Van Canto (sometimes stylized as van Canto) is a German

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

band, founded in 2006 and composed of six singers and a drummer. Although the group is often classified as an a cappella ensemble, they use real drums in their music, instead of vocal

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

beatboxing Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (typically a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.

. Van Canto play a cappella with classic heavy, power and

symphonic 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 guitar ...

influence, creating what they call "hero metal a cappella". While only two of the six singers perform the lead vocals, the other four instead use their voices to imitate the guitars and the bass, with the help of amplifiers, in an attempt to sound closer to the original instruments.

History

As soon as the band was founded, its debut album, '' A Storm to Come'', was released through General Schallplatten. It features seven original tracks, as well as cover versions of

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

's "Battery" and "Stora Rövardansen" from the movie '' Ronja Rövardotter''. Additionally, videos were shot for the tracks "The Mission", "Battery", and "Rain". On 30 September 2007, they announced a new drummer, Bastian Emig, who replaced Dennis Strillinger's position in the band. In December 2007, Van Canto signed a worldwide record deal with Gun Records/Sony BMG. Also in December, the band were announced as part of the line up of the Wacken 2008 festival. The band also announced that their second album, titled "''

Hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...

''", was in the progress of being recorded. ''Hero'' ended up being released on 26 September 2008, with producer

Charlie Bauerfeind Karl Rudolf "Charlie" Bauerfeind (born 30 May 1963) is a German sound engineer and producer who has worked mostly with power metal bands such as Angra, Blind Guardian, Helloween, Primal Fear, Rage, HammerFall and Saxon. Works Production ...

. Van Canto performed a South American promotional tour between 23 June and 2 July 2008. The live performances took place primarily in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, which is the homeland of Ingo Sterzinger. Soon after, the band arrived in Germany to perform live at Wacken 2008. A new song, "Speed of Light", was released as a digital single on 8 August 2008. A music video was shot for the song as well. As of late 2009, Van Canto was recording their third studio album in Twilight Hall Studios, with Bauerfeind and via

Napalm Records Napalm Records is an Austrian independent record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock. Originally, Napalm focused on black metal bands, such as Abigor and Summoning, and folk metal bands, such as Falkenbach and Vintersorg. The label later ...

. The album was due to contain around 11 tracks, fewer covers than ''Hero'' and a couple of bonus tracks. It was released worldwide in early 2010, which happened alongside the worldwide release of their previous two albums. The album was announced at

Nuclear Blast Nuclear Blast is a record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label mov ...

official website as ''Tribe of Force''. The track listing features 13 tracks, two of them being covers (" Master of Puppets" by

and "

Rebellion Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

" by

Grave Digger A gravedigger is a cemetery worker who is responsible for digging a grave prior to a funeral service. Description If the grave is in a cemetery on the property of a church or other religious organization (part of, or called, a churchyard), ...

), and three of them featuring guest artists:

Victor Smolski Victor Dmitriyevich Smolski (russian: Виктор Дмитриевич Смольский, be, Віктар Дзмітрыевіч Смольскі, born 1 February 1969) is a guitarist who was a member of the German heavy metal band Rage fro ...

(from

Rage Rage may refer to: * Rage (emotion), an intense form of anger Games * Rage (collectible card game), a collectible card game * Rage (trick-taking card game), a commercial variant of the card game Oh Hell * ''Rage'' (video game), a 2011 first-per ...

) guest appears in "One to Ten", Tony Kakko (from Sonata Arctica) guest appears on "Hearted" and Chris Boltendahl (from Grave Digger) guest appears in "Rebellion". Van Canto performed guest vocals on albums by bands Blind Guardian and

(''

At the Edge of Time ''At the Edge of Time'' is the ninth studio album by the German power metal band Blind Guardian. A two-CD version of the album was released, with the second disc containing eight tracks. The artwork for the album was created by Colombian artist ...

'' and untitled, respectively). They also appeared on the

Tarja Turunen Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen-Cabuli (born 17 August 1977), known professionally as Tarja Turunen or simply Tarja, is a Finnish heavy metal singer, best known as the former lead vocalist of Nightwish. She is a soprano with a three and a half o ...

album ''

What Lies Beneath ''What Lies Beneath'' is a 2000 American supernatural horror thriller film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as a couple who live in a haunted house. It was the first film by Zemeckis' production company ...

'' (on the track "Anteroom of Death"). VanCantoGamescom

On 21 September 2010, it was announced that they had teamed up with the

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

Runes of Magic Runes of Magic (RoM) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by the Taiwanese developer Runewaker Entertainment and adapted for the English and German-speaking market by German company Frogster Interactive. Frogst ...

'' to create a music video based around the game for and with the game. On 17 February 2011, it was announced on the official Van Canto website that the band was entering the studio and suspending touring until June in order to create a new album. The band's fourth album '' Break the Silence'' was released on 22 September 2011. Their fifth album, '' Dawn of the Brave'', was released in February 2014. It contains nine own compositions and four cover versions: "

Paranoid Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concer ...

" by

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

, " The Final Countdown" by

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, "

Holding out for a Hero "Holding Out for a Hero" is a song recorded by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler for the soundtrack to the 1984 film ''Footloose''. It later featured on her sixth studio album, ''Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire'' (1986). The track was produced by Jim S ...

" by Bonnie Tyler, and " Into the West" by

Annie Lennox Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the New wave music, new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician D ...

from the soundtrack for the motion picture '' The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King''. In November 2015, the band announced Ingo "Ike" Sterzinger would leave them to follow other projects, and that he would be replaced by Jan Moritz, from the Stimmgewalt choir. On 11 March 2016, the band released their sixth album, the

metal opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been a ...

'' Voices of Fire''. On 18 January, they released a lyric video for the first track from the album, "Clashings on Armour Plates". On 18 February 2016, they released the official music video for "The Bardcall". In August 2017, the band announced that Dennis "Sly" Schunke was leaving the band. On 18 August, it was announced that Ike would return to the band in the studio and at selected concerts and that a new singer Hagen Hirschmann, "Hagel", will perform the male lead vocals in the future. In March 2021, the band released a trailer on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

through Napalm Records, stating that their newest album, ''To the Power of Eight'', will be put out on 4 June of the same year, with Dennis "Sly" Schunke appearing as a guest lead vocalist on all tracks.

Band members

Van Canto Rockharz 2019 26.jpg, Hagen Hirschmann Van Canto Rockharz 2019 01.jpg, Inga Scharf Van Canto Rockharz 2019 37.jpg, Ingo Sterzinger Van Canto Rockharz 2019 04.jpg, Ross Thompson Van Canto Rockharz 2019 24.jpg, Jan Moritz Van Canto Rockharz 2019 29.jpg, Bastian Emig Van Canto Rockharz 2019 18.jpg, Stefan Schmidt (left)

Current

*Inga Scharf – female lead vocals (2006–present) *Stefan Schmidt – lower guitar vocals, solo guitar vocals, vocals with distortion effects (2006–present) *Ross Thompson – higher guitar vocals (2006–present) *Ingo "Ike" Sterzinger – bass vocals (full time member: 2006–2015, studio and selected concerts: 2017–present) *Bastian Emig – drums (2007–present) *Jan Moritz – bass vocals (2015–present) *Hagen "Hagel" Hirschmann – male lead vocals (2017–present)

Past

*Dennis "Sly" Schunke – male lead vocals (2006–2017), guest lead vocals (2021) *Dennis Strillinger – drums (2006–2007)

Discography

* ''A Storm to Come'' (2006) * ''Hero'' (2008) * '' Tribe of Force'' (2010) * '' Break the Silence'' (2011) * '' Dawn of the Brave'' (2014) * '' Voices of Fire'' (2016) * ''Trust in Rust'' (2018) * '' To the Power of Eight'' (2021)

References

External links

Official websiteOfficial fan club
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Canto Professional a cappella groups Musical groups established in 2006 Sony BMG artists German heavy metal musical groups 2006 establishments in Germany Napalm Records artists GUN Records artists