Hammerhawk

A loud heavy/speed metal band from Beverwijk, the Netherlands. Features members from Emerald, The Flying Embryo's, Defender, Emerald and Lunatics Without Skateboards Inc. The band around frontman Thijs ?Maniac' Bruyns existed for almost 25 years . their MLP ?Breaks Loose' from 1984 is an item on many ?most wanted lists'. The MLP is quite rare. On the MLP Hammerhawk is more or less a Dutch answer to Mot?rhead combined with lots of twin guitars Maiden style. After many line up changes the band moved to a more Thrashy approach which resulted in the ?Welcome Home, We expected You' album.

The band around frontman Thijs ?Maniac' Bruyns existed for almost 25 years . their MLP ?Breaks Loose' from 1984 is an item on many ?most wanted lists'. The MLP is quite rare. On the MLP Hammerhawk is more or less a Dutch answer to Mot?rhead combined with lots of twin guitars Maiden style. After many line up changes the band moved to a more Thrashy approach which resulted in the ?Welcome Home, We expected You' album. After many problems with record companies the band went back to their roots. On the musical level, but also back to releasing the albums by themselves again. In the meantime guitarist Paul van Rijswijk is involved in forming Goddess of Desire. The band itself also does side projects as Henry VII and Mentorhawk.

Hammerhawk started back in 1982 when Australian bassplayer/singer
Thijs "Maniac" Bruyns and Ray van Wijngaarden (drums) decided to form
the loudest metal band in the Netherlands.
In 1984 the band released their first album "Breaks loose" with vocals
like Motorhead and music like Iron Maiden. This album was produced by
Attie Bauw (The Scorpions, Judas Priest, The Gathering) and received a
lot of good reviews in magazines all over the world.
After this successful period the band had a couple of line-up changes
and recorded some demos with new material, which sounded heavier
and faster than the first album. In 1990 Hammerhawk signed a record
contract with "Overdrive Records" and released the CD "Welcome home,
we expected you", which was distributed worldwide by Virgin records.
Again this album got rave reviews in magazines across the world.
At this time Dutch national radio did a competition about Hammerhawk
and broadcasted one of their shows. Unfortunately the band got into
trouble with their record company and had to start doing business their
own way.
In 1998 Hammerhawk toured in California with The Mentors and in 1999
Aardschok magazine exclaimed Hammerhawk as one of the oldest
underground Heavy Metal bands of The Netherlands that is still going
strong. Unfortunatly the band broke up before releasing the new album in 2003.
Accepted among Heavy, Death and Black metal fans, this band still has an army of very loyal fans.
http://www.leftieguitars.com/hammerhawk.htm