Symphonic black metal is a subgenre of black metal that emerged in the 1990s and incorporates symphonic and orchestral elements.
Nightfall in Middle-Earth is the sixth studio album by German power metal band Blind Guardian. It was released on 28 April 1998 through Virgin Records. It is a concept album based upon J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, a book of tales from the First Age of Middle-earth, recounting The War of the Jewels. The album contains not only songs but also spoken parts narrating parts of the story. The cover depicts a scene from The Silmarillion, the half-elf Lúthien dancing in front of the Dark Lord Morgoth.
Deggial is the ninth studio album by Swedish symphonic metal band Therion in 2000. As with many of Therion's other albums, Deggial features a choir and orchestra.
Carach Angren is a Dutch symphonic black metal band, founded in 2003 by two members of the now-defunct bands Inger Indolia and Vaultage. Their style is characterized by prominent usage of orchestral arrangements, black metal vocals, and guitar riffs. Their studio albums are concept albums with lyrics based on ghost stories and folklore, such as the Flying Dutchman. The band sets itself apart from other symphonic black metal artists with the usage of multiple languages such as English, French, German, and Dutch. Most songs are based on English, with transitions into other languages during chorus and bridge sections.
The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myths and ghost stories are likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and of Dutch maritime power. The oldest known extant version of the legend dates from the late 18th century. According to the legend, if hailed by another ship, the crew of the Flying Dutchman might try to send messages to land, or to people long dead. Reported sightings in the 19th and 20th centuries claimed that the ship glowed with a ghostly light. In ocean lore, the sight of this phantom ship functions as a portent of doom. It was commonly believed that the Flying Dutchman was a fluyt.
Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitars of metal with different elements of orchestral classical music, such as symphonic instruments, choirs and sometimes a full orchestra, or just keyboard orchestration.
Dawn of Victory is the third studio album by Italian symphonic power metal band Rhapsody, released in 2000. Like the previous albums, it centers on the story of Algalord and The Emerald Sword Saga. It was produced and engineered by Sascha Paeth and Miro. It is also the first album to feature drummer Alex Holzwarth.
Prison of Desire is the debut album by Dutch symphonic metal band After Forever. It was released on 21 April 2000 by Transmission Records. The album contains the first four installments of The Embrace That Smothers, a collection of songs by Mark Jansen which deals with the influence and distortion of religion in human society. This theme was carried over to the Epica albums The Phantom Agony and The Divine Conspiracy.
Lammendam is the debut studio album by Dutch symphonic black metal band Carach Angren. Released in 2008, it is a concept album about Lammendam, the remains of a castle that are haunted by a "ghost lady in a white dress". Dennis "Seregor" Droomers claims that he was inspired to write the album by a local legend that he has been familiar with since childhood. The legend centers around series of events that supposedly occurred in Schinveldse Bossen, a forest area northeast of the Dutch region of South Limburg and of the town of Schinveld, near the German border.
Where the Corpses Sink Forever is the third studio album by Dutch symphonic black metal band Carach Angren. It was released on 18 May 2012 via Season of Mist. The concept of this album is not about a Dutch urban legend or ghost stories, like the previous two albums, but it deals with war. The album contains references to World Wars I and II, as well as the Vietnam War. The first track is a tape recording of a soldier who was ordered to shoot seven prisoners of war, and each shot can be heard. The soldier explains the strange and wicked sensations he felt as he shot each of the prisoners; they were grinning happily as he tried to kill them, and it seemed like the shots went through them, but they were actually demons who captured the soldier's soul in a time loop, making him suffer for eternity. Many of the songs in this album describe the deeds of each of the seven fiends; death, war, suffering.
Ethereal Veiled Existence is the first EP by Dutch symphonic black metal band Carach Angren. All tracks are based on a haunting called Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, known from the worlds' most famous ghost-picture, taken in 1936. Recorded & produced at the Wijers residence in Well (Netherlands) during August/September 2005. It was limited to 300 copies.
This Is No Fairytale is the fourth studio album by Dutch symphonic black metal band Carach Angren. It was released on 23 February 2015 via Season of Mist. The witch's hand on the cover art of the album is actually the hand of Dennis "Seregor" Droomers' grandmother.
The Chase Vault Tragedy is the first demo by Dutch symphonic black metal band Carach Angren. The CD was released on 1 September 2004; it is a concept album about the mystery of the burial vault of Chase Vault in Barbados. Pro-printed CD-R comes without back cover artwork. It was limited to 100 copies.
Dance and Laugh Amongst the Rotten is the fifth studio album by Dutch symphonic black metal band Carach Angren. It was released on 16 June 2017 via Season of Mist. Although the album doesn't follow a linear story as their previous albums did, it is still a concept album. Clemens "Ardek" Wijers describes the album's concept as visitations from multiple ghosts of the dead; including the "Blood Queen" and Charles Francis Coghlan. The full album is focused on a nameless girl who plays with a Ouija board causing her to raise a variety of spirits and ends up getting possessed. The album ends by informing the listener that the box the CD came in is haunted by these same spirits, and that by opening the album, the listener has also released them.
Dennis "Seregor" Droomers is a vocalist, guitarist, artist, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist for Dutch symphonic black metal band, Carach Angren. The stage name "Seregor" comes from Tolkien's Silmarillion. It is a combination of the word sereg which means blood, and gor which means abhorrent. Before Carach Angren, Droomers played bass and was the vocalist for Inger Indolia from 1996-2001 and was the vocalist for Vaultage from 2003-2005 with fellow Carach Angren member Clemens "Ardek" Wijers on keyboards. Carach Angren began as his and Wijers' side project while they were playing in Vaultage, because the two connected over a shared love of horror and storytelling. Later, Vaultage was disbanded as Carach Angren became increasingly successful. It is known that he grew up close to Schildveldse Bossen near where the focus of Lammendam took place. It is also known that he was primarily raised by his grandparents and is close to his grandmother who appears on the album art of This Is No Fairytale as the hand of the witch. Typically, Droomers writes Carach Angren's lyrics and stories while bandmate Clemens "Ardek" Wijers writes the composition.
Clemens "Ardek" Wijers is a Dutch keyboardist, pianist, and composer best known as the keyboardist of Dutch symphonic black metal band Carach Angren. Before Carach Angren, Wijers played with Dark Mutation and then Vaultage where he met Dennis "Seregor" Droomers and they began Carach Angren as a side project, when the two connected over a shared love of horror and storytelling. Later Vaultage disbanded when Carach Angren became increasingly successful.
Eonian is the ninth studio album by Norwegian symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir, which was released on 4 May 2018.
Franckensteina Strataemontanus is the sixth studio album by Dutch symphonic black metal band Carach Angren. Released on 26 June 2020 through Season of Mist, it is a concept album inspired by the life of late 17th-century/early 18th-century German occultist Johann Konrad Dippel, whose controversial experiments with corpses allegedly inspired Mary Shelley's influential 1818 Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus; its title is a reference to a Latin epithet adopted by Dippel later in life. It is also their final release with long-time drummer and founding member Ivo "Namtar" Wijers, who left the band as soon as the recording sessions ended citing "dissatisfactions with the music industry".
Riddles, Ruins & Revelations is the tenth studio album by Norwegian gothic metal band Sirenia. It was released on 12 February 2021 via Napalm Records. The first single "Addiction No. 1" was released on 8 December 2020, along with a music video. The second single, "We Come to Ruins", was released on 12 January 2021. On 10 February 2021, the band released their third single which is a cover of French singer Desireless, "Voyage, voyage".
