Adagio

随着专辑《三圣颂》（Sanctus Ignis)的成功发行，adagio（柔板）已经完全自幕后走止台前，而全世界的金属乐迷再一次在其新专辑中卷入一场汹涌澎湃的古典+进步的金属狂潮之中；再一次亲身感受到那种来自李白笔下“疑是银河落九天”的磅礴雄浑和璀璨眩目。在这个古典进步金属雄风正劲的时代，在这个我们毫不吝啬地把各种赞美之词冠于rhapsody和symphonyX的时代，如若我们耳畔唯独遗落了adagio，那将会是这样的一种遗憾？ 1976年的法国，当我们的主人公stephan forte(guitar)呱呱落地的时候，谁也没有预见25年后他将给世界带来什么？ 但这一切之轨迹随着他5岁的一次偶然的经历给彻底改写了。“事实上，我记得那时我年仅5岁，一次我兄弟给我一把吉他并教了我一些简单的弹唱。我当时学会的并不是童谣儿歌，而是alice cooper的经典老歌“i am 18."九年后，我接触了到了yngwie，这对于我而言是一个具有转折意义的发现，从那时起，我就决定追随大师的脚步把人生剩下的日子献给音乐。” 很快，在s,forte的筹办之下，他的第一支乐团flirting(卖弄）不久就宣告诞生。当时乐队的风格，类似于今天的辗核和死亡金属。于此同时，stephan还到处拜师学艺，在3年多的时间里，他学遍了瑞典各大艺术家的保留节目。18岁那年，为了追寻理想，他毅然中断学业一年有余，把心思全部都放在琴技的练习和提高上。也就是这一年，他只身前往法国最负盛名的cmcn音乐学院求学。学习结束后，他回到家里。在余后的日子里，他一边忙于把学到的知识融会贯通，一边大量的听音乐，从古典（主要是巴落克风格的音乐和莫扎特的作品）到爵士。无所不听。这段时期，无论是在演奏技巧还是在音乐素养方面，s,forte都获得了长足的进步。 　 1996年，stephan发行了他的第一张样带《幻象》（visions），在其中他的高超的乐器演奏引起了乐器商的注意。在这之后，他和yngwie结识（stephan曾在1998年举办过一场向yngwie致敬的音乐会）并深受其影响。他开始把注意力转向词曲的创作，而不象之前那样仅仅停留在器乐创作。1999年9月，setphan把自己创作的8首作品寄给了nts唱片公司并引起了该公司的注意。为了促成这些作品的发行，stephan听从了了该公司为此组建乐队的建议并开始着手实施这一计划。 最先stephan与之携手合作的的是来自乌克兰的键盘大师vitalij kulpril（典型的炫技派键盘手，ring of fire的键盘手，并且有自己的个人乐队）。为了让这个计划得以成行，stephan随vitalij kulpril来到了美国的费城，并录制了一些样带。不幸的是由于种种原因，这次的合作便宣告失败。但是这并不意味着关系的结束，他们正酝酿共同出版一张纯器乐演奏专辑。来自瑞典的richard anderson(keyboard,来自乐团majestic）顶替了vitalij的位置，他的到来为setphan第一张专辑录制了键盘的独奏部分，键盘的其他演奏由stephan个人完成。鼓手的角色由dirk bruinenberg（来自荷兰的前卫金属乐队elegy)来担当。stephan又邀请其挚友frank hermany来担当bass手。在stepan的不懈努力下，英国籍的david readmen（vocal,来自pinkcream69乐队）也加入了乐队，就这样adagio乐队宣告成立。之所以把乐队命名为adagio是因为stephan想要一个强烈指向古典音乐的名字而"adagio"听起来很好，它是指古典音乐中一种缓慢的节拍。 “Forever dwelling in darkness”……. And forever will rise. This is the dark anthem of a band determined to conquier the world and make it to it’s own colours: Black and Beautiful. To the question:”How would you describe Adagio ?” Stéphan Forté replies:” If I had to dedicate my life to create one, and only one painting, it would be a black and glossy painting, describing a detailed scene of the apocalypse, with beauty, passion and above all a strong dramatic dimension. The particularity of this painting is that it would have a size increasing constantly, each time getting deeper and wider” Adagio born from guitarist Stéphan Forté’s creative mind in 2001 with the worldwide release of the first album “Sanctus Ignis”. This neoclassical progressive release soon establish Adagio as a strong contender for the “Best newcoming progressive metal act” title, having awesome reviews rated 5K/5 in the famous Kerrang magazine, 9 out of 10 in Rock Hard magazine and lots of other very positives notes from the Metal medias. Guitar fans over the world are also quickly ranking Stephan as one of the best shredder, and “Sanctus Ignis”immediately reaches a considerable success in both France and Japan. After two years of intense work and a long period of reflection about death and existence, Stéphan finally compose Adagio’s second album “Underworld”.The overall sounding is much darker than the previous effort and features heartful orchestral elements and a 50 piece real choir. The arrival of an absolutely amazing classical piano virtuoso/keyboard player Kevin Codfert consolides the line up, and immediately brings to Adagio the classical touch Stéphan was looking for since the beginning. For a lot of progressive metal fans, this album is a still nowadays the absolute Neoclassical/Progressive-Metal masterpiece of all time. Soon after it’s realease, Adagio goes on tour to promote Underworld, and does it’s first headlining tour, playing France, Spain, Holland and several other European countries. After a separation with their previous singer, the band recruits a new vocalist from Brazil, Gus Monsanto, and one week later, goes to play the US for the first time at the prestigious Prog Power Festival in Atlanta (GA) In 2005 the band signs with label DoubleVision/SONY BMG in France and release it’s 3rd album “Dominate”. This new opus marks a pretty radical change of style, much more powerful and heavy, but still keeping it’s trademark elements such as virtuosity and massive orchestral influences. One of the major add to the music is the adjonction of extreme vocals, in support of a heavier but still melodic kind of voice. Dominate’s darker image and sound soon gathers new kinds of fans issued from the Gothic and Black Metal movement This same year, Adagio opens for Robert Plant in Carthage Amphitheater in Tunisia, in front of 6500 insane fans. After several headlining shows in Europe, the band goes for the first time in Japan in September 2007 and plays Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, the first and the last show being sold out. Adagio is at the moment working on it’s next album “Archangels In Black” planned for a late 2008 release worlwide.