Marc Storace opines Krokus’ decision to fire Chris Von Rohr in the ’80s was a fatal mistake

Marc Storace opines Krokus’ decision to fire Chris Von Rohr in the ’80s was a fatal mistake

Krokus frontman Marc Storace as recently interviewed by Metal-Rules and spoke about a number of topics including the band during the 1980s in the very comprehensive interview. Krokus were quite prolific back in the ’80s having released seven albums during that period consisting of Metal Rendez-vous (1980), Hardware (1981), One Vice At A Time (1982), Headhunter (1983), The Blitz (1984), Change of Address (1986) and Heart Attack (1988).

In terms of whether the album Change of Address in 1986 was the beginning of the end for the band, Storace replied: “Change of Address was simply a softer production. But the songs, had they been recorded with our typical rocking, raunchy, kick-ass sound, would have survived in a better way. Our old demos are proof of that. The album was overproduced and sounds way too smooth and it didn’t help that the songs were more commercial. That wild hard-rock edge that we had before was gone, and the album title says it all! So that was a mistake, but by the way, even the biggest bands on this planet have released flop albums! I think we had the wrong producer, but it all basically stemmed from the Record Company who invested over a million $ into that album and wanted to have their say…politics, politics!”

Metal-Rules opined that the next Krokus album Heart Attack in 1988 was a step in the right direction but could not save the band to which Storace advised: “Well, by that time, the hard-rock wave– the new wave of heavy metal had waned, and grunge was taking over. We emerged bruised from a two-album flirt with Glam-Rock and we did this new move with Heart Attack trying to go back to what we used to be. We even took Chris Von Rohr back in the band. He was the founder member with whom we had had a big dispute, and we separated our ways with him after the Headhunter album, which was our top-selling album ever! So, with Heart Attack, we did a good record, I think. It’s well produced. We have some great songs on it. But it was too late. It was simply too late. And after that, we went our separate ways.”

In regard to Krokus‘ split with Von Rohr back in 1983, Storace indicated: “In retrospect, firing Chris was a fatal mistake! I don’t like to point fingers, but, when a band loses track of its music direction, chaos starts to reign. Everything was great in the beginning, in the very beginning. But as soon as we reached the Headhunter period, after that, it started to go sour. By the time we reached Heart Attack, the band was fighting internally, and it needs wise management to handle the psychology of a team, to keep it together.”

Wikipedia states the following about Von Rohr‘s exit from the ban back in 1983: “Bassist/keyboardist/percussionist Chris von Rohr was fired in late 1983 due to his extroverted article published in a main Swiss Newspaper exposing the band’s rock’n’roll habits, prior to the band’s appearance at the RockPop Festival in Dortmund, Germany…”.

You can read the rest of the interview with Marc Storace at Metal-Rules‘ website.

Krokus performing “Let This Love Begin” (from the album Change of Address) on May 17, 1986:

Krokus – Let This Love Begin (Live 1986)

Krokus appearing at “Music Hall”, on May 17th 1986 to promote their ‘Change of Address-album.It’s not actually completly Live, though certain parts seem to …

Krokus‘ “Let It Go” video (from the Heart Attack album):

KROKUS – Let It Go

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