Kategorie: Music News

„‘Stellar Tombs’ was produced and filmed in Iceland, with a production crew of only five, from the 14th-16th of November 2015 and edited until January 20, 2016 at the Don’t Panic Films Studio in Scituate, Massachusetts. Similar to certain lyrics from the song, the video is tangled in extreme opposites and non-sequiturs. For example, while the video takes place in the Icelandic nature, there is nothing natural about the landscape, and something all too familiar in the human element and its natural propensity for chaos. The story follows two enigmatic characters – or agents of chaos, if you will – as they recklessly personify how easily best intentions and humanity’s boldest advancements can be misunderstood and ravaged if careful attention is not paid.
Here the video ‚Stellar Tombs‘ of Draconian

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I believe that our humanity was formed from two vital fundamentals: language and empathy. Language taught us how to speak, but empathy showed us how to listen. Cue humanity’s aforementioned natural propensity for chaos; our greatest and most radical accomplishments repeatedly leave us walking a knife’s edge, pondering when the bigger fish will arrive and what form it will take this time around. When this is all over, will we become the dragonfly or the mammoth? Or will we get lucky and become hunters again, fighting for survival and asserting ourselves as Gods over Land and Nature, only to be overrun by wolves in the night? Jumping forward: a thousand years of civilization will rise and fall in an instant because of a single irrigation error. That, upon digging to the sea and proclaiming to the heavens, “We’ve done it!” immediately poisoned the rich soils with salt. We’ve come a long way since then, though! We split the atom, see?

The main character in ‘Stellar Tombs’, skillfully portrayed by Reykjavík local Tomio Newmilk, quickly learns the ease of failure if we lack empathy to understand why. As he searches the endless, black horizon, his ceaseless trust and visible naïveté shield him from fully understanding both sides of human nature. The vehicle he drives is another example of this: the mighty Land Rover Defender – an armored metal fortress designed to keep the rest of the world from creeping in. Ignorance is bliss, as they say – and this doesn’t sit well with Tomio’s passenger, a highly temperamental paradox brought to moody life by Heike Langhans, vocalist of Draconian. She has made other plans.

Throughout the production, both Tomio and Heike were open to on-the-spot experimentation and were a blast with whom to work – particularly given the stress levels that come with shooting a seven and a half-minute music video in under two days…in Iceland, in November, in horrible South Coast weather that included daily snowstorms, severe weather warnings, chickens blowing across the lawn, and glacial rockslides directly in the areas we were filming. During post-production, I wanted the aesthetic and colors of ‘Stellar Tombs’ to match the extreme desolation of the Icelandic countryside and the helplessness and fear that comes when taking one of the most dangerous landscapes in the world for granted. I made that mistake once before while filming in Iceland’s nature a few years back; it could’ve cost me my life, and I experienced a sense of powerlessness I will never forget.

In conclusion, I’m sitting here glancing over what I’ve just written above, and I understand the message of this video seems like an especially dark, negative, and a very one-sided way of looking at everything we’ve accomplished with our endless numbered days here on Earth – and I assure you, it is! There will be a day, and probably pretty soon, where common ground is completely out of style – but we must never forsake learning, never quit listening, and never, ever stop striving to understand one another. Take black metal or heavy metal music, for example… the chances of ACTUALLY understanding all the words the first time through are basically slim to none, and look how sweet it still is. We will be just fine.
From all of us here at Don’t Panic Films and Draconian, we sincerely hope you enjoy ‘Stellar Tombs’, and have as much fun watching it as we did making it… TAKK FYRIR OKKUR!!“

-Bowen Staines, Director 22.1.16 DontPanicIceland.com

 

In 2006, VAN CANTO surprised the world of metal with a revolutionary idea: to perform metal music with vocals and drums only. Nine years later, after five top 20 releases in Germany, sold out headlining tours throughout Europe and festival performances taking the band from Wacken to Australia, Van Canto now mark a new chapter in the story of “metal a cappella”: Vocal Metal Musical.

Van Canto – Metal Vocal Musical „The Bardcall“ Official Video

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“Vocal Metal Music further develops what we stand for as Van Canto. Not only can our voices sing and imitate guitars but they are also able to tell stories. It has been six years that we’ve been working on this concept – and now we’re finally able to share it with the world”, says founding band member Stef.

March 11th, 2016 sees the release of the brand new album “Voices Of Fire” on earMUSIC by Van Canto. For this release, the band has teamed up with German bestseller author Christoph Hardebusch (“Die Trolle” – engl. “The Trolls”) who is going to release his new fantasy novel “Feuerstimmen” on March 17th, 2016 on Piper Verlag.

“We are barely able to tell what came first: the music as part of the novel or the novel as part of our album. Christoph Hardebusch and we worked hand in hand on this. Our compositions did influence the novel and vice versa. Simply put, we created our own world – a world full of competing kingdoms, epic battles, dragons, fire and bards. Not always deadly serious but full of adventures to set your imagination running wild… like Van Canto does,” explains lead singer Sly who developed the plot of the novel together with Christoph Hardebusch.

„On the one hand working closely with Van Canto was a lot of fun but on the other hand it was also very demanding,” adds author Christoph Hardebusch. “The great picture can only be achieved when creative minds interact with each other; the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Right from the start, story and music has been a unit which has influenced and fueled each other.”

For the first time, Van Canto is working with the London Metro Voices – a choir which also sang on the soundtracks of the popular blockbuster saga “Lord of the Rings”.

“Nowadays, especially in metal, everyone is creating this pseudo symphonic metal, trying to squeeze as many drum machine tracks and fake orchestra sounds in one song as possible. We wanted to do it differently. We wanted to create an album full of human sounds – either by using one’s hands for drumming or using your voice,” drummer Bastian, who is responsible for directing the various international choirs on the album, explains.

The cover artwork for “Voices Of Fire” as well as its various illustrations were created by fantasy artist Osmar Arroyo from South America.
“For this album, we wanted people to actually see the most important scenes. Omar is a great artist who understands our vision,” Ross, responsible for the guitar vocals, adds.

Coinciding with the album release, the band is going to tour Europe in 2016.
“We will surely find a way to present the songs from the new album in a special way live. But not only, we are of course going to play the most loved Van Canto songs and will also pick songs who weren’t part of our setlist for a long time,” announces lead singer Inga.

Van Canto is supported by Grailknights as well as changing local supports and special guests on their upcoming tour.

March 18 Leipzig – Hellraiser (+ Grailknights + Victorius)
March 19 Zlin – Masters of Rock Cafe (+ Grailknights + Winterstorm)
March 20 Prag – Meet Factory (+ Grailknights + Winterstorm)
March 24 London – O2 Islington (+ Grailknights + End of the Dream)
March 25 Tilburg – O13 (+ Grailknights + End of the Dream)
March 26 Vosselaar Biebob (+ Grailknights + End of the Dream)
March 27 Paris – Le Petit Bain (+ Grailknights + End of the Dream)
March 31 Wien – Szene (+ Grailknights + Dragony)
April 1 Pratteln – Z7 (+ Grailknights + Victorius)
April 2 München – Backstage (+ Grailknights + Victorius)
April 3 Stuttgart – Im Wizemann (+ Grailknights + Victorius)
April 9 Hannover – Musikzentrum (+ Grailknights + Sinbreed)
April 10 Berlin – Lido (+ Grailknights + Sinbreed)
April 15 Oberhausen – Turbinenhalle (+ Freedom Call + Grailknights)
April 16 Hamburg – Markthalle (+ Freedom Call + Grailknights)
April 17 Frankfurt – Batschkapp (+ Freedom Call + Grailknights)

www.vancanto.de
www.ear-music.net