Tankard

Tankard is a Speed/Thrash Metal band from Frankfurt, Germany, formed in 1982.

The band has made songs and albums continuously since 1986, with the same style they started with fast, alcohol-honouring metal songs. Thus, they claim to have invented a new genre called “alcoholic metal”. They consider themselves “Kings Of Beer” in honour of the folkloric character Gambrinus.

Tankard was formed in 1982 by three classmates: Andreas Geremia, Axel Katzmann and Frank Thorwarth. At the time, the band was still known as Vortex and/or Avenger until the band discovered the name Tankard through a dictionary.
The band’s first song was “Ray Death”, about nuclear war. The band’s first concert was held in a classroom in 1983. Since students were not allowed to drink alcohol inside the institution, they emptied milk cartons and exchanged them for beer.
Early on, Bernhard Rapprich, then a band member, left the group because his conservative father would not allow him to “hang out with a bunch of drunks”. Andy Bulgaropoulos replaced Bernhard.

The band started playing covers of bands like Metallica, Slayer, and their countrymen from Kreator and Destruction. In 1984, Tankard signed to the Noise Records label. Throughout all these years, Tankard has built a solid fan base and released several albums reinforcing their “Kings of Beer” image. Despite working in other fields for their livelihood, the band stays “in the public and specialized media’s sights” by touring and appearing frequently at Europe’s most popular summer festivals.

Release date Title Label
1986 Zombie Attack Noise Records
1987 Chemical Invasion Noise Records
1988 The Morning After Noise Records
1990 The Meaning of Life Noise Records
1992 Stone Cold Sober Noise Records
1994 Two-Faced Noise Records
1995 The Tankard Noise Records
1998 Disco Destroyer Century Media
2000 Kings of Beer Century Media
2002 B-Day AFM Records
2004 Beast of Bourbon AFM Records
2006 The Beauty and the Beer AFM Records
2008 Thirst AFM Records
2010 Vol(l)ume 14 AFM Records
2012 A Girl Called Cerveza Nuclear Blast
2014 R.I.B. Nuclear Blast
2017 One Foot in the Grave Nuclear Blast
2022 Pavlov’s Dawgs Reaper Entertainment