Subway to Sally is a German folk metal band founded in Potsdam in the early 1990s. Their music has clear folk and medieval influences, later also adding gothic and metal elements. With their continuous inclusion of oriental sounds and elements of classical music and the use of instruments seldom seen in metal bands such as bagpipes, shawm, violin, hurdy-gurdy and lute, Subway to Sally has acquired the label of medieval metal. The band has released 12 studio albums, two live albums, and two live DVDs. Their fame is centered mainly in the German-speaking countries, having played only a handful of concerts outside of that area. History The very first concert given by Subway to Sally was held in September 1990. The band then consisted of Ingo Hampf, Bodenski, Simon, Coni (trumpet) and Guido (drums). Their first appearance onstage was given in the Potsdamer "Stube" in January 1992, in the constellation with which they later recorded their first album (Album 1994). With the group deciding on needing a fiddle to complete the sound, they brought Frau Schmitt (Silke Volland) to the band, who in turn introduced them to Eric Fish (Erik Hecht) on bagpipes. In their early years, Subway to Sally played Irish/Scottish-inspired folk rock, as reflected by the tracklist of their first album which was their only album where the majority of songs are in English. For these English lyrics they hired a friend. After this, the group decided that they wanted to keep their lyrics in German, thus becoming a part of the first wave of bands to do so after the Berlin Wall broke down. Their second album, released in 1995 and aptly named MCMXCV, saw a mixture of biblically-inspired lyrics and what is often referred to as medieval music. Three major changes can be noted with the release of MCMXCV: the appearance of German lyrics penned by Bodenski, Eric Fish moving up from the piper to being the frontman and main singer, and two translated folk songs, Krähenfraß ("The two Corbies") and Carrickfergus, adapted to fit the band's style. Between 1994 and 1997, the band rapidly released four albums and toured Germany to exhaustion, with an average of around 100 concerts per year. Drummer T.W. left the band in 1997 after completing the recordings of Foppt den Dämon! and was replaced by David Pätsch for the tour and subsequent albums. Bannkreis was the first chart entry of