NIKKI PUPPET - GERMANY

Puppet On A String – 2005 - Armageddon
Militant Mother – 2007 – Armageddon
Power Seeker – 2008 – Asr
To Be Yourself – 2011 – Swellcreekrecords
Disco Inferno – 2015 – 7hard
Into The Wild - 2020 - 7Hard
Men Against Machine - 2023 - 7Hard

Nikki Puppet image
  
 
Members
Vocals
Sharona>>NICKY GRONEWOLD

Guitar
Herman Frank, Victory>>CHRISTOS MAMALITSIDIS>>Herman Frank, Victory


Bass
Schirling>>Anke - Regine Hellmann - MARC SCHOLZ

Drum
Stupify>>Flo - Change Generation, Breeze, Caleidio, Hellfire, D.N.A., Die Blumen, Lazy Dogs, Memphis Mafia, Funky Crime, RPS, Schrei!>>KAI PAULMANN>>RPS, Schrei!





History & Biography
The hard rock band was founded in late 2003. Nicky and Christos are a couple who had played together before and were advertising for a female bassist and a drummer to join. The band’s name was a combination of the singer’s name and the nickname of former bassist Anke, basspuppy. The band is inextricably linked with Herman Frank (Accept, Victory, Solo) and Victory. Frank saw the band play in Hanover as openers for The Ordeal and invited them to record with him at his studio. The band had invited him earlier to their rehearsal. He introduced drummer Wolpers to the band as well. The drummer played with Frank. The band would later play a show with Victory and, of course, Mamalitsidis would join both bands. Nicky was a guest on Downstroke’s 2005 demo. The group's 2005 demo was Demo Of The Month in Metal Hammer.

Michael Wolpers (Guano Apes, Herman Frank, Running Wild, etc.) helped with the drums on the band’s debut. The band played at Wacken in 2006 and toured with MSG. Puppet On A String was re-released in 2016 with a bonus acoustic track. The band announced a tour of Europe with Anvil, which just happened to coincide with the pandemic. The 2023 record was an acoustic one and featured Marc Scholz.


Reviews

NIKKI PUPPET - MILITANT MOTHER - ARMAGEDDON MUSIC  
Female fronted catchy hard rock from Germany touring with MSG, enough said? To elaborate, Militant Mother starts off with the catchy yet formulaic hard rock song Lost In Time. The title track is up-tempo with guitar riffs pushing along with of vocals of Nicky Gronewold, a major contributor to the catchiness of Nikki Puppet. Billy Joel’s We Didn't Start the Fire is next with the band putting their own small twist on it. Open Your Mind has Christos Mamalitsidis taking a paragraph out of the Zakk Wylde’s work with the song managing to retain a European feel. Words is rock with a good solo. Turning In Circles may be termed a ballad but follows the same path as all heard here. If (You Can’t Have Me) has more driven riffs. Lights Are Out is more of the same but somehow causes the appeal of Militant Mother to wane. Paralized follows the same trend with few noteworthy variations. Paltry does offer a change but in the wrong direction as it is clearly a pop funk take on things. I Don’t Know closes Militant Mother on a heavier and more effective note and it is probably the most clear-cut heavy metal song featured here. - Anna Tergel


Interviews







Nikki Puppet