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Ancient Bards

Ancient Bards
Ancient Bards – Wacken Open Air 2015 01.jpg
Ancient Bards at Wacken Open Air 2015
Background information
Origin Italy
Genres Symphonic metal, power metal
Years active 2006–present
Labels Limb Music
Website www.ancientbards.com
Members Martino Garattoni
Federico Gatti
Daniele Mazza
Claudio Pietronik
Sara Squadrani
Past members Alessandro Carichini
Fabio Balducci

Ancient Bards is an Italian symphonic metal band, conceived in January 2006 by keyboard player Daniele Mazza.

The project, originated in the mind of Daniele Mazza, started to materialize in 2006 after Daniele met with bass player Martino Garattoni. The first stable line up was completed in 2007, with Sara Squadrani as singer, Alessandro Carichini as drummer, and Claudio Pietronik and Fabio Balducci as guitarists.

In September 2010, Alessandro left the band, to be replaced by a new drummer Federico Gatti. The latest line-up change occurred in the end of 2013 after recording the third album A New Dawn Ending, when Balducci left the band for personal reasons. Permanent replacement for Fabio has not been announced yet, but for live shows in 2014 the band has been joined by Simone Bertozzi as a guest second guitarist.

The style and concept of their 2010 debut album, The Alliance of the Kings, has been seen as inspired by fellow Italian band Rhapsody of Fire. The album is the first part of The Black Crystal Sword Saga with each song making up a single "episode".

The Italian and German editions of Metal Hammer commented on the "sophisticated songwriting" in this release. The latter magazine also found similarities to Anette Olzon in singer Sara Squadrani's voice.

The band's second album, Soulless Child, was released in 2011. It continues the The Black Crystal Sword Saga introduced in the previous album. The reviewers of Metal Hammer Germany and Rock Hard agreed that the album had a tendency towards kitsch. While Metal Hammer found several positive remarks about individual tracks, Rock Hard criticised a lack of original hooks.

In April 2014, a third album, A New Dawn Ending, was released. This concluded the first part of The Black Crystal Sword Saga, making that section a complete trilogy.


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