Tristania was a Norwegian gothic metal band formed in 1996 by Morten Veland, Einar Moen and Kenneth Olsson. Tristania's music is usually classified as Gothic metal with death influences, due to its strong tie and legacy within the gothic metal history. Their songs largely dealt with dark and sentimental topics, including depression, sadness, suicide, love, absence, and anger.
Haggard is a German symphonic metal band founded in 1989. The group combines classical music and early music with death doom metal.
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.
Visions of Atlantis is an Austrian symphonic metal band from Styria, founded in 2000. Inspiration came both from successful Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish and from the myth of Atlantis, as well as a pirate theme in recent albums.
Kari Rueslåtten is a Norwegian soprano singer, songwriter and keyboardist, who was well known for being the former lead singer and songwriter for the now disbanded Norwegian doom metal/experimental band, The 3rd and the Mortal from 1992 to 1994. The 3rd and the Mortal was one of the early bands that used a lead female singer in the metal scene, in which inspired bands such as The Gathering, Flowing Tears and Nightwish.
Midnattsol are a gothic/folk metal band from Germany. The band was founded in 2002 by Norwegian vocalist Carmen Elise Espenæs and German guitarist Christian Hector. The band's name is a modified spelling of the Norwegian word midnattssol, which means 'midnight sun'.
Equilibrium is a German folk metal band from Bavaria. The band's music combines elements of folk music, pagan metal, melodic black metal and symphonic metal, though they recently added in more modern influences including metalcore and industrial metal. Their riffs reflect traditional Germanic melodies. Their lyrical themes focus on Germanic tales and Germanic mythology. The songs of the band used to be mostly in German, although most recently they prioritized English in their songs, especially starting with their sixth album Renegades (2019).
Gothic metal is a fusion genre combining the aggression of heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music. The genre originated during the early 1990s in the United Kingdom originally as an outgrowth of death-doom, a fusion of death metal and doom metal. Lyrics are generally dark and introspective with inspiration from gothic fiction as well as personal experiences.
And Thou Shalt Trust... the Seer is the first full-length album by the German symphonic metal band Haggard. It was released on 15 October 1997 by Last Episode. The painting of the cover is Melencolia I by Albrecht Dürer. The album was re-released as a vinyl record in 2008 by Nattvind Records.
Eppur si muove is the third full-length album by the German symphonic metal band Haggard. It was released on 26 April 2004 by Drakkar Entertainment.
Serenity is an Austrian symphonic power metal band, originally formed back in 2001. They became a more stable group with a consistent line-up in 2004, when it also began using more progressive and power influences than earlier. They have defined their genre with more melodic and symphonic metal elements.
Sagas is the second studio album by German folk metal band Equilibrium, released on 27 June 2008.
Dominia is a Russian doom metal band formed in Saint Petersburg in 1999.
Coronatus is a German gothic metal band, formed in Ludwigsburg in 1999.
Kells was a symphonic metal band out of Lyon, France, formed in 2001 by vocalist Virginie Goncalves, guitarist Patrick Garcia, and keyboardist Fabrice Desire. Since then Fabrice has left the band while Julien Nicolas and Laurent Lesina were added as the band's drummer and bassist respectively. They have played at the Metal Female Voices Festival and been main support for Epica and Tarja. They have released three albums. Their first album, Gaia, was produced by AVFP Production and released in 2005, and their second album, Lueurs, was produced by Season of Mist and released in 2009. Their third album, Anachromie, was released in 2012. In April 2015, Virginie, Patrick and Kevin were forced out of the band.
Diabulus in Musica is a Spanish symphonic metal band, formed in 2006.
Manuela Kraller is a German spinto soprano singer. She is best known as the former lead singer of symphonic metal band Xandria from late 2010 until late 2013. She was formerly one of the soprano vocalists in the symphonic metal band Haggard. She now has a project that strays away from the metal scene and more of a classical style instead that's called "Valkea Valo" with her friend Tobias Gut.
InHuman, originally known as Anwynn, is a Belgian heavy metal band that formed in 2007. Their sound has been described as melodic death metal, symphonic metal, and progressive metal. The band changed its name to InHuman in 2020 and released their most recent album in 2021.
Magion was a Dutch symphonic metalband from The Hague, existing from 2005 to 2014. The band released two albums, an EP and two demos, and performed with bands such as Epica, Delain, Trail of Tears & Jorn. The album "Close to Eternity" was mastered by the Swedish rock/metal producer and musician Dan Swanö. Through the years the popularity of the group gradually grew, peaking late 2013 after the release of their second album "A Different Shade of Darkness", which generated various media attention and resulted in a performance at the 11th edition of the annual Metal Female Voices Fest in Belgium, late 2013. The band split up after disagreements in the spring of 2014.
