Sander Gommans (born 15 August 1978) is a Dutch musician and songwriter. He founded the symphonic metal band Apocalypse with

Mark Jansen Mark Jansen (born 15 December 1978) 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� ...

in 1995, which later changed its name to

After Forever 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. In February 2009, it was announced that After Forever had disbanded. Singer Floor Jans ...

. He played guitar and performed the vocal grunting parts in the band. He managed the band and was the main writer of After Forever's music.

Career

After recording all guitars for the album ''Rise of the Warrior'' by

Anna Phoebe Anna Phoebe McElligott (born 18 February 1981) is a London-based violinist, composer, and broadcaster who performs in musical genres including contemporary classical music, contemporary classical, rock music, rock, folk music, folk, jazz music, ...

, he began a project called HDK, which is signed to Season of Mist; HDK's debut album, '' System Overload'', was released on 23 February 2009. He is also the additional lead guitarist on ''

Kiske/Somerville Kiske/Somerville is a melodic heavy metal duet project, put together in late 2009 by Frontiers Records. The project features vocalist Michael Kiske (Helloween, Unisonic, Place Vendome) collaborating with American singer Amanda Somerville ( ...

'', an album by the German singer, keyboard player and guitarist

Michael Kiske Michael Kiske (born January 24, 1968) is a German singer and lead vocalist for the German power metal band Helloween. Kiske has released four solo albums, two albums with the hard rock band Unisonic, has participated on various metal and rock ...

(ex-

Helloween Helloween is a German power metal band founded in 1984 in Hamburg by members of bands Iron Fist, Gentry, Second Hell and Powerfool. Its first lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Kai Hansen, bassist Markus Grosskopf, guitarist Michael Wei ...

) and the American singer-songwriter and vocal coach Amanda Somerville. In 2010, he co-wrote the album ''

Scheepers Scheepers is a Dutch and Afrikaans occupational surname meaning "shepherd's" in Middle Dutch.

'', a solo album of Primal Fear's lead vocalist

Ralf Scheepers Ralf Scheepers (born 5 February 1965) is the vocalist for the German heavy metal band Primal Fear. He has a relatively high-pitched tenor-esque singing voice and sometimes uses a shriek reminiscent of Judas Priest's Rob Halford, although it is ...

. Resulting from his partnership with Amanda Somerville on HDK and Kiske/Somerville, Sander became one of the main members of Amanda's self heavy metal-oriented project called Trillium, which first album ''

Alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...

'' was released in fall 2011 by the record company Frontiers Records. He released another HDK album, ''

Serenades of the Netherworld ''Serenades of the Netherworld'' is the second album released by Dutch guitarist Sander Gommans's project HDK (Hate, Death, Kill). "Revelation" and "Return from Tomorrow" were released as single tracks, while the entire album itself entered stor ...

'', and he owns, together with longtime friend Paul Simons, a music company called "The Rock Station", which consists of a music academy, a music studio, music management and music merchandise. Between 2015 and 2019, Gommans joined forces with Scott Wenmakers (teacher and illustrator) and Menno Kappe (Graviton Music Services) to work on "Enter the Metal Realm", the first chapter of ''Magic-O-Metal'', a heavy/power metal musical project for children. Through the website, people can (pre-)order various products concerning the project.

Personal life

On 19 August 2013, it was revealed that Gommans was engaged to be married to Amanda Somerville, and the pair were married in July 2014. On 8 January 2015, she announced that she and Sander Gommans were expecting their first child. In July 2015, their daughter, Lana Elise Gommans, was born. In 2018, their twin daughters Anya and Juliet were born. Prior to marrying Somerville, Gommans had previously been in a relationship with

Floor Jansen Floor Jansen (; born 21 February 1981) is a Dutch singer and songwriter. She is the lead vocalist of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. Jansen first became known as a member of symphonic metal band After Forever, standing as their lead vo ...

Discography

With After Forever

*''

Prison of Desire ''Prison of Desire'' is the debut album by Dutch symphonic metal band After Forever. It was released on 21 April 2000 by Transmission Records. The album contains the first four installments (three parts and a prologue) of ''The Embrace That Smo ...

'' (2000) *''

Decipher DECIPHER is a web-based resource and database of genomic variation data from analysis of patient DNA. It documents submicroscopic chromosome abnormalities ( microdeletions and duplications) and pathogenic sequence variants (single nucleotide ...

'' (2001) *'' Exordium'' ( EP) (2003) *'' Invisible Circles'' (2004) *'' Remagine'' (2005) *''

'' (2007)

EPs

* '' Exordium'' (2003)

Singles

* "Follow in the Cry" (2000) * "

Emphasis/Who Wants to Live Forever ''Decipher'' is the second album by Dutch symphonic metal band After Forever, released on 27 December 2001. In this album, the band make use of live classical instruments and a complete choir to back up the soprano voice of lead singer Floor J ...

" (2002) * " Monolith of Doubt" (2002) * "My Choice/The Evil That Men Do" (2003) * " Digital Deceit" (2004) * "

Being Everyone ''Remagine'' is the fourth studio album released by Dutch symphonic metal band After Forever. It was released on 8 September 2005 by Transmission Records and followed the 2004 concept album ''Invisible Circles''. It was the band's first album wi ...

" (2005) * " Two Sides/Boundaries Are Open" (2006) * " Energize Me" (2007) * "Equally Destructive" (2007)

Demos

* ''Ephemeral'' (1999) * ''Wings of Illusion'' (1999)

Compilations

* ''

Mea Culpa ' is a Latin phrase that means "my fault" or "my mistake" and is an acknowledgement of having done wrong. The expression is used also as an admission of having made a mistake that should have been avoided, and may be accompanied by beating the br ...

'' (2006)

With HDK

*'' System Overload'' (2009) *''

'' (2014)

With Trillium

*''

'' (2011) *''Tectonic'' (2018)

With Magic-O-Metal

;Studio albums *''Enter the Metal Realm'' (2019) ;Singles & EP's *''Roboshredder'' (2021) *''Loud and Proud - Children of Hope'' (2021) *''Imagine'' (2022)

Other credits

Epica Epica or EPICA may refer to: * Epica (band), a Dutch symphonic metal band * ''Epica'' (Kamelot album), 2003 * ''Epica'' (Audiomachine album), 2012 * The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) * The Epica Awards (International Adver ...

- ''

The Divine Conspiracy ''The Divine Conspiracy'' is the third full-length studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Epica as well as their first concept album. It was released through Nuclear Blast in Japan on 22 August 2007, in the US on 28 August, in Europe on 7 ...

'' (2007) - vocals on "Death of a Dream ~ The Embrace That Smothers part VII" *

- ''Rise of the Warrior'' (2008) - guitars *

- ''

'' (2010) - writing credits and guitars *

- ''

Scheepers Scheepers is a Dutch and Afrikaans occupational surname meaning "shepherd's" in Middle Dutch.

'' (2011) - writing credits and guitars *

MaYaN Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

- ''

Quarterpast ''Quarterpast'' is the debut album by Dutch metal supergroup MaYaN. It was released on 20 May 2011 in Europe. The title ''Quarterpast'' was suggested by a fan as part of a competition to decide the band's name, but was eventually used as the album ...

'' (2011) - writing credits on "Bite the Bullet" * Aeverium - ''The Harvest'' (2013) - producing on "Heaven's Burning (Harvest Time)" *

- '' City of Heroes'' (2015) - writing credits on ''Breaking Neptune'' * Beyond the Black - ''

Songs of Love and Death ''Songs of Love and Death'' is the eighth full-length album by Canadian singer-songwriter Emm Gryner, released in 2005 on her independent label Dead Daisy Records. ''Songs of Love and Death'' is Gryner's second album of cover versions, followin ...

'' (2015) - backing vocals and shouts on "Hallelujah"

References

External links

*
The Rock Station
(official website) , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Gommans, Sander 1978 births Living people Dutch heavy metal guitarists Dutch male guitarists Dutch heavy metal singers People from Beesel Progressive metal guitarists After Forever members 21st-century Dutch male singers 21st-century Dutch singers 21st-century guitarists Mayan (band) members