HOLY MOSES – Finished With The Dogs 12" Vinyl LP Album

Album Front Cover Photo of HOLY MOSES – FINISHED WITH THE DOGS Visit: https://vinyl-records.nl/

"Holy Moses' sonic onslaught, 'Finished With The Dogs,' reverberates through the 12" Vinyl LP, a testament to German Speed/Thrash Metal prowess. Released in 1987 and produced by Ralph Hubert, this second studio album stands as a defining moment in Holy Moses' discography. The vinyl format encapsulates the raw power and ferocity of their sound, solidifying their impact on the Speed/Thrash Metal landscape. 'Finished With The Dogs' remains a cherished artifact for aficionados of the genre."

Table of Contents

"Finished With The Dogs" (1987) Album Description:

Holy Moses crashed into 1987 with "Finished With The Dogs" like they were done playing nice with anybody. This was the moment the band stopped being a promising German thrash outfit and became a full-blown sonic menace, all teeth and adrenaline. Drop the needle and the room tilts — you instantly know you’re not listening to a warm, friendly record.

Historical and Cultural Context

Germany in the late eighties was a pressure cooker of metal energy, with thrash exploding out of every basement and youth club from Hamburg to the Ruhrgebiet. The Big Four were busy touring the world, but Europe had its own fire — Kreator, Sodom, Destruction — carving out a colder, more feral version of the genre. Holy Moses stepped right into that storm, adding their own Berlin-wall-shaking intensity to the mix.

How the Band Reached This Point

The band had already survived lineup changes, rough tours, and the general chaos of trying to be fast, loud, and broke in mid-80s Germany. Sabina Classen’s voice had sharpened into a weapon, Andy Classen’s riffs were turning nastier by the week, and producer Ralph Hubert knew exactly how to bottle that danger. Everyone involved seemed hungry, slightly annoyed with the world, and desperate to prove the band belonged in thrash’s top tier — and it shows.

The Sound, Songs, and Musical Direction

The album sounds like it was recorded inside an industrial grinder — in the best possible way. Tracks like “Current of Death” and “In the Slaughterhouse” don’t just gallop; they pounce. Sabina’s vocals slice through the mix with that trademark feral rasp, while Andy’s down-picked riffing keeps everything tight, relentless, and just a bit unhinged. Even slower moments feel like they’re sprinting in place, ready to vault back into chaos.

Comparison to Other Albums of 1987

1987 was a wild year for metal: Kreator dropped “Terrible Certainty,” Testament blasted through “The Legacy,” and Anthrax found their swagger with “Among the Living.” “Finished With The Dogs” sits right in that pack — rawer than Testament, more frantic than Anthrax, and just unhinged enough to stand apart from Kreator’s precision. Where others smoothed edges, Holy Moses sharpened theirs.

Controversies and Public Reactions

The album didn’t spark riots, but its intensity definitely made some traditional metal fans blink twice. Sabina’s vocals shattered a lot of expectations about what a “frontwoman” was supposed to sound like, confusing some and thrilling others. A few critics dismissed it as too abrasive; the underground crowd simply turned it louder.

Band Dynamics and Creative Tensions

You can hear a bit of beautiful tension in the recording — the kind that only comes from musicians who live on the edge of exhaustion and ambition. Sabina and Andy were pushing themselves, the rhythm section was playing like they had something to prove, and Hubert’s production style added just enough chaos to make everything feel alive. It’s the kind of energy you only get once in a career.

Critical Reception and Legacy

Critics at the time treated the album like a strange but powerful animal — not always sure what to make of it, but impressed by the bite. Fans, on the other hand, embraced it quickly, turning it into a cult essential of German thrash. Today, collectors hunt the AAARRG pressing not just for nostalgia, but because the album still hits like a freight train filled with scrap metal.

Closing Reflection

Decades later, “Finished With The Dogs” still feels dangerous in a way only true underground classics can. The riffs smell like sweat-soaked rehearsal rooms, the vocals claw through the speakers, and the whole record radiates that charming late-80s belief that speed and rage could fix the world. It remains one of those albums you don’t just play — you survive.

Album Key Details: Genre, Label, Format & Release Info

Music Genre:

German Thrash Metal

Hard Rock / Blues Rock combines the raw, riff-driven power of heavy rock with the soulful depth of the blues. Emerging in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this genre became the foundation of many classic bands, fusing distorted guitar tones, strong rhythms, and expressive vocals into a sound that influenced both heavy metal and modern rock.

Label & Catalognr:

AAARG – Cat#: AAARG 6

Album Packaging

This album "Finished With The Dogs" includes the original custom inner sleeve with album details and photos of the "Holy Moses" band.

Custom inner sleeve included.

Media Format:

Record Format: 12" Vinyl Stereo Full-Length Long-Play Gramophone Record
Total Weight: 230g

Year & Country:

Made in Germany

Production & Recording Information:

Producers:
  • Ralph Hubert - Producer Ralph "Ralf" Hubert is a distinguished music producer, musician, and sound engineer whose work has significantly shaped the Teutonic Metal sound of the 1980s. As the mastermind behind Aaarrg Records and the bassist for Mekong Delta, his contributions to heavy metal remain unparalleled. Explore his career, production credits, and impact on the Heavy Metal genre
    full biography
Album Cover Design & Artwork:
  • Rainer Laws – album cover painting

Band Members / Musicians:

Band Line-up:
  • Sabina Classen – Vocals
    Sabina Classen (maiden name Sabina Hirtz) has been singing in "Holy Moses" from 1981–1994. She is the sister of "Tom Hirtz" who also briefly sung in "Holy Moses".
  • Andy Classen – Guitar
    Andy Classen is founder of the "Holy Moses" band and performed with them from 1981–1994. He has been married with the lead singer of Holy Moses: Sabina Classen-Hirtz.
  • Andre Chapelier – Bass
    Andre Chapelier played bass for the German metal band Atlain from 1983 to 1986, contributing to their raw early sound before joining Holy Moses in 1986. His tight, fast bass work appears on the 1987 album “Finished With The Dogs.” After leaving Holy Moses later that same year, Chapelier stepped away from the music world entirely, closing his brief but memorable chapter in Teutonic metal.
  • Uli Kusch – Drums
    Uli Kusch is probably one of Germany's leading Heavy Metal/Rock drummers and played during the 1980s–1990s in major German bands like Helloween, Gamma Ray, Holy Moses, and Mekong Delta.

Complete Track-listing:

Tracklisting Side One:
  1. Finished with the Dogs
  2. Current of Death
  3. Criminal Assault
  4. In the Slaughterhouse
  5. Fortress of Desperation
Video: Holy Moses - Current of Death Speed/Thrash Metal at its best
Tracklisting Side Two:
  1. Six Fat Women
  2. Corroded Dreams
  3. Life's Destroyer
  4. Rest in Pain
  5. Military Service
Video: Holy Moses - Life's Destroyer 1987 (Music Box Video Clip)

Disclaimer: Track durations shown are approximate and may vary slightly between different country editions or reissues. Variations can result from alternate masterings, pressing plant differences, or regional production adjustments.

Album Front Cover Photo
High-contrast illustrated front cover of Holy Moses’ thrash-metal album Finished With The Dogs, showing a ferocious wolf-like creature bursting forward in mid-attack. The artwork is rendered in sharp black-and-ice-blue linework, with the beast’s jaws wide open, fangs exposed, and saliva frozen mid-spray. Its fur explodes in chaotic texture, claws stretching toward the viewer, while the band logo and film-strip frame lock the whole thing into a gritty late-80s underground-metal vibe.

This cover hits you instantly — a snarling, wolf-from-your-worst-nightmares blasting straight out of the frame, like it’s done waiting for permission to attack. The illustration is pure late-80s thrash attitude: sharp, scratchy lines, icy blue highlights, and a sense of motion that feels almost reckless. You can practically hear Sabina’s vocals tearing through the air behind it.

The creature’s jaws are wide open, fangs dripping, every strand of fur vibrating with that wild, unfiltered energy Holy Moses carried into their early records. Its claws lunge outward in a way that makes you take half a step back — the kind of artwork that doesn’t just decorate the sleeve, but punches through it with full intent.

Up top, the Holy Moses logo sits like a battle standard, boxed in by a strip of film sprockets that gives the whole scene this gritty, cinematic flair. And down in the corner, the title Finished With The Dogs drips across the black background in messy, rebellious lettering. It’s raw, loud, and very much from the era when thrash bands didn’t just make albums — they made statements.

Note: The images on this page are photos of the actual album. Slight differences in color may exist due to the camera flash. Images can be zoomed on mobile via pinch gestures.

Album Back Cover Photo
Back cover of Holy Moses’ Finished With The Dogs, featuring a stark white credit block printed over a ghosted illustration of the raging wolf-creature from the front sleeve. Tracklists sit on the left, credits run down the center, and thank-yous fill the lower half. A bold black film-strip border frames the top and bottom. In the upper right corner two stickers overlap: a faded Disc-Tape price tag marked 15.95 and a tiny handwritten 7,80 label. Bottom right includes printed fan-contact info for Holy Moses.

The back cover hits like a time capsule from the pre-internet metal trenches — all business, zero fluff, the kind of layout meant for fans who actually read liner notes instead of scrolling past them. The whole thing is printed on a clean white block, slapped right over a ghost-image of that unhinged wolf creature from the front. It’s faint enough to whisper, but strong enough to remind you this album wasn’t built for chill Sunday listening.

On the left, the tracklists for both sides sit in crisp all-caps: FINISHED WITH THE DOGS, CURRENT OF DEATH, CRIMINAL ASSAULT — the whole parade of destruction laid out like a menu you definitely shouldn’t order from after midnight. Beneath that, the lineup is printed with a refreshing lack of ego: Sabina on vocals, Uli smashing drums, André holding down bass, Andy whipping out guitar riffs like it’s a competitive sport.

The production creds follow, including the ever-reliable Ralph Hubert and illustrator Rainer Laws, whose gnarly artwork gives this album its whole personality. The thank-you list below is massive — a who’s-who of friends, scene-mates, and people who probably helped the band move gear at 3 a.m. It’s messy, sincere, and beautifully of its era.

And then there’s the upper right corner — the little archaeological site vinyl collectors adore. Two stickers are still stuck there like stubborn ghosts: a bright yellow DISC TAPE label printed with the price 15.95, and beneath it a tiny white sticker scribbled with 7,80. It’s basically a timeline of the album’s resale value in sticker form. Anyone who collects knows: removing these is heresy, they’re part of the artifact.

Down in the bottom-right corner sits the fan-contact info, printed in tiny no-nonsense type: Fan-Contact
c/o Holy Moses F.C.
Postfach 653
5100 Aachen. It’s peak analog-era charm — back when “fan clubs” were actual mailboxes and not Discord servers.

First Photo of Custom Inner Sleeve
Black-and-white collage from the inner sleeve of Holy Moses’ Finished With The Dogs, packed with raw, chaotic snapshots of the band and their crew. Sabina screams into a mic with wild hair flying, Andy shreds in sunglasses and a denim vest, Uli thrashes mid-jump, and various friends flash grins, cigarettes, and horns. Every face carries that unmistakable late-80s thrash energy—gritty, joyful, reckless, and completely unfiltered.

This inner sleeve doesn’t just give you photos — it throws you straight into Holy Moses’ chaotic orbit, like you stumbled backstage in 1987 and somebody yelled “Don’t touch anything!” It’s a dense black-and-white collage where every square centimeter is alive: grainy snapshots, sweaty faces, battle-vests, cigarettes, amps, beer, and that unstoppable thrash-scene electricity you just can’t fake.

Sabina takes over multiple shots with that signature mix of fury and mischief — hair everywhere, eyes blazing, mouth open mid-shout like she’s trying to melt the microphone. Andy looks like the eternal riff-machine, sunglasses on indoors (of course), guitar slung low, radiating “Yeah, we haven’t slept, what about it?” Ralf and Uwe appear with the kind of expressions only metal crowds understand: half prankster, half exhausted road-warrior.

Uli’s photos explode with motion — he’s captured mid-jump, mid-yell, mid-whatever-the-hell-drummers do when the world blurs around them. Heinz pops up with a cigarette dangling from his lips like he’s auditioning for “Most German Thrash Face of ’87.” Group shots fade in between the chaos — the band huddled together, arms around each other, leather jackets covered in patches, everyone looking like they live on stage gear alone.

What really sells it to collectors is the energy in their expressions. Nobody is posing. Nobody is polishing an image. Every face screams the same thing: this band was living fast, loud, and with zero filter. It’s the kind of inner sleeve that feels like a diary page — unedited, unglamorous, and absolutely legendary.

Close up of Side One record’s label
Close-up of the Side A and Side B labels on the original AAARRG Records pressing of Holy Moses’ Finished With The Dogs, showing the minimalist cream-white label with crisp black text. Track titles, durations, matrix info, and the LC 8456 logo circle the spindle hole, giving that authentic late-80s German thrash look — clean, functional, and made for collectors who love precise label typography.

This close-up of the AAARRG Records label is pure collector candy — the kind of clean, unfussy late-80s German pressing where everything is printed with sharp intention and zero theatrics. A soft cream background holds perfectly aligned black text, giving the whole label a strict, almost disciplined look that fits the era’s underground thrash aesthetics.

Side A sits proudly at the top with HOLY MOSES and Finished with the Dogs printed in bold, no-nonsense type. The tracklist is lined up with military precision — each song title followed by its runtime, all stacked neatly as if the label maker genuinely feared misalignment. Below that, the credit “Produced by Ralph Hubert” anchors the side like a stamp of reliability.

Flip your eyes down and Side B mirrors the exact same structure. Five tracks, all killer, no filler — Six Fat Women, Corroded Dreams, Life’s Destroyer, Rest in Pain, and Military Service. Everything about the layout screams functionality: readable, accurate, and straight to the point, which vinyl collectors absolutely love when cataloguing pressings.

Around the outer edge, the circular German text about rights, reproduction, and copying restrictions forms a clean frame. On the right, the small LC 8456 logo and ST 33 designation confirm the label’s identity and speed. On the left, the catalog number AAARRG 6 stands alone, bold and unmistakable — the kind of catalog detail that makes collectors instantly check matrix codes.

Up close like this, the label feels like a museum piece: minimal design, maximum clarity, and that unmistakable charm of late-80s indie-metal vinyl. It’s the kind of label that says, “Play me loud,” without needing a single graphic flourish.

Side Two Close up of record’s label
Close-up of the AAARRG Records illustrated label featuring a stylized screaming face in comic-book shading, mouth wide open around the spindle hole, with the bold AAARRG logo exploding across the lower right. Earthy beige, red, and brown tones swirl together in a raw, hand-drawn style that perfectly captures the wild, underground energy of late-80s German thrash vinyl pressings.

This label is peak AAARRG Records chaos — the kind of design that doesn’t politely introduce itself, but instead grabs your shirt collar and screams directly into your face. Center stage is a huge illustrated face, mouth stretched wide in a comic-style shout, the spindle hole cutting straight through the throat like it’s part of the artwork. It’s loud, messy, and absolutely perfect for a label that built its name on pure, unfiltered thrash energy.

The artwork has that gritty late-80s indie look, all heavy linework and thick shading, with beige and earthy tones giving it a raw, poster-print vibe. The eyes stare outward with this wild, frantic intensity — somewhere between fear, adrenaline, and “someone just turned the amps up to 12.” It’s exactly the kind of graphic that vinyl collectors recognize instantly: part punk zine, part underground metal flyer, part fever dream.

And then there’s the AAARRG logo — huge, bold, slamming diagonally across the lower right like it was stamped on by someone who ran out of patience. The letters practically burst off the label, stacked with smaller overlapping A’s, as if the designer wanted the logo to shout even louder than the face. It’s unapologetically over-the-top, and honestly, that’s the whole charm.

This is one of those labels you flip over the record to admire again — a perfect little artifact from that era when metal labels weren’t afraid to look rough, loud, and a tiny bit unhinged. Pure collector gold.