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 band DragonForce. 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, fe ...

supergroup Sinsaenum, 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 Fréd� ...

and French death metal band Loudblast. He is a session musician for various other bands, including George Lynch's Souls of We. He is also a former member of power metal band Heavenly and played several shows with Carnival in Coal and Sabaton.

Playing influences

Leclercq is influenced by various guitarists such as Uli Jon Roth, Adrian Smith, Trey Azagthoth, and Marty Friedman.

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

Equipment

Leclercq uses ESP 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 and Henkka Seppälä). 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 * DragonForce (power metal) 2005–2019 * Sinsaenum (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