Killer

Belgian heavy metal outfit Killer came together in 1980 when vocalist and guitarist Paul “Shorty” Van Camp joined forces with drummer Fat Leo after their earlier band, Mothers of Track, dissolved. Auditions soon added bassist and backing vocalist Spooky, allowing the resulting power trio to land a deal with the domestic Warner Bros. affiliate only four months later. They promptly tracked their debut LP, Ready for Hell, which appeared in early 1981. Its 1982 follow-up, Wall of Sound, introduced replacement drummer Robert “Double Bear” Cogen and further displayed the group’s New Wave of British Heavy Metal leanings alongside a clear debt to speed merchants Motörhead, though those parallels grew overstated in subsequent accounts. Both records earned solid support across Europe, yet Warner still cut ties, prompting the band’s management to launch Belgium’s Mausoleum Records—an imprint that would soon host fellow locals Acid and Crossfire—to issue the third album, Shock Waves, in 1984. Mounting financial strains at the label blocked the release of a completed double live set, Still Alive in ’85, and after limited activity that included a Polish tour Killer went dormant. Shorty issued the solo outing Too Wild to Tame in 1987 under the name Van Camp, then revived the Killer name in 1990 with Spooky, drummer Rudy Simmons, and second guitarist Jau Van Springel for the one-off reunion album Fatal Attraction. Throughout the next decade he performed regularly with local act Blues Express while taking part in scattered Killer one-offs, but a Mausoleum 20th-anniversary show finally prompted serious plans for a lasting return. That resurgence produced two fresh studio albums, 2003’s Broken Silence and 2005’s Immortal, cut by a refreshed lineup anchored by Shorty alongside bassist Ken Van Steenbergen, drummer Vanne, and keyboardist Dave Powell.