Dremora - Female Fronted Symphonic Gothic Metal - Official Band News

Jason at Rock Zone Productions did an interview with Thomas and posted it on their MySpace blog.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

“Metal Maidens” a popular webzine dedicated to women in metal and rock, has posted a review of our debut EP “Martyrs”.

DREMORA-Martyrs (independent)

DREMORA are new stars on the gothic metal horizon. The band officially hails from California, where their drummer, guitarist originates from. His name is Thomas Kampert, and he is accompanied by Brazilian soprano vocalist Juliana Novo. Their first release captures four lengthy songs, worthy of a bit over twenty minutes of gothic metal. Their sound comes very close to bands like TRISTANIA, EPICA and AFTER FOREVER, although this band is only consisting of two people. Their musical ideas are worked out very well, and if I were them, I would definitely try and put a band together, so they would be able to play live as well. The CD opens with “Alone”, which captures the soprano voice of Juliana and the good musicianship of Thomas. I liked the raw riffs in the beginning of “Martyrs And Madmen” a lot. This song also captures part of a speech of George W. Bush. “Fair Haven” is a very lengthy song, in which the band puts all their strength. The nice combination of the well-known gothic metal sound in addition to the more thrashy riffs is a new fresh way to approach the crowded gothic metal style. And again I must state, that the good ideas of these two musicians would definitely do more justice with a full band backing up Juliana’s voice. “Fair Haven” is definitely the highlight on this CD for me. The CD closer is a beautiful instrumental piece, called “Transcanding God”. It creates a beautiful, dark atmosphere, together with the mourning sound of the violins and the guitar riffs in the background. DREMORA has put some exciting musical ideas on their debut CD here. They even tried to create a sound of their own. There is still a long way to go though, but the first steps are very promising indeed for this band. Website: http://www.dremora.net. [7 points] (Toine van Poorten)

Source: http://www.metalmaidens.com/

Metal Discovery, a webzine about “Metal Discovery and Re-discovery” has reviewed our debut EP Martyrs:

Formed in Spring 2006, Dremora are a two person project from LA in the States featuring Brazilian vocalist Juliana Novo and the multi-talented Thomas Kampert on drums, guitar, keyboards and some vocals too. Their self-released debut EP, ‘Martyrs’, consists of four tracks written by Kampert, and performed by himself and Novo with lead guitar on ‘Martyrs and Madmen’ by someone credited simply as ‘Andrew’. One of the more professional looking self-released CDs I’ve seen, the EP is housed in glossy digipack packaging although, if I’m being brutally honest, the cover image does look slightly tacky. So what of the music? Opening track ‘Alone’ reminds me of mid-era Paradise Lost with an ambient piano intro leading into epic sounding keyboard melodies underlayed with distorted non-riffing guitar chords that ring out before Novo’s rock-operatic vocals begin. The Brazilian singer has a powerful voice, and while she lacks the vocal range of, say, Tarja Turunen, still manages to deliver efficacious singing over the music. Next is ‘Martyrs and Madmen’, a more guitar riff based composition, and then ‘Fair Haven’ which has echoes of Epica’s ‘Quietus’ with its folk-thrash essence giving way to down-tempo palm-muted guitar riffs and Kampert’s effective death growls. The concluding track, Transcending God’ is a skilfully composed instrumental piece that serves as an atmospheric climax to a generally satisfying listen. Comparisons to every other female fronted symphonic goth metal band would be obvious, but Dremora, while influenced by the likes of Epica, After Forever, Nightwish etc, manage to convey a degree of originality through their music. Currently searching for a lead guitarist, bassist, and keyboard player, it seems they are set to become a fully fledged band, and will certainly be worth checking out again in the future. Although far from a masterpiece, ‘Martyrs’ is still a mightily impressive debut.

Rated 7.5/10

Review by Mark Holmes

Source: http://www.metal-discovery.com/CD/cd_review_dremora_martyrs.htm

Review at Deathdoom Productions

DREMORA

“Martyrs”

US Gothic Metallers Dremora play a nice style of catchy rock and metal with a dark twist. frankly the best word to describe this bands sound is pleasant. There is nothing offensive about what they do, it’s easy on the ears as well as being irresistably catchy. Orchestral vocals cry out through out, intricate solo’s and even a sound byte of evil warlord George W Bush all adorn “Martyr’s”. “Fair Haven” is a unique piece for this CD as it takes on a much more folk rock styel and really adds to the diversity of this fantastic band. To sum up, Dremora are simply elegance personified, music like a dream and really really…nice!

DDDD

http://www.myspace.com/dremoraband

http://www.dremora.net

Yorkton This Week, a Canadian newspaper, has completed a review of our album “Martyrs”. The review first appeared in their newspaper on November 21st, but is now available online through the author’s blog.

Review — DREMORA - Martyrs

Independent
7-out-of-10

I don’t usually review EP discs, those with only three, or four tunes, since there are so many full length efforts to listen too, but the above reviews were short, I am going to indulge a personal interest in symphonic metal, and give a hint at what could be coming from Dremora, a duo out of the U.S.
Like many bands of the genre, Dremora relies on the voice of female lead singer Juliana Novo, giving the music a near operatic feel set against the metal driven instrumentation. For a first CD Novo comes across with a full, strong voice, which indeeds carry the sound.
Thomas Kampert is the male vocalist, as well as adding the guitars, drums, and keyboards. Considering symphonic metal can be quite involved, Kampert does an amazing job of pulling it all together. This guy is obviously a very good musician.
There are only four cuts here, but still clocks in at about 23 minutes. The CD starts with the strong piece Alone, follows that up with the powerful Martyrs and Madmen, then offers Fair Haven a cut with a more Medieval feel, at least until Kampert’s vocal parts kick in. They wrap up with Transcending God.

Overall, I can only say ‘I want more’. Very promising.
Check Dremora out at www.dremora.net

– CALVIN DANIELS

– Review first appeared in Yorkton This Week newspaper Nov 21, 2007 - Yorkton, SK. Canada

Posted by Calvin Daniels
Monday, November 26, 2007
http://www.yorktonthisweek.com/

Source Link

Des Filles & Des Riffs, a French webzine dedicated to female fronted metal has published a review of “Martyrs” on their website.

Here is the review translated to English:

With four tracks, Dremora gives us fairly original music where thrash guitars (from 80’s) consort with symphonic and bombastic orchestrations. Alone deploys atmospheres rather melancholy, while Martyrs and Madmen is much darker with more incisive riffs. Fair Haven has a little folk stuff which is very fresh with some death passages which remind me Epica. The album ends on Transcending God, very instrumental, where just a few vocals are emerging for an aerial and atmo effect.

Taken together, the pieces are pretty well composed with pretty catchy melodies and a very clean production. The vocals of Juliana, evolving into a lyrical register, is quite convincing. The only complaint that I can make is that some sounds are not very natural. Indeed, it is Thomas who makes all the instruments and orchestrations, and sometimes it heard a little too that some instruments are from programming.

A group that has potential!

Rated 14/20

——————————————————————————-

Here is the original review in French:

DREMORA - Martyrs

Style : metal symphonique

Avec ce quatre titres, Dremora nous propose une musique assez originale où des guitares thrash (façon année 80) cotoient des orchestrations symphoniques grandiloquentes. Alone déploie des atmosphères assez mélancoliques , tandis que Martyrs and madmen se fait beaucoup plus sombre avec des riffs plus incisifs. Fair haven à quant à lui un petit coté folklorique très frais avec des passages plus death faisant penser à Epica. L’album se finit sur Transcending god, très instrumentales, où juste quelques vocalises font leur apparition pour un effet très aérien et atmo.

Dans l’ensemble, les morceaux sont plutôt bien composés avec des mélodies assez accrocheuses et une production très propre. Le chant de Julianna , évoluant dans un registre lyrique, est tout à fait convaincant. Le seul reproche que je peux faire, c’est que certains sons ne font pas très naturels. En effet, c’est Thomas qui fait tous les instruments et orchestrations et on entend parfois un peu trop que certains instruments sont issus de programmation.

Un groupe qui a du potentiel !

NOTE : 14/20

Source: Des Filles & Des Riffs website

Metal Attack Webzine from Brazil has done a review of Dremora’s debut EP “Martyrs”.

Translated to English:

” “Martyrs” is an incredible work by Thomas and Juliana. The band was
silently created and when Juliana Novo (Crucifixion BR’s ex-drummer)
joined the “line-up” I was introduced to their work.  Based on a
symphonic metal, Dremora presents us a heavy work that will please
fans of other female fronted bands. Thomas Kampert lives in the US,
but in today’s world with a little from the internet, I don’t believe
that distance mattered. Juliana recorded all her parts here in Porto
Alegre.

From the first track it’s obvious how good this work is. Alone has
really impressive vocals and a well done job by Thomas, since he did
all the rest! The guitar melodies are perfect, with a very cool
timbre. “Martyrs and Madmen” is very heavy and the keyboards give the
song a nice atmosphere.  In “Fair Haven” we find a sort of medieval
vibe. I don’t know if it was done on purpose, but the end result is
very cool!  “Transcending God” finishes off the record with a lot of
mood variation: very calm parts mixed with extremely heavy ones!

I also need to mention how beautiful the digi pack and professionally
recorded CD are. Good luck for the band, I hope these two record more
material because they’re definitely in the right way!”

Original Review in Portuguese:

“Bastante surpreendente o trabalho que Thomas e Juliana fizeram em “Martyrs”! A banda foi surgindo quieta, e com a entrada da gaúcha Juliana Novo (ex-batera da Crucifixion BR) é que tive conhecimento de seu trabalho. Baseado em um metal sinfônico, a Dremora nos apresenta um trabalho pesado e que agradará os fãs de bandas com “frontwoman” no vocal. Thomas Kampert reside nos EUA, mas em tempos de Internet creio que o fator distância não foi problema, já que Juliana gravou todas suas partes aqui em Porto Alegre.

Logo na primeira faixa podemos ver o quão bom ficou este trabalho, “Alone” tem vocais realmente marcantes, e um trabalho muito bem feito de Thomas, já que ele ficou encarregado de todo o resto! As melodias de guitarra são perfeitas, com um timbre muito legal. “Martyrs and Madmen” tem um peso absurdo, que aliados aos climas de teclado dão um toque especial à música. Em “Fair Haven” podemos encontrar algo “medieval” em seu inicio, não sei se foi algo proposital, mas ficou muito bom. “Transcending God” fecha o disco, de forma bem pomposa, com vários climas, alternando partes calmas com outras de puro peso!

É necessário citar ainda a bem cuidada embalagem do cd, em formato digipack, e o cd prensado profissionalmente. Boa sorte a banda, e espero que esta dupla grave mais material, pois estão no caminho certo.”

Thanks to Maicon Leite & Metal Attack!!

Jedbangers magazine, which is a metal magazine and webzine in Argentina, has done a review of our latest album.

Translated to English:

“Martyrs” is the debut-EP by Dremora, a very new band formed April 2006 in Los Angeles (California) and formed by Brazilian singer JULIANA NOVO (vocals) and THOMAS KAMPERT (guitars/keyboards/drums/vocals ex-Contradiction).

Musically, DREMORA does a particular style suited in symphonic/gothic metal with classical arrangements, which polish off an operatic aura that the music of this duet contains.

The four songs have this linear style (gothic, classic and heavy) that construct themselves and develop through many ways during their long extensive minutes of duration. Thus said, we find ourselves with a stunning beginning in “Alone” (keyboards set the tempo and Thomas’s guitar attacks like a wild bull) a well done and heavy riff leads us to “Martyrs and Madmen” (with Juliana Novo highlighted for her aggressive work), a calm and melancholic keyboard melody demarcates the obscure path that leads us in the direction to “Fair Haven” and the solitary transentience of “Transcending God” (with orchestral arrangements that actually work completely and join together excellently with the production of DREMORA’s purpose) It’s a conclusive chord like to seal the end of the journey.

Martyrs will have watered with tears the vale which the disenchanted keep wandering, and Dremora’s music seems to have been born to musicalyze this place.

__________________________________________________________

Translated to Portuguese:
Martyrs é o EP de estréia de DREMORA, uma novíssima banda formada em abril de 2006 em Los Angeles (Califórnia) e formada pela vocalista de origem brasileira JULIANA NOVO (voz) e THOMAS KAMPERT (guitarras/teclados/batería/voz ex-Contradiction).

Musicalmente, DREMORA pratica um particular estilo enquadrado em um symphonic/gothic metal de clássicos arranjos, os quais ornamentam a aura operística que a música do dueto contém.

As quatro canções possuem esse estilo linear (gótico, clássico e heavy) que se constróem e se desenvolvem de diversas maneiras ao longo de seus extensos minutos de duração.

Desta maneira, nos encontramos com um vertiginoso começo em “Alone” (os teclados marcam o tempo e a guitarra de Thomas arremete como um touro selvagem), um trabalhado e pesado riff nos conduz a “Martyrs and Madmen” (com Juliana Novo para
destacar seu trabalho contundente), uma cálida e melancólica melodia de teclado nos delimita o escuro atalho que nos conduz em direção a “Fair Haven” e o solitário transitar de “Transcending God” (com arranjos de orquestra que verdadeiramente funcionam plenamente e se conjugam excelentemente bem com a produção da proposta de DREMORA). É um acorde conclusivo como para selar o final da viagem.

Os mártires terão regado de lágrimas o vale que os desencantados seguem rondando
e a musica de DREMORA parece ter nascido para musicalizar esta linha.

Traducción: Rosana - LA GUASCA

__________________________________________________________

Original review in Spanish:

Dremora “Martyrs” 2007 USA Independiente

“Martyrs” es el EP debut de DREMORA, una novísima banda formada en Abril de 2006 en Los Angeles (California) y conformada por la cantante de origen brasileño Juliana Novo (voz) y Thomas Kampert (guitarras/teclados/batería/voz ex Contradiction).
Musicalmente, DREMORA practica un particular estilo encuadrado en un Symphonic/Gothic Metal de clásicos arreglos, los cuales engalanan el aura operística que la música del dúo contiene.
Las cuatro canciones pese a poseer ese lineamiento estilístico (gótico, clásico, heavy) se construyen y desarrollan de diversa manera a lo largo de sus extensos minutos de duración. De esta manera nos encontramos con un vertiginoso comienzo en “Alone” (los teclados marcan el tiempo y la guitarra de Thomas arremete como un toro salvaje), un machacante y pesado riff nos conduce a “Martyrs And Madmen” (con una Juliana Novo para destacar por su contundente labor), una calida y melancólica melodía de teclado nos enseña el oscuro sendero que nos conduce hacia “Fair Haven” y el solitario transitar de “Transcending God” (con arreglos orquestales que verdaderamente funcionan a pleno y se conjugan excelentemente bien con la propuesta de DREMORA) es un epílogo acorde como para sellar el final del viaje.
Los mártires han regado de lágrimas el valle por el que los desencantados siguen rondando y la música de DREMORA parece nacida para musicalizar dicha ronda.

-Gustavo Piccini-
http://www.jedbangers.com.ar/

Stalker Magazine did a review of our debut album MARTYRS.

You can check it out at the above location or from the link on our Promotion page

Interview: Dremora

Posted by tanya

In Music
16Sep 07

Most of my friends know me to love symphonic metal but I have never really found any bands in the USA that have piqued my interest until recently. Dremora is the brainchild of Thomas

GAW: How did you come up with the name Dremora??

Thomas: Actually it was a long process that took over several weeks. I wanted a name that as soon as you seen it, you would know what kind of music it was. I wanted something easy to spell, easy to remember, and also sounded cool without being to masculine or feminine. I started searching the Internet for lists of names of things, everything from items in nature, to astronomical phenomena, to Greek and Roman names. I literally read thousands of names and chose the top 50. Then I went through the task of seeing if they were taken by other bands, or trademarked, and if it had an available top level domain. Of course most were already taken in some way. I narrowed it down to a list of 5 available names, one of them being Dremora which I got from a list of ancient Greek surnames. The name seemed to fit the best with the idea of the band, as it sounded dark and mysterious. So I finally chose this name as the one I wanted, and went from there.

GAW: What made you decide to form a female fronted metal band?

Thomas: Well I was a huge fan of European female fronted metal for many years, and many of these bands never really toured here until recently. I really enjoy the sound of metal mixed with orchestration and operatic vocals, and there just is not a lot of that here in America. It’s really an emotional experience for me to create music so I wanted for many years to start another band, but I wanted to do something different than what anyone else here was doing. In fact I wanted to do something different than what anyone was currently doing. Many of the bands I liked were starting to change their sound, when I preferred the sound of their first albums. So I decided to take it upon myself to get the ball rolling and find some way to get everything I needed to start my own band. One of the reasons I moved to Los Angeles was for the metal scene and pool of available talent. I knew if I could put together a good album to show my ideas and feelings about this kind of music, I could get others to join in as well. This is of course the next direction for Dremora, as right now it is just myself and Juliana.

GAW: What made you decide to court Juliana Novo as front lady?

Thomas: It is an interesting story actually. Nightwish at the time was my favorite band of the genre and after they fired their singer Tarja, I was curious as to the direction they were going to take. So I frequented the Nightwish forums and they had a thread there where women from around the world would show off their singing talents by posting their own original songs or cover songs. It was mainly to show off some of the things they were sending in as demos for the open Nightwish singer position, and in return they would get feedback from other singers. I initially went just out of curiosity and checked out a lot of them, as I was just starting to write the first Dremora song and was not yet actually looking for a singer. Some of the girls were already in bands or projects, and some were available for new projects. I seen some bands/solo artists there starting to collaborate with some of these singers to do their songs, as they were also looking for singers for their original material. I was not interested at first as I wanted a local singer to work with, but to find a good unique operatic voice in Los Angeles isn’t an easy prospect. There were literally dozens of female singers on this thread, and after seeing how it was working for some other musicians there I gained more interest in finding someone to do one song for me to which I could advertise to help look for someone more permanent. Posting on this thread about what I was doing with my music, I got an offer from a girl in Sweden to sing on a demo version of Alone. So we collaborated on that and I posted the results to the forum. There was a good response and it caught some attention from others. That is when I noticed some posts from Juliana. She seemed different than everyone else there in her attitude. So I checked out her profile and her cover songs. She was truly into metal, not just Nightwish and she had the appearance to match this which was different from the others. I seen she was in many bands in the past and sang in a popular choir in Brazil so she seemed experienced. What really got my attention were the videos she posted of her old Nightwish/After Forever cover band. She sounded great live and was really emotional and professional in her performance. This is when I started taking serious interest in her. That and the fact she said in her profile she was willing to move from Brazil to join a good band. So I replied to some of her posts and we started trading MySpace messages. We then spoke some and she sang acapella over messenger. She was talented, really had a great attitude, and seemed eager to work on some original material. At that time I was still writing the track Martyrs and Madmen, and she offered to sing on it. Her trial performance on the song was amazing on every level and from that point on I knew she was perfect for Dremora. The rest is history.

GAW: I understand Juliana lives in Brazil..so is the distance a problem to
record the songs?

Thomas: It’s not really a huge problem, it is just time consuming. She records her parts in Brazil and sends the raw tracks to me via the Internet. At the beginning there were some technical issues with recording vocals on her computer as she needed some new equipment and a place she could setup where the room wouldn’t influence the recording. The first song we did together was “Martyrs and Madmen”, and she recorded this in a friend’s studio and it came out great. We actually did the recording for “Alone” twice, as the first time there were some technical issues. However she resolved that with some upgrades and from the second recording of Alone on, the quality was no longer an issue. Probably the most difficult thing with the distance is to how to convey ideas and opinions. Juliana will sing parts live over messenger, and we will then discuss any changes. Then she does the recordings of many tracks and then we will choose the best ones. The other problem with the distance deals with the songwriting factor. I know her abilities and range much better now so it is less of a problem than it was before when deciding how to create parts of songs suited to her voice. See I believe it’s easier and more productive to include the singer as part of this process to get the most out of it. Many bands say it is not important to have the singer involved, I don’t agree, as vocals are a major role in this style. I would like to write a part and have her sing to it in her own way so I can work with those ideas to continue the song. When she moves to America I expect this will really contribute positively to how the songs are created.

Juliana: I don’t think it’s really hard, I can show my ideas over MSN to Thomas, then get his feedback. All of those songs had my contribution by creating new backings, and in Transcending God I created all melodies, so it wasn’t really hard to contribute with the production of the album. I only had to buy a better gear in order to record the songs at home.

GAW:Who writes the songs?

Thomas: I currently write all of the music, and for the “Martyrs” album I placed sampled choir voices for the vocal lines. Then Juliana will work with that as a basis. However on “Transcending God”, she composed all of the vocal melodies herself which turned out great. For the song “Martyrs and Madmen” a friend of mine who is a studio musician composed the solo and lead guitar parts himself. You may hear him again on future Dremora songs until we can get a full-time lead guitarist.

GAW: To Juliana Novo: what made you decide to agree to be Dremora’s front woman?

Juliana: Well I heard the demo version of Alone and liked it very much. Then I thought about offering my voice to collaborate with his band, but he still had another girl contributing, so I kept on my own, till he found out how great my videos were and thought about using my voice on this second track he was creating, so I did and he liked, and that’s it. I do like the direction he’s taking with this mixture of heavy/thrash metal guitars with keys and orchestration, which I think it fits my classic heavy metal voice very well, and I like the way he gives me freedom to explore my creativity in his main melodies.

GAW: What influences do you guys take from?

Thomas: I have many influences depending on what you are talking about. For songwriting and keys my main influence was Tuomas Holopainen from “Nightwish” as his music is what got me thinking that keys in metal is a cool thing, and his writing style of the older albums is just genius. For drums my first metal influence was from Lars Ulrich of “Metallica” up until the “Black Album”. My prior band did a lot of “Metallica” covers so I learned his style. Then from that point it was more the aggressive style of Vinnie Paul from “Pantera”. Since my interest in symphonic metal, I came to admire the former drummer of “Epica” Jeroen Simons, as to me he really made that band, and a lot of my drumming influence now comes from “The Phantom Agony” album. Also “Epica” greatly influences my style of including orchestration in the music, as they have some of the best in my opinion. As for guitars, I started learning from tablatures of classic “Metallica” songs and the style of James Hetfield, the guitar work of Dave Mustaine of “Megadeth” and “Dimebag Darrell” of “Pantera”. This older style of shredding power chords is something I feel left out of a lot of current music so any guitarist we get in “Dremora” we will want to have a similar style.

Juliana: in my singing I have taken influences mainly from male heavy metal singers like Bruce Dickinson, King Diamond, Dio, Ian Gillan, Ozzy, etc. I also admire Dave Mustaine from Megadeth and Nick Holmes from Paradise Lost so I might have a bit of influence by them to create my own style, and Tarja Turunen is the woman who made me feel like singing in a Symphonic Metal band, with her powerful and beautiful voice since early Nightwish albums. She is for sure a big influence to me, that’s when I discovered I could sing in an operatic style, since June/2000. Oh and Sarah Jezebel from Cradle Of Filth was another influence back in that time. And I also listen to a lot of thrash, death, doom and black metal.

GAW:What’s the inspiration for this album?

Thomas: My inspiration was to make something new within the confines of symphonic metal. There are a lot of bands in the genre now that do a lot of really “happy” music, and a lot of bands that do totally depressing or evil music. I wanted to find the middle ground with “Martyrs”. There is a lot of emotion involved in each song, and it focuses mainly on the theme of decisions we make in life whether it is something good or bad. The main theme revolves around self-destruction and how we as humans make decisions each day based on emotions or beliefs that can change the outcome of the world or just our own personal lives. I wrote all of the lyrics for “Martyrs” and there are a lot of double meanings and hidden messages within, so I will let the listeners decide on how to interpret them in their own way.

GAW:My favorite song from the album is Alone, can you tell me what the main inspiration for the song is?

Thomas: Well the main inspiration for this song is from a personal experience from the past that I think a lot of people can associate with. Everyone knows what it is like to be alone, or to be around other people and still feel alone, ignored, and left out of a situation. We each have voices in our heads to tell us what we should do to get out of it and the ending of the song provides the listener with some kind of relief from this loneliness. It is up to that individual’s life experience to figure out what they need to do to change whatever bad situation they are in.

GAW:Is there anything you want to tell the readers of GAW that I didn’t go
over here?

Thomas: I just want to thank you Tanya for this opportunity to talk to you and the fans of Dremora about the band and our music. We will be starting to record our next album soon, and we plan to get some more members and also get Juliana here in the states so we can start doing some live shows soon. We hope to see you all in 2008!

Juliana: Keep fighting for your dreams and stay Metal!! See you all soon in our upcoming tour!!