T.A.S.S.

T.A.S.S. was born when Dr. Rabe and The Voodoo left as the rhythm section from German underground superstar band Philip Boa & The Voodoo Club and hooked up with American expatriate ingrate Jeff Collier in 1993. This unholy trinity released their debut album, "Maniafesto", on Gun/BMG Records in 1994 to critical acclaim and MTV coverage all across Europe, stuffing the dancefloors with numbers like "Snakedance" and "If You Don't Like My Dog" and leaving live audiences trying to catch their breath in the wake of a strobe-lit, honey-drenched, loud-as-f**k Metalfloor extravaganza.

According to singer Collier, Maniafesto was "a declaration of war on a music scene and a society in general that's become infested with predictability". The music was dissonant and aggressive, and his lyrics took aim at everyone from God to Guns 'n' Roses.

1995 saw a number of changes for T.A.S.S., starting with the departure of The Voodoo from the band. Now a duo, Collier and Dr. Rabe set about making their ultimate end-of-the-millennium musical statement with the band's 2nd album. "Suck" was released in 1996, and while their record company didn't know quite what to do with it in the band's homeland of Germany, the English music press went berserk: Kerrang!-UK rated "Suck" with 4 out of 5 K's, while Metal Hammer called it "21st Century Rock n' Roll". One English newspaper described it as "Sepultura meets New Order in a dark alley. One of the best albums to cross our desk this year". Songs like "Right Now", "Let's" and "Dave's Place" demonstrated the enormous musical growth of the band, and their cover of Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life" once again made European dancefloors unsafe. The album's final track, "The Big Crush", with its droning bulldozer groove set under an almost T.Rex-like melody, put the then-impending approach of the new millennium into perspective in a way that's proved fairly prophetic in the meantime: "Smell the roses...and the slime. Suck it up!".

After touring Europe and England in support of Suck, T.A.S.S. parted ways with their record company and focused afterwards on music for films and new media. Although they have been quiet in recent years, there has never been an official announcement of a split.....