"Atomkraft’s Rob Mathew: A Guitarist’s Heavy Metal Journey" PART ONE

This is the story of Rob Mathew, known as Rob Redhead, a young musician from the northeast of England who joined a heavy metal band in 1985 and spent the next four years checking off all the boxes of rockstar life. Atomkraft was one of the first new bands to emerge post-NWOBHM, and they were at the forefront of the evolving British heavy rock and metal scene. Signed to the same label as the up-and-coming, world-dominating legends Venom, both bands shared the same management company. However, the cozy world of British heavy metal exploded in the mid-1980s with the arrival of American thrash metal bands. Atomkraft had to quickly up their game and adapt to survive, as a faster, more aggressive style than ever before took the metal music world by storm, led by bands like Metallica and Slayer. At just 16 years old, Rob was not only thrown into the deep end of learning, recording albums, and playing to thousands but also had to rapidly adapt his songwriting abilities to this new thrash genre, as did the other band members, to survive and hopefully thrive.