Michael Ehré (1971, Nordenham) plays drums in German powermetallers Gamma Ray, and Metalium. Previously he played in Pryer and Murder One.



Ehré joined Metalium in 2001, replacing previous drummer Mark Cross.



Michael Ehré's biography, in his own words:

I was born on August, 1st in 1971 in Brake, Germany (a small town near Nordenham, where I live since then). I started playing drums at the age of 10, because my uncle (who´s actually just a few years older) started to play guitar and wanted me to join his new “band”.



Our first band called “Neon Knights” (yes, we took the name from “Black Sabbath”...) . We practiced a lot and played some small gigs. But actually music wasn´t that important for me at that time. I played soccer (as a goalkeeper) and that took the most of my time.



But in 1988 one thing happened that changed my life from that day on....



On a friday afternoon I got a phone call from a friend of mine who told me that in the evening there will play a couple of bands on a small festival. Actually it was a Punk-festival, but there should also play a Heavy-Metal-band! Metal was our obsession, so we decided to go to see this metal band.



At that time my friend and me played together in a local metal-band and we... hmmm, let´s say we had no problems with our self-confidence, so we thought we watch the show from this band a make malicious remarks (I admit: we knew nothing about music and the business at all...). Than this band entered the small stage and played the most impressive gig I´ve ever seen in my life (until these days!). Forget “Iron Maiden” - who´s “Judas Priest” compared to their powerful and energetic stage performance?



The band I´m talking about called “Crossroads” and they came from a city called Wilhelmshaven. They acted so professional but natural that my friend and me couldn´t believe our eyes. The funny thing about that is that the audience didn´t like their performance because they were all Punk-fans. It seemed that we both were the only Metal-fans at this festival. But that didn´t matter... my view to music changed so enormous that it actually changed my life!



From that day on I practiced hard on my instrument and tried to become a better musician. I quit playing soccer because it was actually too dangerous as a goalkeeper, because from time to time I had problems with my hands and fingers. But you don´t become a better musician from one day to another - so it took a few years to reach a certain level. But than musicians from outside of Nordenham paid attention on me, so I was asked to join better bands with better musicians than I was actually. That helped me a lot to even get better.



My first serious band called “Pryer” . I joined them in 1991. We played a lot of gigs and recorded a CD (“Kick´n´rush”) in 1993. After the band split in 1995 I was asked to join a “KISS”-coverband called “The Elder”, where some musicians of the Prog-Metal-band “Secrecy” were involved. I also joined the local coverband “Prime Time”, where I am still playing! But in 1997 it was time for me to make my own music again. “The Elder” played some shows but in the end we quit after two years. I decided to make my “own” band. All the years I also learned playing guitar (not as good as Malmsteen, but not as bad as....), so my idea was to record an album where I play the drums, the guitars and the bass. All I needed was a singer and a guitar-player who plays all the solo-stuff! I asked my friend Frank Schütte from “Pryer” if he´d like to join me as the singer of this new band. He was interested and from that day on we began to record our songs. Concerning the solo-guitar I don´t had to think too much about who should play on this album: my one and only choice was Christian Stöver, who played in “Crossroads”. He is an incredible guitar-player. Unfortunatelly he left “Crossroads” in 1992 to become a teacher and plays in a top-fourty-coverband in Wilhelmshaven now.



I called the band “Murder One” and we released our record in 1998. Just before the release of this record I asked my friends Sven Lüdke (guitar, now joining “Mob Rules”), Dennis Krüger (guitar, from “The Elder”) and Steve Kerby (bass, ex-”Secrecy”, “The Elder”) to join “Murder One”.



After we released the record we went out on tour to promote it. We played with “Mob Rules” and “Ivory Tower” the so called “New size of german heavy metal”-tour in 1999. After this tour we decided to record our next album. Besides that I played some shows with “Mob Rules” because Arved Mannott (their drummer) didn´t had the time to play them. It seems that I became a kind of “a seventh bandmember” because from time to time they still call me to play some shows.



Unfortunatelly the work on the next “Murder One”-album took almost two years - far too long for a newcomer band! At that time I became a phone call from Lars Ratz...



I met Lars Ratz the first time on the “Wacken-Open-Air” in 2000. I was there to promote “Murder One”. I met some label managers and gave them our debut-cd, because we were looking for a new record-deal. At the end of the day I had one copy left and I gave it Lars. Don´t ask me why I gave him a cd (at that time he wasn´t working as a label manager - I only knew him from his band “Metalium”) - I can´t remember why... but we stayed in touch since then. He visited some of our shows and even booked us a support-gig for “Saxon”.



In August 2001 I got a phone call from my friend Matthias Mineur (guitar-player of “Mob Rules” and a journalist for the german ”Metal hammer”-magazine). He told me that “Metalium” were looking for a new drummer because their former drummer Mark Cross left them to join “Helloween”. Matthias knew that I liked the music of “Metalium” and asked if I could imagine to join them? I answered: “Hey Matthias, why should they ask me? I don´t think they will...”. But what should I say - just a few days later Lars asked me to audition for his band. So I drove to Hamburg and performed “Eye of the storm”, “Steel avenger” and “Revelation”. And I got the gig... a big step in my musical career!



To be continued...