Axel “Ironfinger“ Ritt got his hands on the guitar for the very first time at the age of 12. His first musical influences were the british masters of the big tone like Jeff Beck, Brian May and in the first row, Gary Moore. From the age of 13, Axel entered the stage regularly and kept the straight road to develop his technical abilities as a rock guitarist. He got his nickname because of the very heavy gauge (013 – 056 in standard tuning), he uses on his instruments.

As an award winner of “Youth Jazz“, he studied music and architecture in Dortmund, Germany, followed by a large list of bands, for example XRIDE, ZÜNDER, KINGDOM and DOMAIN. Since late 2009, Axel became the guitarist of one of the leading bands of German heavy metal, GRAVE DIGGER, who are regular guests on all stages around the world and got remarkable chart entries in all countries. 

The charisma of Axel bases on his extraordinary virtuosic guitar work, his pithily tone and his attractive stage performance. The trade press praises him to the skies as the “fastest fingers of Germany“. In addition to his work as a musician, Axel knows the other side of the coin as well. He’s working as a producer, owns 2 music production companies (Humbucker Music GmbH, Sovereign Events GmbH), got his own music publishing and is the owner of the Meadow Recording Studios.