After Forever was a Dutch symphonic metal band with strong progressive metal influences. The band relied on the use of both soprano vocals and death growls.
Epica is a Dutch symphonic metal band, founded by guitarist and vocalist Mark Jansen after his departure from After Forever.
Tuomas Lauri Johannes Holopainen is a Finnish musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the primary songwriter, keyboardist, and a co-founding member of symphonic metal band Nightwish. He has stated that his songwriting is influenced by harmonic film music.
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.
Liv Kristine Espenæs is a Norwegian singer who has performed and composed songs mostly for various subgenres of heavy metal music. She started her career in the music industry as a vocalist for the gothic metal band Theatre of Tragedy, and is the former lead vocalist for the symphonic metal band Leaves' Eyes. She is known for her work in close association with her then-husband and leader of the German band Atrocity, Alexander Krull. Currently she is a singer of a German band Midnattsol alongside her younger sister Carmen Elise Espenæs. She also released a number of solo albums in various genres.
Ariën van Weesenbeek is a Dutch drummer who plays for the symphonic metal band Epica and the symphonic death metal band MaYaN, both created and led by guitarist Mark Jansen.
Simone Johanna Maria Simons is a Dutch singer. She is best known for being the lead singer of Dutch symphonic metal band Epica, which she joined at the age of seventeen, releasing eight studio albums and touring the world. In her singing career, she has also collaborated with bands such as Kamelot, Leaves' Eyes, Primal Fear, Ayreon, and Angra. She also has a side pursuit as a lifestyle blogger, via her website SmoonStyle.
The Phantom Agony is the debut studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Epica. It was released in 2003 by the Dutch label Transmission Records. It is the first album recorded by guitarist Mark Jansen after his departure from the band After Forever. On this album, Jansen continues with the collection of songs that make up The Embrace That Smothers. The first three parts can be found on Prison of Desire (2000), After Forever's debut album, and the following three parts can be found on The Divine Conspiracy (2007), Epica's third album. These songs deal with the dangers of organized religion.
Invisible Circles is the third studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band After Forever. It was released on 25 March 2004, by the small Dutch label Transmission Records. It is After Forever's first full-length album since the dismissal of guitarist and composer Mark Jansen, whose musical tastes had strongly influenced the sound of their first work Prison of Desire (2000) and their successful second offering Decipher (2001). In this work After Forever choose a new musical direction, mostly revolving around elements of progressive metal instead of the gothic and symphonic metal of previous albums. The creative process for Invisible Circles took more than a year and required the use of three recording studios in the Netherlands and Germany. A long tour to support the album brought the band to some of the most important European rock festivals and to Central and South America.
Trail of Tears is a Norwegian gothic/symphonic black metal band originally formed in 1994 by Terje Heiseldal, Kjell Rune Hagen, Jonathan A Perez, Michael Krumins, and Ronny Thorsen, under the name of Natt. Through most of their career the band emphasised the use of contrasting soprano and death grunt vocals, except for the release of Free Fall into Fear in 2005, in which the band switched this contrast mostly to tenor and growls, with less frequent soprano passages. The band disbanded in 2013, being succeeded by Thorsen's project Viper Solfa. In 2020, they reformed with old and new members, including previous Sirenia vocalist Ailyn.
Markus H. J. Jansen is a Dutch guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. A prominent figure in the symphonic metal subgenre, he is known for his work with the bands After Forever (1995–2002), Epica (2002–present), and MaYaN (2010–present).
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.
Pilar María Del Carmen Mónica Giménez García, known professionally as Ailyn Giménez or simply Ailyn, is a Spanish singer. She is the current vocalist of Her Chariot Awaits and the former vocalist of the Norwegian symphonic/gothic metal band Sirenia. Whilst in Sirenia she was the fourth singer and sung on more full Sirenia albums than any other singer to date. In 2020 she joined the reformed Trail of Tears.
Profoundemonium is the second studio album by the band Trail of Tears. The cover art was designed by Travis Smith. It is the last album to feature female soprano Helena Iren Michaelsen, who left the band the year this album was made.
Disclosure in Red is the first studio album by the Norwegian gothic metal band, Trail of Tears.
Morphia was a Dutch symphonic death/doom metal band formed in 1995. Having performed concerts with groups such as After Forever, Epica, Autumn, Orphanage and Imperia, Morphia established themselves as one of the more prominent symphonic doom metal bands in the Netherlands. Signed to Dutch Fear Dark Records, Morphia has released 3 studio albums, musically evolving from death metal to gothic doom over the years. The band name comes from morphine, a medical drug used to relieve pain, but it is also a reference to Morpheus, the principal god of dreams in the Greek mythology.
On Thorns I Lay is a Greek death-doom metal and gothic metal band founded in Athens in 1992. The group has gone through different stylistic facets throughout its career, starting with brutal death metal in their early days, then transitioning to a blackened death doom symphonic style with their first EP, and later embracing atmospheric doom-death in their early albums and later gothic metal with their subsequent albums. On Thorns I Lay is among the bands of the first major gothic doom wave that systematized the principle of contrasting vocals known as the "beauty and the beast" style that became popular in the late 1990s. Towards the end of the first part of their career in the early 2000s, they shifted towards a more stripped-down and introspective rock-metal style.
Jonathan Alejandro Pérez is a Chilean drummer who is currently based in Kristiansand, Norway. He is known for his work with the Norwegian gothic metal and symphonic metal bands Trail of Tears and Sirenia. He is currently the drummer of Green Carnation since 2016.
Dianne van Giersbergen is a Dutch spinto soprano singer. She is the founder and frontwoman of the progressive metal band Ex Libris, and she was the vocalist of German symphonic metal band Xandria from 2013 to 2017.
