Norwegian melodic metal band NERGARD has released a music video for the title track from their latest album “A Bit Closer To Heaven”. The video, can be seen below, was filmed at this years edition of Trondheim Metal Fest where the band was fronted by the amazing Andi Kravljaca (Aeon Zen, Thaurorod).
“The song “A Bit Closer To Heaven” is the very climax of my two albums. Both albums is a part of a two act metal opera and deals with the story of an unfortunate man that is sentenced to twenty years in prison for a crime which he did not commit. Upon his release he finds out that his wife and child has died. Blinded with grief he eventually commits suicide. This song is set to the place in the story where this man realises that his way out of the misery and to be reunited with his family is by committing suicide.”
Watch “A Bit Closer To Heaven” here:
Nergard’s latest album A Bit Closer To Heaven was released on june 12th through Battlegod Productions and features guest performances from Elize Ryd (Amaranthe), Andi Kravljaca (Aeon Zen, Thaurorod) Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus), Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear, ex Gamma Ray), Nils K. Rue (Pagan’s Mind), Jorn Viggo Lofstad (Pagan’s Mind), Stig Nergård (Tellus Requiem) Ole Martin Moe Thornæs (Rudhira).
The Norwegian Allstar Metal Project NERGARD released the new album “A Bit Closer To Heaven” on 12th of June. The album features 8 strong Melodic Metal tracks and a string of well-known guestartists.
Comment by band leader Andreas Nergård: “The first material were written in late 2011 and it has been a long journey towards the final result. This album was very difficult to write because I aimed on writing shorter songs than what I did on my first album. I had to totally change my mentality towards song writing and that was a long way of complete failures. I guess I ditched at least 10 songs before ending up with the 8 songs that are on this album. I think this album is very diverse and has something for everyone. We have the very heavy metal tracks like “Lights And Shadows” and “Help Me Through The Night” and more pop/rock oriented songs like “Fall From Grace” and “I Will Find You”. My favourit from the album are the epic lead single “On Through The Storm” which is the duet between Elize Ryd and Andi Kravljaca. “
You can see the fan made video for “On Through The Storm” here:
Line-up:
Elize Ryd (Amaranthe)
Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear, ex Gamma Ray)
Nils K. Rue (Pagan’s Mind)
Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus)
Jorn Viggo Lofstad (Pagan’s Mind)
Andi Kravljaca (Aeon Zen)
Ole Martin Moe Thornæs (Rudhira)
Sunniva Unsgård
Stig Nergård (Tellus Requiem)
Øyvind Voldmo Larsen (Withem)
Jostein Svarstad (Tony Carey)
Henrik Karlsvik and many more
The album is released through the Australian label Battlegod Productions and is now available through the label website. Signed copies can be ordered by sending an email to nergardmusic@gmail.com
Norwegian Melodic Metal allstar project NERGARD releases yet another single from the new album “A Bit Closer To Heaven” entitled “I Will Find You”, check it out below.
Comments Andreas Nergard: “I Will Find You is by far the most personal song I’ve ever written. It is a love song but not in the way that might seem like the obvious one. I Will Find You is about persons close to me that have passed away in different ways at different stages of my life. The lyrics were off course written to fit the story of the album but in overall this song is my way of saying that someday we’ll meet again. The song is carried by the voice of Andi Kravljaca and he did an amazing performance that really hit the nerve of the song with his passionated way of singing. Originally I tried this song with couple of other singers but I’m glad I chose Andi to do the job. He never lets me down and I always know his voice will do the job, especially on the more pop-oriented materiale.”
The new album “A Bit Closer To Heaven” features 8 strong Melodic Metal tracks and a string of well-known guestartists such as Elize Ryd (Amaranthe) Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear, ex Gamma Ray) Nils K. Rue (Pagan’s Mind) Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus) Jorn Viggo Lofstad (Pagan’s Mind) and many more. The album is released through the Australian label Battlegod Productions and is now available through the label website. Signed copies can be ordered by sending an email to nergardmusic@gmail.com
All-star melodic metal act NERGARD is back with two new singles entitled “Fall from Grace” and “On Through the Storm” taken off the upcoming album A Bit Closer to Heaven.
The latter was supposed to be released earlier but was ultimately delayed.
“Fall from Grace” features vocal performance from Thomas Løseth (Tempo, Eyeon), while “On Through the Storm” features guest performances from vocalists Elize Ryd (Amaranthe) and Andi Kravljaca (Aeon Zen, Silent Call) and guitarist Jørn Viggo Lofstad (Pagan’s Mind).
“Fall from Grace” will be released April 10th.
“On Through the Storm” will be released April 24th.
I Will Find You is the second trailer to be revealed from the upcoming new NERGARD album entitled “A Bit Closer To Heaven” which is due for release in April through Battlegod Productions. Check out the trailer below:
Comments Andreas Nergard:
“I Will Find You” was written couple of years ago in the final days of the Memorial for a Wish session. I decided not to include it on that album because it was not ready both musically and lyrically. It has been through a series of updates before being recorded for the new album.
Originally it was meant for a female singer but in the end I ended up choosing Andi Kravljaca for this one because he has a wide range and sounds very good in the mid-range register which this song is based on.
What I like best with this song is the stripped-down sound, no distored guitars and its very floating atmostphere. It’s a dark lovesong based on the rather dark concept of the previous album Memorial for a Wish and the new one, which is ACT 1 & ACT 2 of a rock opera. This is a song that explores the softer side of the Nergard-project and I’d say it is closer to pop than metal and that was the intention. I wanted this album to be a nice mix of the genres I like the most, pop, rock and metal. There’s some really heavy stuff on it and some very soft stuff as well.”
Line-up for the new album:
Andreas Nergård: drums/keyboards/piano/bass
Elize Ryd (Amaranthe): vocals
Nils K. Rue (Pagan’s Mind): vocals
Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear): vocals
Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus): vocals
Andi Kravljaca (Aeon Zen): vocals
Sunniva Unsgård: vocals
Ole Martin Moe (Rudhira): vocals
Jørn Viggo Lofstad (Pagan’s Mind): guitar solo
Stig Nergård (Tellus Requiem): guitar solo
Øyvind Voldmo Larsen (Withem): guitar solo
Jostein Svarstad (Tony Carey, Jan Holberg Project): guitar solo
Henrik Karlsvik: rhythm guitars
Raymond Hellem: acoustic guitars
Øyvind Wærnes: rhythm guitars
Martin Aas: bass
Coverart by Bernt Kulseth
Mixed and mastered by Achim Köhler
The new album from Norwegian Melodic Metal-act NERGARD is in the final mixing stages. The hightly anticipated follow up to 2013’s critical acclaimed “Memorial for a Wish” will see its release in April. “A Bit Closer To Heaven” is the brainchild of composer and mastermind of the NERGARD-project: Andreas Nergård.
The first albumtrailer has been released and features a sneak peek from the leadsingle “On Through The Storm” which features the singers Elize Ryd & Andi Kravljaca. Go to this link to watch it:
Andreas gives us some insight in the making of the song: “I am very fortunate to work with such amazing singers like Elize and Andi. Andi and me have been working together since the recording of my debutalbum way back in 2011 and I really can’t see an end to our collaboration. It has been a constant pleasure since day one. Andi is such a great and easy guy to work with. We share the same vision of perfection, a constant struggle to make the best out of a song. I guess that’s the reason why we keep working together. This time he is even more involved in the album. He handles all the backingvocals + lead vocals on 4 songs.
Having Elize onboard is a blessing indeed. I’ve been in love with her voice since I first heard her sing on the Kamelot song “Sacrimony (Angel of Afterlife)” in 2012. That eventually made me check out her band Amaranthe and it became obvious to me that I needed to invite her to join the line-up for my new album. Working with Elize on this song has been an amazing experience. It’s always amazing to hear one of my favourit singers sing a song that I have written. Elize is also one of those artists that experiments and adds alot of her own ideas to the song instead of just singing the guidelines from the vocal demos I make. She’s all about the music and I love working with people that want to push the best out of a song instead of finnishing it as fast as possible. Trust me, I’ve met those guys that are only there for the paycheck… Elize came up with a lot of awesome stuff and her ad libs at the end of the track … they gave me goosbumps.
For me, “On Through The Storm” is a bit personal, lyrically, allthough it has some twists to make it fit into the album concept. It’s a song about going through an awful periode of your life and still find the strength to get out of it. You know, the same ol’ cliché. Both singers make the lyrics come alive. It’s pure joy to listen to them. Can’t wait to release it.
On top of this I asked the amazing guitarist Jørn Viggo Lofstad to do the guitar solo. Jørn has been one of my favourite guitarists since I bought the album “Celestial Entrance” by Pagan’s Mind when I was a 14 year old kid. Did he deliver the goods? Oh yes! Just wait till you hear it, it’s just beautiful.”
The line-up on “A Bit Closer To Heaven” looks like this:
Andreas Nergård – drums/bass/keyboards
Elize Ryd (Amaranthe) – vocals
Nils K. Rue (Pagan’s Mind) – vocals
Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear, ex Gamma Ray) – vocals
Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus) – vocals
Andi Kravljaca (Aeon Zen) – vocals
Thomas Løseth (Tempo) – vocals
Sunniva Unsgård – vocals
Ole Martin Moe Thornæs (Rudhira) – vocals
Jostein Svarstad (Tony Carey, The Jan Holberg Project) – guitar solo
Stig Nergård (Tellus Requiem) – guitar solo
Jørn Viggo Lofstad (Pagan’s Mind) – guitar solo
Øyvind Voldmo Larsen (Withem) – guitar solo
Henrik Karlsvik – rhythm guitar
Martin Aas – bass
Øyvind Wærnes – guitar
Raymond Hellem – acoustic guitar
“A Bit Closer To Heaven” will be out on Battlegod Productions in April. Date will follow.
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
Ads
Visionary artist KIMMO KUUSNIEMI's ANCIENT STREAMING ASSEMBLY (ASA) have released “Aurora Nuclearis”, a powerful 12-minute audiovisual experience, dedicated to the Late Keyboardist Esa Kotilainen. - Click image to watch the video
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 