Product Review

Damn the Machine - The Story of Noise Records is the tale of Europe's most groundbreaking—and important—heavy metal record company of the 1980s. Founded in the shadow of the Berlin Wall by self-proclaimed anarchist Karl-Ulrich Walterbach, Noise’s key bands—Celtic Frost, Coroner, Gamma Ray, Grave Digger, Hellhammer, Helloween, Kreator, Running Wild, Sabbat, Stratovarius, Tankard, and Voivod—were brash, innovative, and highly influential, helping shape the global metal scene as we know today.

With first-hand accounts from Walterbach, his bands, employees, and fellow music industry comrades, Damn the Machine provides an unflinching look at the tumultuous history of Noise Records. Amidst the classic albums and legendary bands came court battles, contract squabbles, botched tours, disastrous shifts in sound, and complicated, sometimes strained relationships between Walterbach and the bands he was responsible for. Damn the Machine shows few metal record companies have a legacy comparable to Noise’s.