Draconian
| Draconian | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Säffle , Sweden |
| Genre (s) | Gothic metal , death doom |
| founding | 1994 as Kerberos |
| Website | http://draconianofficial.com/ |
| Founding members | |
| Johan Ericson | |
| Andreas "Andy" Hindenäs | |
| Jesper Stolpe | |
| Current occupation | |
| Anders Jacobsson (since 1994) (born April 12, 1975) | |
| Johan Ericson (born June 10, 1979) | |
| Daniel Arvidsson (since 2005) (born July 5, 1979) | |
| Jerry Torstensson (since 2000) | |
Keyboard (studio) |
Andreas Karlsson (since 1997) |
| Heike Langhans (since 2012) | |
| former members | |
singing |
Lisa Johansson (2001-2011) (born October 27, 1981) |
singing |
Jessica Eriksson |
singing |
Susanne Arvidsson (1995–1997) |
Electric guitar |
Magnus Bergström |
Electric bass |
Thomas Hunter |
Keyboard |
Andreas Haag |
Electric bass |
Fredrik Johansson |
| Live members | |
| Lisa Cuthbert (since 2015) | |
| Daniel Änghede (since 2015) | |
Draconian is a Swedish Gothic Metal / Death Doom band from Säffle .
history
In 1994 Johan Ericson ( Doom: VS ), Jesper Stolpe and Andy Hindenäs founded the death metal band Kerberos. Half a year later, Anders Jacobsson met the formation, which then changed its name to Draconian.
A first demo, Shades of the Moon , was released in February 1996. Another, In Glorious Victory , was recorded in January 1997 but was not released due to the band's dissatisfaction with the sound quality of the material. After several changes in the line-up, Draconian went on tour between 1998 and 1999. The release of the album The Closed Eye of Paradise was postponed due to renewed dissatisfaction with the quality of the production. After improved recordings, the material finally appeared as a further demo in August 1999.
In the following years the band mainly worked on new songs and changed their style to mostly solemn and dark music. After a final demo was released in 2002 with Dark Oceans We Cry , a record deal with Napalm Records was concluded. Over the next three years, Draconian produced two studio albums. A third album was postponed due to popular demand from fans in favor of an EP with remakes of older pieces and was finally released on February 29, 2008.
After a few concerts in Russia, Turkey and at the Wave Gotik Treffen in Germany, the band worked intensively on new song material.
For promotional purposes, a video for the song The Last Hour of Ancient Sunlight was produced at the end of June 2011 . This song is also featured on the new album entitled A Rose for the Apocalypse , which was released on June 24, 2011.
In October 2011 the band performed at the Metal Female Voices Fest in Belgium . This was Draconian's last concert with singer Lisa Johansson. On November 15, 2011 Draconian announced that Johansson was leaving the band for family reasons with immediate effect. According to her official statement on the band's homepage, she no longer feels able to bring her full commitment to the band. The rest of the band then looked for a suitable replacement.
During the search for a new singer, a fan movement emerged on social networks, which Draconian was supposed to get to ask the Finnish singer Aleah Starbridge. Aleah, who was already a frequent guest singer in the band Swallow the Sun , actually got the offer from Draconian to become the band's new singer. Aleah declined, however, as she was completely busy working for her own band, Trees of Eternity , and its debut album. However, she left the option for a guest appearance on future album recordings of Draconian open. Aleah Starbridge died on April 18, 2016 at the age of 39 of complications from cancer. In addition to numerous other bands, Draconian also expressed their sympathy for her death on social networks.
On September 19, 2012 the band officially announced on their website that the search for a new singer had come to an end with the engagement of Heike Langhans. The singer, who was still living in South Africa at the time and was already responsible for the vocals for other metal bands, then emigrated to Sweden in a lengthy process. In addition to Draconian, Langhans continues to pursue her own music project called LOR3L3I (Lorelei).
Since the end of 2014 Draconian have been working on their next studio album. At your first concert with Heike Langhans at the Metal Female Voices Fest 2014, you already played a new song called Dishearten. The album Sovran was released on October 30, 2015.
Since Frederic Johansonn left in 2015, Heike Langhans' ex-partner and singer of the band Crippled Black Phoenix Daniel Änghede has been playing bass. Since Heike's naturalization in Sweden is still not completed, there are more problems with her visa. For this reason she is regularly represented in live performances by the Irish singer Lisa Cuthbert. So z. B. at the performance at Doom Over London 2015, at a concert in Moscow in 2016 and the festival 70000 tons of metal in the Caribbean in February 2017.
In May 2020 Draconian announced via various social media that their next studio album would be released on October 30, 2020. The album, entitled Under A Godless Veil, addresses the worldview of the agnostic and, like its predecessor, deals with cosmic themes. For the first time since their album Arcane Rain Fell , Draconian use their old band logo again on this work, which is ornate and playful with a strong reference to Death Metal . The album cover is a homage to their debut Where Lovers Mourn . A lyric video for the song Lustrous Heart was released in advance in May .
On May 29, 2020, bassist Daniel Änghede reported on social media about an incident in which he saw a man trying to break into his car. The police called by Änghede were able to catch the perpetrator, but he snatched a gun from a police officer and shot Änghede and his partner several times. Fortunately, every shot missed both of them and the shooter was overpowered by the police. Since the shots hit very close to Änghede and his girlfriend, they both had to receive medical attention.
Discography
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Demos
- 1995/1996: Shades of a Lost Moon
- 1997: In Glorious Victory
- 1999: The Closed Eyes of Paradise
- 2000: Frozen Features
- 2002: Dark Oceans We Cry
Albums
- 2003: Where Lovers Mourn
- 2005: Arcane Rain Fell
- 2006: The Burning Halo
- 2008: Turning Season Within
- 2011: A Rose for the Apocalypse
- 2015: Sovran
- 2020: Under a Godless Veil
swell
Web links
- [1] (English)
- shop.napalmrecords.com at Napalm Records (English)