Hanker was formed in 1985
by Patrick Gravel, Pascal Cliche, Martin Jones and Jean-François
Fillion. They performed in several places in the Quebec
City area for about five years before the actual drummer,
Luc Guay joined the band.
A first demo was recorded in 1991 and the album In
Our World was released in 1994. Recorded at studio Séquence,
it was Hanker's first professional studio recording
experience.
Always playing in bars and different places, Hanker
released in 1997 a second album called The Dead Ringer
which is a concept album telling the stories pulled
out from the diary of an old man who used to be ringing
the church bells. They got a great response, especially
from Germany, for both of their albums.
In 1999 they went to the famous Phase One studio in
Toronto to record Snakes And Ladders. In November 2000,
this album was released by Metal Disk Records and distributed
by PHD Canada.
They played for all these years in many bars, arenas
and other venues, doing opening acts for bigger names
such as Helloween, Nightwish, Jag Panzer, Kataklysm,
Martyr, Quo Vadis, Anvil, Lee Aaron, Big House, Slik
Toxik and Soothsayer. Hanker has played more than 200
times since its formation.
The name Hanker was discovered on a Saturday afternoon
during a brainstorming session. The meaning of the word
seemed to describe the vision of the guys at the time,
and it still does today.
Hanker was influenced by the great metal kings. Let's
start with Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Metal
Church, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple... They all were
great influences but so were more progressive bands
like Saga, Genesis, Rush, Styx, all of the great rock
bands of the 80's are Hanker's main influence.
That's the Hanker history for now...
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