Operatika

From my point of view this the most powerfull band I hear lately. So strong on guitars despite being melodic.

Operatika was established in June of 2002 by Yuri Liakhovitch (drums), Bill Visser (guitar), and Slava Popova (vocals). After discussing musical ideas and goals, the trio began rehearsing and working on material. From this collaboration, Operatika’s first powerful yet melodic metal songs were born; a mixture of Bill’s furious riffs and solos, Yuri’s fast double-kicks, and Slava’s contemporary operatic vocals. Soon after, keyboardist Anna Dok came aboard and the band’s first bass player joined the band.

In April of 2005, Operatika released EP/Demo "Dreamworld" which showcased their signature symphonic power metal style. Its four tracks became very successful, instantly attracting attention from all over the world. While working on their debut album “The Calling”, two years later, the band met Michael LePond of Symphony X, who gladly agreed to record all bass parts for the album and play live shows.

Released in Europe in October of 2008, Japan in early 2009 and awaiting Mexican release, “The Calling” continues to receive critical acclaim around the world. Operatika had a two page spread feature in November 2008 issue of Italian “Metal Hammer”, UK “Power Play” and was reviewed in other prominent publications around the world. These ten new tracks convey true Operatika sound, rich in every aspect; powerful guitar riffs and solos, melodic keyboard harmonies, intense bass, fierce drumming, and harmonious operatic vocals.

The force that I said before, can see perfectly on this song.

Skyward

For me it´s a nice band. Strong guitars especilly. I compiled this information from his website, the story is funny :

The whole story began in the year 2000. It was just another alcohol-fueled Friday night, and after a while the boys (Ville and Sakke) decided that the world needs another melodic metal band. There can never be enough those around. And since they had been playing in bands practically all their lives, they felt that this should be a piece of cake. After all,how hard can it be to form a band? A rehearsal was scheduled.


Ville whipped out a couple of songs, and they rehearsed them as a duo for a while. A bass player was sorely needed. As it would happen, they found one in a bar just a couple of blocks away.A rehearsal was scheduled and later re-scheduled, since none of them remembered when it was supposed to be. Arto was his name, and he has stayed with the band from those early moments. The songs were piling up, and they had no singer. They looked for awhile, and somehow found an american girl called K. For the next year or so, she handled the vocals.

The second guitarist seemed impossible to find. A bunch of different characters tried & auditioned, but it never seemed to "click".

In 2003 our singer made it clear with her persistant absence, that she is no longer a member of the band. Things looked dark (for 5 minutes), until someone remembered the girl from the hairdresser..s close by. A friend had recommended her some time ago, and they had forgotten all about it. Sanna was her name, and she impressed the guys immediately. She was in.

Ready to record?

They found theirselves an excellent guitarist, and decided to record something in a proper studio. Too bad (for him?) that he mysteriously disappeared just before the recordings.

The demo-ep was released early 2004, and received tons of positive feedback. This encouraged them to make a full-length album. They got a friend of theirs to play the 2nd guitar, and needless to say, he quit just before the recordings. This added Ville..s misery, who soon found blisters in his fingers. Naturally they did..nt even think about slowing down, but focused on the album and looked for another player later.

A guy called Antti Roksa answered the ad, and he was in from the first rehearsals.

The quest for a record deal

In the following months, Skyward looked for a recordcompany to release their album. The most serious answer came from France. A company called Thundering Records was willing to release it. The actual contract was signed in May 2005, between Ville and Laurent, the manager of the company in Lille, France. The releasedate was scheduled for September/October

The curse of the missing bassist

For those of you who find line-up changes boring, stop reading now. After the recordings, Arto quit the band due to creative differences. (not really, but finally a chance to use that line)

A man called Jaska Koivusilta was the next bassist for the following months. With this line-up Skyward finally started playing live. They landed some pretty good gigs around the country until the inevitable break-up with our bassist. As unstable as it was, they never considered cancelling any gigs. Mikko Kivist.. of Pain Confessor came to rescue and played four gigs with Skyward. Unfortunately he was unable to continue with the band any further.

Enter Jyri Helko, the next replacement. A young, promising bassvirtuoso who helped out on the following few shows. Already busy with his studies & work, he was unable to continue with the band.

After him, it gets difficult to keep track. The average careerspan for the following players was now measured in days. The winner having spent just two days as our official bassist. (unless you count the guy who quit before he started)

Meanwhile in France

The debut album of Skyward was released in October 2005. At first, it was released in France & Belgium. In December 2005, Dynamic Arts Records launched the album in Scandinavia. In the spring of 2006, Thundering Records struck a deal with Twilight Distribution, which meant a wider european release for our album. In June, the first edition of the album was sold out. The 2nd edition was released later in the summer, with the video of Guardian as a bonus.

The curse has been lifted

Pete Kaipanen was to be our next (and last) bassplayer. A man with a talent with the acoustic guitar, and an excellent singing voice was eager to pick up the 5-string. After the first gigs with him, it was clear that he would stay with the band.

Within Temptation

May have taken too long to mention one of the best bands in the world of metal. They are Whitin Temptation. How deep their lyrics, the symphony of sound and charisma of the band, make the environment almost magical.

I have compiled this information of his website:

Within Temptation have come a long way in the last ten years. From their humble beginnings, the Dutch band have now sold over 2 million CDs and DVDs world-wide, making them not only Holland’s biggest selling musical export but also one of the fastest growing new rock acts internationally.
Formed in 1996 around the nucleus of guitarist Robert Westerholt and vocalist Sharon den Adel, Within Temptation released their debut album Enter through Dutch indie label DSFA the following April. The album saw the band playing gigs across the continent, firmly cementing their phenomenal live reputation – most notably two appearances at the legendary Dynamo festival (in both 1997 and then on the main stage in 1998).
Unbelievably for a band who were attracting such critical and commercial acclaim, they were actually all still in college. And so in 1999, Within Temptation went on hiatus to allow the band to finish their studies.

Returning to the fray twelve months later, 2000 was to prove a pivotal year for the band. Building on their strong live following by playing all the major European festivals, the band released their second album Mother Earth in December. The new album again garnered critical acclaim - hugely influential Dutch music magazine Aloha tipped Within Temptation “for a major breakthrough” – and Mother Earth stayed in the Dutch charts for over three months.

Starting the year with a major club tour of their homeland, Within Temptation released two singles from Mother Earth, Our Farewell and Ice Queen. It was Ice Queen that finally led to Within Temptation’s first mainstream commercial success. The single peaked at #2 in the Dutch charts with the album re-entering the charts at #3, eventually reaching Platinum status.

The band’s popularity in Holland continued to grow and in 2002 it spread like wildfire across the continent. Mother Earth clocked-up Platinum and Gold status in Germany and Belgium respectively, while the Mother Earth Tour DVD received Gold status in their homeland and won the band an ‘Edison Award’.De populariteit van de band bleef niet onopgemerkt en verspreidde zich in 2002 over heel Europa, waar veel shows werden gegeven. Ook was de band opener voor Paradise Lost tijdens hun uitgebreide Europese tour. Met de release van ‘Mother Earth’ brak de band ook door in Duitsland, Oostenrijk, Zwitserland en België. De plaat behaalde een platina status in Duitsland en een gouden status in België. Voor de DVD “Mother Earth Tour “ ontving de band een Edison.

Returning to the studio in 2004, Within Temptation were set to record their third and most successful record to date, The Silent Force, with producer Daniel Gibson. Fuelled by the massive international radio hit Stand My Ground, the album went to #1 in the Netherlands and Finland, #5 in Germany, Top 10 in Belgium, Portugal and Spain, Top 20 in Austria and Switzerland and Top 30 in Greece, France, Turkey, Sweden and Norway. A myriad of Gold and Platinum certifications followed.

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The single Angels was released in June 2005 to coincide with their now annual festival run - which included appearances at Pinkpop, Werchter, Rock Am Ring, Sweden Rock, Ruisrock, Aerodrome and Gurtenfest – and European tours with Iron Maiden and Rammstein. In August, Within Temptation received a World Music Award for Best Selling Dutch Artist In The World. A release of The Silent Force in Japan, Australia, and the UK was next.

More plaudits followed in 2006 with Within Temptation receiving the Dutch Export Award (“Best International Selling Artist”) for the third consecutive time in a row, the Dutch BV Pop Award and a Golden God Award from the UK’s Metal Hammer magazine for Best Video. The band played on the biggest festivals in Europe and played in Japan for the first time.



The band started a corporation with game developer Spellborn. The Chronicles of Spellborn is a so called ‘Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing’ game’, with millions of players worldwide. The band wrote three songs for the game, and made the video ‘The Howling’ together, which was released exclusively through the internet. At the end of 2006 the band signed with Roadrunner Records in the US, making a simultaneous worldwide release possible.

And now the new album ‘The Heart of Everything’ is there. In describing The Heart Of Everything Robert Westerholt comments, “Although you can still clearly hear that this is a Within Temptation record, many things have changed and evolved. Sharon shows how versatile she is as a singer more than on any record we've done. On some songs, she sings with a lot of power; on other songs she is more melodic… a siren enchanting her subjects. Sometimes she is emotional and sensitive. The guitars also play a larger part, and we have added an extra dimension to our new songs too by enhancing them with historic samples, as we did on Our Solemn Hour. Compared to The Silent Force, our new album is more dynamic and energetic. It has a more natural sound.“

In February 2007 the single ‘What Have You Done’, featuring guest vocals from ‘Life Of Agony’ front man Keith Caputo, was released. The release of the single came alongside the news that the band had won the Dutch Export Award (“Best International Selling Artist”) for the fourth time in a row.

Their new album was again produced by Daniel Gibson and mixed by Stefan Glaumann (Rammstein) and entered the Dutch album charts at #1. The album reached a #2 position in Belgium and Finland, a top-5 position in Japan, Sweden, Portugal and Germany, a top-10 position in Switzerland, a top-15 position in Austria and Czech Republic and in the top-30 in Spain, Norway and France. By this, the album reached a #5 position in the European album charts. In March and April the band did a large European tour of 38 shows, which was completely sold out. They supported Lacuna Coil on their US tour in May, which was very successful.

In June the second single ‘Frozen’ was released. Through the video which came with the single, the band focused on drawing the attention to abuse within a family. This is why the band decided to support Child Helpline International by donating all the income they receive from Sony/BMG to this organization. Child Helpline International (CHI) is a global network of child helplines and works in 150 countries around the world.

Early July, ‘What Have You Done’ was released in the United States, making it the band’s first official release in the USA. ‘The Heart of Everything’ came out on July 24th and has been a big success so far. During the summer, the band did all the major European festivals, such as Download, Bilbao BBK Live, Novarock, Pinkpop and Rockperry.

In September a US headlining tour followed where their shows in cities such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston sold out. This tour was followed by shows in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France (October). 2007 ended with a big sold out show in the Beursgebouw in The Netherlands and four shows in the UK.

In 2008 a lot of new countries were visited in Central East Europe and Russia. In April the band did their first South-American tour.

On February 7th the band gave a special (sold out) concert with the Metropole Orchestra in Ahoy Rotterdam. Together with the PA dam choir, guest singers (Keith Caputo, George Oosthoek and Anneke van Giersbergen), a 400 square meters video screen, great lighting effects and pyrotechnics the Black Symphony concert was a great success. Kerrang rated the concert with the highest score and noted: "this really is the greatest show on earth!"

The Black Symphony concert was filmed by 14 HD-Cameras and released on DVD, Blu-ray and CD by the end of 2008 in 40 countries simultaneously. Black Symphony reached a top-10 position in 11 countries, from which 8 top-3 positions.

In November and December the band will do their first theatre tour in The Netherlands and Belgium, where the band will perform their songs in a more acoustic setting.

Visions of Atlantis

Here you have a bit of biography of one of my favorite bands: Visions of Atlantis.

Fascinated by the myths surrounding Atlantis, Werner Fiedler, Mike Koren, Christian Stani and Chris Kamper decided in August 2000 to create a band inspired by the enigma of the lost city. Later that summer, Nicole Bogner joined the project to complete Visions of Atlantis.

In December 2000, Visions of Atlantis recorded their demo Morning in Atlantis, signing to Black Arrow/TTS a year later. The debut album Eternal Endless Infinity was released in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in February 2002, followed by a European release, as well as releases in the former Soviet Union, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Columbia, and the USA.

The reactions proved overwhelming, enabling Visions of Atlantis to tour with the likes of Katatonia, Finntroll, Edenbridge, Nightwish, as well as to perform at festivals throughout Europe, South Korea (International Rock Festival in Busan, in front of over 20,000 spectators), and Latin America.

In the summer of 2003, vocalist Mario Plank and keyboarder Miro Holly replaced Christian Stani (vocals) and Chris Kamper (keys) in time for the signing of a new recording contract with Napalm Records and their unforgettable performance at the Masters of Rock Festivals (CZ, SK) in front of over 10,000 spectators at each show.

Cast Away, the band’s second offering, was released on 29 November 2004, while the band was on a month-long European tour with Epica. Both fans and press welcomed this second release with open arms, as well as the band’s first video to the track “Lost”, which received airplay on MTV, VIVA, and VIVA Plus.

In 2005, Visions of Atlantis played gig's with Edenbridge and Nightwish, as well as a tour with Elis, before line-up changes, as Nicole Bogner, Werner Fiedler, and Miro Holly left the band to be replaced by soprano Melissa Ferlaak (formerly of Aesma Daeva), guitarist Wolf. K, and keyboardist Martin Harb...