Superior

At least four bands have been called Superior: 1) A German rock band existing from 1992 - 2007 2) An American Hardcore Band 3) British artist Su Goodacre 4) Dutch Hardcore band 1) german Rock band: Founded in 1992, SUPERIOR is one of the few bands over ten years old that still has the same line-up. A mere eight months after SUPERIOR was founded, they released their demo "Timeshift". This demo contained an early version of the song "Tomorrow's Eve", which was to be included on their first album "Behind". "Timeshift" is a documentary of the changes that SUPERIOR underwent, who are, to this day, open to all kinds of musical influences. Until the middle of 1994 the band toured mainly in southwestern Germany and the more they toured the more they were convinced that it was due time for them to release their first self-produced CD. It took them a year to work on the compositions, arrangement and the concept of the album. In 1995 they recorded "Behind" in the Roko Soundstudios, close to Frankfurt/Main. The album consists of 10 songs that are progressive heavy rock. The lyrics are about the bigotry of society, the media, politics and reflections of personal everyday-life experiences of the individual members of SUPERIOR. Due to the themes the sound is heavy and aggressive, including epic and very melodic passages. The most important elements are heavy, driving guitars, complex piano and string arrangements and the powerful voice of Michael Tangermann. When the album was completed the band signed a contract with Hamburg label L.M.P., which got in touch with various record companies. In the fall of 1996 SUPERIOR signed a contract with Modern Music/Noise, which has the rights for the entire world, excluding France, where ARCADE/C.N.R. Music takes care of the band's interests. Shortly after signing with Noise Records, SUPERIOR toured Germany supporting Virgin Steele and Angra in such well-known venues as Hamburger Markthalle, Zeche Bochum and various others. Unfortunately after the fifth show, keyboardist Jan-Marco Becker hurt his hand severely and even had to be operated on during the tour. Angra's frontman Andre Matos spontaneously offered to rehearse some of the keyboard parts and SUPERIOR was able to continue touring, even though somewhat handicapped. After the tour SUPERIOR was forced to take a prolonged break, waiting on their keyboardist to recover. They couldn't join several tours offered to them by their record company and just didn't have the chance to promote their newly released album properly. In the middle of 1997, when their keyboardist had recovered, they began touring again, starting of with a short tour through France, where they also did some unplugged sessions, once again proving their diversity of musical styles. Following this, they did several shows in Germany, while already working on the material for their new album. In the midst of getting ready to record they did a tour through France with Vanden Plas and then got ready for the pre-production of "Younique". Finally, from the middle of March through the middle of May 1998 they recorded, mixed and mastered "Younique", once again in the Roko Soundstudios. The new album was neither a duplicate of "Behind" nor was it entirely different. It was the further development of their musical style; heavy riffing, typical for SUPERIOR, diverse keyboard arrangements and sounds, very complex and individual instrumentation, acoustic guitars, sitar-sounds, brass arrangements and saxaphone solos, everything that makes rock interesting. Very diverse musical influences, ranging from Latin, Funk and Classical music all the way to Jazz were arranged in the extremely heavy and powerful sound. To sum it up, "Younique" was an album that kept on going where "behind" ended. Although most important magazines worldwide celebrated “Younique” as a milestone in progressive music, the album divided fans into two camps, one being fascinated and the other one shocked. Immediately after the album´s release SUPERIOR started to perform live again. In 1999 several great shows followed in Germany, France, Netherlands and in Belgium. Definite highlights were the concert with Angra and Stratovarius at the Parisian “Zenith”, celebrated by 5.000 fans, and their liveshow at Progpower festival in the Netherlands. Another great event `99 has been the acoustic tour through France, where SUPERIOR once again proved their receptiveness to various musical influences. In the following months Superior and Noise records agreed that the style of the band´s music just didn´t match together with the company´s politics and their strict adherence to true metal style. At the same time the musicians and their French label NTS records decided to cooperate for a further SUPERIOR-album, which turned out to be a concept album about religious fanatisism with all its consequences down to terrorism. At the time the guys didn´t know how close they would come to truth. From January 2000 until May 2001 SUPERIOR worked on lyrics and music for “ULTIMA RATIO”. The recordings at the ROKO soundstudios took the following six months. They`ve been only interrupted by the ProgPower Festivals in the Netherlands and the USA, where the band presented some of their brandnew songs, which have been welcomed enthusiastically by the audience. “ULTIMA RATIO” is less experimental than “Younique”. The arrangements are clearly structured, and the dominating characteristics are the extremely heavy guitars, beautiful piano playing combined with the great melodies coming from Michaels powerful and emotional voice. But most of all the band’s members fulfilled a dream they shared since SUPERIOR was founded: to bring a soundtrack to reality, to create a movie for the ears by composing and arranging a concept album transformable into a cinematographic thriller. “ULTIMA RATIO” is the exposure of crime, complex images, agitation and suppression as cloaked by welfare and graze. 2) An American Hardcore band Formed in Omaha, Nebraska 3) British artist Su Goodacre signed to Virgin Records in 1997 This Superior consisted of Su 'Superior' and Lee Knott (ex It bites) and released 3 singles Coma (known for its Karl Bartos (ex kraftwerk) remix), Faster Than You and Being You. An album Germ Free was recorded but remains unrelased. Their song Polaroid Millenium was featured on the The Saint soundtrack.