Shakra

For the Hindu god, see Indra.

Shakra
Origin	Bern, Switzerland
Genres	Hard rock Heavy metal
Years active	1997–present
Labels	AFM Records
Members	John Prakesh Thom Blunier Thomas Muster Dominik Pfister Roger Tanner
Past members	Pete Wiedmer Mark Fox Oli Lindner
Website	http://www.shakra.ch

Shakra is a Swiss hard rock band founded in the late 1990s.

History

With their first releases "Shakra" (1997), and "Moving Force" (1999), and by touring with Great White and Uriah Heep, the early career of this Swiss band was a steep learning curve with dramatic success but the real breakthrough came with their third record "Power Ride" (2001) when singer Pete Wiedmer was forced to leave the band because of ill health, replaced by Mark Fox. Mark immediately put his stamp on the following album "Rising" (2003), which saw Shakra rise higher on the career ladder than ever before and hit the German and Swiss album charts. The band played several concerts and festivals, one of which was the prestigious "Bang Your Head" event. The controversial video clip for the song "Chains Of Temptation" showed singer Fox giving himself a heroin injection.

And, after supporting Iron Maiden at the Swiss "Spirit Of Rock" festival, Shakra then took the decision to tour through 12 countries with HammerFall and Stratovarius. The band played a huge show in Zurich with Guns N' Roses in 2006.

Shortly after the Everest album was released, Mark Fox left the band and was replaced by John Prakesh on vocals.

New releases include "Back On Track" in Feb 2011 and "Powerplay" in Jan 2013.

On April 23, 2014, John Prakesh announced he was leaving Shakra. No replacement has been announced and a search is on.

Discography

• 1998 "Shakra"
• 1999 "Moving Force"
• 2000 "The Live Side" (Live)
• 2001 "Power Ride"
• 2003 "Rising"
• 2004 "My Life My World" (Live-DVD+CD)
• 2005 "Fall"
• 2007 "Infected"
• 2009 "Everest"
• 2011 "Back On Track"
• 2013 "Powerplay"

External links

• Official Homepage
• German Fansite
• Recording Studio power ride
• Shakra Myspace Page