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Gracchus
Biography
The project Gracchus was brought to life by Bernhard Schnellmann, who had studied at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, and his good friend and talented drummer Allan Murphy in the spring of 2015. Together with the dedicated bassist Marcel Bütikofer they started to play shows (and supported i.a. international acts like Heldmaschine or Divlje Jagode) and released their first EP (MCMLXXX) in December 2016.
In the fall of 2017, the U.S. guitarist Jeff Elrose joined Gracchus. The New Jersey native and Schnellmann had been friends since their studies in Hollywood and after Elrose had spent two and a half months in Switzerland, playing gigs (i.a. supporting the Belgian heavy metal band Diablo Blvd), working on new songs and jamming with the band, the whole group was convinced that they had found the ideal fourth member.
In 2018, the band released their second EP (Cluttered and Crowded) which was very well received by the specialist press in the German-speaking area. Additionally spurred by the positive and praising feedback, Gracchus released their first full-length album, Murder Party, on October 4th, 2019, which entailed even more enthusiastic reviews and lead to the German Metal Hammer to deeming the band Tomorrow’s Heroes (Helden von morgen) in its October issue. In November, Gracchus toured through Germany and the Czech Republic for the first time, and in December, the band had the honor to open up for Pro-Pain (06.12.) and Undertow (14.12.).
The band started into 2020 with the great honor of being chosen as the German Rock Hard’s Recommendation of the Month (Tipp des Monats) and began to forge out international touring plans. As we all know though, the year took quite a different turn. Separated but not silenced by the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic, Gracchus decided to focus on their musical output for the time being and have been writing and releasing one new song a month since June 2020.
Tag: neo prog, progressive heavy rock, progressive metal, progressive rock, heavy metal, hard rock, heavy rock, rock, metal
