The thrash metal-command DARKNESS comes from the Ruhrgebiet ( Essen- Altenessen /Germany) , next to the Bay Area of San Francisco 's most creative nucleus of thrash metal in the 1980s. Founded in 1984 , after a couple of demos they released betwenn 1987 and 1989 three albums. The first album DEATH SQUAD is a worldwide thrash classic and has established the cult status of DARKNESS. In 1998 original singer Oliver „Zeutan“ Fernickel died and it became quit around the band. Lacky and Arnd, the band's constants, started 2012 search of a stable cast for a comeback. Guitarist Meik can already be found in 2013. At the end of 2014 Lee get´s the Mic. In 2015, Dirk takes over the bass from "Spessy", who has no time left to join DARKNESS due to his main job at Kreator. Especially since 2014, DARKNESS are playing at well-known festivals such as the "Turock Open Air", "Obscene Extreme" or the "Ruhrpott Metal Meeting". Even at numerous club shows around the world, the oldschool-mace swung and proven what the band stands for: Old School Thrash! In October 2016 the band released “The gasoline solution”,a true, much-lauded successor of the two classics "Death Squad" and "Defenders of Justice" . At the beginning 2019 Ben replaces Dirk at the bass. Exactly two years after the comeback album, Darkness impressively made it clear in October 2018, with the current record "First Class Violence", that more than 30 years later the angry Thrash still comes from Altenessen/Germany.