Grave Digger "Heavy Metal Breakdown"

Heavy Metal Breakdown is the debut studio album by the German heavy metal band Grave Digger, released on 20 October 1984 by Noise Records. The music in this album is strongly influenced by German heavy metal band Accept and its then-vocalist Udo Dirkschneider.

Although singer Chris Boltendahl was credited for all the music and lyrics, it was only a technical issue. "At the time we didn't have the money to enroll all four members to GEMA. So we only enrolled Chris", said Gerd Hanke then-manager of Grave Digger in book The Story of Noise Records. "Lyrics had always been a problem for Chris" - added guitarist Peter Masson. "His school English was quite bad. During my time with Grave Digger, Gerd wrote most of the lyrics."

Track listing

Music composed and arranged by Grave Digger and lyrics by Chris Boltendahl, except where indicated

Side A

1. "Headbanging Man" 3:37
2. "Heavy Metal Breakdown" 3:42
3. "Back from the War" 5:35
4. "Yesterday" Beate Marquardt 5:06

Side B

1. "We Wanna Rock You" 4:17
2. "Legion of the Lost" 4:54
3. "Tyrant" 3:17
4. "2000 Light Years from Home" (The Rolling Stones cover) Jagger/Richards 2:54
5. "Heart Attack" 3:16

Total length: 36:38

1994 Japanese Bonus Tracks

1. "Violence" 4:43
2. "Shoot Her Down" 3:39
3. "We Wanna Rock You" (Single Version) 3:36
4. "Storming the Brain" 5:05
5. "Shine On" 5:14
6. "Tears of Blood" 2:37
7. "Don't Kill the Children" 3:16
8. "Girls of Rock 'n' Roll" 3:41
9. "Stronger Than Ever" 4:31
10. "I Don't Need Your Love" 4:21

Total length: 1:17:21

The 1994 bonus tracks are from the following:

• "Violence" is taken from the 1983 split album Rock from Hell - German Metal Attack
• "Shoot Her Down", "We Wanna Rock You" and "Storming the Brain" are taken from the 1984 EP Shoot Her Down
• "Shine On" and "Tears of Blood" are taken from the 1985 split album Metal Attack Vol. 1
• "Don't Kill the Children" and "Girls of Rock 'n' Roll" are taken from the 1994 compilation album The Best of the Eighties
• "Stronger Than Ever" and "I Don't Need Your Love" are taken from the 1986 album Stronger Than Ever, in which case they were called Digger at the time

Recording information:

Recorded at Music Lab Studio in Berlin, Germany.

Karl-Ulrich Walterbach - producer

Harris Johns - engineer, mixing