1990:Günter Maier, Alex Hilzensauer and Herb Greisberger founded a band whose musical spectrum
ranged from blues and rock'n'roll to complex instrumental songs.
In the following two years the band strove to find an adequate and suitable singer.
In the meantime they released an album with the title "Scenes Of Fire" under the name Big Heat.

In 1994 the band finally found the right front man in the form of Ritchie Krenmaier
and recorded "Grand Ominous Dreams" a year later.

1996: The band renamed itself Stigmata producing a demo with the same title.
The CD "Solum Mente Infirmis" was recorded in the same year opening the way to a label for the quartet.

At the end of 1997 "Greed Machine" appeared on the Rock Hard sampler of "Best Unsigned Bands"
and the beginning of 1998 "Solum Mente Infirmis" was released world-wide by "Noise Records".
With these new conditions "Stigmata" finally received the recognition that they deserved from the European press: Record of the month, Newcomer of the month and the unanimous vote of the press through excellent reviews.
Shortly after the release of this album the band was forced to add the appendage IV to it's name due to the already existing rights on the name Stigmata by another band.

In April/May 1998 Stigmata IV completed an extensive European tour with Virgin Steele and Riot including performances in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, the Benelux countries, Italy and Greece.
Subsequently the band started recording in the "Big Apple Studio", Salzburg, and under the direction of Günter Maier produced the album "The Court Of Eternity" which was released in November later that year.
The press reaction was once again overwhelming and unanimous including the second place in the "RockHard" sound check.
In the same year the band went on tour in Italy and Austria with Blind Guardian.

1999: There followed many extremely successful concerts including a tour with Stratovarius in Italy, Greece as well as Austria which finally established Stigmata IV as THE Austrian metal band.
In the southern European countries the band was greeted more than enthusiastically by the audiences and first class concert reviews confirmed their "Live Killer" qualities once again.
In the summer of 1999 after gigs and festivals with bands such as Manowar and Overkill the band proceeded with the recording of their current album, Phobia, in the Big Apple Studio.
Autumn 1999: The band had to part with it's name due to a court ruling.