PRETTY MAIDS
Biography and full discography of PRETTY MAIDS, with a page for every album, on METAL BOOST.
English Discography Overview
This English discography hub highlights PRETTY MAIDS albums such as Undress Your Madness, Kingmaker, Louder Than Ever. The album notes emphasize these records' riffs, vocals, production character, songwriting flow and listening context: A sixteenth studio album that turned out to be the last before Ronnie Atkins' illness was made public. The fifteenth album, and the first with Chris Laney on keyboards and guitars. Five new songs alongside seven re-recordings of material from 1999-2006 — the overlooked years, restated in the band's present sound.
Biography
PRETTY MAIDS Biography
Profile
Formed 1981 / Horsens, Denmark / Heavy Metal, Hard Rock
Members
| Member | Role |
|---|---|
| Ronnie Atkins | Vocals |
| Ken Hammer | Guitars |
| Rene Shades | Bass |
| Allan Tschicaja | Drums |
| Chris Laney | Keyboards, Guitars |
Biography
Pretty Maids were formed in Horsens, Denmark, in 1981. They began as a cover band called Pretty Panic, put together by Ken Hammer and John Jacobsen; Ronnie Atkins replaced Jacobsen as vocalist in 1982. A self-financed demo won them a deal with the English label Bullet Records, and the self-titled EP that followed in 1983, along with a UK tour, is what first got them noticed.
CBS Records Denmark signed the band in 1984, reissued that EP remixed with new artwork, and released the first full album, Red, Hot and Heavy, the same year. Future World followed in 1987, recorded at Bearsville Studios in New York: Eddie Kramer produced first, after which Flemming Rasmussen took the harder songs and Kevin Elson the melodic ones. That year the band played the Monsters of Rock festival in Germany, headlined by Deep Purple, and Angel Schleifer of Bonfire toured with them through 1987 and 1988.
Jump the Gun arrived in 1990 with Deep Purple's Roger Glover producing, and the band nearly fell apart immediately afterwards — only the founders, Hammer and Atkins, were left. They rebuilt around drummer Michael Fast and bassist Kenn Jackson and made Sin-Decade in 1992, working with Flemming Rasmussen again. Stripped closed the CBS/Columbia years in 1993; from Scream in 1994 the band worked out of Germany with Massacre Records, releasing six albums through to Planet Panic in 2002.
In September 2002 the band's management company, Rock On, went bankrupt, leaving serious financial and legal problems, and in 2003 Ken Hammer suffered a heart attack from which he recovered fully. After a long stall the band signed to Frontiers Records and restarted with Wake Up to the Real World in 2006, with Allan Tschicaja on drums and Morten Sandager on keyboards. A steady run followed: Pandemonium (2010), Motherland (2013), Kingmaker (2016) and Undress Your Madness (2019). They marked thirty years at Tivoli in Copenhagen in 2011 and played their first American show at ProgPower in September 2012.
In March 2020 Ronnie Atkins revealed that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer at the end of 2019. Treatment initially succeeded, but the cancer returned that October, and Atkins released a solo album, One Shot, in 2021. The band stayed off stage for five years, returning in June 2024 at Copenhell and at Sweden's Time to Rock festival. Two authorised books appeared in November 2021: the Danish 40 ar med Pretty Maids and the English We Came To Rock – The Official Pretty Maids Journals.
How the Band Sounds
Two things have not changed in more than forty years: Ronnie Atkins' voice and Ken Hammer's guitar. Atkins sings on attack and definition rather than range, and Hammer plays to the outline of the vocal instead of over it. That relationship holds whether the song is an early fast one or a later piece with keyboards underneath it.
The 1980s records combine post-NWOBHM speed with a bright Scandinavian sense of melody. The Massacre years of the 1990s are harder and blunter, in the music and in the song titles. From the move to Frontiers in 2006 the keyboards run throughout, settling into the present shape, which holds weight and singability at the same time. The line-up has moved repeatedly; the construction — get the voice to the chorus by the shortest route — has not.
Detailed Member Profiles
Ronnie Atkins — Vocals, born 1964-11-16
Ken Hammer — Guitars, born 1963-10-26
Rene Shades — Bass, born 1971-07-27
Allan Tschicaja — Drums, born 1974-07-05
Chris Laney — Keyboards, Guitars, born 1972-01-31
Discography
Sixteen studio albums. EPs, live records and compilations are not listed here.
| Year | Album |
|---|---|
| 1984 | Red, Hot and Heavy |
| 1987 | Future World |
| 1990 | Jump the Gun |
| 1992 | Sin-Decade |
| 1993 | Stripped |
| 1994 | Scream |
| 1997 | Spooked |
| 1999 | Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing |
| 2000 | Carpe Diem |
| 2002 | Planet Panic |
| 2006 | Wake Up to the Real World |
| 2010 | Pandemonium |
| 2013 | Motherland |
| 2014 | Louder Than Ever |
| 2016 | Kingmaker |
| 2019 | Undress Your Madness |
Japan
Japan has been one of this band's principal markets for a long time. Scream, in 1994, had its first official release on Epic/Sony in Japan, a year ahead of the European Massacre pressing, and in 2020 the band issued a live album recorded there, Maid in Japan - Future World Live 30 Anniversary.
Having resumed activity in 2024, Pretty Maids play day two of FULL METAL JAPAN 2026 - POWERED BY WACKEN at Pia Arena MM in Yokohama on October 25, 2026, on a bill shared with Powerwolf, Angra, Hibria and Loudness.
Conclusion
Nothing about this band's history reads as an uninterrupted run of good fortune: the near-breakup of 1990, the management collapse of 2002, a heart attack in 2003, and the singer's illness made public in 2020. Each time the line-up was rebuilt and the records kept coming. That the two founders are still at the centre after more than forty years, and that sixteen studio albums stand behind them, are two sides of the same fact.
Trivia
In the autumn of 2025 two of their songs went into the second season of Peacemaker on HBO Max: "Please Don't Leave Me," their 1992 hit, in episode four, and "Little Drops of Heaven," from 2010, in episode six. Their own site announced it as good news.
PRETTY MAIDS were formed in Denmark in early 1982 by Ronnie Atkins and Ken Hammer, and the two of them have been the axis of the band ever since.
How this band started in Japan is a little unusual. Their first album, Red, Hot and Heavy, released in 1984, became a substantial hit there as an import — and the response was large enough that a domestic Japanese edition followed afterwards. Gekirock calls them one of the rare bands whose popularity caught fire in Japan first.
What followed settled into a pattern. As Blabbermouth puts it, they went on releasing albums, usually followed by European and Japanese tours. Japan was not an occasional market for them but part of the circuit each record went around.
After Undress Your Madness came out in November 2019 the band stopped. By Ronnie Atkins's own account it ended the wrong way: he became ill and for around six months could do nothing, and the new album came out in exactly that stretch, so there was never a chance to tour it. Then the lockdown arrived.
That was not the only reason for the silence. In September 2023 Atkins said there had been issues inside the band since 2019, particularly between himself and Ken Hammer. By then, though, the two were talking again and had met not long before. With forty years of business still to settle, sometimes by email, his expectation was that they would end up burying the hatchet — if for nothing else, then for the fans. It had always been a love-hate relationship, as he put it.
What Atkins gave as the reason for coming back was closure. Speaking in December 2023 he said he knew there were a lot of fans who wanted to see the band again, at least to have some kind of closure. What was planned was modest — five or six festivals over the summer, perhaps. How much beyond that he did not know; they might continue; it depended in part, he said, on his health.
The first step back was taken under another name. On 16 June 2024 they played Forbrændingen in Albertslund, Denmark, billed as KINGMAKERS — a "secret" show taking its name from their 2016 album, and a warm-up for the real return four days later. It was their first concert in nearly five years.
News
PRETTY MAIDS To Release Their First Studio Album Since 2019's 'Undress Your Madness' In 2027
Frontiers Music Srl announced the Danish band are working on a new studio album set for release in 2027, produced by Jacob Hansen (Amaranthe, Volbeat, Epica, Primal Fear). The lineup is Ronnie Atkins (vocals), Ken Hammer (lead guitar), Rene Shades (bass), Chris Laney (rhythm guitar/keyboards) and Allan Tschicaja (drums).
Current Members
Current lineup verified from the official artist source on 2026-08-04. Official profile
Albums
A sixteenth studio album that turned out to be the last before Ronnie Atkins' illness was made public.
Five new songs alongside seven re-recordings of material from 1999-2006 — the overlooked years, restated in the band's present sound.
A twelfth album after four years, led by "Little Drops of Heaven," that put the band back on a steady release cycle.
The first album for Frontiers, held over from 2005 to 2006 while the drum and keyboard chairs both changed hands.
The tenth album and the last of the Massacre years; months later the band's management collapsed and a long stall began.
A ninth album of twelve songs from the Massacre years, one of which the band later re-recorded and kept.
An eighth album whose opener, "Snakes in Eden," the band later re-recorded and kept.
A seventh album of thirteen songs, the longest of the period, opening straight out of its intro.
A sixth album issued first in Japan on Epic/Sony; the European Massacre pressing followed in 1995.
A fifth album that rebuilds the band's own songs, revisiting "Please Don't Leave Me" and "Savage Heart" in another form.
A fourth album made after the band nearly folded, with Flemming Rasmussen producing again and a John Sykes song covered.
A third album produced by Deep Purple's Roger Glover, after which the band came close to breaking up.
The second album, recorded at Bearsville Studios in New York with three producers split by the character of each song.
The first full album after signing to CBS, opening on a passage from Carmina Burana.