Vanadium was an Italian
heavy metal band from
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, Italy. It was one of the first heavy rock bands to appear on the Peninsula and is considered among the most successful European exponents of the genre.
History
Vanadium were founded in Milan in 1980 by Stefano Tessarin (guitar), Ruggero Zanolini (keyboards), Domenico Prantera (bass), Lio Mascheroni (drums) and Pino Scotto (vocals). Musically influenced by bands like
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...
,
Thin Lizzy,
Uriah Heep,
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 ...
and
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Despite an innovative and pioneering body of work in th ...
, they had a difficult start due to scarce popularity of the metal genre in Italy, but managed to obtain a reasonable degree of success abroad.
Following the break through of their first single ''We Want to Live with Rock 'n' Roll'' (Durium, 1981), they went on to record seven studio albums and the live ''On Streets of Danger'' (1985). Their third album, ''Game Over'' (1984), is possibly their most successful, with figure sales of about 54,000 copies.
Following the collapse of their label Durium in 1988, Vanadium recorded their last album ''Seventheaven'' with GreenLine before breaking up in 1990. They temporarily reformed in 1995 and released their only album entirely sang in Italian, ''Nel cuore del caos''. Despite showing good form, the album wasn't commercially successful, and the band split up again and for good after a final tour.
After the demise of Vanadium, the band members pursued solo projects. Stefano Tessarin, with Ruggero Zanolini and Lio Mascheroni formed the band Rustless. Pino Scotto went on to start a solo career and recorded eight albums. Domenico Prantera retired from playing music professionally and started managing emerging bands.
On 11 May 2014, the Italian publisher Crac Edizioni published the official Vanadium biography authored by music journalist
Luca Fassina.
Discography
Albums
* ''Metal Rock'' - 1982
* ''A Race with the Devil'' - 1983
* ''Game Over'' - 1984
* ''Born to Fight'' - 1986
* ''Corruption of Innocence'' - 1987
* ''Seventheaven'' - 1989
* ''Nel cuore del caos'' - 1995
Live albums
* ''On Streets of Danger'' - 1985
Singles
* ''We Want to Live with Rock 'n' Roll/Heavy Metal'' - 1981
* ''Take My Blues Away/Take My Blues Away'' (extended version) - 1989
References
External links
Official SiteMyspaceYouTube
{{Authority control
Italian heavy metal musical groups
Musical groups from Milan