【Pls look at the top comment first】Hard/melodic rock from Germany always hits the worldwide rock industry by terrific outfits. In the past few decades, Subway has played an indispensable role, standing out among a big number of 1990s rock talents from Germany.

The foundation of Subway can be dated back to 1986. The band featured a six-piece line-up, which became a special icon of Subway, because they featured a formal member as well as the band's core member on saxophone, which is very rare among many other hard rock outfits in history.

The role of saxophone is becoming more and more popular in rock music, but in most cases, saxophone appears in pure melodic rock, especially those pop-oriented aor sounds. Subway made a difference in music as they perfectly let saxophone integrated into hard rock tunes as a major role.

In 1990, Swiss label Pink 7 Music got aware of Subway and decided to release the band's debut "Dangerous Games". Speaking of the label, it was rarely known and only released Subway's debut. But Subway's first two albums were both released by Swiss labels and won warm popularity in Switzerland.

After the debut was released, Subway had about 50 concerts in Germany and abroad, which was a sucessful beginning of the band. In 1992, their second album "Hold On To Your Dreams" was released by another Swiss label Phonag Records and German label GSE Records. In that year the new vocalist Peach Stöckli from Switzerland joined the band, who replaced Pepe Wolthoff and a new bassist Martin Arnold also replaced Dany Beiersdorfer.

By comparision, the debut "Dangerous Games" seems to be underrated and rarely mentioned while the second album "Hold On To Your Dreams" is more impressive. Peach Stöckli seems to be more well-known than Pepe Wolthoff as the lead vocalist of Subway, who still sings in the band today and maybe is the permanent member. Anyway, the debut is memorable, which sounds brilliant and estalblished Subway's distinctive style.

In Subway's music, saxophone and guitar can perfectly cooperate with each other. They are both the major roles on solos like duet. Not all the songs feature saxophone on solos, so I specially select this flaming melodic hard rock gem, in which saxophone played a vital role, pushing the song to its climax with guitars.

Here is the alto saxophone sound by the band's core member Andy Weber. Alto saxophone is pitched in E flat, which is widely used in jazz, pop as well as melodic rock. Besides, Tenor saxophone is also widely used in melodic rock. Andy Weber played in Subway's first three albums and left the band in 1993. In 1994, a new saxophonist Boris Matakovic joined the band and played in the album "Taste The Difference".

Hear the rock passion by saxophone in this flaming song "Need Your Love Again", my favourite from the debut, featuring a long period of solo by saxophone. In other tracks, some of them display the intro by saxophone and others feature saxophone sounds gleaming on, which create the magic vibe.

To review all the albums from Subway, each album includes impressive tracks. As a hard rock band, their ballads sound really amazing and touching. The most well-known ballad single is "Hear You Cry" in the 2nd album "Hold On To Your Dreams" sung by Peach Stöckli. Though Stöckli left the band in 1995, now he came back. In March 2022, Subway was reformed after more than 30 years consisting of the most members from the successful 1992 line-up: Peach Stöckli, Bemy Bitzer, Thomas Strobel, Martin Arnold and a new keyboardist Robin Stöckli who replaced Henry Sauter. They have planned to have several concerts since this summer to autumn 2022 in Germany and Switzerland. Today's Subway doesn't include the saxophonist, but they come back.
#MelodicRock #HardRock #Subway

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