The band "Hel's Crusade" was founded in January 1998 under the name " Fenrir", which is the teutonic wolf of hell, in the small town Barth at the Baltic Sea. At first the band comprised only one guitarist, a bass player and a drummer. In March the singer Heiko joined the band, so did the guitarist Matte in May.

With this line-up the band made a name for itself within the scene by playing numerous gigs in the region Western Pomerania, Rugia, Rostock and even outside Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The band began to arrange Open Air Festivals in Barth with several regional and national Metal bands and got a great amount of approval in Barth and its surrounding area.

In the year 2000 the cast was almost completely altered. A new drummer joined the band and with his aggressive way of playing he brought a change into a harder direction than before. Also one guitarist and the bass player were altered. Since June 2002 the guitarist of the Black-Metal band "Nidhøgg" has taken over the 1. Guitar at "Hel's Crusade". This change brought slight black influences into the band, but still Death Metal remains in the foreground of band's creative activity.

Lineup2002:
Martin "Matte" Machnikowski: Gitarre
Heiko "Nidhøgg" Fritz: Vocals
Ronald "Keule" Schacht: Drums
Mathias "Matze" Grigat: Gitarre
Frank "August" Augustyniak: Bass

Last known lineup:
Hans-Christian Fritz: Guitar
Heiko "Nidhøgg" Fritz: Vocals
Ronald "Keule" Schacht: Drums
Mathias "Matze" Grigat: Guitar
Tom "Schnuffi" Reichelt: Bass

"Hel's Crusade" impressed with its abundance of different facets and the variety within the music. The repertoire contained everything from slow gothic loaded songs, which are partly underlined by keyboards, to rock and hard, aggressive Death Metal. So the band was able to gain many fans of their music. The musicians attach a certain importance to variety.

The meaning of the name "Hel's Crusade":

The first part of the name is taken from the nordic mythology. "Hel" is the teutonic goddess of death and the underworld. Her father was the deceitful and violent - tempered god "Loki" and her brothers were the hell - wolf "Fenrir" and the Midgard-snake "Jomungandr". They are predestined to kill the highest god "Odin" or rather the god of thunder "Thor" in the twilight of the gods.

Hel's domain is the dark, terrible world "Niflheim", the place where all dead people go who didn`t die in honours. In the old teutonic language her domain was called " Hel". The Christians took over this term for Satan`s realm of shades. The english word "hell" reminds you of the origin. This name embodies the dark and mystic side of the band, which is expressed in most of the songs.

"Crusade" however comes from the Christian history. It is supposed to point out the relentlessness and the savageness of the songs and the lyrics.