The fiendish musical claw of KINGS OF PAIN, the debut album by THE ORDEAL, shreds through any layer of protection, gripping our senses with the vengeance of awareness. The great heavy bands of the 70s influence their music. Burning guitar riffs and virtuoso solos over a pounding bass and drum section thrust the mystical lyrics and melodic vocals straight to the centre of your musical understanding.

The band was founded in the spring of 2002 by front-man OLIVER OPPERMANN, initially to record 4 tracks of heavy metal rock music as a reaction to the underwhelming, boring, and uninspired commercially identical computer-generated pap which was ruling the airwaves.
The studio session produced melodic songs that mixed classic metal with modern industrial influences but more importantly resulted in vocalist OLIVER OPPERMANN, KAI REUTER (guitars), PHILIPPE CANDAS (drums), and CYBORG HAINES (bass), becoming close friends.
A band was born, the musicians’ experience and musical diversity characterizing the sound of the newly formed ORDEAL.

OLIVER OPPERMANN began playing the guitar at the tender age of nine and soon after discovered an early interest and ability in composing. During the following nine years OLIVER was influenced by everything from classical music to hard rock, metal and flamenco. Especially the classic acts like RAINBOW, DIO, BLACK SABBATH, AC/DC, SAXON and IRON MAIDEN left a lasting impression on the young man. His fascination for the acoustic guitar started with after attending a concert by PACO de LUCIA, at which point he started taking classical guitar lessons at the conservatory of Arnheim, in the Netherlands, and later studied the Flamenco guitar with virtuoso PACO PENA at the music conservatory in Rotterdam. In 2001 OLIVER also started taking singing lessons. Another early starter, PHILIPPE CANDAS was already pounding the drums when he was eight years old. Originally from France, PHILIPPE has been living in Germany since he turned nineteen. In 1994 he founded ZINO, the band from which the renowned FAIR WARNING later evolved. Enjoying a lot of success, FAIR WARNING toured massively throughout Europe from 1995-97 and the year after in Japan. After HANNES BAURER, the ex guitar player for UDO LINDENBERG, employed PHILIPPE in his GNADENLOS Orchestra, an outfit he still plays with occasionally on stage. CANDAS’ influences are very varied, everything from RACHMANINOW to ZAPPA, as he claims himself. In the beginning there was fire - that summed up CYBORG HAINES' career prior to his discovery of the bass guitar; he was a fire-eater! Whilst he was still completing his studies at the same musical conservatory in Arnheim, which OLIVER OPPERMANN also attended, a choice of musical ensembles of varied plumage were fascinated by the dark hooded man and employed him. He performed with SOON COME, accompanied LEE SCRATCH PERRY on one of his European tours, played with MARLA GLEN and provided the old BIRTH CONTROL-rockers a solid basis for their solo adventures. HAINES is a superb bass player of rarely experienced versatility. KAI REUTER originally played drums but later switched to the guitar and soon became a rather wanted man on the Hanover scene. At 15 he had already played for the BARBARA SCHENKER fronted VIVA, at 20 he toured with JANE through Germany and Switzerland. Rehearsing obsessively he became somewhat of a guitar hero, and was rewarded for his efforts when asked to join Fair Warning for their Japanese tour in 2000. KAI lists his musical influences as being: TOMMY BOLIN, STEVE VAI, JOE SATRIANI, STEVE LUTHAKER, NEIL SCHON and GARY MOORE.

Producer HERMAN FRANK presented the album KINGS OF PAIN to MAUSOLEUM RECORDS. After leaving ACCEPT - and before forming VICTORY and MOON'DOC - HERMAN FRANK already released the greatly underrated HAZZARD for MAUSOLEUM in 1984. Twenty years later HERMAN decided that MAUSOLEUM would be a good home for the exceptional talents of THE ORDEAL. Previously HERMAN also produced SAXON, ROSE TATTOO, MOLLY HATCHET and MESSAIAH'S KISS.