Heavy-Metal originated in the underground
but the sound of the band Van Canto from Bingen is simply unearthly, which is partly due to their instruments.
Van Canto from Bingen (at Rhine, Germany), they make melodic metal music.
A sympathetic group, who know their craft.
That alone would be nothing unusual, but what makes this group so unique is:
they play metal music completely without guitars,
only with their voices and drums.
They immitate guitars and bass guitar with their voices.
They call themselves the only acapella metal band of the world.
"Actually the basic idea was to do something different.
We all had usual metal bands before, which nobody cared about.
So we thought, leave out the guitars and simply sing them.
Actually planned as a fun project and the further it went, the more successful it became."
"It was kind of extremely strange, so that you felt constrained to participate,
in a way voluntarily forced... can one even say that in German?"
A bizarre idea, but their success proves, they are right.
Soon they've got a record deal and lots of engagements.
Meanwhile they are working on their third album.
Band founder Stefan Schmidt composes the songs and records sound track seperately with each of them.
They all are trained singers and have no problems with clean singing in the recording studio.
But live this style of music is quite a challenge, not only in terms of vocal technique.
"I permanently sing any background melodies." "Which are usually made with maybe a keyboard."
"Right. One has no break and realizes that fact quite fast.
And when you have a bunch of gigs, you notice a drain of stamina and then you are tired.
But I think, while producing the first album, we learned a lot.
Especially we learned to get on well with our stamina." "Also at our first concerts."
"You are great, Wacken!"
Yet their most importan live gig at the legendary metal festical in Wacken in front of an audience of 8000 people.
A metal band without guitars, unthinkable for some heavy metaler.
"The metal listener as such is even more conservative.
That it why it is firstly weird, when a band enters the stage without guitars.
So I do believe, that some people are scared, that we make fun of them
and that is why they kind of had their fill for about the first two songs.
And they stand there like this.
After the second song they notice "they really rock somehow". At least then they uncross their arms.
And after the fourth or fifth song, we actually get them.
That's the point, the party starts."
Van Canto's fanbase is steadily growing
and thus the quantity of their gigs.
All band members have got other jobs besides.
They sacrifice their whole free time to music.
"It gives us so much, it gives us so much strength."
"For example if you had a bad day at work, you enter the stage, are together with the others
and suddenly you feel free and pleased and afterwards go home with a clear conscience.
This is simply a wonderful thing."
Van Canto from Bingen breathe new life into the metal scene.
Also because they they don't take theirselves too seriously in contrast to some of their colleagues.
With expertise, catchy hymns and a groundbreaking idea
Van Canto managed to stand out of the metal masses.
