New Band VUUR Launched By Anneke Van Giersbergen

Renowned Dutch vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gentle Storm/ex-The Gathering) has announced the formation of a brand new band under the name of VUUR, which was created as a vehicle for the heavy progressive metal side of her career. Joining her will be familiar faces: Ed Warby (drums) (The Gentle Storm/Hail of Bullets), Marcela Bovio (vocals) (Stream Of Passion), Johan van Stratum (Stream Of Passion), Jord Otto (guitars) (Re-Vamp) and Ferry Duijsens (guitars) (The Gentle Storm/Leaves' Eyes).

In early 2016, Anneke decided for the sake of clarity to narrow her musical focus, choosing to go in a folk acoustic direction as a solo artist and in a heavy progressive metal direction as a band vocalist. The name VUUR - translated from Dutch as "fire", which can also be interpreted to mean "passion" or "drive" - was chosen as a moniker to represent Anneke's metal side, with the idea that when fans buy a ticket with the VUUR name on it they will be getting her heavy progressive music, while an Anneke van Giersbergen show will be entirely different. Thus, in order to give VUUR's kick-off the proper fanfare, Anneke has opted to take a break from performing in the first half of 2017.

The launch and subsequent success of The Gentle Storm in 2015 raises questions as to whether Anneke really needs VUUR to present the heavy prog metal side of her personality, especially since VUUR boasts a lot of the same band members. Anneke makes the point that The Gentle Storm is a collaboration between herself and legendary Ayreon mastermind Arjen Lucassen, and it will be resurrected only when they are both able to devote time to writing and recording. She is quick to add that The Gentle Storm proved to her that fans have been waiting for her to go back to the heavy progressive style of music, which is why VUUR came to be.

Anneke comments: "The band has a different name, because the music will be slightly different from The Gentle Storm, but most band members are still involved and the music will be heavy too, so in that perspective not a lot will change, especially in the live situation. I think people will really embrace VUUR as a live band because there are nothing but stars in this band (laughs). They're some of the best heavy metal players in Holland so I didn't want to let them go."

VUUR will release their full length debut in the fall of 2017 produced by Joost van den Broek, who will also be involved in some of the writing and arranging. From there the band will hit stages across Europe and beyond. Make no mistake: VUUR is a band and not a project, meaning that Anneke will focus on new material as well as the heavier side of her previous outings.

"I will always play songs from The Gathering and Devin Townsend because I love them," she says. "I also know for a fact that people want to hear those songs, so I'll never leave them out. I also have my absolute favourite songs from The Gentle Storm that I will keep playing. I have such a big outlet to choose from nowadays, it's such a luxurious position to be in. We should look at VUUR as my ultimate heavy outlet. It's not a project, which is why when we make the setlist it will include the new stuff and my favourites from my catalogue."

Check out the launch video here: