Band Details

From the Promoter

AMORPHIS

Founded in 1990 in Helsinki, Finland-based melancholic metal masters AMORPHIS wrote music history, incl. classic albums like f.e. their debut »The Karelian Isthmus« (1992), their breakthrough »Tales From The Thousand Lakes« (1994) and »Eclipse« (2006), their first album with the new vocalist Tomi Joutsen, which marked the beginning of a new era in the band‘s history.

A few months ago, AMORPHIS kicked off the celebrations for the band's 20th anniversary of »Tales From The Thousand Lakes«, which delights the masses even today. Regardless of their relentless touring schedule, they secretly returned to the studio to write and record their forthcoming, twelfth record with famous producer Jens Bogren (SOILWORK, KREATOR etc.) at his Fascination Street Studio in Örebro. The result of this two-month recording session is once again a heavy, melodic statement, called »Under The Red Cloud«.

During the recordings, the sextet was joined by some famous guest musicians: Chrigel Glanzmann (ELUVEITIE) played flutes on 'The Four Wise Ones', 'Death Of A King' and 'Tree Of Ages', Martin Lopez (ex-OPETH drummer) played percussions on 'Death Of A King' and Aleah Stanbridge (TREES OF ETERNITY) sang guest vocals on 'The Four Wise Ones', 'Sacrifice' and 'White Night'.

“It was a great honor to have such talented musicians appearing on »Under The Red Cloud«,“ guitar player and founding member Esa Holopainen comments. “Each one of them puts his/her personality and character in the very right spot.“

The whole recording process was a time full of extremely intense work for AMORPHIS. “It was the first time, that I woke up at 08.00am to start recordings. They went on until 06.00pm in the evening - every day! But the result was definitely worth it,“ the guitarist continues. “It was a great experience and Jens made us playing more aggressive and working really hard“, drummer Jan Rechberger adds. Jens Bogren also handled the mixing and mastering of »Under The Red Cloud«.

“The new record will go in a similar direction like »Circle« but on the other hand it reminds a lot we did on »Elegy«”, Holopainen reveals. „There are a lot of variations in the songs, but the overall feeling is very dynamic and melodic“.

A perfect example for the variety and feel is the first single 'Death Of A King'.It starts with an oriental melody & crashing drums, and has a lot of dynamics. The follow-up 'Sacrifice' is more upbeat and relies more on the soaring lead melody, like the opener 'Under The Red Cloud', which starts with a tension-creating piano intro. The title track flows over into the double bass-dominated and one of the most aggressive songs on the album - 'The Four Wise Ones'. Finally, the closing track 'White Night' marks a kind of summary of the album, because it contains some trademarks of other songs like an oriental feeling or driving double bass drumming at the end. So it’s a worthy last chapter of the story, AMORPHIS are telling us this time.

The new album’s lyrics were written by Pekka Kainulainen, as per the previous four releases. „He has become a sort of ghost member of the band“, Holopainen adds. „His lyrics aren’t forming a complete storyline, but they form a certain there. Pekka describes things like natural phenomena, seasons and the human mind like we’ve done in the past with the Kalevala stories. They are attempts to gain advice from higher powers“.

In typical AMORPHIS style, the band wanted the album artwork to be representative of the lyrical themes. French artist Jean-Emmanuel ʺValnoirʺ Simoulin (LAIBACH, PARADISE LOST, MORBID ANGEL and WATAIN) realised the band’s vision, which Esa comments on: „Valnoir did superb work. The colours and themes are perfectly fitting to the record“.

DARK TRANQUILLITY

Dark Tranquillity is a metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden, founded in December 1989 under the name Septic Broiler by Anders Fridén (vocals, later frontman of In Flames), Niklas Sundin (guitar) and Mikael Stanne (guitar), Martin Henriksson (bass) and Anders Jivarp (drums). Having recording the demo "Enfeebled Earth, they changed name to Dark Tranquillity in 1991. Together with At The Gates and In Flames, Dark Tranquillity is often considered to be on of the creators of so-called Gothenburg metal or melodic death metal style.

In 1991 the bands first demo, "Trail of Life Decayed", was recorded and was followed by "A Moonclad Reflection". In 1993 they finally released their first full-length album, "Skydancer" which featured guest vocalists Stefan Lindgren and Anna-Kajsa Avehall. In 1995 the EP "Of Chaos and Eternal Night" was released. Shortly after vocalist Anders Fridén left the band so Stanne had to take over vocals and let the new member Fredrik Johansson take care of his guitar role.

Same year the band was signed to Osmose Productions and then they released "The Gallery" which featured Frasse Franzen and Eva-Marie Larsson (vocals). The bands success increased and a year later they released the MCD "Enter Suicidal Angels". In 1997 "The Mind's I" was released and, again, featured guests, one of them being previous vocalists Anders Fridén. After the release they left Osmose Productions and were instead signed to Century Media. In 1999 "Projector" was released.

After the release Fredrik Johansson left the band but the bands bassist Martin Henriksson took over his part as guitarist. Two other members then joined the band, Martin Brändström (keyboards) and Michael Niklasson (bass). In 2000 "Haven" was released and then in 2001 the band went on a tour with drummer Robin Engström as Jivarp couldn't.

"Damage Done" followed in 2002 and the compilation album "Exposures - In Retrospect and Denial" in 2004.

Character was the seventh release from Dark Tranquillity, released in 2005, and was held in much critical praise. It featured the first music video released by Dark Tranquillity to feature the band itself, with the single "Lost to Apathy." In 2007, Fiction was released, which in turn, saw a return of Mikeal Stanne's clean vocals, and the first female guest vocalist since Projector.

In August 2008 the band announced that bass player Michael Nicklasson had left the band due to personal reasons with no hard feelings between him and the band.
Replacement was announced on September 19th 2008 when Daniel Antonsson, former guitarist of the band Soilwork, joined the band. Antonsson quit the band in 2013 and Anders Iwers (of Tiamat) filled in as a live bass player.

In March 2016 the band announced that founding member Martin Henriksson had quit the band after 26 years. In September 2016 Anders Iwers became a permament member of the group.

Current line-up:
Mikael Stanne - Guitar (1991-1993), Vocals (1993- )
Anders Jivarp - Drums (1991- )
Niklas Sundin - Guitars (1991- )
Martin Brändström - Keyboards, electronics (1999- )
Anders Iwers - Bass (2016- )

MOONSPELL

Portuguese gothic metal band formed in 1989 under the name of "Morbid God". They changed their name in 1992.

Members :
Fernando Ribeiro [aka Langsuyar] (vocals), Ricardo Amorim (guitar, 1995-present), Pedro Paixão [aka Passionis, Neophytus] (keyboards, guitar), Sérgio Crestana (bass, 1997-2003), Miguel Gaspar [aka Mike, Nisroth] (drums), João Pedro [aka Tetragrammaton, Ares] (bass, 1989-97), Mantus (guitar, 1992-95), Aires Pereira (bass), Luis Lamelas [aka Malah] (guitar), Tanngrisnir (guitar, 1992-94)

OMNIUM GATHERUM

Hailing from Finland, Omnium Gatherum is a band playing fierce death metal with breathtaking melodies and progressive originality for people in the metal field looking for something different that still is catchy. A band that truly walks it's own path proudly and shows some new exciting sides on identifiable character. A band of many directions and styles, some of them clearly visible while others were more unseen - namely working and keeping it all together under the moniker of melodic life-and-death metal and bastardizing it with various influences. Adult oriented death metal that it is!

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