The early beginnings
The whole thing began when Stefan Hertrich and Harald Winkler, two neighbour-childs since the late 70th, started to think about making metal music. The first steps began in late 1991 when Stefan got his first bass-guitar and Harald his first drum kit.
They started writing (bad) songs and doing some cover things like VENOM "In League with Satan", METALLICA "Whiplash", "Fight Fire with Fire" etc.
Stefan and Harald just played together with different persons, without any band-name. Later Stefan got the guitar of his father, an old Framus Strat guitar from the 60th - but with very individual sound. By the way, Stefan wrote all songs with this guitar until 1997 (including the "Spellcraft" album).
DARKSEED was born
The band got the first guitarist in August 1992 called Jacek Dworok. His guitarteacher Christian Bystron (now playing at MEGAHERZ and BETRAY MY SECRETS, the new band of Stefan) had a small studio, and so they had the possibility to record the first demo-tape called "Sharing The Grave".
In this studio-session the band had to choose a name, so Harald got the idea DARKSEED, because he knew a computer-game with this name and he liked both the game and the name. So we decided to choose this name.
This demo was ready in November 1992 and sold quite good in the area of Munich.
In the beginning of 1993 the band was completed by Tarkan Dural whom they got to know in a disco in Munich. The line-up was: Stefan Hertrich (vocals, bass), Jacek Dworok (lead guitar), Tarkan Dural (rhythm guitar) and Harald Winkler (drums). And in the end of February DARKSEED had the first concert in Munich. They had 150 people there, the "hall" full. Since this day they were motivated and thought about a chance in the metal business.
In June 1993 they entered again the studio of Christian Bystron in order to record the second demo called "Darksome Thoughts".
DARKSEED got the interest of several small labels and appeared on different CD-samplers.
Andi Wecker, a school-friend of Stefan, often helped them at concerts during this time, and in summer 1993 he joined the band instead of Tarkan who now lives in Turkey, as far as they know.
In January 1994 they got the offer to play with ANATHEMA if they organize a concert for them in Munich. With much effort they succeeded in making possible this show, a concert they were very proud of in this time.
The first deal and "Romantic Tales" Mini-CD
And finally they got their first deal at INVASION Records (Germany). In April 1994 they recorded the first mini-CD, in the small studio of a music-market in Munich, again with Christian Bystron. This is the legendary "Romantic Tales" Mini-CD, "famous" for it´s individual (extremely strange...) sound, released at INVASION Records in Summer 1994.
The four songs are called "Dream Recalled on Waking" (this is the introducing midi-file on the homepage), "In Broken Images", "Above the Edge of Doom" and "A Charm for Sound Sleeping (this song was re-recorded in 1996 for the "Spellcraft"-album and is called "Walk in Me").
DARKSEED played some small concerts again, had much line-up trouble and various musical changes, and the band slowly began to split. Harald and Andy started a project with some (very good!) gloomy grunge songs, and in May 1995 Harald and Andy only wanted to make their project.
The "Midnight Solemnly Dance" album
So Stefan was the only remaining member of DARKSEED and wrote six songs with his four-track recorder in May and June 1995. This songs were named "Like To a Silver Bow", "The Sealing Day", "The Bolt of Cupid Fell", "My Worldly Task is Done", "Night Mislead" and "Lysander". Finally Harald joined the band again and together with Stefan he entered a studio in Munich, again with Christian Bystron. This album was planned to be released on INVASION Records as mini-CD under the name "Romantic Tales Part II".
In November 1995 the band was completed by Andy Wecker again (rhythm guitar), Thomas Herrmann (lead guitar) and Rico Galvagno(bass). DARKSEED got to know SERENADES Records who were very interested in the band, and finally they signed at SERENADES Records and went in studio again in February 1996. The "Romantic Tales Part II" Album wasn´t ever released. DARKSEED recorded five songs called "Watchful Spirit´s Care", "Love´s Heavy Burden", "Forgetfulness", "Chariot Wheels" and "Winter Noon". This five songs together with the six tracks recorded in August 1995 were released by SERENADES Records under the name "Midnight Solemnly Dance" in Mai 1996.
The deal at NUCLEAR BLAST and "Spellcraft"
And in June DARKSEED got a deal at NUCLEAR BLAST records. They played a great festival at Italy and were booked for the Pop-Komm, the biggest music-event in Europe where they played together with MOONSPELL, SAMAEL and CREMATORY.
They also played at a private NUCLEAR BLAST concert with PYOGENESIS and CREMATORY where Andy was so drunk that he damaged some things in the hotel and in the backstage room. Andy was kicked out, and also Harald left the band.
Stefan, Tommy and Rico found Daniel Kirstein (he played at DARKSEED in 1994 for a short time) and Willy Wurm, the drummer of Tommy and Rico´s former band. They had to enter the studio in October in order to record "Spellcraft", so they had an intense song-writing period in September, but nevertheless it took a long time to record this album, but finally in the end of November they finished the recordings. They recorded 15 songs, 10 of them featured on the "Spellcraft" album. The other ones were used for the Japanese market.
In January 1997 they played two shows with AMORPHIS in Germany where they made the first "video-clip" (it´s more or less a live-recording with some scenes in a forest...).
The bad thing was that the whole concert was recorded and afterwards released as video with IN FLAMES and EVEREVE. The quality is very bad, but it was not DARKSEED´s fault...
In March 1997 the album was released and supported by the tour with LACRIMOSA, SECRET DISCOVERY and THE GALLERY. This tour included 26 concerts in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria and Chechoslovakia.
In July they played at the "Ten Years Nuclear Blast" Festival with IN FLAMES, CREMATORY, DIMMU BORGIR and THERION. This festival was used for recording again a live-video being published at the BEAUTY IN DARKNESS Video-compilation.
Some other concerts were done, and in August 1997 they had to play Wacken Open Air. But one day before the concert DARKSEED got to know that they don´t get any money for bus, petrol, and hotel. So they cancelled the show. Wacken is ten hours away from Munich, so it would have made no sense to play there. It was not their guilt.
The same happened with SUPER CRASH open air. I think it´s reasonable that they don´t play any shows they have to pay for. It´s O.K. not to get money, but it´s not O.K. to pay anything for playing...
In December 1997 Daniel Kirstein left the band and it took half a year to get a new guitarist.
DARKSEED only played one concert between December 1997 and August 1998. This was "Mind Over Matter" in Austria with BLIND GUARDIAN, DIMMU BORGIR, MAYHEM and others. For this concert they used a session guitarist.
"Give Me Light"
In July 1998 Tom Gilcher joined the band as lead guitarist, and in the middle of August they recorded the "Give Me Light" album at the LUNGFULL studio (very good studio!) in their area. Some days before studio they played two shows in Bulgaria, the first shows for Tom at DARKSEED.
In the end of August the ex-guitarist Andy Wecker died because of cancer after a terrible one year stay at hospital. This was the most tragic moment in DARKSEED´s history.
In March 1999 the "Give Me Light" album was released, without much attention. DARKSEED only played four shows in 1999, the biggest one was the "Wave Gothic Meeting" in Leipzig/Germany with THE GATHERING, SUBWAY TO SALLY, DIMMU BORGIR and THERION.
The present and the future with "Diving into Darkness"
In June they started writing new song-material, and from middle of August to the beginning of Noember they recorded the "Diving Into Darkness" Album in their own DARK MUSIC MEDIA studios. In September 1999 they decided to run the band without Rico and Willy, because only few gigs have been played, and for both playing live was the most important thing.
Perhaps the "Diving Into Darkness" album will be more successful. Perhaps DARKSEED try to complete the line-up again, it seems to be a neverending story....
