metal scene. In the late 80s they released an LP and a mini-LP, but the band separated in the early 90s because of musical differences.
Now Raico decided to realize a solo project called MAD ALIEN.
He had lots of ideas and songs which were unused. Together with Patric Hampe (from ILL PROPHECY-times), they made new songs from these ideas an rearranged old songs and added new influences. Unfortunately, shortly before the recording in the studio the singer vanished without a trace, so Raico had to sing the songs himself.

The demo-CD „We are alive“ (it was the first ever demo-CD in Germany) hit the scene like a bomb and was praised by the press. „The new HELLOWEEN“ was one of the descripions which reviewers used. Because of the good reviewes the CD was also popular in Japan and in a few weeks the 1000 copies were sold out.
A small production company from Grevenbroich signed a deal with MAD ALIEN. It took Raico almost four years to realize this project together with producers Ekkehard Strauß and Thomas Schrum, because MAD ALIEN was a solo project and Raico didn't have any musicians.
New songs were written with Amiga 500 and programmed partly with a „soundtracker“. Fixed appointments at the studio were delayed or cancelled and the years went by...

But fortune helped a little, because Raico could get an internship at Delta Studio in Wilster, where the producers worked. Raico was already popular as guest musican and backround singer with lots of productions and now he started to produce bands as well. So he could use time in the studio for his solo project, and also had the opportinity to get musicians from all over the world and from different metal genres for his project.
After four years he finaly finished his album „Qui habet aures audiendi, audiat“ it was mastered and ready to be released on the label Gorgon...

But the German rock music organisation had problems whit the company Inline (which was owner of Gorgon), so Inline had to declare bankruptcy at exactly this time.
So Raico's work was all for nothing... or more precisely for the liquidator. This was the end of MAD ALIEN...
Raico, who had invested most of his money (and lot more) in this project was almost financially ruined. In the middle of the 90s he decided to stop working on the MAD ALIEN project and also to stop singing and playing guitar. From then on he only worked at the mixing desk.

MAD ALIEN was only a dream...
...until someone from Karthago Records called Raico...