Frédéric Alexandre "Fred" Leclercq (born 23 June 1978) is a French musician and producer, best known as the former longtime bassist for British

power metal Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contra ...

band

DragonForce DragonForce are a British power metal band from London, England. The band was formed in 1999 by guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman, and are known for their long and fast guitar solos, fantasy-themed lyrics and retro video game-influenced ...

. He is currently the guitarist and main songwriter in the

death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...

supergroup

Sinsaenum Sinsaenum is a multinational blackened death metal supergroup, formed in 2016. The band features French guitarists Frédéric Leclercq and Stéphane Buriez, American vocalist Sean Zatorsky in a co-lead role with Hungarian vocalist Attila Csihar ...

, the guitarist and vocalist in Maladaptive, the bassist and a guitarist in Amahiru, and the bassist of German thrash metal group

Kreator Kreator is a German thrash metal band from Essen, formed in 1982. Their current lineup consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Miland "Mille" Petrozza, drummer Jürgen "Ventor" Reil, lead guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö, and bassist Frédér ...

and French death metal band

Loudblast Loudblast is a French death/thrash metal band from Villeneuve-d'Ascq that pioneered the genres in France, and one of the most important French metal bands of the 1990s. History The band began in 1986 in the northern city of Lille. Its first rec ...

. He is a

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

for various other bands, including George Lynch's

Souls of We Souls of We (also known as George Lynch's Souls of We) is an American hard rock supergroup from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2007. The lineup consists of London LeGrand (vocals), George Lynch (guitar) and Johny Chow (bass). Since 2009, Jord ...

. He is also a former member of

band Heavenly and played several shows with

Carnival in Coal Carnival in Coal is an extreme metal/ avant-garde metal band from France. Founded in 1995, the band mixed death metal, black metal and other extreme metal genres with genres such as easy listening, disco, and pop. History Originally, Carni ...

and

Sabaton A sabaton or solleret is part of a knight's body armor that covers the foot. History Fourteenth and fifteenth century sabatons typically end in a tapered point well past the actual toes of the wearer's foot, following fashionable shoe shapes o ...

Playing influences

Leclercq is influenced by various guitarists such as

Uli Jon Roth Uli Jon Roth (born Ulrich Roth; 18 December 1954) is a German guitarist who became famous for his work with the hard rock band Scorpions and is one of the earliest contributors to the neoclassical metal genre. He is also the founder of Sky Aca ...

Adrian Smith Adrian Frederick "H" Smith (born 27 February 1957) is an English guitarist best known as a member of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, for whom he also writes songs and performs backing vocals both live and in the studio. Smith grew up in London ...

Trey Azagthoth Morbid Angel is an American death metal band based in Tampa, Florida, formed in 1983 by guitarist, primary composer and sole remaining original member Trey Azagthoth, vocalist and bassist Dallas Ward, and drummer Mike Browning. Widely considered ...

, and

Marty Friedman Marty Friedman (born December 8, 1962) is an American guitarist, best known for his tenure as the lead guitarist for thrash metal band Megadeth from 1990 to 2000. He is also known for playing alongside Jason Becker in Cacophony from 1986 until ...

Career

In 2005 Leclercq joined Dragonforce as a replacement to Adrian Lambert on the Sonic Firestorm tour. He released 7 albums with the band. He later parted with the band due to wanting to pursue other types of music on his own. Guitarist Herman Li once said," I didn't want to get Fred because he is such a phenomenal guitarist." On 16 September 2019,

announced that Leclercq would replace

Christian Giesler Christian "Speesy" Giesler (born 4 July 1970) is a German musician. He is best known for being the former bassist of Kreator, where he was a member of the band from 1994 to 2019. He appeared on eight studio albums with Kreator, from ''Cause for C ...

on Bass after having spent 25 years with the band. In 2020, Leclercq formed the musical project Amahiru with Japanese guitarist

Saki Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 – 14 November 1916), better known by the pen name Saki and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirize Edwardian society and cultur ...

. Saki performs lead guitar, while Leclercq plays lead, rhythm and bass guitar. The two first met in 2015 when Saki's band,

Mary's Blood was a Japanese all-female heavy metal band from Tokyo, formed in 2009 by four former members of Destrose. It consisted of vocalist Eye, drummer Mari, guitarist Saki and bassist Rio since 2012. After releasing three EPs as an independent band, ...

, opened for DragonForce in Hong Kong. Amahiru's self-titled debut album was released on 27 November 2020, and features British vocalist Archie Wilson, Dutch keyboardist Coen Janssen, and American drummer

Mike Heller Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and docume ...

. It also features

shakuhachi A is a Japanese and ancient Chinese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo. The bamboo end-blown flute now known as the was developed in Japan in the 16th century and is called the .

player Kifu Mitsuhashi, and guest performances by

Elize Ryd Hanna Elise Isabell Maj Höstblomma Ryd (born 15 October 1984), known professionally as Elize Ryd, is a Swedish singer, best known as one of the three vocalists and co-lyricist in the metal band Amaranthe. She also gained some popularity prior to ...

and

Sean Reinert Sean Reinert (May 27, 1971 – January 24, 2020) was an American musician. He was the drummer for the rock band Æon Spoke and the drummer and founding member of the progressive metal band Cynic (band), Cynic until leaving the band in Septemb ...

Equipment

Leclercq uses

ESP ESP most commonly refers to: * Extrasensory perception, a paranormal ability ESP may also refer to: Arts, entertainment Music * ESP Guitars, a manufacturer of electric guitars * E.S. Posthumus, an independent music group formed in 2000, ...

bass guitars and has a signature model, the LTD FL-600, with five other bassists (the others being Gabe Crisp, Frank Bello, Pancho Tomaselli,

Tom Araya Tomás Enrique Araya Díaz (; born June 6, 1961) is a Chilean American musician, best known as the vocalist and bassist of American thrash metal band Slayer. Araya is ranked 58th by ''Hit Parader'' on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocali ...

and

Henkka Seppälä Henri "Henkka T. Blacksmith" Seppälä (Born 7 June 1980), is the former bassist of the Finnish metal band Children of Bodom from 1995 to 2019. He is also responsible for backing vocals both in studio and live. He is currently the bassist for t ...

). He uses ESP ARROW FL SIN-6B and ANTELOPE custom baritone scale models for Sinsaenum. Whilst performing in Sabaton, he used an ESP horizon electric guitar. For amplification, he uses Peavey Tour 700 bass amps and 8x10 bass cabinets, along with a Samson UHF Wireless System.

Notable bands and projects

*Hors Normes (fusion) 1994–1996; 2000 *Memoria (black metal) 1997–1999; 2000–2001 * Heavenly (power metal) 2000–2004 *

(power metal) 2005–2019 *

(blackened death metal) 2016–present *

(thrash metal) 2019–present *Amahiru (heavy metal/hard rock) 2020–present

References

External links

SinsaenumDragonForceMaladaptive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leclercq, Frederic DragonForce members French heavy metal bass guitarists Male bass guitarists 1978 births Living people 21st-century bass guitarists Sinsaenum members French male guitarists