Brats

Founded in 1977, Brats were a punk rock/metal hybrid band from Denmark which would later lead the members of this band to form the popular cult heavy metal band Mercyful Fate. In 1980 they released a full-length album titled "1980". The band was found by guitarist Rene Krolmark, who dubbed himself Hank De Wank at the time. The other members were vocalist Franz De Zaster (Michael Gorm), drummer Eddie Haircut (Milan Balsgaard) and bassist Mickey Rat (Michael Hillerup). Brats recorded three song for P?re Punk compilation LP : "Dreams", "I do what I wanna do", "Magazine".

In 1979, this line-up dissolved, but Hank (this time as Hank Shermann) took two new members, bassist/vocalist Yenz (Jens Arnsted) and Monroe (Lars Nybo). After recording few songs (they were released as The Lost Tapes in 2008) another guitarist was brought to the band. It was Michael Denner. This line-up recorded their only album titled 1980. After the release, the band replaced Denner with Carsten Van Der Volsing and hired later famous vocalist King Diamond. Their record company CBS wanted them to do something commercial, but they refused. New outfit and sound of the band led to creation of Mercyful Fate.