Kategorie: Rock & Metal News

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

 

Frontiers Music Srl, is pleased to announce the release of a exciting album written and performed by the two Norwegian Rock Stars Jorn Lande and Trond Holter entitled DRACULA.

Here the video ‚Walking On Water‘ of Jorn Lande and Trond Holter

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This exciting concept album was inspired by the life of Count Vlad the III, Prince of Wallachia, widely known as Vlad, The Impaler or by his patronymic name Vlad Dracul(a). The whole story explores the inner struggle inside the multifaceted and engorging character that this mysterious 15th Century personality was, while also taking into account some of the metaphysical aspects that passed into literature, forming the whole basis of the vampire mythos.

Jorn Lande – who impersonates Dracula, is the main character of the album and the female parts are sung by Norwegian singer Lena Fløitmoen (representing Mina/Lucy from the Bram Stoker book). The drama of the story reveals Dracula’s inner battle, where he still remembers what true love was, and as he wandered the Earth for centuries with a thirst for blood, his loneliness and desire to be able to love again has led him to the brink of insanity. In the original Bram Stoker version, he leaves Transylvania by ship and when he meets Lucy’s best friend, she reminds him so much of his first love Mina, that he becomes obsessed. His mission is to take her as his bride, and make her Queen of the dark.

Musically, “Swing of Death” is not like a typical rock opera or musical, since it has no storyteller or too many long instrumental parts and intros. It is an album that gets to the point with no detours and even if it exposes some diverse musical landscapes, it does include catchy and melodic songs with commercial radio potential. Vocally this release gives you everything from Jorn Lande’s past extensive catalogue all in one album. Jorn’s ability to be innovative and original while at the same time showing where his roots came from, is truly unique.

Jorn and Trond’s musical influence when creating this epic masterpiece came mostly from 70’s era Meat Loaf, Queen, Alice Cooper, plus some other Classic and more contemporary Hard Rock elements. All mixed together with their own modern musical heavy rock style, Dracula “Swing of death” is something extraordinary. The lyrics are not limited to the old days of Bram Stoker’s era and could easily be a Dracula story of today.

Track listing: Hands of Your God; Walking On Water; Swing of Death; Masquerade Ball; Save Me; River Of Tears; Queen of the Dead; Into the Dark; True Love Through Blood (Instr.); Under The Gun

DRACULA “Swing of Death” features performances from:

Jorn Lande: Lead Vocals
Trond Holter: Guitars, Piano
Bernt Jansen: Bass
Per Morten Bergseth: Drums
Lena Fløitmoen: Lead and Background Vocals on “Save Me”; “River of Tears”, “Into the Dark”, “Under the Gun”, plus background vocals on “Swing of Death”

“From The Vault” is a new series of live concerts from The Rolling Stones archive which are getting their first official release. “Hampton Coliseum – Live In 1981” is the first title in this series. The Rolling Stones American Tour in 1981 was the most successful tour of that year taking a then record $50 million dollars in ticket sales.

Here the concert video ‚Waiting On A Friend‘ of The Rolling Stones

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The tour was in support of the critically and commercially successful “Tattoo You” album. There were fifty dates on the tour which ran from Philadelphia at the end of September through to Hampton, Virginia on the 18^th and 19^th of December. The show on December 18^th, which was also Keith Richards’ birthday, was the first ever music concert to be broadcast on television as a pay-per-view event. The footage has now been carefully restored and the sound has been newly mixed by Bob Clearmountain for this first official release of the show.
www.eagle-rock.com