Karat

Emerging in 1975 from the dissolution of Panta Rhei, German rock band Karat took shape in what was then East Germany. Singer Hans-Joachim "Neumi" Neumann, keyboardist Ulrich "Ed" Swillms, bassist Henning Protzmann, drummer Konrad Burkert, and guitarists Herbert Dreilich and Utlrich Pexa made up the original roster. The next year Michael Schwandt and Bernd Römer stepped in for Burkert and Pexa, while Neumann departed in 1977 for military service, prompting Dreilich to assume lead vocals. Their 1978 debut album contained the hit single "König der Welt." Progressive-rock leanings persisted on the 1979 release Über Sieben Brücken, whose standout track "Über Sieben Brücken Mußt du Geh'n" became the band's biggest success and whose epic "Albatros" delivered a pointed critique of the Berlin Wall. Schwanenkönig followed in 1980, the platinum-certified Der Blaue Planet appeared in 1982, and Die Sieben Wunder der Welt arrived in 1984.

Frequent personnel changes marked the late-'80s and early-'90s period, and Karat's popularity declined even as fresh recordings continued to appear. Dreilich experienced a stroke onstage in 1998 yet recovered in time for the band's 25th-anniversary concert in Berlin; the performance was issued on CD and DVD, and the enthusiastic public response encouraged the group to return to the studio. The resulting album Licht und Schatten reached stores in 2003. Triumphant yet bittersweet, it marked Dreilich's final recording, as he received a lymphatic-cancer diagnosis early that year and died the following December. Honoring his wishes, Karat carried on with his 35-year-old son Claudius Dreilich handling lead vocals, though a trademark suit filed by the elder Dreilich's widow forced the band to adopt the name K...!.