Ancient Bards

Ancient Bards

Ancient Bards at Made of Metal festival (Hodonín, 17/08/2014)
Background information
Origin Italy
Genres Symphonic metal, power metal
Years active 2006-present
Labels Limb Music
Website www.ancientbards.com
Members Martino Garattoni
Federico Gatti
Daniele Mazza
Claudio Pietronik
Sara Squadrani
Past members Alessandro Carichini
Fabio Balducci

Ancient Bards is an Italian symphonic metal band, conceived in January 2006 by keyboards player Daniele Mazza.

History

Line-Up

The project, originated in the mind of Daniele Mazza, started to materialize in 2006 after Daniele met with bass player Martino Garattoni. The first stable line up was completed in 2007, with Sara Squadrani as singer, Alessandro Carichini as drummer, and Claudio Pietronik and Fabio Balducci as guitarists.[1]

In September 2010 Alessandro has left the band, to be replaced by a new drummer Federico Gatti. The latest line-up change occurred in the end of 2013 after recording the third album A New Dawn Ending, when Fabio Balducci has left the band for personal reasons.[2] Permanent replacement for Fabio has not been announced yet, but for live shows in 2014 the band has been joined by Simone Bertozzi as a guest second guitarist.[3]

Albums

The style and concept of their 2010 debut album The Alliance of the Kings has been seen as inspired by fellow Italian band Rhapsody of Fire. The album is the first part of The Black Crystal Sword Saga. Both the Italian and German edition of Metal Hammer marked a sophisticated songwriting in this release. The latter magazine also found similarities to Anette Olzon in singer Sara Squadrani's voice.[4][5]

The band's second album The Soulless Child was released in 2011. It continues the The Black Crystal Sword Saga introduced in the previous album. The reviewers of Metal Hammer Germany and Rock Hard agreed that the album had a tendency towards kitsch. While Metal Hammer found several positive remarks about individual tracks, Rock Hard criticised a lack of original hooks.[6][7]

In April 2014, a third album was released: A New Dawn Ending, which concludes the first part of The Black Crystal Sword Saga, making the first part a complete trilogy.

The trilogy is since March 2014 being put down as a prose by Sara Squadrani on her blog, with each song making a single episode.[8]

Discography

EP

The Black Crystal Sword Saga pt 1

Members

Current members

Guest members

Former members

Timeline

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Ancient Bards - Biography". last.fm. 22 Mar 2010. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "Ancient Bards - Biography". Ancient Bards. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  3. ↑ "Ancient Bards at Made of Metal 2014". All Things Sara. 18 July 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  4. ↑ Marino, Pippo. "Ancient Bards - The Alliance of the Kings - The Black Crystal Sword Saga Part 1". Metal Hammer (in Italian). Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  5. ↑ Riedl, Katrin (1 May 2010). "Ancient Bards - The Allliance Of The Kings". Metal Hammer (in German). Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  6. ↑ Riedl, Katrin (1 February 2012). "Ancient Bards - The Soulless Child". Metal Hammer (in German). Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  7. ↑ Albrecht, Frank (2011). [http://www.rockhard.de/megazine/reviewarchiv/review-anzeigen.html?tx_rxsearch_pi1[review]=28177 "Ancient Bards: Soulless Child"]. Rock Hard (in German) (296). Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  8. ↑ Squadrani, Sara (3 March 2014). "The Saga". All Things Sara. Retrieved 20 August 2014.

External links