Genre: Speed Progressive Metal
Origin: England/France
Founded: Sydney (NSW), Australia January 2005
Originating from the South Coast of England, Joe first started writing music for a metal band he had co-founded at College. With a full line-up of members, 'Divine Cacophony' recorded a few songs which became popular around College and at the Academy of Contemporary music, where two of the band members were obtaining diplomas. With a tour of Brighton looming, tension amongst band members grew, and it was decided to part ways.
Joe then went to University in North Wales for three years, where he started to work on music for a new project he had in mind. He was writing an opera at the time and had come up with an orchestral theme called, 'Forests of Elf Mountain' which the university orchestra wanted to perform. It wasn’t hard to transform this piece into a symphonic metal track and it soon became, 'Return to the Sea of Flames'. Joe carried on writing music in this vein until a whole album; 'Valley of Frozen Magic' was created.
Unfortunately, the fate of this album was doomed from the start.
On returning back to England, Joe showed the scores to the 'Divine Cacophony’ co-founder Geoff Dale, who immediately re-joined the band under the new name of 'Princess Gargoyle'. On paper and in principal this band was strong but lacked motivation. As a result, Joe decided to take his music elsewhere and went to Australia for a year to re-write the album.
Australia would actually witness the death of every single musical score from the ill fated 'Valley of Frozen Magic' album. Admittedly a dark night of drinking and gambling may have played a small role but none the less, the problems of life were blamed on the music and three years of hard work now lies at the bottom of Blackwattle Bay. Only one song survived the massacre, fittingly the first ever written, 'Return to the Sea of Flames' obviously wanted to live on. The next year would also witness the birth of 'Andante Molto' as Joe wrote an album from scratch which felt better. Writing from an apartment in Sydney for 5 months and on beaches up the East Coast for a further 2 months, fresh songs began to emerge. Travelling for a further 4 months whilst living on a boat in the Mediterranean finalized a complete albums worth of material, ready for other members to take it to the next level. On returning to Birmingham (UK) in December 2005, the search for a band begun.
By the end of December 2005, Tanya Michelle became the first vocalist for 'Andante Molto'. Within a few weeks, a pre-demo was recorded with her vocals, the highlight being the atmospheric acoustic ballad, 'Las Lagrimas Del Diablo'. On hearing this demo in January 2006, Kevin Deplanche (High Sphere, SRV, Mind Waves Project) became the drummer for the band. Almost immediately it became clear that Joe and Kevin’s interest in progressive metal began to dramatically alter the sound and line-up of the demo, and in March Tanya left the band. Joe and Kevin then spent the rest of the year restructuring the songs and writing a couple of new progressive tracks, the highlight being an instrumental portraying the journey through existence, 'The Illustration' began to turn a few heads. In July, a second powerful track, 'Echoes of the Soul' was created, which led to a series of unsuccessful vocal auditions.
In order to strengthen the rhythm section Joe and Kevin decided to invite Guillaume Erard of High Sphere to join the project. In September, after hearing the tracks, he enthusiastically agreed to join and play bass for the forthcoming demo.
In november 2006 the months of vocal auditioning came to an end as the ideal candidate was at last found. After re-doing the vocals for 'Las lagrimas del diablo' the band unanimously decided to offer the task of lead vocalist to Lena, who has ideal experience and a fantastic voice which will complement the broad range of styles employed by the band. The demo is now back on track and everyone involved is thoroughly looking forward to the months ahead.
Next year will be relatively quiet as Joe will be studying a Masters degree, and Kevin completing his PhD, but the band are still confident that their first release of the 'Return to the Sea of Flames' demo EP will be ready in the summer of 2007.
Origin: England/France
Founded: Sydney (NSW), Australia January 2005
Originating from the South Coast of England, Joe first started writing music for a metal band he had co-founded at College. With a full line-up of members, 'Divine Cacophony' recorded a few songs which became popular around College and at the Academy of Contemporary music, where two of the band members were obtaining diplomas. With a tour of Brighton looming, tension amongst band members grew, and it was decided to part ways.
Joe then went to University in North Wales for three years, where he started to work on music for a new project he had in mind. He was writing an opera at the time and had come up with an orchestral theme called, 'Forests of Elf Mountain' which the university orchestra wanted to perform. It wasn’t hard to transform this piece into a symphonic metal track and it soon became, 'Return to the Sea of Flames'. Joe carried on writing music in this vein until a whole album; 'Valley of Frozen Magic' was created.
Unfortunately, the fate of this album was doomed from the start.
On returning back to England, Joe showed the scores to the 'Divine Cacophony’ co-founder Geoff Dale, who immediately re-joined the band under the new name of 'Princess Gargoyle'. On paper and in principal this band was strong but lacked motivation. As a result, Joe decided to take his music elsewhere and went to Australia for a year to re-write the album.
Australia would actually witness the death of every single musical score from the ill fated 'Valley of Frozen Magic' album. Admittedly a dark night of drinking and gambling may have played a small role but none the less, the problems of life were blamed on the music and three years of hard work now lies at the bottom of Blackwattle Bay. Only one song survived the massacre, fittingly the first ever written, 'Return to the Sea of Flames' obviously wanted to live on. The next year would also witness the birth of 'Andante Molto' as Joe wrote an album from scratch which felt better. Writing from an apartment in Sydney for 5 months and on beaches up the East Coast for a further 2 months, fresh songs began to emerge. Travelling for a further 4 months whilst living on a boat in the Mediterranean finalized a complete albums worth of material, ready for other members to take it to the next level. On returning to Birmingham (UK) in December 2005, the search for a band begun.
By the end of December 2005, Tanya Michelle became the first vocalist for 'Andante Molto'. Within a few weeks, a pre-demo was recorded with her vocals, the highlight being the atmospheric acoustic ballad, 'Las Lagrimas Del Diablo'. On hearing this demo in January 2006, Kevin Deplanche (High Sphere, SRV, Mind Waves Project) became the drummer for the band. Almost immediately it became clear that Joe and Kevin’s interest in progressive metal began to dramatically alter the sound and line-up of the demo, and in March Tanya left the band. Joe and Kevin then spent the rest of the year restructuring the songs and writing a couple of new progressive tracks, the highlight being an instrumental portraying the journey through existence, 'The Illustration' began to turn a few heads. In July, a second powerful track, 'Echoes of the Soul' was created, which led to a series of unsuccessful vocal auditions.
In order to strengthen the rhythm section Joe and Kevin decided to invite Guillaume Erard of High Sphere to join the project. In September, after hearing the tracks, he enthusiastically agreed to join and play bass for the forthcoming demo.
In november 2006 the months of vocal auditioning came to an end as the ideal candidate was at last found. After re-doing the vocals for 'Las lagrimas del diablo' the band unanimously decided to offer the task of lead vocalist to Lena, who has ideal experience and a fantastic voice which will complement the broad range of styles employed by the band. The demo is now back on track and everyone involved is thoroughly looking forward to the months ahead.
Next year will be relatively quiet as Joe will be studying a Masters degree, and Kevin completing his PhD, but the band are still confident that their first release of the 'Return to the Sea of Flames' demo EP will be ready in the summer of 2007.