Music Style Progressive Symphonic Metal

Musical Influences Dream Theater, Ayreon, Cynic, Steve Vai, fusion musicians

Similar Artists Dream Theater

Artist History Forever Times was founded at the end of 1994 by bass player Niels van Dongen and guitarist Martijn Balsters. After a long and difficult starting period, keyboardplayer Job de Beer filled in the first empty spot. This threesome started to write material that matched their musical preferences (Dream Theater, Ayreon, Marillion, Cynic etc.). In May 1996, they recorded their first demotape ("Skyang Khang-ri"), with female singer Irene Visser and old friend Robert Spaninks as session drummer. The reactions on this demotape were very positive although the band wasn't satisfied with Irene's vocal capacities and decided to look for a new singer. After a couple of auditions Laura van Driel became the ideal vocalist of Forever Times. After the release of the demotape, the band began to work on their live reputation. Robert helped out during the gigs. Forever Times slowly became a real live band as well. Laura (who's studying impressionistic theater) wrote some choreographs on the 20 minute during concept "Skyang Khang-ri" and entered the stage with two dancers as well. Besides the usual gigs/festivals the band also ended up high at some bandcontests. Meanwhile, Robert decided to become a full member of Forever Times. In May 1998, Forever Times' (average age 21) debut album was recorded and mixed at KGB Sound Studio with producer Bart Erkelens. Despite of the small budget, the band managed to get a satisfying production. The album, simply entitled "Forever Times", was released in March 1999. The press critics were very positive in general. The band even became Quarterly CD in Metal Maidens magazine and ended up in the soundcheck at the biggest dutch metal magazine Aardschok.After the release the band sold out the small hall at the famous 013 venue in Tilburg. They also played together with top acts like Threshold and Pain of Salvation at the prestigeous ProgPower festival and received very good reviews. At this moment, the band is working on new material for their second album. The ambitions are very strong, without losing sense of reality. Still, the most important thing is "to make the music that's missing in our record collections" and enjoy the simple fact of being in this band.

Instruments Drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, female vocals

Albums Forever Times (1999)

Additional Info demotape

Location Tilburg, Noord Brabant - Netherlands

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