Amanda Somerville

Amanda Somerville has written and recorded with bands such as After Forever, Edguy, Kamelot, Epica,  Avantasia, and Docker's Guild, and has produced two solo albums. Her solo releases to date are primarily soft and elegant Pop rock with some Hard rock, Folk and Soul music influences. Amanda herself wrote and contributed instrumentally to all of the songs on her solo albums, with only one exception, "Out" from the album Windows (written by Sascha Paeth).

She collaborated with several of these metal bands alongside producers Sascha Paeth and Michael Rodenberg nicknamed Miro, which led her to collaborate with multi-instrumentalist Robert Hunecke-Rizzo, co-writing the rock opera Aina. Later she made a similar collaboration with guitarist Sander Gommans (After Forever), providing vocals and lyrical concept for the project HDK.

The album tells the story of a fictional country, Aina, ruled by King Taetius. (Damian Wilson) It begins with a warning delivered to King Taetius from The Prophets. ("Revelations") The story involves a love triangle between Oria Allyahan (Candice Night) and the two sons of King Taetius: Talon (Glenn Hughes) and Torek (Thomas Rettke). ("Silver Maiden") After the death of Taetius, Torek becomes the king of Aina. However, he flees the kingdom in rage and humiliation when Talon is the one that gains lady Oria's hand in marriage. ("Flight of Torek")

Torek befriends a gruesome race known as the Krakhon, to whom he becomes a mix of king and deity; he also takes on the name of their deity, Sorvahr. ("Naschtok Is Born") Quickly, Sorvahr gathers the army of the Krakhon and leads them into a war against the whole world. ("The Beast Within") Eventually he sieges and takes over Aina, casting out his brother, Talon, as well as Talon's wife, Oria, and daughter, Oriana. ("The Siege of Aina") In an effort to preserve his kingdom, Talon sends Oriana away from him where she can be safe. ("Talon's Last Hope") Meanwhile, Sorvahr rapes Oria, who eventually gives birth to Syrius. ("Rape of Oria", "Son of Sorvahr")

Unknowing of their relation to each other (as half-siblings and as enemies), Oriana and Syrius meet one another and fall in love. ("Serendipity") As the couple reaches adulthood, Talon returns to the kingdom with a new army to retake the throne of Aina. ("Rebellion") Talon takes Oriana with him to help lead the army; on the other side, Sorvahr takes Syrius with him to lead the opposing army. As Oriana and Syrius meet in battle, they declare a tentative peace on the battlefield.

The peace is shattered when Sorvahr, disgusted with his son for making peace rather than war, kills Syrius. Horrified and enraged, Oriana then takes the fight back to Sorvahr and defeats him on the battlefield. ("Oriana's Wrath") She then takes the throne of the newly reinstated Kingdom of Aina. ("Restoration")

Glenn Hughes – Talon

Michael Kiske – Narrator

André Matos – Tyran

Candice Night – Oria

Sass Jordan – Oriana

Tobias Sammet – Narrator

Marko Hietala – Syrius

Sebastian Thomson – The Storyteller

Damian Wilson – King Taetius

Thomas Rettke – Torek (Sorvahr)

Olaf Hayer – Baktúk

Cinzia Rizzo – vocals

Rannveig Sif Sigurdardottir – vocals

Simone Simons – soprano vocals

Ann Shee – choir vocals

Oliver Hartmann – The Prophets

Herbie Langhans – The Prophets

The Trinity School Boys Choir – The Angelic Ainae Choir

Olaf Reitmeier – acoustic guitars on "Revelations" and "Serendipity", engineering

Derek Sherinian – keyboard solo on "The Siege of Aina"

Jens Johansson – keyboard solo on "Revelations"

T.M. Stevens – bass on "Son of Sorvahr"

Axel Naschke – organ on "Son of Sorvahr"

Emppu Vuorinen – guitar solo on "Rebellion"

Thomas Youngblood – guitar solo on "Lalae Amêr"

Erik Norlander – keyboard solo on "Rebellion"

Andreas Pfaff, Gregor Dierck, Thomas Glöckner – violins

David Schlage, Stefanie Priess – violas

Jörn Kellermann, Lauri Angervo – cellos

In 2010, she collaborated with Michael Kiske (Helloween singer) on a musical project entitled Kiske/Somerville. The band is a melodic metal act, put together by Frontiers Records, a similar project as Allen/Lande. Songwriting and producing was done by Primal Fear bassist Mat Sinner with collaboration by guitarist Magnus Karlsson (Allen/Lande, also from Primal Fear), Sander Gommans, Jimmy Kresic and Amanda Somerville herself.

Their first single, "Silence", was released on August 20. Their self-titled album was released on September 24, 2010 by Frontiers Records, after the single accompanied by a music video for "Silence". A music video was also made for the song "If I Had One Wish." Amanda contributed creatively to the album by writing three of its songs: "A Thousand Suns," "Arise" and "Set Afire," all co-written with Sander Gommans.

Primal Fear and Sinner frontman Mat Sinner collaborated on the songwriting for "Love Is An Illusion," and the singer duets with vocalist Jørn Lande (Jorn, Masterplan, Ark) on the single "Scream It."

In 2018, the name of the project was updated to "Amanda Somerville's Trillium" and the 2nd album was released, entitled "Tectonic". A video was filmed and released for the song "Time To Shine" and lyric videos were released for the tracks "Shards" and "Full Speed Ahead."

Amanda Somerville - vocals (2011–present)

Paul Joseph Owsinski - guitar (2011–present)

Marc Burnash - bass, vocals (2011–present)

Simon Oberender († September 25, 2012) - keyboard (2011–2012)

Philip Krause - drums (2011–2012)

Tom Pluijmaekers - drums (2013)

Amanda Somerville was featured on Douglas R. Docker's space metal opera Docker's Guild. In 2012, she appeared on the song "Black Swans", a duet with Göran Edman on the debut album "The Mystic Technocracy - Season 1: The Age of Ignorance". In 2016, she was featured again in the "Flash Gordon Suite", from Queen's soundtrack of the same name, on the album The Heisenberg Diaries - Book A: Sounds of Future past.

In 2009 the first HDK (Hate, Death, Kill) album, System Overload was released, with the cooperation of, among others, Andre Matos, Joost van den Broek and Arjen Lucassen. Amanda did the female vocals/whispers on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

In addition to that she was also the vocal producer. In 2014, the second HDK album called Serenades of the Netherworld was released, featuring Amanda Somerville and Geert Kroes on vocals, and once again produced and composed by Sander Gommans.

This was also the year Somerville and Gommans were married. Somerville was also part of a metal opera project from the Middle East, produced by Lebanese guitarist Amadeus Awad, with an album called The Book of Gates. She played the part of the Queen of the Nile.

In 2015, the second Kiske/Somerville album, entitled City of Heroes, was announced and released, once again featuring bassist Mat Sinner as producer and in a songwriting partnership with guitarist Magnus Karlsson, who was also in charge of the keyboards, while Veronika Lukesova was the drummer. The song "Breaking Neptune" was written by Amanda Somerville and Sander Gommans, and two music videos were filmed for the songs "City of Heroes" and "Walk on Water".

In 2017, another new project was announced. Called Exit Eden, it features Amanda Somerville and three other female singers from the rock/metal scene: Clémentine Delauney (Visions of Atlantis, Serenity, Melted Space, Kai Hansen & Friends), Marina La Torraca (who replaced Amanda Somerville in a few festival shows of the Avantasia 2016 world tour) and newcomer Anna Brunner. (League of Distortion)

The band was conceived with the plan "to show the world that almost every classic song can be transformed into a solid Metal-Rock song", a concept similar to Finland's Northern Kings. The tracklist of their debut album, Rhapsodies In Black, features some pop hits such as Madonna's "Frozen", Adele's "Skyfall" and  Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi".

The album was released on August 4, 2017 via Napalm Records worldwide and via Starwatch Entertainment in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Simone Simons (Epica) appears on two tracks of the album.

Albums

Alloy (2011)

Tectonic (2018)

 

Rhapsodies in Black (2017)

 

Amada Somerville's contributions include vocals, coaching, production, engineering and choir conductor:

Serenity Death & Legacy "Changing Fate"

Avantasia The Flying Opera "Farewell" & "Sign of the Cross/The Seven Angels (Medley) / All songs (backing vocals)"

DesDemon Through the Gates "Into Shadow"

MayaN Quarterpast "Symphony of Aggression"

Infinity Overture The Infinite Overture Pt. I tracks "The Hunger", "Secrets", "Smoke and Mirrors" & "The Infinite Overture Pt. I"

The Boyscout Blood Red Rose – A Rock Fantasy "Blood Red Rose"

Serenity Codex Atlanticus "Codex Atlanticus" & "The Perfect Woman"

Docker's Guild The Heisenberg Diaries - Book A: Sounds of Future Past "Flash Gordon Suite"

Avantasia Ghostlights (The Digibook edition bonus disc – Avantasia Live) All songs (backing vocals)