I had the pleasure of recording an interview with singer Amanda Somerville back in May 2015 and one of the things we talked about was the first Trillium album. She’d indicated that a follow-up album was one of her main priorities and hoped that it might appear late in 2016. In reality, she has been rather busy and the second Trillium album, “Tectonic”, was only released by Frontiers on 8th June. I included the track “Shards” on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 25th May and “Full Speed Ahead” on the Show on 15th June.

 


 

 

 

 

Amanda Somerville is an American singer, based in Europe who is best known for her involvement in a number of symphonic metal projects such as Avantasia, Kamelot and Epica. She has also worked with Prog Rock outfit Docker’s Guild, with her husband, guitarist Sander Gommans on the two HDK albums and with former Helloween singer Michael Kiske on two albums. Amanda gave birth to her first child just a few weeks after our interview in 2015 but was soon back on the road and last year she and three other female singers released an album as Exit Eden.(http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/back-stage/music-reviews/3182-ni-rocks-recommends-qrhapsodies-in-blackq-by-exit-eden.html ).


You can read or listen to the 2015 interview with Amanda here - http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/interviews/1974-ni-rocks-interview-with-amanda-somerville.html

 

The first Trillium album “Alloy” was released by Frontiers in 2011. The follow-up “Tectonic” is described by Somerville as being less dark, more uplifting and more personal. The album features Amanda Somerville (of course) on vocals, Sander Gommans on guitar and bass and his former After Forever bandmate André Borgman on drums. There are a few other guest appearances as well from bass player Mark Burnash, guitarists Paul Owsinski and Paul Owsinski and keyboard player Erik van Ittersum.

 

Check out the Amanda Somerville website for more info - http://amandasomerville.com/site/

 

 

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About “NI Rocks Recommends”

The simple idea behind “NI Rocks Recommends” is to acknowledge and promote some of the great music being submitted to Rock Radio NI. The albums that I’ll be recommending are those that you’ll hear me playing tracks from on my shows. I'll not be giving marks or ratings or analyzing the tracks in great detail; just telling you something about the artist and the album. It’s a personal recommendation to go check something out, not a traditional "review”!

 

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