XANDRIA

Xandria is a band, founded in Bielefeld, Germany, in 1997. The band's music combines elements of symphonic metal with light electronic elements and rock. Exact classification is difficult.

After various demos and great success on different MP3 portals, they released their first album in 2003, entitled Kill the Sun, which reached #98 on the German music charts. The follow-up album, Ravenheart (2004), stayed on the charts for 7 weeks, reaching #36. In 2005 they released their third album India, which is more oriented to the symphonic metal.

Starting December 14th, 2006 Xandria began recording their fourth album, Salomé - The Seventh Veil, which was released on May 25th, 2007.

As of April 30th, 2008, Lisa Middelhauve is no longer Xandria's singer. She has left the band citing personal reasons and discomfort at being the band's leader. The band has found a new singer, Kerstin Bischof a.k.a. Lakonia, best known by her collaborations for the band Axxis.

Members

Current members

* Kerstin Bischof a.k.a. Lakonia – Female Vocals
* Marco Heubaum – Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards
* Philip Restemeier – Guitar
* Nils Middelhauve – Bass
* Gerit Lamm – Drums

Former members

* Lisa Middelhauve (2000-2008) – Vocals, Piano
* Roland Krueger (1999-2004) – Bass
* Andreas Maske (2000-2001) – Guitar
* Jens Becker (1999-2000) – Guitar
* Niki Weltz (1994-1997) – Drums
* Andreas Litschel (1996-1997) – Keyboards
* Manuel Vinke (1996-1997) – Guitar
* Holger Vester (1997) – Bass
* Nicole Tobien (1997) – Vocals

IMPELLITTERI

Impellitteri is a heavy metal band from USA formed and led by guitarist Chris Impellitteri. Since inception, the band has released numerous albums to critical praise, mainly due to Chris Impellitteri's speed/shred style of playing. The band's style is often compared to Racer X, while Chris is compared to Yngwie Malmsteen.Impellitteri's line-up has varied through its career, featuring three lead singers: Rob Rock, Graham Bonnet, and Curtis Skelton (2003-2008). In 2009 Impellitteri released their new album Wicked Maiden with Rob Rock back on vocals.

Band history

Chris Impellitteri formed Impellitteri together with Rob Rock in Los Angeles California. They released an EP called simply Impellitteri. The self titled Black EP feature highly energetic metal music with, fast shredding guitar solos, and an insanely high vocal performance by Rob Rock. The Black Impellitteri was well-received and propelled Impellitteri into International stardom as a guitar hero.

After the EP the band regrouped, this time with Graham Bonnet as lead singer, and released A semi tribute album to the legendary metal vocalists style of music titled album Stand In Line. MTV played the Impellitteri Stand In Line video in rotation, and Chris Impellitteri was a guest host on MTV Headbangers Ball. The fans voted Impellitteri a smash on MTV's smash or trash show featured during the release of the album. The album charted in Billboards top 100 and remained there for over 5 months. However, Impellitteri stated The Black EP was Impellitteri's style of music, and Stand in line was only intended to be a tribute to the legendary vocalists past music, and not as a traditional Impellitteri metal shred record.

After some touring and label deals, Impellitteri returned (again with Rob Rock on vocals). They recorded and released the popular EP titled Victim of the System. Victim of the System was produced by Mike Tacci who was the assistant engineer on Metallica's Black album. In late 1994, they released Answer to the Master.

In 1996, Impellitteri released Screaming Symphony, which featured the legendary instrumental titled 17 Century Chicken Pickn'. The Screaming Symphony record was mixed by legendary producer Michael Wagner who produced Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne. The next year, they released another record titled: Eye of the Hurricane. In 2000 Impellitteri released Crunch. Crunch is one of the most exciting Impellitteri records and is filled with fast shredding guitar solos, screaming vocals, and an energetic drum and bass duo.

Shortly after Crunch, Rob Rock decided to pursue a solo career so Impellitteri again recruited Graham Bonnet and started working on their next album. In 2002 they released System X. That year they also released a compilation of hits called The Very Best of Impellitteri: Faster Than the Speed of Light.

The union with Bonnet would be short-lived as they parted ways some time after. Impellitteri recruited Curtis Skelton, releasing Pedal To The Metal in 2004, one of their most aggressive albums to date.

In May 2008, it was announced that Rob Rock was back in Impellitteri. They are currently finishing a new album called Wicked Maiden (that was going to be called Good and Evil in the beginning), and it will be released in mid 2009 worldwide, followed by the Impellitteri shred fest tour. February 2009.

Impellitteri's new album "Wicked Maiden" was released on Feb, 24 2009

Member

* Rob Rock – vocals
* Chris Impellitteri – guitar
* James Amelio Pulli – bass
* Edward Harris Roth – keyboard
* Glen Sobel – drums

FREEDOM CALL

Freedom Call is a German power metal band formed in 1998.

Biography

Freedom Call was formed in 1998 by old friends Chris Bay and Daniel Zimmermann during an off-period for the latter's main band, Gamma Ray. They eventually completed a six-song demo with the well-known producer Charlie Bauerfeind, who offered the tape to several record companies.

At the same time, the Freedom Call line up was completed by Ilker Ersin on the Bass guitar and Sascha Gerstner on Guitar. Chris and Dan saw Sascha in the beginning of 1998, playing in a cover band. Ilker and Chris had played together in a band called Moon Doc for some years.

The debut album, Stairway to Fairyland was released in early 1999, and on the 25th of May Freedom Call made their official live debut during a France tour as support band of Angra and Edguy. At the end of August Freedom Call started recording the 5-track Mini LP called "Taragon", with new songs, a cover version of Ultravox' "Dancing with tears in my eyes", a new-sung version of the "Stairway to Fairyland" a Japanese bonus track called "Kingdom Come" and a new version of "Tears of Taragon" with Biff Byford, singer of Saxon narrating the "Tale of Taragon" on it. By the end of 1999, Freedom Call had entered the studio again to record the second album called "Crystal Empire", which was released in late 2000.

In March 2001 Sascha Gerstner left Freedom Call (he would later join Helloween). He was eventually replaced by Cedric "Cede" Dupont, the Swiss guitarist of Symphorce.

In the middle of January 2002 the new formation of the band began recording their new album called "Eternity." Dan and Chris produced the album on their own this time as Charlie Bauerfeind was not available at the time. He was, however, responsible for the drum recordings and the final mix. Later that year, they were invited on tour with Blind Guardian. During this tour they recorded the live album, "Live Invasion" together with Charlie Bauerfeind in Düsseldorf, Stuttgart and Munich.

The keyboard player used on this tour, Nils Neumann, was soon invited to become the fifth member of the band. After an extended break, the next album The Circle of Life was recorded at Hansen Studio, Hamburg and FC Studios, Nuremberg from August to October 2004, and released in March, 2005. Shortly after the release, both Cede Dupont and Ilker Ersin decided to leave Freedom Call (independently of each other). Replacements were eventually announced in the respective form of the unknown Lars Rettkowitz and Armin Donderer, formerly of Paradox.

A new album with the title "Dimensions" was released on April 23, 2007 and, according to Dan Zimmermann, sounds closer to the Eternity album than its more experimental successor. The songs "The Wanderer" and "Dimensions" were also used in the online rhythm game "Flash Flash Revolution"

In March 2009, the band announced that they were putting the finishing touches to a new album, and that they had parted ways with bassist Amin Donderer, who would be replaced by Samy Saemann.

Lineup

* Chris Bay - Vocals & Guitar
* Lars Rettkowitz - Guitar
* Samy Saemann - Bass
* Dan Zimmermann - Drums

Former Members

* Sascha Gerstner - Guitar (1998-2001)
* Cédric "Cede" Dupont - Guitar (2001-2005)
* Ilker Ersin - Bass (1998-2005)
* Nils Neumann - Keyboards (2003-2006)
* Amin Donderer - Bass (2005-2009)

Yngwie Malmsteen

Yngwie Johann Malmsteen (born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck on June 30, 1963) is a Swedish guitarist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader. Malmsteen became notable in the mid-1980s for his technical fluency and neo-classical metal compositions, often incorporating high speed picking and arpeggios. Four of his albums, from 1984 to 1988, Rising Force, Marching Out, Trilogy, and Odyssey, ranked in the top 100 for sales.

Early life

Malmsteen was born in Stockholm, Sweden, as the third child of a musically talented family. At age seven, he saw a television news report on the death of Jimi Hendrix. To quote his official website, "The day Jimi Hendrix died, the guitar-playing Malmsteen was born". At the age of 10 he took his mother's maiden name Malmsten as his surname, slightly changed it to Malmsteen, and Anglicised his given name Yngve to "Yngwie". Yngwie also created his first band "Track On Earth" at the age of 10, consisting of himself and a friend from school on drums. Malmsteen was a teenager when he first encountered the music of the 19th century violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, whom he cites as his biggest classical music influence.

Through his emulation of Paganini concerto pieces on guitar, Malmsteen developed a prodigious technical fluency. Malmsteen's guitar style includes a wide, violin-like vibrato inspired by classical violinists, and use of such minor scales as the Harmonic minor, and minor modes such as Phrygian, and Aeolian. Malmsteen also cites Brian May of Queen, Steve Hackett of Genesis, Uli Jon Roth, Alex Lifeson of Rush, and Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple as influences.

1980s

In late 1982 Malmsteen was brought to the U.S. by Mike Varney of Shrapnel Records, who had heard a demo tape of Malmsteen's playing. He had brief engagements with Steeler, for their self-titled album of 1983, then Alcatrazz, for their 1983 debut No Parole From Rock N' Roll, and the 1984 live album Live Sentence. Malmsteen released his first solo album Rising Force in 1984, which featured Barrie Barlow of Jethro Tull on drums. His album was really meant to be an instrumental side-project of Alcatrazz, but it contained vocals, and Malmsteen left Alcatrazz soon after the release of Rising Force.

Rising Force won the Guitar Player Magazine's award for Best Rock Album and was also nominated for a Grammy for 'Best Rock Instrumental', achieving #60 on the Billboard album chart. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force (as his band was thereafter known) next released Marching Out (1985). Jeff Scott Soto filled vocal duties on these initial albums. His third album, Trilogy, featuring the vocals of Mark Boals, was released in 1986. In 1987, another singer, former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner joined his band. That year, Malmsteen was in a serious car accident, smashing his Jaguar E-Type into a tree and putting him in a coma for a week. Nerve damage to his right hand was reported. During his time in the hospital, Malmsteen's mother died from cancer. In the summer of 1988 he released his fourth album, Odyssey. Odyssey would be his biggest hit album, mainly because of its first single "Heaven Tonight". Shows in Russia during the Odyssey tour were recorded, and released in 1989 as his fifth album Trial By Fire: Live in Leningrad.

Malmsteen's "Neo-classical" style of metal became widely popular among guitarists during the mid 1980s, with contemporaries such as Jason Becker, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Tony MacAlpine and Vinnie Moore becoming prominent. MacAlpine came to the neoclassical/shred field by applying his classical piano training to his guitar playing and Moore arrived at a similar style because he shared Malmsteen's major influences. In late 1988, Malmsteen's signature Fender Stratocaster guitar was released, making him and Eric Clapton the first artists to be honored by Fender.

1990s

In the early 1990s Malmsteen released the albums Eclipse (1990), The Yngwie Malmsteen Collection (1991), Fire and Ice (1992) and The Seventh Sign (1994). Despite his early success, and continuous success in Europe and Asia, by the early 1990s 1980s heavy metal styles such as neoclassical metal and lengthy, virtuoso shred guitar solos had become unfashionable in the US. In 1993, Malmsteen's mother-in-law, who was opposed to his engagement with her daughter, had him arrested for threatening her with a shotgun and holding her daughter against her will. The charges against Malmsteen were dropped when he denied the incident.

In the 1990s, Malmsteen continued to record and release albums under the Japanese record label Pony Canyon, and maintained a devoted following from some fans in Europe and Japan, and to a lesser extent in the USA. In 2000, he once again acquired a contract with a US record label, Spitfire, and released his 1990s catalog into the US market for the first time, including what he regards as his masterpiece, Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra, recorded with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague.

2000s

After the release of War to End All Wars in 2000, singer Mark Boals left the band. Malmsteen went on tour with former Ark vocalist Jorn Lande. Due to various tensions on tour, Jorn left before the recording of Malmsteen's next album, Attack!!. He was replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Doogie White. White's vocals were well received by fans. In 2003, Malmsteen joined Joe Satriani and Steve Vai as part of the G3 supergroup. Malmsteen made two guest appearances on keyboardist Derek Sherinian's albums Black Utopia (2003), and Blood of the Snake (2006) where Malmsteen is heard on the same tracks as Al Di Meola and Zakk Wylde. In 2004, Malmsteen made two cameo appearances on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law- possibly alluded to his status as a guitarist.

Malmsteen released Unleash the Fury in 2005. (This title may be a reference to an audio recording that supposedly captured Malmsteen's immoderate response to a flight attendant who spilled a beverage on him. The recording found popularity in filesharing networks as an example of the absurd behavior of celebrities.) He is married to April and has a son named Antonio after Antonio Vivaldi, and they live in Miami, Florida. A noted Ferrari enthusiast, he owned a black 1985 308 GTS for 18 years before selling it on eBay, and a red 1962 250 GTO.[4] In the mid-2000s, he gave up smoking and drinking alcohol (date: April 2007).

In 2007, Malmsteen was honored in the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II. Players can receive the "Yngwie Malmsteen" award by hitting 1000 or more notes in succession. February 2008 saw the replacement of singer Doogie White with former Iced Earth and Judas Priest and current Beyond Fear singer Tim Owens, with whom Malmsteen had once recorded a cover of Ozzy Osbourne's song "Mr. Crowley", for the 2000 Osbourne tribute album Bat Head Soup: A Tribute to Ozzy. The first Malmsteen album to feature Owens is titled Perpetual Flame and was released on October 14. On November 25, 2008, Malmsteen had three of his songs ("Caprici Di Diablo", "Damnation Game", and "Red Devil") released as downloadable content for the video games Rock Band and Rock Band 2. In 2008 Malmsteen was a special guest on the VH1 Classic show "That Metal Show". In the 10th of March 2009, Malmsteen's label Rising Force has launched his new release Angels Of Love, an instrumental album which features acoustic arrangements of some of his best-known ballads.

Technique and Playing Style

Malmsteen is most well known for his guitar playing, which is primarily an extremely fast method of playing known as shredding, a style which he is widely credited for beginning in the early 1980s, which is usually also dubbed neoclassical metal. He favors minor scales, particularly harmonic minor, and draws notable influence from Bach. He is considered by many to be one of the fastest guitarists in the world, along with other seminal figures such as Paul Gilbert, Vinnie Moore, Tony MacAlpine, Jason Becker, and Michael Angelo Batio. Most of these guitarists are widely considered to also be pioneers of the shred guitar movement, also springing up in the 1980s, primarily because of Shrapnel Records's head Mike Varney.

Malmsteen is considered one of the finest practitioners of the sweep picking technique, and also has a very fast and accurate alternate picking technique. However, most people pay particular attention to his left hand's legato technique.

Band members

Previous members

* Jeff Scott Soto - lead vocals (1984-1985)
* Mark Boals - lead vocals (1986-1996-1999-2001)
* Joe Lynn Turner - lead vocals (1988-1989)
* Göran Edman - lead vocals (1990-1992)
* Mike Vescera - lead vocals (1994-1995)
* Mats Leven - lead vocals (1997-1998)
* Jorn Lande - lead vocals (2000 tour only)
* Doogie White - lead vocals (2001-2008)
* Anders Johansson - drums (1985-1989)
* Michael Von Knorring - drums (1990-1991)
* Bo Werner - drums (1992-1993)
* John Macaluso - drums (1999-2000)
* Mike Terrana - drums (1994)
* Jens Johansson - keyboards (1984-1989)
* Mats Olausson - keyboards (1990-2001)
* Derek Sherinian - keyboards (2001-2003-2004; 2007-2008)
* Svante Henrysson - bass (1990-1992)
* Barry Sparks - bass (1994-1995)

Current members

* Tim "Ripper" Owens - lead vocals (2008-present)
* Yngwie Malmsteen - guitars (1978-present)
* Michael Troy - keyboards (2007-present)
* Bjorn Englen - bass (2008-present)
* Patrick Johansson - drums, percussion (2001-present)

ANDRE MATOS

Andre Coelho Matos (born September 14, 1971 in São Paulo, Brazil) is the former vocalist, pianist and composer for the heavy metal and power metal bands Viper, Angra and Shaaman. Since October 2006 Andre Matos is dedicated to his solo band.

Biography

Matos grew up in his hometown of São Paulo, Brazil. Matos began his musical education at the age of ten, when he received his first piano from his parents. As a teen, he would gather with his friends to listen to their favorite bands. Soon they began learning to play the music too, and Matos joined his first band, Viper. The band first performed on 8 April 1985, when he was just thirteen years old. That same year, they recorded their first demo tape, "The Killera Sword".

Within a short while, Viper had become a phenomenon in the Brazilian heavy metal scene. Though Matos continued on vocals, he had no pretention of remaining a vocalist, a role he assumed only because he had the "least poor vocals of all of them", and because he physically resembled Iron Maiden's vocalist, Bruce Dickinson. His instruments of choice were always the piano and keyboards. Matos left Viper when the band began to change its musical style. He had become interested in classical music, and felt that his musical vision had begun to diverge from that of the other band members, who wanted to focus on heavier, more "crude" music.

After leaving Viper, Andre went back to school and finished his education in music, specializing in orchestral conducting and composition.

In 1991 Angra was formed, and with the first album, Angels Cry, released in 1993, the band became famous in Japan and Europe. Later Holy Land and Fireworks were released. Angra's style evolved from a Helloween-inspired melodic speed metal to a unique blend of heavy-metal, classical music and traditional Brazilian influences which brought them worldwide critical appraise.

Andre took part in a worldwide contest for replacing Bruce Dickinson in Iron Maiden and was in the Top 3 finalists alongside James LaBrie and eventual winner, Blaze Bayley.

In 2001, he left the band Angra alongside the rhythm section composed of Luis Mariutti (bass) and Ricardo Confessori (drums) because of a disagreement with guitar players Rafael Bittencourt and Kiko Loureiro concerning the band's management. The two guitar players then recruited Edu Falaschi (vocals), Aquiles Priester (drums) and Felipe Andreoli (bass), and kept the name "Angra". Andre stayed with Angra's former rhythm section and recruited Luis' brother Hugo Mariutti on the guitar : together they formed the band Shaman, who had to change names to Shaaman before the release of their second album for legal reasons.

After leaving Shaaman along with the Mariutti brothers, Hugo and Luis, he released his first solo record Time To Be Free under the name "Andre Matos", in August 2007.

Andre Matos band members

* Andre Matos - Vocals & piano
* Andre Hernandes - Guitars
* Hugo Mariutti - Guitars
* Luís Mariutti - Bass Guitar
* Rafael Rosa - Drums
* Fabio Ribeiro - keyboards