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“Trading Souls” was the sophomore release from Empire, the super-group project from guitarist Rolf Munkes. Alongside the German axe slingers skills we have the formidable vocal talents of Tony Martin (ex Black Sabbath), the keyboard wizardry of Don Airey (Deep Purple / ex Rainbow), whilst bass legend Neil Murray (ex Whitesnake) forms a tight rhythmic unit with drummer Gerald Kloos (Winterlong / Condition Red). There’s even a special guest in drummer Anders Johansson (Hammerfall / ex Yngwie Malmsteen) who plays on two tracks. Rolf Munkes started playing guitar at 12 years old. In 1996 he enrolled at the Music Academy in Remscheid, Germany and finished his studies with top grades. A sound sample of Rolf’s first solo demo CD was published in Soundcheck magazine in June 1999 and in September of the same year was awarded “Best Instrumentalist” in German Rock Prize competition. Rolf was also the best German participant at the Finale of the European Guitar Festival in Lausanne, Switzerland in November 2000, where his CD was selected out of 200 entries. This led to the release of Rolf’s first solo album “No More Obscurity” in the same month on Lion Music with guest drummer Anders Johansson and vocalist Lance King (Balance Of Power/Mattsson). 2000 to 2002 also saw Rolf as a member of metal outfit Vanize. May 2001 saw the formation of Empire with the debut offering “Hypnotica” released on Lion Music and in Japan via King Records. “Trading Souls” followed in 2003 which was mixed by Stefan Kauffman (Accept). 2006 saw a third Empire record “Raven Ride” (Metal Heaven). During those intervening years Rolf played with Majesty recording three albums and two releases with Razorback as well as performing live with Tony Martin. In the years since Rolf has focused mainly on working as a producer and mixer at his own state of the art Empire Studios near Frankfurt, Germany.
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