The German epic-metal-band "ROUGH SILK" from Hanover has released 5 albums so far ( "Roots of Hate" - 1993, "Walls of Never" - 1994 , "Circle of Pain - 1996, "Mephisto - 1997 and "Beyond the sundown"- 1998" ) and one best-of-album ( "Wheels of Time"- 1999 ). They have played many shows and tours headlining or supporting acts like SAVATAGE , HELLOWEEN , DEEP PURPLE , DIO , FATES WARNING , ACCEPT , WHITESNAKE , AXXIS , SAXON as well as BOB GELDOF and JEFF HEALEY and could build a good reputation as a live-act.
Rough Silk definitely created an own style. The name says it all : "Rough" stands for the metal influences and "Silk" for the unusual singer-songwriter-elements and piano-parts. ( as well as some other strange acoustic instruments ).
ROUGH SILK was founded by FERDY DOERNBERG ( keyboards, slide-guitars ), who´s got a good reputation besides ROUGH SILK as a studio musician and sidekick for acts like for example AXEL RUDI PELL, CRIMSON GLORY, the solo-projects of the HELLOWEEN-members Roland Grapow and Markus Großkopf, METALIUM and. FREEDOM CALL, and RALF SCHWERTNER ( bass ).
In the year 2000 Doernberg also released his rock-musical "STORYTELLER´S RAIN" ( featuring AXEL RUDI PELL, MIKE TERRANA, TOM ANGELRIPPER and many more ).
The original members JAN BARNETT and HILMER STAACKE left the band after the third and the fourth album and had been replaced by THOMAS LUDOLPHY ( vocals ) and NILS WUNDERLICH ( guitars ). The original drummer HERBERT HARTMANN has returned now after he had left the band after the 3rd album. He already played on the new album "Symphony of Life".
The album was co-produced by JON OLIVA, the mastermind of the American legends SAVATAGE.
The band and Oliva became friends as ROUGH SILK were supporting SAVATAGE on two European tours.
JON OLIVA also sang a thrilling duet with Thomas on the song "Lucifer". Musically, the album goes "back to the roots" indeed : Bombastic epic-metal with many orchestral and choir-parts rules the show.
The band describes the album as "epic-Metal meets world-music", because they´ve experimented a lot with acoustic instruments like bouzouki, Dobro, mandolin, saz, tin-whistle, hawaiian guitar and many percussion instruments. The album is a concept-album with a story about a musical journey ( trough the mind as well !!! ).
Because the band´s line up features some multi-instrumentalists they performed all these instruments themselves and didn´t just pay - like some other bands - some guest musicians to do it.
Also the impressing harmony- and choir-vocals were performed by the band members without any guest vocalists.
The album, that was recorded at Bad Nenndorf / Germany and Tampa/ U.S.A manifests Rough Silk´s unique style perfectly : unusual, but always catchy songwriting with a lot of killer-hooks meets intelligent lyrics, virtuosity and - last not least - a good sense of humor and a lot of crazy ideas.
Line-up : Ferdy Doernberg ......... keyboards, slide-guitars, vocals Nils Wunderlich ......... guitars, vocals Thomas Ludolphy.......... lead-vocals Herbert Hartmann ........ drums Ralf Schwertner ......... bass, vocals
Source: http://www.rough-silk.com/
