Interview with Federico Truzzi from “Sleeping Romance”
Can you explain the band name? Who came up with the band name and is there a story behind this name? The band was born a long time ago and the first name of the band was Hybrid Resolution for different kind of stuff. The name Hybrid Resolution came up from the first line up of the band, I was the only remaining member and when we sign the first record with Ulterium Records they ask us to change the name
because Hybrid Resolution was not fits with the kind of music we are doing. So, we start talking a really lot and we find the solution in Sleeping Romance as a good name for our band. Because, we are trying to tell some stories and for example our last album “Alba” is a concept album so it is like a story that is why Romance, Sleeping…I think it is so because it sounds good.
Does some of the members been on a musical school or are you all self-educated? I studied really for a long-time music and I keep studied music right now. I studied university sound engineering and I study musical position and orchestration. I also followed a lot of different teachers for guitar first starting on the plane jazz guitar and then moving to the heavy metal and rock because this fits me more. I work as a music composer that is my daily job. I compose music for movies, computer and that stuff.
Frederica she is self-taught as singer, but she also took lessons by different teachers to name a few Marcella Bovio (Stream of Passion, Mayan) and Michele Lupi (keyboard/backing vocals Whitesnake). Frederica is now singing teacher herself.
Lorenzo studied by himself, bass guitar. He is improving himself new stuff like tapping with his fingers.
Francesco the drummer he studied really a lot with different teachers but nothing at school.
Your last release is the album ‘Alba’. Can you tell us who came up with the title and what can you tell us about the album is it a concept album and what is the story hidden in the album? ‘Alba’ is a game from Italian it is also a female name and it means sunrise. We chose this name because it represents what is the story beside the concept of the album. It was about one year after the first album was finished I came to the guys in the band that I have an idea about a story to work for the second album. The story of Alba is really simple but what we have done inside is something really different. Alba is a girl who have to cross the night and save the sun and to bring the sun to the humans that is the concept of the story. The struggle that Alba got in the night is in fact the struggle that everybody got in his or her life. The ups and downs and not to know what tomorrow brings.
This album is very personal for Frederica and me.
Let’s take a look into how you make a song from the start till the final product, do you stay in close contact with each other the whole process? First, I wrote the concept of “Alba”, I wrote a sort of list off were the song must talk about that, that song about that, that song about that point, then I start writing the music. After that Frederica and I start together writing the lyrics on the music I wrote. I wrote the vocal line, and this is what Frederica must sing so now we have to write about that on that melody. That is how it worked.
 We like to know what bands or artists are a big inspiration for the band and why these bands or artists? That is hard to say because I am come from a different background not from the metal music. Joe Satriani is a big inspiration for me and I like to play the same style as him. I love a lot of classical music, a lot off soundtracks so I am much more into that kind of music.
But when I have to talk for the band what metal bands inspired us you have to think for sure about “Nightwish” and ‘Within Temptation” especially for Frederica.
 We saw you during your concert as support act for Dark Sarah and we was very impressed by your show. Is it difficult as support act to make a good set list for this short play time you got as support act? Yes, this is really, really hard because every band loves their music, they are proud about their music and want to show more and more and more. For example, we played just half an hour that is a short time and honestly you don’t know which songs you have to play to show your music.
We can fall in love with a song, but it doesn’t mean that, that is the best song.
During this concert we find that your singer sounds much like Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation) is she an inspiration for your singer? I think you have to say this personally to Frederica because that is for her a really big compliment and I know she is a big fan of “Within Temptation”. After the show we say it to her and she thanks us for the compliment.
Our slogan is More Than Metal and, in this part, we like to ask about gear and other things next to Sleeping Romance. Can you tell us what gear do you use? As the guitar player I used a handmade guitar from Liuterya (model 3g Angel 7) and it is my personal guitar, so it is the Federico Truzzi guitar there is just 1 piece.
For Amplifier I use on tour a German Amplifier it is called Diesel because on tour we have not much time to use the Kemper profiler because the Diesel is much easier I put 2 cables and my sound will be perfect.
 Are you working in the music next to Sleeping Romance? Yes, I am, my daily job is to be a music producer for bands and music composer for movies, theatre and stuff like this.
So, I have a recording studio in my hometown Modena (Italy) were some bands comes to record and produce. They even ask me to help them with the orchestration or help them write songs to makes them sounds better. After the tour I move to Berlin where I try to find more work as a composer because Berlin is a city with more music and stuff like that, but I keep my home studio in Italy because it easy to move from Berlin to Italy.
 Do you have any hobbies other than making music and may we know what that is? Music is really difficult because it takes all your time. Making music is for me not my job it is my life, so it is really hard to separate when you are working or doing music just for fun. In that way it is really hard to find a hobby, but I like to play basketball. So, when I have free time I like to play basketball with my friends or just saw some basketball matches.
Did you ever think to ask another artist as guest on your album and what artist you really like to ask to be guest on an album? In “Sleeping romance” we don’t think about that yet. But who knows when we talk about the next album it is possible we could ask someone. Maybe a singer so we have a different voice then Frederica, but I can’t say anything yet because we don’t know yet.
Is there anything you like to add to this interview or anything you like to say to our readers? First of all, I will thank you for this interview we are really happy to talk with you about “sleeping Romance” and what we are doing because we want to spread our music so thank you to help us to do that. And I hope you will enjoy the show tonight, Frederica is ill, but we will do our best. Don’t blame us if we made a mistake because of this, we are all humans. Thank you and we hope you all will love “Alba” our new album.
Interview by Hans & Yolanda Clijnk All photos by Hans Clijnk
Interview with Siegfried Samer from Visions of Atlantis:
 We want to go back in time for a little bit in 2013 you started to form a new line up with ClÊmentine Delauney and Siegfried Samer both vocals and the rest of the band joins in 2017.Did you already started writing lyrics and music for this album or you started in 2017?
That was a pretty long process because previous members like Chris Kamper, Werner Fiedler and Michael Koren from the old days they came back in 2013. We were supposed to write an album, with a sound just like the album “Cast Away”, but the problem was 10 years has passed and there have no been events for a very long time, so they have their family life’s, professional life’s it was very hard for them to get time what is needed to write an album and to be on tour with Visions of Atlantis all the time. We did some shows with replacements already, we gave them a little time, 2 years exactly, for come up with the songs. Then they just came up with a few fragments and not really complete songs. So, we were decided we need a little help for the songwriting of the album and we asked our producer Frank Pitters, who was responsible for all the music and musical arrangements on the new album. When he was done Clémentine and I worked on the lyrics and vocal lines with our producer in the studio and so we recorded the album.
 How did you (Siegfried Samer) met Visions of Atlantis? The previous keyboard player Chris Kamper who is one of the founding members as well from the early days, his brother plays some shows with my former band with his brother formers band, so he knew me. He heard from Chris that Visions of Atlantis was looking for a new singer, so he recommended me and then Thomas the drummer get in contact with me. That is how it started.
The title of the album is ‘The Deep & The Dark’ can you tell us is there a story hidden in the lyrics (and maybe a concept album)? Actually, not the album title was decided by Thomas the only remaining founder member because he wants to go back of the roots of Visions of Atlantis. He came up with title and the artwork idea for that but really the songs don’t really actually to be connect to that kind of mythical theme instead we have songs about personal relationships like the soundtrack “The Deep & The Dark”, social criticisms in “Words of War” and some mythical folk theme’s in “Ritual Nights” for example.
Can you tell us what bands inspired you by the writing and recording of this album? I was not involved by the writing of the music, this was written by our producer. It was a goal for us to go back to the roots of Visions of Atlantis, like the previous first 3 albums, “Eternal Endless Infinity”, “Cast Away” and “Trinity”. Our producer he has been working in the female fronted scene for a long time. He worked in the studio with Edenbridge from Austria. He was also on tour with Visions of Atlantis over 10 years ago he was part of the Edenbridge live crew.
So, he knows the scene very well, he knows the music very well and he know how to come to that result what we want.
Did you made rules in writing and making songs so everybody in the band knows what road the band wants to follow and to keep it clear for everybody? Actually not, I think that that the previous line up has come to an end because the musical direction was too far away from the original concept what Thomas has. The last 2 albums were okay but that is not quite what I want to do whit this band and I want to go back to that original sound. So, we look for new people to come back with an album what sounds like the old Visions of Atlantis but there are no rules like you can’t do that or you can’t do that.
This tour is already halfway now can you tell us what are the reactions from the crowd on the songs of the new album you play during the show?
The reactions are very, very good. There was always like a very enthusiastic crowd. Most of the people are first coming for Serenity because they are the more touring band and more popular at the moment, but some fans also came specifically for us which is really nice. And even those who didn’t we won over a lot of new fans, they were happy, buying a lot of merch and pictures were taken that is always a good sign.
 Can you give us your personal favourite song(s) of the new album and can you tell us why you picked these songs?
1. The title track “The Deep & The Dark” because it has a very old school “Nightwish” feel. 2. “Words of War” because it is for me vocally the power metal song and I come from the power metal corner of the genre. Our slogan is More Than Metal and in this short part we like to know more of you. Do you have any kind of hobbies next to making music and playing in a band? I am a big video/computer game fan, so I play a lot of those and that also influence my writing as well not so much for Visions of Atlantis but for my other band “Dragony” we have a lot of videogame, movie and literature theme’s.
Did you always wanted to make music or to sing/ play in a band? Yes, that started pretty early, I think when I was a teenager. I started first with guitar I was not so that bad but when I go to the university there were tons of guitar players and a way better then I was but there were almost no singers, so I decided to switch.
 What do you prefer more to play at festivals or club tours? It is ups and downs, the festivals are great because there are so many people you got a Rockstar kind of feeling. The club tours are also because it is usually really the fans of the band where you play for. it does not matter if you are the headliner or the main support band which we are now. They are then really interest in that specific kind of music so, they will really very excited and enthusiastic about your performance so that is pretty awesome.
What was the last concert you been to as visitor yourself and when was that? I get to a lot of concerts but the most recent one was 70.000 tons of metal, the cruise in the Caribbean. I was there before the tour was started I was in Miami for a couples of days and at the cruise for 5 days. And the last show on the cruise I saw was Gyze a band from Japan. I saw a ton of bands there.
Is there anything you like to add to this interview or anything you like to say to our readers? For sure, I hope that a lot of you guys enjoy the new album “The Deep & The Dark” and come tot the show when we are close to you. If you enjoy the album, just bring it, we will sign it, take pictures, I hope to see you on a festival or a show sometime here or in the future. https://www.facebook.com/visionsofatlantisofficial/
Interview by Hans & Yolanda Clijnk All photos by Hans Clijnk
Interview with Fabio D'Amore from Serenity
In October last year ‘Lionheart’ was released and on this album, you use guest females to sing to vocal parts. Was this planned or not? Yeah, definitely it was planned, we are having guests since many years on each record. Accept the first album there is no female vocal on and the album “War of Ages” with Clémentine from Visions of Atlantis because she was a fixed member. All the other albums we used to have guests for this album we get some cool guests Katja Moslehner former member of FAUN and Federica Lanna from Sleeping Romance who will also performing tonight.
Did you have to change a lot planning and re writing for this new album knowing you have no full time female vocalist? No, I think we have a structure sound now that is really straight forward, and we don’t need to write or rewrite material for guests. On the other way we are like planning to have some guests and we immediately feel which song belongs to our guest part and which song must stay in the original line up. The album is about Richard I of England beter known as Richard the Lionheart, can you tell us who came up to make an album about him and about what part of his life is the album about?
Actually, it is pretty curious it happens like with “Codex Atlanticus” the previous album that we came up with the theme of “Da Vinci” This time we were in the same scenario as then just having dinner like a normal day in a tour after a show with Powerwolf, I think it was in Madrid 2016. Georg enter the catering room and for the first time we started discussing the new album and he came up with the theme of Richard Lionheart. We were all like, this would be a cool theme and what should we do, we should this, this and that okay let’s see which kind of music we are inspired, let’s do our research because we used to do researches.
So, they say, Fabio try to investigate about this, this and that and write lyrics about this and so I go and search and
do my research and try to think okay this theme could suits this kind of music and then we exchanged feedback. Then when we have been touring in Israel, in Jerusalem and we are standing in front of such city walls and for example then we came up with the song “The Fortress of Blood and Sand” what we also play tonight. It is a mixture between Gelish the professor of the university of Innsbruck he had historical theme’s in mind all the time and we, we are all anyway keen in history, personally my mum was a history teacher as well so I also like these things and therefore we start to think about the themes. With these themes you always take a risk if you are doing a historical character, so you risk inventing things, or the things wo were straight really happened, but I can say no one was there so no one can confirm or not confirm what happen then. I always prefer to like that our songs are real acts on things what really happened but trying to us our imagination a little bit otherwise it is just a documentation, that is not art anymore it is just history. We want to use music and creations in the historical fact and therefore for example I wrote lyrics like “Hero” were the character himself is questioning himself should the people following him as a leader or should they abandon him and therefore in this epic part in the middle he have the doubts and questions about himself, why did you abandon me and so far. Then we had songs like “The Fortress of Blood and Sand” about the invasions we have different themes united for Lionheart we talked more about the specific themes of the battles or more for example about his mother, his sister or
his father we try to enter a little bit of his private life in the happenings but not to detailed we also don’t know what happened. We try to make up a kind of history or a kind of plot behind these small details and try to make it sound good. This evening you meet one of the female guest on your album again (Federica Lana of Sleeping Romance) will you ask her to sing with you on the song ‘The Final Crusade’?
Actually, we did it every show till yesterday but due to Frederica she is ill. Yesterday sleeping romance had to cancel the show tonight they will do it again, but I don’t know Frederica is available because she is not feeling good.
But just for your info she was doing it every night with us and it was fantastic it is a great opportunity to have our guest female on tour with us and when she feels better from tomorrow on she will do it again.
 If we talk about touring is it hard to come up with a good setlist to please most of the fans but also to attract new fans to give them the best impression of the band’s music? Yeah, we try always to work on this for example we will have new songs, about Lionheart some people really like our new stuff or even attracted more by the new music, some people are more sticking to the old stuff. Therefore, we are doing a mixed setlist with even some special in the middle we have an acoustic set. We are playing 3 acoustic songs only piano, vocals, acoustic guitar, some percussion that I did play as well.
We are doing something that is not to forget. This aspect is also important these 3 songs for example are also bonus tracks 2 of them are from “Lionheart” and 1 of them is from our previous record “War of Ages” There is a little bit for everyone, calm moments, very heavy moments, old stuff, new stuff, I think it is enough for everyone. For sure not everyone can be satisfied, some people were complaining why not that song or that song but therefore we have 100 minutes which is more than enough. We have never playing 100 minutes so far, we always played maximum 90 minutes but 100 minutes, 18 songs are a long setlist, we are not Dream Theater, we are not playing 3 hours.
Our magazine got a slogan and that is More Than Metal and in this short part we like to know more about other things of the band like gear or tattoos or hobbies. What gear do you use in the studio and is it different then the gear you use during a concert? Definitely, something about basses, I am endorsed by Spector basses, beautiful instruments. I recently received one appositely for the tour “the legend five” and I got for the previous tour with Delain, I got the ReBop5. Incredible instruments I am really, really happy with them.
I am using as an amp a very special tech 21 fly rig bass station it is such a small gear like 35 centimeters and 400 grams and you can travel with it and you have everything you need so I am not using any emperor, cabinet or heads. In the studio I am a little bit more accurate, I use different gears also different base for my new Spectors for the next record for sure.
 Do you have any kind of hobby or hobbies in your spare time? My spare time is really limited since I am also teaching music in private schools. I have a huge hobby, which is football, soccer, I am a huge Juventus supporter and I also play videogames and I like it very much, honestly.
I watch a lot of tv series and if I am able I am going to the cinema and check out the new movies.
 We like to look a little into the future. Are you already busy writing or thinking about the next album or other plans? At this moment not, we are not thinking or writing any material. I am sure in the summer we will start talking about it as always but at this moment we are working about the next tour. First of all, we would like to announce soon the dates for October that will be 10 dates all Europe and also a special present to our British UK fans because they have complaining and requesting a lot more shows than just London. And maybe if the feedback positive about this acoustic set there will be maybe an acoustic tour or an acoustic CD, who knows. Watch the Serenity website www.serenity-band.com or the Serenity Facebook page www.facebook.com/serenityaustria Please follow us and we return to the Netherlands as soon as possible.
 Is making another concept album or an album about the person for the past also something in your mind?
I had some ideas, Georg have some ideas in the end we will have to see, it is always really risky because from 1 side you think ok it is easy you just take 1 random character and you do an album about it. No, it is not so easy, first of all nowadays with all these new tv series about historical things or invented historical things you always can sound easy. On the other hand, the theme doesn’t have completely to be unknown otherwise the people would not now this character. You can talk about for example a pope that no one knows or no one remembers it has to be something glamorous something that changed history, something like Lionheart or da Vincie there are a lot of character’s but you could always have the risk to go the easy way and we don’t want that so we have to be careful and think about it apparently.
 You are halfway on this tour how are the reactions so far from the fans that already been to one or more shows? So far, except this annoying illness everything is going great, feedback was incredible, shows were packed, merchandise is running great, so we can be more than happy about it.
 Is there anything you like to add to this interview or anything you like to say to our readers? I would like to especially thank every Dutch reader because we have a great fanbase in the Netherlands actually the whole Benelux and it is always great to be back here.
So, I hope you will be a part of the show also tonight, yesterday a lot of people said when will you come back and soon between October and November we will be back so expect us again with maybe some surprises. So please stay tuned.
Interview by Hans & Yolanda Clijnk All photos by Hans Clijnk
Sleeping Romance – Alba
Release date: 03 - 11 – 2017. Label: Napalm Records
Line up: Federica Lanna - Vocals Federico Truzzi - Guitars, Orchestration Lorenzo Costi - Bass Francesco Zanarelli - Drums Fabrizio Incao – Guitars
Track list:
1. Overture - Twilight 2. Where The Light Is Bleeding 3. Lost In My Eyes 4. Touch The Sun 5. Forgiveness 6. My Temptation 7. Across The Sea 8. Everything Behind 9. Through The Looking Glass 10. Alba
This is the second album for this band from Modena in Italia. Federico Truzzi does all the music and the orchestration shows on this album his skills and everything is perfect.
The album is telling the story about a woman called Alba and her advances through difficulties, choices, and mistakes, and leads the character to a positive growth. The album starts with an Overture called Twilight and the first thing that comes to our mind it got much of Epica and that is the way the choir and on the other hand the keyboard sounds. Federica is singing if it is her own battle and this gives that the songs really comes to alive. By the first moments she starts to sing we hear she is inspired by Sharon den Adel of Within Temptation and her voices comes very close to Sharon’s voice.
We must keep in mind that this is just the second full length studio album of this band. The album is full of moments where Federico plays his guitar as it is the last time he plays the guitar and many solo’s sound strong fast and heavy.
It is hardly to say what our favourites songs are of the album because we cannot choice.
Okay a lot of you readers will think this is all done in a studio so can they play this way during a concert?
About that we can say yes, they can because we already saw them 2 times and both times before hearing the album.
http://www.sleeping-romance.com/ https://www.facebook.com/pg/sleepingromanceofficial
Review by Hans & Yolanda Clijnk All photos by Hans Clijnk
Visions of Atlantis – The Deep & The Dark
Release date: 16 – 02 - 2018. Label: Napalm Records Line up: Clémentine Delauney - vocals Siegfried Samer - vocals Christian Douscha - Guitars Herbert Glos - Bass Thomas Caser – Drums
Track list:
1. The Deep & The Dark 2. Return to Lemuria 3. Ritual Night 4. The Silent Mutiny 5. Book Of Nature 6. The Last Home 7. The Grand Illusion 8. Dead Reckoning 9. Words Of War 10. Prayer To The Lost
For this new album Visions of Atlantis is going back to the roots of the band. First, with the return of Christian Douscha (guitars) and Herbert Glos(bass) in the band the basis is back.
For the vocals they asked ClĂŠmentine Delauney and Siegfried Samer.
They form a perfect match in the duets. They sing in clean vocals and for us that is the best thing they made. The fans from the early years of Visions of Atlantis will surly love this album very much.
The song ‘The Deep & The Dark’ sounds very much like Xandria. The song got also a part where the guitar is playing a main part with a solo.
By the song ‘Ritual Night’ they have a start with folk sounding music. By this number you can perfectly hear the vocal of Siegfried and the duet with Clémentine. Listening more to the songs on this album and we can say it is an album that does good for people that like bands as Xandria but also Kamelot. ‘Book of Nature’ is a good example of that it sounds like Kamelot and the start got an Arabic sound.
There is also space for a ballad on the album and that is the song ‘The Last Home’ and start slow with a piano and it slowly build up the climax and then moving up to the end slowly with piano again. We can only say welcome back Visions of Atlantis!
https://www.facebook.com/visionsofatlantisofficial/
Review by Hans & Yolanda Clijnk All concert photos by Hans Clijnk
Serenity – Lionheart
Release date: 27 – 10 – 2017
Label: Napalm Records
Line-up: Georg Neuhauser (vox) Fabio D'Amore (bass, vox) Andreas Schipflinger (drums, vox) Cris Hermsdörfer (guitars, vox)
Guests: On “Heaven” by Katja Moslehner (Ex-Faun). On “The Final Crusade” by Federica Lanna (Sleeping Romance). Guitar-Solo on “My Fantasy” by Bob Katsionis (Serious Black, Firewind).
Track list: 1. Deus Lo Vult 2. United 3. Lionheart 4. Hero 5. Rising High 6. Heaven 7. King's Landing 8. Eternal Victory 9. Stand And Fight 10.
The Fortress (Of Blood And Sand)
11.
Empire
12.
My Fantasy
13.
The Final Crusade
For this album they took Richard I of England beter known as Richard The Lionheart as subject for the story.
For this album they did a lot research in the life of Richard I of England. But to make it not to become a musical documentary they changed or tell so things that is not written down anywhere in books or manuscripts from that time. You can read more about how the album is made and the research in our interview with Fabio D'Amore. On this album they do not use a permanent female to do the female vocals, but they use guests.
The album starts with the song ‘Deus Lo Vult’ and this song is more an intro than a song and it does very well as opener for a concert. We know for sure that this album can get a lot of fans from the Kamelot camp and that is more because it sounds very much like Kamelot and with sounds like Kamelot we mean on the musical parts and not so much the vocals of Georg.
The vocals of Georg are perfect by every song and he know to give every song the right mood in singing. The rest of the band and it does the backing vocals is a perfect working together.
The first guest on the album is Katja Moslehner (Ex-Faun) on the song ‘Heaven’. The first part of this song that sounds like a ballad is the head role for Georg and then it is time for Katja to take the head role over from Georg and it sounds very good it is a good ballad that tells a good story.
With the song ‘King’s Landing’ they take a moment of rest and take the speed down. This is a song that does very well to take a moment of rest during a concert and even to start an acoustic part into the setlist.
The album is full highlights, but it is difficult to talk about all so the next highlight we put in the
spotlight is the song ‘My Fantasy’ and for this song they asked Bob Katsionis (Serious Black, Firewind) to play the solo. It is bad that the solo is close to the end of the song, but it is a perfect solo and it sounds different then all other solos on the album.
Then it is only one song left and that is the final song of the album ‘The Final Crusade’ and by this album they also got a guest. The song got also vocals that are more black metal style.
The guest is Federica Lanna (Sleeping Romance). It tells the story when the King goes for his final crusade and his family at home can only hope he will win and will come home safe.
It is an emotional end of the album. In this album the King’s last crusade become a big lost but for Serenity it is a battle they won, and they become King and the crown is the album ‘Lionheart’.
http://www.serenity-band.com/ https://www.facebook.com/serenityaustria
Concert review by Hans & Yolanda Clijnk All concert photos by Hans Clijnk
ACCEPT NIGHT DEMON Effenaar, Eindhoven 06 – 02 – 2018. While the temperature outside goes below zero and the evening will fall we are waiting for the concert to start. There are not so many people inside the hall and we think that it is because it is a normal working day for many people and the fact that is getting colder outside that keeps people at home in the warmed. The light goes out and it is showtime. The band that may warm the hall up is from California and the band name is Night Demon.
They play old school rock / metal and they know how the fire the place up.
The crowd is really enjoying the show at the full. All 3 members of the band sings, main vocals are done by bass player Jarvis Leatherby and the backing vocal are done by Armand John Anthony (guitar) and Dusty Squires (Drums).
The setlist is for a support act long (13 songs). But as fast as they started the show it is a pity the get to the end of the show and leave us behind in a warmed hall and some good memories of a perfect show. After the band say goodbye to the crowd it is time for the change over and to empty the stage of the drumkit and other stuff and make the stage ready for the headliner of the evening. Accept is not an unknown band because they play their old-school metal from 1976 and they are still not ready to stop. Light go out and then the first member that enter the stage is Christopher Williams(drum) and he is ready to show the crowd that he is more than ready to play.
And there is the rest of the band and they also are ready to rule the hall with classic songs. Wolf Hoffmann on his amazing looking custom guitar and Peter Baltes on the bass are more than ready to make everybody sweat in the hall.
But we also don’t have to forget the frontman of the band that sings all these classic songs without any problems and that is nobody else than Mark Tornillo. And to make the band complete Uwe Lulis also on guitar. The name of the tour is ‘The Rise of Chaos’ and they already played 18 shows in Europe before this show but that is hardly to see or to hear.
The band makes plenty time to get contact with the fans and the rest of the crowd and they also spend much time to give all the photographers a perfect shot of them.
That the band knows how to make a great show is also to see on the amount of songs on the setlist (22 songs in total) and they play songs from 8 albums.
We can look back on a perfect show and it stays long very hot in the hall. The end the show with the classic song that everybody knows very well and that is of course ‘Balls to the Wall’. We really hope we do not have to wait very long for another show in the Netherlands. Thank you very much Night Demon and Accept!
http://www.nightdemon.net/ http://www.acceptworldwide.com
Concert review by Hans & Yolanda Clijnk All photos by Hans Clijnk
Serenity Visions of Atlantis Sleeping Romance Evenmore Patronaat, Haarlem, 17 - 02 - 2018. Long before the concert starts we are at the venue because of planned interviews with 3 bands of this evening. During these interviews we found out that the flu has taken toll of band members and there for the interviews will be done with less members or even other members. The band that may kick off the evening is the from Switzerland coming band Evenmore. This is the only band that has no band members with the flu. The style of this band is Symphonic Folk Metal.
The vocal of Melissa Bonny are a mix between clean vocal and then also grunts it sounds very cool and you do not expect it at all. Valentin Magnenat is the bass player and he is a eyecatcher with his bass guitar with (green) glow in the dark strings.
Landry Pernet is playing the guitar and he is doing the backing vocals and for the folk part they have Matthieu Bopp on Whistles and bagpipes. To make the band complete it is Florian Bard on the drums. Based on this concert it is hardly to believe that is band is so short busy as band and that they only have one released album. With the intro and the outro, the setlist is 8 songs long and it is the best presentation of the music of the band.
After a short change over it is time for the second band of the evening and we already saw this band before it is Sleeping Romance from Italia. Well we have to say that Federica and Lorenzo are sick, but they do their best to preform the best they can.
Specially for Federica the flu is very bad because it took effect on her singing but with help from the crowd she was doing more than her best to give the crowd and very good show.
Most of the talking is by Federico Truzzi and he often say that they see Holland as their second home. The rest of the band is Lorenzo Costi (bass), Fabrizio Incao(guitar) and finally Francesco Zanarelli (drums) done extra their best to help Federica in this difficult situation.
We think that because of the illness they made the setlist shorter but overall it is a very good performance and Federica knows the make it a concert that is still good, and we enjoyed every moment of the concert.
Let us say next time there is another chance to do it over again and the way you want it to be. After the band take on selfie with the crowd in the back it is time for another change over and clear the stage for band number 3 of the evening. Band number 3 is Visions of Atlantis from Austria. We saw this band before and the last time was in 2013 and that was before this line up. So, for us it is a new line up and they just got a new album released. For the vocals they have ClÊmentine Delauney and Siegfried Samer and both started in Visions of Atlantis in 2013. On this evening ClÊmentine is also victim of the flu and Thomas was also ill of the flu, but he is back behind the drums this evening. Tonight’s concert is all about the new album "The Deep & The Dark".
Directly from the first song it is very clear that the band goes back to the early years and the songs sounds very good. We must say that the duets between ClĂŠmentine and Siegfried are pushing this concert to a high level and it sounds very good knowing that ClĂŠmentine is battling against the flu.
With a setlist of a total of 9 songs it is not very long but also not short and they spend enough time to make the best out of it.
We are sure that Visions of Atlantis will return and will give us another concert without any flu problems and then we can see how perfect they can perform. Then it is time for the last and final change over and to give the stage to the headliner of the evening Serenity from Austria. The last time we saw this band was in 2013 and then it was with ClĂŠmentine Delauney in the band. This evenings concert got some specials like an acoustic set of 3 songs long and a special guest later in the set. On stage they use coat of arms from the period of Richard I of England beter known as Richard the Lionheart and that is also where the last album is about. Every bandmember got this coat of arms on the clothing. Georg Neuhauser is really doing a very great job, and do we miss the female vocals during most of the set not at all. The interaction between the bandmembers is super but also the inter action between the band and the crowd is more than perfect.
The sound is more than perfect and the whole show is moved up to a high level and to the ultimate climax.
With the acoustic set they take down the speed and, on the stage, they have candlesticks to give it an intimate setting.
Then the set goes onto the next highlight of the evening and that is the moment they will bring on stage a special guest. And the special guest is Melissa Bonny from the band Evenmore.
She is doing an amazing job and the duet with Georg is a big surprise and we ask our self if she will be asked a time to do a duet a next release? After a total of 17 songs the concert ends, and can we look back on a good concert, but it is a pity that some band members of most of the bands are suffering on the flu. We like to take the time to say thanks to all the band members that took time for doing our interviews and for this concert.
http://evenmore-band.com/fr/ https://www.facebook.com/evenmoreband/ http://www.sleeping-romance.com/ http://www.federicotruzzi.com/site/ https://www.facebook.com/sleepingromanceofficial https://www.facebook.com/visionsofatlantisofficial/ http://www.serenity-band.com/ https://www.facebook.com/serenityaustria
concert review by Hans & Yolanda Clijnk all photos by Hans Clijnk
Saxon Diamond Head Armored Dawn 013 Main Stage, Tilburg, 27 – 02 – 2018. This evening we get 2 support acts before we will see and hear the titans of old school heavy metal. Before we entre the hall for this evenings concert we first go to the backstage area for a face to face interview with Biff Byford lead singer of Saxon. The interview will be in our next issue 03 – 2018. The first band that will open this evening is Armored Dawn from Brasil. This band is inspired by Vikings and it can be seen by clothing of Eduardo Parras. The style of music is Heavy Metal, and it is in it pure form. There are not much crowd presents but they know to make a good show.
The set of the evening is not very long only 30 minutes long. Musical is it is very strong and powerful played by some amazing artists as Timo Kaarkoski(guitar), Tiago de Moura(guitar), Fernando Giovanetti (bass & backing vocals), Rafael Agostino (keyboards & guitar) and Rodrigo Oliveira(drums). During the concert the drummer broke one of his toms and Timo tells the crowd that the drummer breaks so much this tour that the tour cost them much (this was just a joke). They repair it very fast and they can go on with the show.
Before we know it is time for the next band. And this next band is Diamond Head from England. Brian Tatler (guitar) is the only founding member left in the band.
The vocals are done by Rasmus Bom Andersen and not only can he sing very good he also knows how to make a show on stage. The style of the band is old school rock /NWOBHM. The setlist is for our idea short with only 7 songs. We have to say that the sound is perfect and also the lightshow is very good.
The final song of the setlist is the song ‘Am I Evil’ and with this song they end the setlist in style.
It is time to clear the stage for the headliner of the evening.
The headliner of the evening is SAXON. The intro is ‘Olympus Rising’ and the song is from the last studio album ‘Thunderbolt’.
The setlist of the evening got also more songs from ‘Thunderbolt’ to celebrate the new release. There is also plenty room for the more classic songs from the old days of Saxon. There is much more crowd in the hall then the concert started and that is a good thing.
The band is still after 39 years strong as a house and they enjoy every moment them self. The vocals are from one of the founding members is namely Biff Byford and the other founding member is Paul Quinn (guitar). Not only the band is enjoying every moment and every song also the crowd is going crazy and sing every part of every song. It is going to be a long evening with a setlist that has 20 songs in it. 12 of the 20 songs are from albums out the 80’s and the rest of the songs are from younger albums (2007 until 2018).
The backing vocal are in the hands of Nibbs Carter (bass) and he is really a thunderbolt on stage.
But there are 2 members left and they also make that this concert is almighty, and it sounds heavy as it much be, and those 2 members are of course all the way in the back on the stage Nigel Glockel on the drums. And finally, it is Doug Scarratt (guitar) and he support Paul Quinn in every guitar part and he also is looking for the contact with the crowd. Sadly, for the crowd but on every concert, there is also an end and we know for sure that this concert will be in many memoires for a long time.
http://armoreddawn.com/ https://www.facebook.com/ArmoredDawn/ https://www.diamondheadofficial.com/ https://www.facebook.com/DiamondHeadOfficial/ http://www.saxon747.com/ https://www.facebook.com/saxon/
review by Hans & Yolanda Clijnk All photos by Hans Clijnk