Van Canto
| Van Canto | |
|---|---|
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|
 Van Canto at Rockharz 2019 |
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| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Metal |
| founding | 2006 |
| Website | http://www.vancanto.de/ |
| Current occupation | |
Lead voice |
Hagen Hirschmann |
Lead voice |
Inga Scharf |
deeper "Rakkatakka" singing, wah-wah solo guitar singing |
Stefan Schmidt |
higher "Rakkatakka" singing |
Ross Thompson |
deep "Dandan" voice |
Jan Moritz (since 2015) |
| Bastian Emig (since 2007) | |
deep "Dandan" voice |
Ingo Sterzinger (Ike) |
| former members | |
Drums |
Dennis Strillinger (until 2007) |
Lead voice |
Philip Dennis Schunke (Sly) (until 2017) |
Van Canto is an a cappella - heavy metal - band from Germany . It consists of five singers, a singer and a drummer. Rhythm and solo guitars, bass and keyboards are imitated by the voices of the singers.
Band name
In an interview, the band name was explained as follows: Canto comes from the Latin cantare and means I sing , the van has no specific meaning, "but it looks nice on posters."
history
Foundation and first album
The band was founded by Stefan Schmidt in 2006, initially as a pure studio project. He knew his bandmates from joint appearances with his previous band Jester's Funeral . In December 2006, the first self-produced album, A Storm to Come , was released under the label General Schallplatten . It contains seven of his own works as well as a cover version of Metallicas Battery and Stora Rövardansen from the film Ronja the robber's daughter . A video was shot for each of the pieces The Mission and Battery . The band played in 2007 at the Bochum Total , the RockHarz Festival, the Dong Open Air, the Steel Meets Steel and on December 29th on On a Dark Winter's Night together with Nightwish .
Major deal and second album
In 2007 the band signed a record deal with GUN Records / Sony BMG. A Storm to Come was then re-released in December 2007. Dennis Strillinger was replaced by Bastian Emig. In 2008 the band toured Brazil and performed at numerous German metal festivals, including the Wacken Open Air . In addition, a second album called Hero was produced with Charlie Bauerfeind in the Twilight Hall Studios of Blind Guardian , which was released in September 2008. Hansi Kürsch from Blind Guardian had a guest appearance on the song Take to the Sky written by Van Canto . In addition to covers by Nightwish, Manowar , Iron Maiden and Deep Purple, there is also a cover of Blind Guardians Bard's Song on the album , which shows the stylistic proximity of the bands. In 2008, the videos for Speed of Light and the Nightwish cover Wishmaster were published. From autumn 2008 to July 2009 the band toured Germany, Switzerland and Austria as part of the Heroes-on-Tour tour.
On February 5, 2009 it was announced that the song Magic Taborea from the new CD Tribe of Force will be the official soundtrack of the computer game Runes of Magic .
Change to Napalm Records and third album
On August 19, 2009, band leader Stefan Schmidt announced on the Metalcon fan portal that Van Canto will be working again on their third studio album in the Twilight Hall studios of Blind Guardian, directed by Charlie Bauerfeind. It was also announced that after the closure of GUN Records they would switch to the Napalm Records label , which will release the new album Tribe of Force on February 26, 2010 at the same time as the first two releases Hero and A Storm to Come worldwide.
In January 2010, shortly before the release of the third album, the band could be seen live on TV at the Quatsch Comedy Winter Show on ProSieben . A medley was played at this performance . For the medley, in addition to their own song The Mission and part of Speed of Light as a solo accompaniment, the titles Frozen by Madonna , Black Winter Day by Amorphis and Don't Fear The Winter by Rage were covered. In addition, the song Es schneit was played by Rolf Zuckowski together with the comedian Bernhard Hoëcker in a metal version.
On February 26, 2010, the third album Tribe of Force was officially released. In addition to 11 own songs, it contains cover versions of Grave Diggers Rebellion and Metallica's Master of Puppets . Chris Boltendahl (Grave Digger), Tony Kakko ( Sonata Arctica ) and Victor Smolski (Rage) make guest appearances, the latter in a duel between sung and played lead guitar. The song Magic Taborea is the first Van Canto composition with orchestral accompaniment.
Tribe of Force entered the German album charts at number 83 after its release.
In March and April 2010 the band played in 13 German cities during the Tour of Force . The tour ended in the sold-out Carl colliery in Essen in front of 650 visitors. After some festival dates in summer, u. a. As a special guest on the Grave Digger headlining show at Wacken Open Air, the band went on tour with Blind Guardian in October 2010.
Since October 2010 the band has also been represented with an accompanying video in the game Runes of Magic.
Parts of the band worked in 2010 as a choir singer a. a. on recordings by Blind Guardian (Stef), Tarja Turunen (complete band) and Grave Digger (Stef and Basti) with.
The 2nd headline tour under the title We sing some metal songs , with Basti's side project Inlegend and Orden Ogan in the opening act, led Van Canto from October 2010 to January 2011 a. a. to Moscow and Switzerland. The tour was attended by more than 8000 spectators.
Van Canto joined in the summer of 2011 a. a. at the Swedish Rockstad: Falun Festival (as special guest of the headliner Sabaton ) and at the Wacken Open Air 2011.
Fourth album: Break the Silence
The fourth studio album "Break the Silence" was released on September 23, 2011 and entered the German album charts at number 23. In addition to 9 own songs, the CD contains 4 cover versions of Sabaton's Primo Victoria , Alice Cooper's Bed of Nails , Manowars Master of the Wind and Running Wilds Bad to the Bone . With Betrayed there is another piece with orchestral accompaniment on the album. The ballad Spelled in Waters is accompanied by Marcus Siepen (Blind Guardian) on acoustic guitar. The album also features the track A storm to come of the same name as the debut album . This is a foretaste of the transmedia project Peer Returns . Peer Returns is to be performed at the Hamburg Thalia Theater after a controversial plebiscite on the public choice of program, in which Van Canto asked their fans to vote .
Videos were shot for the songs The Seller of Souls and Primo Victoria . With the latter, Joakim Brodén from Sabaton appears as a guest musician.
The release was followed by a European tour, which led the band as headliners to Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Holland, Belgium and England.
Fifth album: Dawn of the Brave
The fifth studio album “Dawn of the Brave” was released on February 7, 2014. It was advertised in advance with a promo video for the song “Badaboom”. Comedian Bernhard Hoëcker can also be seen here as a guest.
The album includes various covers (" The Final Countdown " by Europe , " Holding Out for a Hero " by Bonnie Tyler and " Into the West " by Annie Lennox from the soundtrack of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath ) again several pieces of his own.
Sixth album: Voices of Fire
The album "Voices of Fire" was released on March 11, 2016. It is a demanding cross-media project in which a story was published in song and book form. For the first time, an album consists only of original compositions.
In the world of “Voices of Fire”, evil has long been defeated. But when something in the sea begins to stir, the young Queen Elena looks for help to protect her people. On the way she meets the disaffected bard Aidan, whose voice could unfold magical powers - if he dared to use it. Together with their companions and unusual allies they go into battle against the fifth dragon, a creature of darkness who awakens and wants to subjugate the world.
Van Canto set the story of Elena and Aiden to music in thirteen epic songs.
The children's choir of the Dortmund Choir Academy , the London Metro Voices and the actor John Rhys-Davies , well-known from “Lord of the Rings” , gave a spoken introduction to the songs. There was also a 10-man shout choir made up of members of the official fan club Rakka Takka eV
The literary version of the story is the book "Feuerstimmen" by bestselling author Christoph Hardebusch .
An audio book was also produced for the book, spoken by Ferenc Husta. A special edition of the audio book called “ Earbook ” with eighteen a cappella ballads by Van Canto was also produced.
Following the album's release, Van Canto went on a European tour with Freedom Call and the Grailknights .
Change of lead singer
The band announced on August 14, 2017 that lead singer Sly Van Canto had left for personal reasons.
With the release of the video for "Voice Number 7" on August 18, 2017, the new singer Hagen "Hagel" Hirschmann was introduced and the production of the seventh album was announced.
Seventh album: Trust in Rust
The seventh studio album “Trust in Rust” was released on August 10, 2018 after a two-year break. It is the first album with the new singer Hagen Hirschmann. Ingo “Ike” Sterzinger is also returning to Van Canto with this album.
Videos for the songs "Back In The Lead", "Melody" and "Neverland" were released before the album was released.
In September 2018 the band will tour Europe with the album.
The name of the album should indicate that Van Canto now sees himself as experienced and self-confident after 12 years of band history.
style
Although the band lacks the distorted electric guitar as the most typical heavy metal instrument , Van Canto is viewed as a metal band due to the band's sound, arrangements, stage performance and chosen cover versions. In terms of composition, the band moves in modern Power Metal and can be compared to bands like Nightwish , Blind Guardian or Masterplan . Rhythm and solo guitars, bass and keyboard surfaces are imitated by the voices of the singers, who themselves refer to this imitation as rakkatakka singing in their interviews . The imitation of guitars and bass was produced in earlier experiments with the help of a guitar amplifier, which was not done after the first album due to poor results with regard to the feasibility at live concerts. The effect of the wah-wah pedal , on the other hand, was created purely with the mouth from the start.
The designation of Van Canto as an a cappella band is questionable, as not all rhythm instruments (drums and percussion ) are imitated by voices. Even so, the a cappella metal style remains the band's trademark.
The band itself describes their style of music as "Hero Metal A Capella".
Band members
- Van Canto live at Rockharz 2019
Hagen Hirschmann
Inga Scharf
Ingo Sterzinger
Ross Thompson
Jan Moritz
Drummer Bastian Emig
Stefan Schmidt (left)
Discography
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Studio albums
- 2006: A Storm to Come (Re-release: 2007)
- 2008: Hero
- 2010: Tribe of Force
- 2011: Break the Silence
- 2014: Dawn of the Brave
- 2016: Voices of Fire
- 2018: Trust in Rust
Compilations
- 2012: Metal A Capella (Best-of-Album)
Music videos
- 2006: The Mission
- 2006: Battery
- 2008: Speed of Light
- 2008: Wishmaster
- 2010: Kings of Metal
- 2010: Lost Forever
- 2010: Last Night of the Kings
- 2010: rebellion
- 2010: Magic Taborea
- 2011: The Seller of Souls
- 2011: Primo Victoria
- 2012: If I Die in Battle
- 2013: Badaboom
- 2014: Into the West
- 2016: Clashing on Amour Plates
- 2016: The Bardcall
- 2018: Back in the Lead
- 2018: Melody
- 2018: Neverland
swell
- ↑ a b Marek Protzak: Van Canto Sly leaves the band. Metal.de, August 14, 2017, accessed October 16, 2017 .
- ↑ EMP Magazin spring 2010, page 136
- ↑ Kerensky: Metal meets online RPG. runesofmagic.com, February 5, 2009, archived from the original on May 12, 2009 ; Retrieved December 17, 2013 (Quest for Roar becomes official soundtrack).
- ↑ Van Canto in the studio and a new label. (No longer available online.) August 19, 2009, archived from the original on December 17, 2013 ; Retrieved December 17, 2013 . 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.
- ↑ René Pickhardt: Van Canto in the winter special of the Quatsch Comedy Club ( memento of the original from January 16, 2010 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.
- ↑ http://www.vancanto.de/?nav=6&PHPSESSID=gfg897tnf7i3cgerle5guf0sh1
- ↑ http://www.runesofmagic.com/de/videos,id223,vancanto_magic_taborea.html
- ↑ Bastian Emig on the official In Legend homepage: [1]
- ↑ http://www.peer-returns.com/ ( Memento of the original from January 25, 2013 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.
- ^ Christoph Twickel: Public choice of the schedule - Hopelessly gurged in Hamburg. In: Spiegel online. December 18, 2011, accessed December 17, 2013 .
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aeaz4s7q0Ag
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/23758907327/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10153772488047328
- ↑ | Van Canto announces new singer
- ↑ | "Trust in Rust" Track by Track with band leader Stef
- ↑ http://vancanto.de/
- ↑ Chart sources: DE AT
