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Welcome to the home of
Jester's Funeral, a power metal band from Germany that existed
from 1996 to 2006.
On this page you'll find the complete history of the band
and the possibility to download all
songs the band ever recorded.
All copyrights of all songs,
lyrics, photos and texts are owned by Jester's Funeral and
its members named on this site. If you have questions please
write to
contact@jestersfuneral.de
Listen/Download Songs at bandcamp.com
Jester's Funeral on Facebook
History
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1995 STEFAN SCHMIDT
(guitar, vocals) gets to know HEIKO HÖHN (guitar, vocals),
the brother of BJÖRN HÖHN, who played bass in Stefan's band
GLOOM in 1994 (together with INGO STERZINGER). Heiko and
Stefan write some hard rock songs together and have two
rehearsals together with HOLGER WIES (bass) and STEFAN SPERLING
(drums), who are friends of Heiko. The working title of that
band is JESTER. Heiko and Stefan soon notice that they want
to write songs in a more heavy style, like the songs in
Stefan's project FENAOR's LIGHT, featuring metal songs in
the style of GAMMA RAY's LAND OF THE FREE.
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1996
After the split of their former
bands GLOOM and STAY, Heiko and Stefan write two songs
together (Jester's Funeral and Bolysseus' Cult). They record
these two songs as a demo on Stefan's 4-track-recorder with
drum-computer. The search for band-members ends up in Holger
Wies and BASTIAN EMIG, who knows Stefan from the school yard.
In May the band decides to
run under JESTER'S FUNERAL and starts songwriting and
rehearsals. The style is heavy rock between Metallica's
Black Album, older Iron Maiden and some influences of Blind
Guardian concerning lyrics and fantasy feeling.
On June 5th 1996 Jester's
Funeral plays the first gig organized by friends as an
free-entry-open-air in front of 300 people. The five songs
played are "jester's funeral", "bolysseus' cult", "make my
day", "carpe diem" and "time".
In August the band records
the first demo tape together with RAPHAEL ZÜRN, the drummer
of Stefan's former band Gloom, who works as a live engineer
at that time. The demo WALPURGISNIGHT contains 8 Songs and
is released in 1996, sold for 4 DM.
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JESTER's
FUNERAL Mark I
Stefan Schmidt
- vocals, guitars
Heiko Höhn - vocals, guitars
Holger Wies - bass
Bastian Emig - drums
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1997
The band continues playing gigs
in and around Bingen, Germany. New songs are written. The
band records the second Demo DAYS OF MEDIEVAL, containing 8
songs. The style is a bit more alternative, sounding more
hard rock than metal and introducing a progressive touch.
Heiko and Stefan are still sharing lead vocals. It features
a cover artwork of CHRISTIAN WEBER, who is a friend of the
band at that time.
Stefan sends the demo to
Frank Albrecht of RockHard and to ANDREAS SCHÖWE of
MetalHammer.
In the meantime, Stefan
writes some songs in Samael-Style together with his
schoolmates NIC KOBOLD (guitar) and DENNIS DEFLAND (vocals).
They run as ELIXIR and record a two song demo with lots of
symphonic keyboards and double-bass drum-computer. They
present two songs to the public as "Opener" of a regular
JF-Gig in Bingen. The crowd likes the modern approach and
the other bandmembers of JF are impressed as well.
The band decides to take Nic
as a 5th bandmember, playing Keyboards and Rhythm Guitar.
There is a rehearsal session with Dennis Defland as well,
but the band wants to keep a melodic touch and decides not
to work together with Dennis who is a great shouter, but not
the best singer.
Stefan is introduced as the
lead singer from that point in time. Heiko plays the lead
guitar. Together with Nic, the band sounds much deeper,
heavier and more modern.
At the End of summer, the 2nd
Demo is handed over to SÖNKE LAU, singer of UNREST and
member of BLACK ARROW PRODUCTIONS, a hard rock and A.O.R.
orientated label. The
band goes to Osterholz-Scharmbeck, a village near Bremen and
meets Sönke and JÖRG-RAINER-FRIEDE, owner of TTS Studios.
After one week of discussion,
the band decides to sign a production deal with Black Arrow.
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JESTER's
FUNERAL Mark II
Stefan Schmidt
- vocals, guitars
Heiko Höhn - guitars
Nic Kobold - keys, guitars
Holger Wies - bass
Bastian Emig - drums
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1998 The band
writes new songs for the first album and plays some live
gigs. The album is recorded in August 1998 in TTS Studios by
Jörg-Rainer Friede. The recordings take 4 weeks. 1 week for
drum recording, 2 weeks for bass, guitar, keyboards and
vocals and 7 days for mixing. The sound is more progressiv.
The band records some of the songs in a quite slow manner,
so they don't sound as heavy as the did in the rehearsal
room. Nevertheless the band is stunned by their first studio
recording.
One song, called 'Labyrinth'
is recorded but doesn't make it on the album, because
producer Jörg-Rainer Friede doesn't think it's a good one.
Because of the fact that the album was planned to be named
after that song, and because of the cover artwork by
Christian Weber was already done, the band decides to call
the album LABYRINTH, although the title song didn't make it
on the album.
Jester's Funeral have their
release party in December, playing in front of 400 people in
Bingen. The gig is interupted by a crash of Bastian's bass
drum pedal, so Stefan does a solo performance of Blind
Guardian's "The Bard's Song".
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1999
The album is released via
POINT MUSIC in Europe. Because of the fact that only 2000
units are produced, it's not easy to buy the album in
regular record shops. The band gets a very good review of
Andreas Schöwe in Metal Hammer and (due to the young age of
the members) some good natured but not too entuthiastic
reviews from other online- and print mags. The band sells
all 1500 copies in the next 20 months. No reprint is done.
In 1999 Jester's Funeral
plays two gigs together with TOTAL DISORDER, a band from
Ingelheim, a small village near Bingen. They feature DANIEL
WICKE on bass guitar and GERRIT WOLF on lead guitar, a very
skilled young guitarist, writing modern progressive metal
songs in the style of DREAM THEATER's 'Awake'. By his stile
of playing Stefan is inspired to check out the use of
7-string guitars and orders his first 7-string-Ibanez in a
local guitar shop.
The band plays more gigs and
enter even bigger stages. In September they play the
Summermania Festival at Airfield Frankfurt Hahn. BLIND
GUARDIAN cancel their appearance due to an acute hearing
loss of singer HANSI KÜRSCH - this won't be the last time
that Jester's Funeral miss the chance to get to know their
idols very tersely.
The day after the Summermania
Festival Bastian and Stefan are off to leave again to
Osterholz-Scharmbeck to record the second album. During the
drum-recordings of the first song MAKE MY DAY (a new
arranged remake of the song on the first demo), producer
Jörg-Rainer Friede gets a heart attack on the toilet and is
brought to hospital by Bastian. The recordings are quit
after the 2nd day.
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2000
The band "benfits" of the break
writing three new songs: JESTER's EMPIRE, TIMEBOMB and
ASTROCRY. In February the recordings finally take place in
Osterholz-Scharmbeck together with a recovered and very
thankful Jörg Rainer Friede. The band puts a lot of time in
orchestral keyboard arrangements and background choirs and
sound much heavier due to Stefan's more aggresive style of
singing and the deep tuned 7-string-sound. 'Make my day' is
not recorded again because of the "bad history" of the songs
and because of the three new songs.
During the recordings it
becomes more and more clear, that Heiko loses the
relationship to the new style of Jester's Funeral, somewhere
between Metallica and Blind Guardian with a very modern
sound. Stefan plays most of the solos and all rhythm guitars.
After the recordings Heiko and the band decide to split.
Heiko is replaced by GERRIT WOLF.
In late 2000, QUICK SILVER
LIGHT is released, again with a cover artwork of Christian
Weber. It gets stunning review from many magazines and
fanzines all over the world and airplay in some metal shows.
The band does tons of interviews and do a massive internet
promotion. The song TRAVELLER becomes the band hymn and is
played on many gigs. The band sells about 5000 copies of
Quick Silver Light between 2000 and 2002.
At the end of 2000 Bastian
and Stefan join Sönke's Band UNREST and plan to support them
on tour. They don't play on the album BLODDY VOODO NIGHT,
although they are featured on the official bandphoto.
Finally it will turn out that they never play a single
Unrest-gig due to the split of the band in 2001.
Nic joins the Death Metal
Band SOLICITUDE where he plays rhythm guitar.
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JESTER's
FUNERAL Mark III
Stefan Schmidt
- vocals, guitars
Gerrit Wolf - guitars
Nic Kobold - keys, guitars
Holger Wies - bass
Bastian Emig - drums
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2001
The band plays some more gigs,
writes new songs and faces some serious changes. Black Arrow is taken over by
Jörg-Rainer Friede and is renamed to TTS Media Music. Sönke
Lau is still the A&R.
Stefan and Gerrit are
announced as official ENGL-Endorsers, Basti starts an
endorsement with UFIP-Cymbals.
In summer Holger decides to
leave the band to have more time for his family. He is
replaced by MARTEN MÜLLER. The band decides to keep up the
tempo of the last two years and reenters Jörg's Studio in
September 2001. Stefan plays the Bass Guitar because Marten
has joined JF one week before the recordings.
The recordings go well, the
band got very professional in the last years.
Unfortunately the band misses the chance to continue the
very succesful style of QUICK SILVER LIGHT and get more
progressive again. Nevertheless the sound is heavier and
more mature than ever before. The lyrics of the Song CITY OF
GLASS are written by JAN D. KUCHARZEWSKI who got to know the
band on a gig in Cologne.
Stefan does guest vocals on
the album LOST of the labelmates FADING STARLIGHT, featuring
INGA SCHARF on vocals.
In 2001 the band starts to
leave their old rehearsal room in the basement of Bastian's
father's house and are building a new rehearsal room with a
connected project studio in Bingen.
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JESTER's
FUNERAL Mark IV
Stefan Schmidt
- vocals, guitars
Gerrit Wolf - guitars
Nic Kobold - keys, guitars
Marten Müller - bass
Bastian Emig - drums
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2002 2002 is a bad
year for Jester's Funeral. Having changed to TTS Media
Music, the label of JF is very busy with recording many
bands (paying for the recordings!) in shortest time. The
release of the third album SHIFTING SKYWARDS is rescheduled
again and again. The great cover artwork (again by Christian
Weber) is planned to be covered with a huge "SURROUND DVD
INCLUDED" sticker. The band intervenes and is suddenly
caught in a bizarre fight with Jörg Rainer Friede. Jörg is
losing his reputation by ripping one band after another,
rescheduling and refusing release dates.
The dispute turns out in an
order to stay away from Jörg's Studio for Stefan. The
Surround-DVD is canceled and the release is rescheduled to
2003.
Furthermore the band applies
for the support slot of Blind Guardian's a night at the
opera tour but is rejected. As they will get to know years
later, they had a serious chance to be taken until FREEDOM CALL
applied for the tour.
The positive thing in 2002 is
the completion of the Jester's Funeral Rehearsal Room and a
handful of very powerful gigs.
To deflect from the problems,
Bastian and Stefan join THE RAZORBLADES, an instrumental
surf rock band founded by Stefan's brother MARTIN SCHMIDT.
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2003
Shifting:Skyward is finally
released in march. The band is nerved by the rescheduling
and has to promote an album recorded nearly two years ago.
Therefore the interest and feedback of magazines is not as
big as it was with QuickSilverLight. Due to the progessive
touch of the album many true metal fans are not satisfied
with the style of shifting skywards.
Gerrit leaves the band to
focus on BEYOND SURFACE, a side-project he founded in 2002
together with Marten. BEYOND SURFACE turns out to be very
succesful, winning a Metal Hammer contest together with
PERSUADER, band of later SAVAGE CIRCUS singer JENS CARLSSON.
Marten takes over lead guitars and DANIEL WICKE is the new
bass player.
The band plays only 4 gigs in
that year, Bastian and Stefan are on the road with THE
RAZORBLADES.
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JESTER's
FUNERAL Mark V
Stefan Schmidt
- vocals, guitars
Marten Müller - guitars
Nic Kobold - keys, guitars
Daniel Wicke - bass
Bastian Emig - drums
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2004 The band works
on new songs together with JAN D. KUCHARZEWSKI writing all
lyrics. He is contact with JOHN SHIRLEY, an american author
and screenwriter, known for his CYBERPUNK-Novels and his
screenwriting for THE CROW with BRANDON LEE. The band
evolves the concept to write songs based on Shirley's Short
Stories.
The atmosphere in the band
gets more and more tensed due to the dissapointments with
the record company. The band loses weeks and months in
endless rehearsal room discussions concerning songwriting,
singing style, sound design and everything else one can
discuss about.
Nevertheless the band manages
to start recordings on the album. This time they record
everything on their own, supported by sound engineer JAN
SAUERESSIG.
The band plays 7 gigs in
2004, two of them together with SYNASTHASIA from Duisburg,
getting to know drummer DENNIS STRILLINGER and lead singer
DENNIS P. SCHUNKE.
Nic leaves SOLICITUDE, Daniel
joins THE RAZORBLADES.
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2005 The
discussions in the band get more and more intense, climax is
the short band quitting of Bastian. He can be convinced to
continue, and the fourth JF-Album "FRAGMENTS OF AN EXPLODED
HEART" is finished. The band tries to look for a new record
company but is very exhausted and only plays two gigs in
2005, the last one on May 13th, together with FADING
STARLIGHT.
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2006 Jester's
Funeral cannot find a new record label for their fourth
album. The mixing of the album is finished and is available
for free download on the JF website for about 4 weeks. The
band finally decides to split.
Stefan leaves THE RAZORBLADES and starts VAN CANTO together with DENNIS STRILLINGER. Bastian leaves THE RAZORBLADES and takes a one year trip to China.
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TODAY Stefan is part of VAN CANTO
together with Bastian, Ingo Sterzinger (Stefan's bandmate from GLOOM),
Inga Scharf of FADING STARLIGHT, Dennis Schunke of
SYNASTHASIA and Ross Thompson.
Bastian is drummer of VAN CANTO since 2007 and head of IN LEGEND
Daniel is still playing with
THE RAZORBLADES and is part of IN LEGEND.
Nic hasn't touched a guitar
after May 13th 2005.
Gerrit is envolved in his new project
JOVIAN SPIN, together with
Marten.
Heiko and Holger are playing
together in a classic rock band.
All bandmembers are in lose
contact and finally stopped discussing ;-)
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