Vocalist Amanda Somerville (TRILLIUM, AVANTASIA) has checked in with the following:
“Today we said goodbye to our wonderful friend. To forever keep him in our hearts as the joyful, talented soul we all knew and loved, here’s this memorial video of our Simonovsky.”
Simon Oberender – Trillium’s live keyboardist – appeared on several albums, including AVANTASIA’s 2010 releases The Wicked Symphony and Angel of Babylon, EDGUY’s Age of the Joker (2011), EPICA’s Requiem for the Indifferent’(2012), RHAPSODY OF FIRE’s The Frozen Tears of Angels (2010) and KAMELOT’s Silverthorn, which will be released next month.
As an engineeer, Oberender worked on albums by Avantasia, Edguy, Epica, Mayan and others.
Oberender was a part of Trillium’s live line-up this past spring for the band’s European tour supporting DELAIN with HALCYON WAY. He was due to hit the road with Trillium again this fall supporting MAGNUM in the UK.
Vocalist Amanda Somerville (TRILLIUM, AVANTASIA) and guitarist Alex Beyrodt (PRIMAL FEAR, VOODOO CIRCLE) – both of them members of ROCK MEETS CLASSIC – recently took part in a string of surprise shows for Germany with the live project GO MUSIC (details here). The gigs were largely improvised, with the artists on hand playing classic rock tunes.
Footage from the September 2nd gig at the OkieDokie in Neuss, Germany is available below:
Rock Meets Classic have confirmed former JOURNEY frontman Steve Augeri, MANFRED MANN’S EARTH BAND’s Chris Thompsom, FREE / BAD COMPANY vocalist Paul Rodgers and THE HOOTERS’ Eric Bazilian, and special guest BONNIE TYLER for the February/March run. In addition, PRIMAL FEAR drummer Randy Black has been confirmed as the man behind the kit for the tour. He joins his Primal Fear bandmates Mat Sinner (bass/master of ceremonies), Alex Beyrodt (guitars) and Ralf Scheepers (backing vocals) as part of THE MAT SINNER BAND.
Now into its fourth year, Rock Meets Classic showcases classic rock artists of the ’70s and ’80s performing their hits backed by a full-on rock band and an orchestra. Artists that have taken part in previous tours include Ian Gillan (DEEP PURPLE), Dan McCafferty (NAZARETH), Steve Lukather (TOTO), Lou Gramm (FOREIGNER), Chris Thompson (MANFRED MAN’S EARTH BAND) and Jimi Jamison (SURVIVOR).
The Mat Sinner Band also features TRILLIUM / AVANTASIA’s Amanda Somerville (backing vocals), Avantasia’s Oliver Hartmann (guitars), Jimmy Kresic (keyboards), Tiffany Kirkland (backing vocals), Verena Schock (backing vocals) and Sascha Krebs (´backing vocals).
Video footage of Amanda Somerville (TRILLIUM) and Elize Ryd (AMARANTHE) recording backing vocals for KAMELOT‘s new album at Wolfsburg, Germany’s Gate studios under the direction of producer Sascha Paeth (EDGUY, AVANTASIA, RHAPSODY) can be seen below.
KAMELOT laid down the drums for the new CD at Morrisound Recording in Tampa, Florida with renowned engineer Jim Morris.
Due on September 25 (one day earlier internationally) via Steamhammer/SPV, the title of KAMELOT‘s new album will be revealed at the end of June, along with the name of the band’s new vocalist. Guitarist Thomas Youngblood says, “I have to say the fans will love the new singer. We love what we hear and that was the biggest test. Of course, there will be fans that hold on to the past and I understand that, but things change and you can either move forward or live in the past. I was humbled by the amount of singers that applied for the spot, some totally unknown and others are names that every metal fan would know. In the end, we chose the guy that fits KAMELOT in terms of sound, writing and image.
Youngblood on the style and content of the concept album: “The new songs sound more symphonic and melodic than our last two studio recordings. The material brings to mind albums such as ‘Karma’ (2001) and ‘The Black Halo’ (2005). In addition, this will be the best production that KAMELOT have ever delivered. Because while other acts tend to opt for low-budget productions due to the difficult market situation, we have gone the opposite way: the new album will be a real statement, in terms of our compositions as well as in terms of our sound.”
“Our new album marks another step and a new chapter for KAMELOT and our amazing fans!”
KAMELOT will support Finnish/Swedish symphonic metallers NIGHTWISH on a North American tour in September and October.
KAMELOT‘s recently completed North American, South American and European tours featured guest singer Fabio Lione of RHAPSODY OF FIRE following the departure of KAMELOT‘s longtime frontman, Roy Khan.
TRILLIUM vocalist Amanda Somerville, who is currently on tour in Europe supporting DELAIN, has posted a new video blog. Check it out below.
“Two days off in Budapest! We had a blast exploring the historic sites (albeit in some pretty extreme heat for this time of year), chilling at the spa and sampling some of the wonderful cuisine that Budapest has to offer. The show was excellent and we met up with some old friends, as well. Good times, good times!
BTW, I challenge everyone to see how many times they can find a German with their pants down in these vids. 🙂 Also, I don’t know why I mentioned caviar as an ‘indigenous Hungarian specialty’, but whatever! Blonde American…”
Remaining dates on the tour are as follows:
May
12 – Birmingham, UK – HMV Institute 2
13 – Sheffield, UK – Corporation
15 – Manchester, UK – O2 Academy
16 – London, UK – Koko
Trillium’s debut album, Alloy, was released on November 4th, 2011 in Europe and November 1st in North America. The tracklist is as follows:
‘Machine Gun’
‘Coward’
‘Purge’
‘Utter Descension’
‘Bow To The Ego’
‘Mistaken’
‘Scream It’
‘Justifiable Casualty’
‘Path Of Least Resistance’
‘Into The Dissonance’
‘Slow It Down’
‘Love Is An Illusion’ (bonus track)
The first video from the album is for the track ‘Coward’ which can be viewed below:
Vocalist AMANDA SOMERVILLE recently released her first full-on metal solo album, Alloy, under the TRILLIUM moniker. She discusses the project in a new interview on Rich Davenport’s Rock Show via the audio player below starteing at the 23 minute mark:
An excerpt from a recent interview with Somerville conducted by BW&BK’s Carl Begai is availabel below:
Folks that are expecting Somerville to follow a similar path to the work she’s done for EPICA and AVANTASIA on Alloy are in for a shock. Some tracks are attitude-laden cousins to melodic rock, others are heavy-edged and bordering-on-Black Sabbath dark. The album is almost completely devoid of orchestral arrangements and features no neo-classical bombast whatsoever, carried through numerous twists and turns instead by the vocals and some almighty riffs. Bottom line: Alloy is loaded with plenty WTF moments.
“Which is a good thing (laughs). Nothing about what I do is contrived; it all comes out the way that it comes out, and sometimes it needs to be a little more conformed, I guess. Literally, as cheesy as it sounds, the music pours out of me the way that I feel it. I don’t like following formulas. My songs have a typical song structure – verse / pre-chorus / chorus – and that’s just in me, but in terms of trying to fit a certain formula, that’s not a conscious thing for me. It’s not something I want to do, either. That’s why there are no Latin choirs on the album (laughs).”
“I’ve actually gotten comparisons to Epica and After Forever. In fact, one guy made the After Forever comparison before he knew that Sander was one of the songwriters on Alloy. That kind of surprised me, but Sander does have a signature sound, but I don’t hear the similarities.”
Click here for more, including Somerville discussing working with Sascha Paeth and Avantasia bandmate Jorn Lande (MASTERPLAN) on the song ‘Scream It’.
Alloy was released on November 4th in Europe and November 1st in North America. The tracklist is as follows:
‘Machine Gun’
‘Coward’
‘Purge’
‘Utter Descension’
‘Bow To The Ego’
‘Mistaken’
‘Scream It’
‘Justifiable Casualty’
‘Path Of Least Resistance’
‘Into The Dissonance’
‘Slow It Down’
‘Love Is An Illusion’ (bonus track)
The first video from the album is for the track ‘Coward’ which can be viewed below:
Source: Bravewords.com
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