We play Heavy Metal A Capella. Melodic metal songs, arranged for 5 singers and one drummer. All instruments that would be played by musicians in a regular metalband are imitated by our voices. Bass, guitars, solos, keyboard sounds. On top we put two lead singers, a male one and a female one. But we left the drums what they are, as we do not do disco pop. And having a drummer like Bastian it would be a shame not to let him play.
Our self produced debut A Storm to to come was released by our own label in december 2006. It was attended by our first video clip of ‘The Mission’ From then, everything went quite fast. Festival gigs, upbeat reactions, record deal with sony records, gigs with Nightwish, Rage and so on. In summer 2008 we did a tour in Brazil and the Wacken Open Air. Our mixture of own songs and covered metal classics (of which Metallica’s ‘Battery’ made it on our first album) works great on stage.
In September 2008 our second album Hero was released. Produced with Charlie Bauerfeind in Blind Guardian’s studios we put some more covers aside from our own songs. Nightwish, Manowar, Iron Maiden and Deep Purple are rearranged in metal a cappella style. Highlight is Blind Guardian’s ‘Bard’s Song’, which inspires Hansi Kürsch to contribute some guest vocals to our own Song ‘Take to the Sky’.
The release is followed by a german tour and another one as support of ‘Letzte Instanz’. With some summer festivals (amongst others together with Manowar) we finish our hero tour. We are now two and a half years old, released two albums and played about 60 gigs. Our „Rakkatakka Motherfucker“ is well known by metal fans, which makes us very proud.
From August 2009 we worked on our third album Tribe of Force, again together with Charlie Bauerfeind. It contains 13 songs and features Victor Smolski, Tony Kakko, Chris Boltendahl and a real orchestra. Tribe of Force is released in february 2010 and enters the german album charts on rank 83.
The release was followed by an extended clubtour with many sold-out venues. After that we played festivals in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy and were honored to join Grave Digger as special guest on Wacken main stage.
We were guest musicians on Blind Guardian’s new album and arranged/sung backing vocals for Tarja Turunen and Grave Digger.
In October we were allowed to support Blind Guardian in Germany’s big concert arenas. Afterwards we played our first gig in Russia. Moscow loves Rakkatakka!
We will be on tour again in December/January. Hope to meet you there.
Thank you for being here! Van Canto, October 2010 [http://www.vancanto.de/]
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