EXA are four guys from Berlin who belong to the new generation of thrash metal. Making no compromises and having no comparisons, they bring their own style and uniqueness out of the middle of East Berlin. The idea of EXA was born when Tom EXA founded a school band in 2014. A few days later, he recruited his school friend Johannes “Hänz” Lortz into the band. In the beginning there were many musicians who came and went until their good friends Tamino Bosse and Erik Böhm joined as bassist and drummer of the band in 2015. After finishing school and playing their first concert, EXA became an unstoppable machine with a huge fanbase in the Berlin Metal scene. From this day on the band played as many shows as possible and became known as one of the most talented young bands in Berlin. With the joining of music student Leon Pester on drums, who at the time was not allowed to play in most of the clubs because of his young age, EXA started the final step with releasing their debut EP, “Ignite” in the summer of 2018.

After releasing what was called by the radio station Star FM and editorial staff of the “Deaf Forever” magazine, this “phenomenal EP”, the four guys out of east Berlin were ready to play with the big boys. In the same month Tom signed an endorsement deal with the worldrenowned custom guitar shop, MGH Guitars. While supporting Brazilian thrash stars Nervosa and death metal veterans Gruesome on their European summer tours, the support act was not the only kind of gig EXA showed they could play. As headliner of Europe’s biggest newcomer festival “Rocktreff” at Volkspark Mariendorf in Berlin, EXA proved during the online and TV livestream they were made for something much bigger.

While playing more and more shows at festivals and clubs in Germany, they were already writing new material for their debut album “Cut the Past”. But this was not the only thing that required EXA’s attention. The Band entered the Metal Hammer Paradise Band Contest 2018 with “Of Father and Mother”, the second single off their EP “Ignite”, and won against other well-known and more established German bands with multiple album releases. This resulted in EXA sharing the stage with metal legends Accept, Hammerfall, Armored Saint and many more and were labeled as one of the best bands of the festival. 2019 has EXA finishing the final mixes for their debut album “Cut the Past”, which will be released soon. This band’s “Hollywood Story”, as characterized by Star FM’s radio host Jakob Kranz, has just begun and ignited a fire which will reach you soon.