Van Canto

Van Canto
van Canto performing at the 2008 Wacken Open Air. From left to right: Inga, Dennis and Stefan. Partially seen behind Inga are drummer Bastian and former "bass" vocalist Ingo. Ross is not shown.
Background information
Origin	Berlin, Germany
Genres	A cappella, power metal
Years active	2006–present
Labels	GUN Records / Sony BMG, Napalm Records
Associated acts	In Legend, Heavatar
Website	www.vancanto.de
Members	Dennis Schunke Inga Scharf Stefan Schmidt Ross Thompson Jan Moritz Bastian Emig
Past members	Dennis Strillinger Ingo Sterzinger

Van Canto (sometimes stylized as van Canto) is a German a cappella metal band, founded in 2006 and composed of five singers and a drummer. Although the group is often classified as an a cappella ensemble, they use real drums in their music, instead of vocal percussion or beatboxing.

Van Canto play a cappella with classic heavy, power and symphonic metal influence, creating what they call "hero metal a cappella". While only two of the five singers perform the lead vocals, the other three instead use their voices to imitate the guitars and the bass, with the help of amplifiers, in an attempt to sound closer to the original instruments.

As soon as the band was founded, its debut album, A Storm to Come, was released through General Schallplatten. It features seven original tracks, as well as cover versions of Metallica's "Battery" and "Stora Rövardansen" from the movie Ronja Rövardotter. Additionally, videos were shot for the tracks "The Mission", "Battery", and "Rain". On 30 September 2007, they announced a new drummer, Bastian Emig, who replaced Dennis Strillinger's position in the band. In December 2007, Van Canto signed a worldwide record deal with Gun Records/Sony BMG. Also in December, the band were announced as part of the line up of the Wacken 2008 festival. The band also announced that their second album, titled "Hero", was in the progress of being recorded.Hero ended up being released on 26 September 2008, with producer Charlie Bauerfeind.

Van Canto performed a South American promotional tour between 23 June and 2 July 2008. The live performances took place primarily in Brazil, which is the homeland of Ingo Sterzinger. Soon after, the band arrived in Germany to perform live at Wacken 2008. A new song, "Speed of Light", was released as a digital single on 8 August 2008. A music video was shot for the song as well.