Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Winterdome

Winterdome is my personal favorite out of metal bands that use violins. These folks from Hannover, Germany have the most innovative violin parts I have ever heard in metal! Their music is a combination of folk metal and doom metal, featuring grunting vocals and narration, all in German. They feature an acoustic violin, which is played live as well as in the studio by violinist Lisa Hinnersmann. Although they are a folk metal band, I feel like their violin parts are really unique, as they aren't overtly folky but have more of a graceful and flowing feel to them. The violin plays a very prominent role in their music, and I feel like Winterdome was not just a metal band that decided to throw a violin in there as an afterthought, but they must have intended for the violin to play an integral part in their music.
Their latest album, Weltendammerung, has 2 discs: one is a storybook featuring narration between songs, and the other has only songs on it.
Unfortunately, I don't think this band is active anymore. Nonetheless, Weltendammerung is a real gem for anyone into violin metal.
Their album is definitely a worthwhile investment, and they are not a very well-known band either so if you like them, please support them, and tell your friends about them!


Official website: http://www.winterdome.de/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/winterdome

Recommended Songs: "Land der Nacht," "Ein Stiller Schrei," "Weltendammerung"

One of their songs (recommended: listen @ 480p):

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Welcome

Hi, and welcome to Violins in Metal! I started this blog because I have been noticing more and more people on sites such as Yahoo! Answers posting questions about finding metal bands that use violins. As a nerdy violin player and metal fan, I have spent many years browsing the net in search of such bands, too, so I thought I would post my favorite examples of violins in metal and other similar genres of rock, as a resource for those who want to listen to this kind of music, and as a resource for violinists in metal bands who are looking for ideas on arrangements and writing their own parts.
I am a bit nervous, since I am not an expert blogger nor a very eloquent writer, but what better way to improve than to "just do it"? Anyways, I hope this is helpful to some of you! :)