Drifter

The band was formed in 1981 by guitarist Peter Wolff, at the time under another name. In 1983, Ivano Marcon joined him and the name was changed to Drifter. Thanks to good reviews in music magazines, the band attracted attention and sold more than 500 copies of the demo tape Tales of Dragonia by mail alone. The second demo tape Beyond the Burning Circles also sold more than 700 copies, which was considerable for an era when promotion was done almost entirely by mail. Thanks to this success, Drifter played as local opening act at the Slayer concert in Zurich in April 1987 and signed shortly after a contract with the Hamburg major Teldec. This was the first contract a German-speaking power/thrash metal band was able to sign with a major.