Withfall

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Withfall
General information
origin Los Angeles , California , United States
Genre (s) Power Metal , Progressive Metal , Neoclassical Metal
founding 2013
Website https://www.witherfall.com/
Current occupation
Anthony Crawford
Gergo Borlai
Alex Nasla
James Cornwell
Jake Dreyer
Vocals , keyboard
 Joseph Michael
former members
Drums, percussion
 Adam Paul Sagan († December 2016)
Drums (session)
 Steve Bolognese
Electric guitar (session)
 Filiberto "Fili" Bibiano
Drums (live)
 Bruno Valverde

Witherfall is an American , neoclassical power and progressive metal band from Los Angeles , California , founded in 2013.

history

The band was founded in 2013, with guitarist Jake Dreyer and singer and keyboardist Joseph Michael already knowing each other from their time together at White Wizzard . The line-up was supplemented by the drummer Adam Paul Sagan, whom Dreyer already knew through his self-titled solo project, and the bassist Anthony Crawford. Together they went to The Bunker in Phoenix , Arizona to record their debut album. The recordings were accompanied by Ralph Patlan , who had previously worked with Megadeth and Michael Schenker , among others . The album had previously been written by Dreyer and Michael and recorded as a demo recording in Michael's studio in Los Angeles. Patlan was originally supposed to mix the album as well, but after waiting in vain for over a year, the band looked elsewhere, which delayed the album's release. In 2017, the self-published debut album Nocturnes and Requiems, mixed and mastered by Zeuss , was dedicated to the drummer Adam Paul Sagan , who died of lymphatic cancer in December 2016 . Sagan had found out about his illness at the time the recordings for the debut album were being made. After the release, the band signed a recording deal with Century Media , through which the album was re-released. The 2018 follow-up album A Prelude to Sorrow , which was again mixed and mastered by Zeuss over a period of over 100 days, is dedicated to Sagan and has the same initials as his name. The album was written over a two-year period and recorded within 13 weeks under the direction of JJ Crews at the Boogie Tracks Recording Studio in Panama City , Florida . Some song ideas had come up before Sagan's death. Steve Bolognese and Gergo Borlai were present as session drummers and Filiberto “Fili” Bibiano as session guitarist. In 2018 the band could also be seen at the 70,000 Tons of Metal . In 2019 the band went on tour with Sonata Arctica and released the EP Vintage .

style

According to Sebastian Kessler from Metal Hammer , the band plays “hard, modern progressive metal with melancholic -epic melodies” on Nocturnes and Requiems. The songs have a duration of six to nine minutes and are “sometimes indulgent, sometimes bursting, full of frenzied riffs , singing solos and tricky rhythms ", whereby they remained exciting and accessible thanks to delicate to larger-than-life melodies". Michael's singing, however, is interchangeable. The album is for fans of virtuoso guitar playing and groups like Savatage to Dream Theater and Symphony X to Into Eternity . In the latter, the drummer Sagan was a member. A year later, Kessler wrote about A Prelude to Sorrow that this album was darker than its predecessor. The album contains "violently riffing Power Metal attacks, progressive-eccentric rhythms, sweeping Frickelsolos" as well as "cleanly played, fragile acoustic passages". In the songs "gloom, despair and irreversibility of approaching death" were made clear. The music can be classified between Nevermore , Control Denied / Death and Symphony X.

Max Werner drew a comparison to Yngwie Malmsteen while listening to Nocturnes and Requiems , as he noticed many neoclassical passages. In an interview with him, Jake Dreyer confirmed that the album had been influenced by many classical composers. In serious music one often finds harmonic scales such as the Phrygian or the melodic minor scales. Werner also noticed some flamenco passages that would have reminded him of Paco de Lucía . Dreyer stated that both he and Al Di Meola would be among his greatest influences. Other influences for him are Marty Friedman , Jason Becker , Brian May , Queen , Pink Floyd , Dream Theater, Nevermore, Death and Opeth . Joseph Michael named King Diamond , Dream Theater, Nevermore, and Queen as influences. Jens Peters wrote in a demo review of a rock-hard edition of Nocturnes and Requiems that the band plays a dark mixture of power and progressive metal that is "well composed and very competently staged" . A few editions later, the album was reviewed again by Peters, this time as a regular release. He described it again as dark power progressive metal, making comparisons to White Wizzard, Iced Earth , Circle II Circle , Crimson Glory and Queensrÿche . In his review of A Prelude to Sorrow , Peters stated that the album was produced a little more harmoniously and professionally than its predecessor. It is also more gloomy. He described the music as "US Metal with Prog influences" in the style of Nevermore. He described the singing as powerful, expressive and stirring.

In the band biography by laut.de a comparison was made to White Wizzard, Iced Earth and Sanctuary , with Witherfall being more progressive and also processing neoclassical elements. In addition, the music was described as a continuation of “hymn-melodic heavy metal of American character”. The laut.de -Rezensent Yan bird summed A Prelude to Sorrow as a mix of traditional US-Metal in the vein of Savatage, Sanctuary and Metal Church and the progressiveness of Dream Theater, Fates Warning or Psychotic Waltz together. In Dreyer's guitar work one can hear an influence from Chuck Schuldiner . Compared to its predecessor, the album has gained in independence, although the band is musically varied. A Prelude to Sorrow sounds as intense as Nevermore's This Godless Endeavor or Into Eternitys Buried in Oblivion .

Discography

  • 2016: End of Time (single, self-published)
  • 2017: Nocturnes and Requiems (album, self-published)
  • 2018: The Long Walk Home (December) (single, self-published)
  • 2018: A Prelude to Sorrow (Album, Century Media )
  • 2019: Vintage (EP, Century Media)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Chris Dick: Witherfall biography 2018. witherfall.com, accessed October 29, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b Max Werner: WITHERFALL - Interview with the demo / in-house production band 04/17. rockhard.de, accessed on April 18, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Sebastian Kessler: Witherfall . Nocturnes and Requiems. In: Metal Hammer . October 2017, p. 94 .
  4. ↑ a b Sebastian Kessler: Witherfall . A prelude to sorrow. In: Metal Hammer . November 2018, p. 104 .
  5. ↑ a b Jens Peters: Witherfall . Tomorrow it can be too late. In: Rock Hard . No. 379 , December 2018, p. 22 .
  6. ↑ Witherfall - A Prelude To Sorrow. Discogs , accessed October 29, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Angela: 70000 Tons Of Metal 2018. The big review. Metal.de , accessed October 29, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Jens Peters: Witherfall . Vintage. In: Rock Hard . No. 383 , April 2019, p. 102 .
  9. ↑ Jens Peters: Witherfall . Nocturnes and Requiems. In: Rock Hard . No. 359 , April 2017.
  10. ↑ Jens Peters: Witherfall . Nocturnes and Requiems. In: Rock Hard . No. 365 , October 2017.
  11. ↑ Jens Peters: Witherfall . A prelude to sorrow. In: Rock Hard . No. 378 , November 2018, p. 94 .
  12. ↑ Witherfall. laut.de , accessed on April 18, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Yan Vogel: Witherfall. A Prelude To Sorrow. laut.de, accessed on April 18, 2020 .