Ivory Tower

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Ivory Tower
General information
origin Hamburg , Kiel and Rendsburg , Germany
Genre (s) Progressive metal , heavy metal
founding 1996
Current occupation
Sven Böge
Dirk Meyer
Bjorn Bombach
Thorsten Thrunke
Frank Fasold
former members
Guitar / keyboard
 Jörn Marco Matthies
Drums
 Florian Tabbert
Keyboard
 Stephan Machon
singing
 Andrè Fischer
Electric bass
 Stephan Laschetzki
Drums
 Florian Karbaum

Ivory Tower is a German progressive metal and heavy metal band from Hamburg , Kiel and Rendsburg ( Schleswig-Holstein ) that was founded in 1996.

history

1996–1998: foundation, first recordings and successes

After the band Ax 'n Sex broke up in 1996, the members Andrè Fischer ( vocals ), Thorsten Thrunke ( drums ) and Sven Böge ( guitar ) founded the band Steiger. Stephan Machon ( keyboard ) and Stephan Laschetzki ( bass ) joined the band, which after increased indications that their name was inappropriate, renamed itself Ivory Tower. Ivory Tower was signed by Limb Music in 1997 . The first official and self-titled CD was released worldwide in 1998. Among other things, she played during this time as support for Motörhead , Doro , Fates Warning and Candlemass .

1999–2001: tour, disappointments and personal reasons

In March and April 1999 Ivory Tower toured Germany as support for Mob Rules and Murder One . The musicians found this tour exhausting, especially because they did not receive any organizational support from their label . In the summer of 1999, the album Beyond the Stars was recorded and then released in April 2000. In the early summer of 2000 Machon left the band for private reasons. Finding and training a successor turned out to be a difficult undertaking. In 2001 Laschetzki did the same. In the same year the collaboration with Limb Music was ended. After a long break, Böge (guitar) and Fischer (vocals) worked together on a new album with the working title "IT".

2006–2007: line-up change, work on the album Subjective Enemy , another break

In 2006 Stefan Ikert (bass) and Florian Tabbert (drums) completed the band for the time being. Several concerts were played together for the Headbanger's Open Air and the Metal Bash, among others. In 2007 the band was signed by Pure Steel Records . The following year, the album Subjective Enemy , which had the working title "IT", was recorded and released worldwide. After this album, the band paused again before work on album IV began. The songs on the album became more compact and less complex.

Since 2011: change of label, release of IV , new line-up

In 2011 the band switched to the label dott (dust on the tracks), on which album IV was released. In 2012 Jörn Marco Matthies (keyboard, guitar) joined the band. In 2014 both Florian Tabbert (drums) and Andrè Fischer (vocals) left the band and were replaced by Florian Karbaum (drums) and at short notice by Heiko Kunde (vocals).

2014–2019: Label change, line-up change, work on the album Stronger

In the middle of 2014 Florian Karbaum (drums) was able to win the singer Dirk Meyer for the band, who now officially replaces Andrè Fischer. The first work on the new album began in 2015, but was repeatedly thrown back due to various complications. Florian left the band in February 2016 and was replaced temporarily and then officially in May 2016 by co-founder Thorsten Thrunke. The band managed to provide support for Beyond the Black in the Gruenspan in Hamburg in November . Shortly afterwards, Jörn Marco Matthies also left the band. The keyboard was only replaced by Frank Fasold in January 2017. With this line-up, it was now a matter of transferring the repertoire safely back to the live stages. At the end of 2017, work on the new album could then be resumed. Again, however, these were slowed down in mid-2018 by a technical error, which led to various songs having to be re-recorded and recorded. There was also the search for a cover artist. At the beginning of 2019, the mix was ready for handover for mastering at Fascination Street Studios . The first versions of some songs were able to convince Massacre Records and signed Ivory Tower on May 2nd. The booking agency One For All also showed interest and entered into a deal. The release date was dated for the end of 2019.

style

The band initially played progressive metal . The Rock Hard described the style as both multifaceted progressive metal between aloofness and earthiness as "mass-compatible progressive metal" as. Most often it has been compared to that of Dream Theater . The preferences of the members at that time ranged from Dream Theater, Fates Warning and Rush to jazz . The style changed towards heavy metal from 2012 . The songs more and more do without complex and expansive instrumental parts, that is, the song structures have basically become more compact.

Discography

  • 1998: Ivory Tower (Album, Limb Music Products and Publishing (LMP))
  • 2000: Beyond the Stars (Album, Limb Music Products and Publishing (LMP))
  • 2008: Subjective Enemy (Album, Pure Steel Records )
  • 2011: IV (album, dott (dust on the tracks))
  • 2019: Stronger (Album, Massacre Records )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Martin Kosbab: Ivory Tower . In: Iron Pages . The World City Mag. No. 47 (December / January, 1998/99), pp. 23 .
  2. ↑ a b c Jan Jaedike: Ivory Tower. Metal sleeps in the far north . In: Rock Hard . No. 158 , July 2000, p. 124 .
  3. ↑ dust on the tracks - Review ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Website of dust on the tracks. Retrieved March 15, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / dust-on-the-tracks-records.de
  4. ^ Beyond the Black: reorganized in Hamburg. November 6, 2016, accessed June 18, 2019 (German).
  5. ↑ a b c Stefan Glas: Ivory Tower. Northern lights on sex deprivation . In: Rock Hard . No. 141 , February 1999, Smalltalk. In a nutshell, p. 72 .
  6. ^ A b Frank Trojan: Ivory Tower. Beyond the stars . In: Rock Hard . No. 157 , June 2000, p. 94 .
  7. ↑ dust on the tracks ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Website of dust on the tracks. Retrieved March 15, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / dust-on-the-tracks-records.de
  8. ↑ Ivory Tower has signed with MASSACRE RECORDS! May 2, 2019, accessed June 18, 2019 .