Trail of Tears

Trail of Tears began in 1997, up until then some of the bandmembers had spent a couple of years experimenting under the name of Natt. After carving out their musical direction, the name Trail of Tears was instituted in the beginning of 1997 and a 3 track demotape entitled "When Silence Cries..." was recorded shortly after in Jailhouse Studio to great acclaim. The demo prompted a spew of contractual offers from labels around the world and in early 1998 the band signed a two-album deal with Dutch label DSFA Records. Trail of Tears once again entered Jailhouse Studio in Norway to record their debut album "Disclosure in Red", which saw the light of day in November 1998. Heavy touring followed, including European tours and shows with among others Tristania, The Sins of thy Beloved, Cradle of Filth, Biohazard and several other bands. The touring cyclus was crowned with a victorious performance at Holland´s Dynamo Open Air festival.

Immidiately after, the band started work on the follow-up album and having spent the latter part of 1999 crafting the songs, they entered Jailhouse Studio to record "Profoundemonium", which was licensed to Napalm Records outside of the Benelux countries and released in 2000. The band continues to stay active on the touring circuit, completing several European rounds and performing at festivals such as Wacken Open Air, Quart Festival, Eurorock and Metal Dayz to name but a few.

In the summer of 2001, the band signs a 3 album deal with Austria´s Napalm Records, entering Soundsuite Studio in Marseille, France with producer Terje Refsnes in February 2002. The band records nine tracks, as well as a cover of Faith No More´s "Caffeine" for the limited edition version of the monstrous and highly successful third album, "A New Dimension of Might". A very busy touring schedule starts, including full tours and numerous shows in Europe, as well as the first full Mexican tour in June 2003.

Having spent over a year on the song-writing process for the fourth album, the band opted for a heavier and more extreme approach which can clearly be heard on "Free Fall into Fear", which is released in February 2005 by Napalm Records. The effort was recorded in Dub Studio in Kristiansand, Norway and to promote the album the band completed a very successful tour with Therion and Tristania which took the band to 14 European countries. The band also hits the festival circuit again, playing among others Germany´s Summer Breeze festival.

It did not take long until the band resumed work on their song-writing and almost 12 months were spent crafting what was to become the most mature and adventurous album to date, "Existentia". The album saw Trail of Tears once again returning to Soundsuite Studio with producer Terje Refsnes in the summer of 2006.

The album features guest performances by Norwegian keyboard wizzard Bernt Moen and the amazing French singer Emmanuelle Zoldan. Prior to the release, the band embarks on the second Mexican tour, an experience which was unfortunately ridden with problems due to severe neglect from promoters and organizer. As a result, founding member Ronny Thorsen found himself in need of replacing members and putting together a new line-up.

"Existentia" is released by Napalm Records in January 2007 to much acclaim and overwhelming reviews. The band follows up with further touring, most importantly with their first ever North American tour, playing nearly 30 shows across the US as well as Canada. Summer 2008 also sees the band playing more festivals then ever before, including among others Wave Gothik Treffen and Metal Mania Open Air.

In between destroying stages across the globe, the band continues to write material for what is to become their sixth fullenght album. With new-found energy, power and a whole new level of self-confidence, the band heads down to Southern France to join forces with Terje Refsnes again at his Soundsuite Studio, and six weeks are spent recording the monster that is "Bloodstained Endurance". The album sees the band on a completely different level both regarding song-writing and performance and the band is more eager than ever before to present the material in the environment which they enjoy the most, namely from the stage!

Download :
Bloodstained endurance (2009) : Part 1, Part 2
Free Fall Into Fear (2005)
A new dimension of Might (2002)

Rain Fell Within

Rain Fell Within was a symphonic metal band from Virginia, United States.They are known for their atmospheric sound with female soprano lead vocals.

Rain Fell Within was formed in October, 1996 by vocalist Dawn Desiree, Kevin Thomas. Guitarist Charles Gore, William Rucke and John Brown under the name In Medias Res. Their original sound was a mixture of heavy metal and new age with symphonic elements. After refining their sound they released a four-track demo called Rain Fell Within-Live ‘97. In March 1998, after changing their name to Rain Fell Within, they released a demo called Solemn Days. With the release of their demo, the band started gaining worldwide attention and began performing in local venues.

In November 1998, William and John would quit Rain Fell Within over disagreements with the direction the band was heading. With new drummer Tim Miller joining in December, Rain Fell Withins sound further evolved. In early 1999, the band was invited to open for the Gathering on their first US tour. Jason would play guitar live during this tour. In June 1999 Rain Fell Within released a five-track EP called Believe.

In 2002, Rain Fell Within disbanded with the members going their separate ways. The majority of the members went on to form the progressive metal band Ephemeral Sun.

Download :
Believe (2000)
Refuge (2002)

Tystnaden

It was probably the fascination for scandinavian heavy metal such as that played by Dark Tranquillity, In Flames and Sentenced and their innovative albums like "The Gallery", "Down" and "Whoracle", which, in 1998, impressed three young Italian musicians so much that they gave their band a Swedish name. Ironically Tystnaden means something like "quiet". But Marco Di Castri (bass), Cesare Codispoti (guitar) and Nestor Borgo (drums) had anything but quiet music in their minds when they wrote their first songs. Whilst they were on holiday at the coast they met the young guitarist Frederico Grassi and, together with singer Giovanni Garimoldi they were able to complete their first line-up in the first year of Tystnaden's existence.

During 1999 Tystnaden were able to develop their style more and more and they soon expressed a wish to give some contrast to the raw male vocals by introducing a melodic, female voice. A young lady with the musical name of Laura De Luca soon proved herself to be the ideal person and her wonderfully powerful voice soon enriched the band's sound palette and giving it an additional dimension. Spurred on by this, Tystnaden recorded their first two track demo, "Tystnaden" in May 2000 and sent it out into the big wide world. The echo from the press all around the world was astounding. They had successfully taken their first step...

Kingfisher Sky

In 2001 Ivar de Graaf made one of the toughest decisions of his life: he decided to leave the successful Dutch band Within Temptation to concentrate on his own music.
Together with singer Judith Rijnveld he explored a way to combine both their influences into songs that didn't bound themselves to a specified genre or style. With influences like Porcupine Tree and Kate Bush, but also Classical singers as Cecilia Bartoli and traditional Folk music in their mind they started recording songs in their home studio in 2005.

When they finished seven songs they approached Suburban Records. Judith and Ivar signed the deal in november 2006. Eric Hoogendoorn was the first member to join the band playing the bass guitar. In January 2007 Daan Janzing was introduced to Ivar and Judith by Ruud Jolie, (Ivar's former colleague from Within Temptation). After a short audition on guitar Daan joined Kingfisher Sky. In March George van Olffen joined the band on keys. Because of the beautiful solo in the song 'Through my Eyes' on the demo and his 15-year old friendship with Ivar, Edo van der Kolk completed Kingfisher Sky.

In May 2007 the band Kingfisher Sky recorded their first album 'Hallway of Dreams' produced by Jochem Jacobs (Textures) and Bouke Visser (Split Second Sound). Kingfisher Sky's debutalbum 'Hallway of Dreams' was released in Oktober 2007 by Suburban Records. Suburban Records introduced Kingfisher Sky to SOZ Concerts and they started headlining in The Netherlands..

Via Mistica

Chapter I - Nice Beginning

      It was one winter evening, when Marcin picked up the phone. Astonished, he heard nice voice of a female: 'Hi, I'm calling for the advertisement. Are you still looking for a vocalist?' Of course yes, we've always dreamed about it.

      Katarzyna proved she's not only the good vocalist, but a great cello player too and she's been writing texts and melodies. She gave a new face to the group and her beautiful voice exactly filled out our music. When Katarzyna joined the group, VIA MISTICA was born.

      In a short time we made some songs and after three months of playing together, we tried us out on the Bialostocka Wiosna Muzyczna '98 music enterprise. It was a really challenge and test for us, and it was our debut. Jury appreciated our music while giving a chance to play in the finish of the party. After that, full of enthusiasm, we came back into our cellar, where we recorded first demo. In the meantime we played some concerts in Biaystok and neighborhood. We made a lot of followers and adherents, and we get listeners' goodwill. After 6 months we changed the drummer. Our second player - although fist he was really co-operative - he left after month. Since then, black clouds has hanged up above our heads. VIA MISTICA lost its stabilization, because the group's lineup was changing once a week. In one year we had o lot of drummers, bassist, even a keyboardist. It's hard to remember, it was too many people here. Instead go ahead, the group stopped and was standing while teaching new people our old numbers. No understanding between the group's members, arguments and atmosphere, in what we fell, made us completely broken and discouraged to do anything. But buy the way there was born an idea to record the stuff in a studio. We started working. Our friend - Sebastian from IN EXTREMIS group - played drums. Working with the material was about 2 months. In May we came into the Hertz studio to recapitulate our activity and to mature as musicians. Recording the material to CD 'In Hora Mortis Nostre' took us 4 days of a deadly toil. All stresses was efficacious taken away by Wojtek and Sawek, owners of the studio. After the recording session we had to stop working in the studio because of reason stricte economic, so we made a little interruption for making some money. This time Katarzyna has got married, so we all had fun at the wedding. In August we came back to the Hertz studio, to finish what we has begun. All that what we did was pretty good, although we could work harder with some things.

      In September, a drummer joined us and remained. It caused new possibilities. We started really hard working again. The revival of VIA MISTICA came. We send 'In Hora...' demo to different publishers and we've just made a contract with MORBID NOIZZ PROD. What will be next? We're sure it will be only better...

Chapter II - Usual Reality

      Since making a contract with Morbid Noizz, lots of time has flown. After revival period, if we talk about concerts, it means winter and spring 2000, there was some interruption. First advantages of co-operating with Morbid Noizz were playing at the Castle Party in Bolków and interview posted in Morbid Noizz Mag. Appearance in Bolków has been first (and, so far, last) so big enterprise we've been to. It was noted favorably. Since October we've started working with first VIA MISTICA's studio CD. But, unfortunately, if we talk about recording studio CDs ( or maybe if we talk about co-operating with Morbid Noizz ) everything's going so slowly...

      After appearance at the Castle Party in 2000, we've played only one concert. The enterprise was at the 2nd December and then VIA MISTICA first time appeared in 6-people lineup. The new member of the group was Grzesiek, the keyboardist. First he came just for a one concert, but he remained and became an official VM member. But in December we've got lineup changing again - Jacek Bartnicki, a founder of the group and co-composer, left us. Instead him, Marek Przybyowski, from STYGMAT group, became our guitarist. Since January - with new VIA MISTICA members - we've started working at the recording stuff for the first CD.

Tacere

Tacere originally started as the solo project of front man Karri Knuuttila in the early 2000s.
A real band line-up and the name TACERE first appeared in 2002/2003, but the band was still
lead by just male vocals. After hiring Helena Haaparanta as the female singer in 2004 Tacere
got it's first stable line-up. The band put out a plethora of demos until in 2005 they were picked
up by a Finnish record label "Suomen Musiikki Oy / SM-Records" - a company ran by Kari
Hynninen a well known music mogul who has discovered and worked with talents such as
Apocalyptica and Amorphis in the metal scene, and several Finnish platinum artist on the pop
scene.

The band released it's first mini-CD "A Voice in the dark" in November 2006 reaching a top-10
chart position in Finland. Followed by nearly half a year of recording and a lot of other work
the band then finally released their debut album "Beautiful Darkness" in Scandinavia March
2007. Later during the same year releases followed for example in Russia, the CIS-states, Japan
and Thailand. The album was produced together by Karri Knuuttila and producer guru Anssi
Kippo (Children of Bodom etc.) and it received a great response from both the fans and critics.
In Japan the album got an especially good response and achieved remarkable sales to be a
debut album of an unknown metal band. Later on the band parted ways with the record label
"Suomen Musiikki" in early 2008..

Aesma Daeva

"Upon the lake, upon the windless water,
swim down to me, beautiful bird.
Mercy, stay not forever out of reach.
I hear, I hear your evening song, strange alien song."
-- "The Loon"
With accomplished musicians working in the symphonic terrain, Aesma Daeva draws from a rich background of 20th century music, world music, and rock instincts. As you listen, imagine and move.
Most audiences were introduced to A.D. with the songs "Stay" and "Introit II," both of which appear on several European compilations, including Orkus Magazine: Best of and Diva X Machina.
Following the band's first release, A.D. played Festival Obscuro in Mexico City, opening for H.I.M. and Tristania. They've also shared the stage with Nightwish, Kamelot and Therion. This fall, the band will reunite with Therion to tour the U.S. and Canada.
A.D.'s current lineup came to together in 2005, with Lori Lewis's versatile, classically trained voice at the forefront, Chris Quinn on bass, John Prassas on guitar, Earl Root on guitar, and Tim Klatt on drums. With this power lineup, A.D. was ready to record a new album but needed to reach a new level compared with the first release. A.D. was vigilant and stayed true to this goal. After enlisting Grammy award-winning producer Neil Kernon, the album Dawn of the New Athens was completed.
Dawn of the New Athens is a symphonic poem that journeys across the globe and the temporal realm, from the Tisza River in Hungary to a dark and timely Orwellian world.
"The meek and low christen the kingdom's coming,
building the great machines of war.
Men feed machines this century of dark
coming of the hour of the kingdom of night."
--"Since the Machine"
World instruments such as the bawu (a Chinese wind instrument) are blended with a symphonic metal backdrop, bringing a wealth of musical cultures together. Songs like "Artemis" showcase the bawu in its melancholic sound, emphasizing the lyrics of independence.
"In your name, cruel sacrifice,
embrace my art. Love let me go.
In your name, cruel goddess touch,
embrace this song, the wind, thy womb.
I don't need anyone.
I don't love anyone.
Embrace the art of letting go."
--"Artemis"
The idyllic beauty of nature provides inspiration for both "Tisza's Child" and the lament cried by the woman who has lost her lifelong mate in "The Loon." The seasons are particularly influential for the band: "The colors of fall are inspiring, and I find myself re-creating those colors in the music," says Prassas, original founder of the group.
"Bluish Shade" was inspired by the struggle that is very much part of a musician's life and the idea that "music chooses you." "I once read 'Our destinies are self-fulfilling prophecies; the energy you transmit via your music will be returned to you amplified," says Prassas. "However, the ability to control the course of our specific destiny is questionable. The entire band agrees that we really would have liked a different course at times."