Haggard  (GER) 

       2008 - Tales of Ithiria  (41%)
       2004 - Eppur Si Muove  (75%)
       2000 - Awaking the Centuries  (75%)
       1997 - And Thou Shalt Trust... the Seer  (41%)

Imperiously, a breath of wind touches her red hair, brushing her tired face over which, lit up by the moonlight, runs a lonely tear. The raucous crowd around her falls silent as the inquisitor speaks to her the last words that she will ever hear before a cutting pain shoots through her broken body. Suddenly the square is aglow with a dazzling light, and she feels the flames of the stake eating at the pitiful clothes on her body ...

Haggard express her piercing scream in their equally sinister grunts, accompanied by a heavy guitar and drum thunder - the pain of the damned girl turns into a powerful musical storm. Only a moment later, all metallic harshness melts away as tender strings and the lovely sound of a harp symbolise the bitter crying of those who mourn the life of the damned. Like no other band, Haggard succeed in turning moods, feelings and stories into emotional sonic landscapes. At the same time, the band from Munich demand their listeners' full attention, seducing them to drift away on a stream of magnificent melodies, tender emotions and brutal violence.

Starting out as an experimental death metal quartet in 1991, Haggard embarked on a classical course only four years later, enlisting a violinist, a cellist, a soprano and a piano player as permanent band members. With the help of these new instruments, it was possible for Asis Nasseri, Haggard's intellectual founding father and inspirational source, to realise his ideas and dreams even more tangibly - which resulted in an impressive 16-piece orchestra by the time the group's debut album "And Thou Shalt Trust ... The Seer" arrived at the stores in 1997. Despite their classical leanings, the band never strayed far from their death metal roots, interweaving both genres successfully and arriving at a creative mosaic of orchestral metal. From the beginning, Haggard knew how to make the most of the musical scope offered by an orchestra in combination with tough guitar sections and pounding drums, reflected in their catchy and at the same time complex compositions - numerous breaks take their audience on a unique sonic path, guiding them through a spring tide of emotions, a fever of passion.

When it comes to their vocals, Haggard also rely on the antagonistic interplay between Asis Nasseri's sinister grunts and the filigree classical voices of two sopranos, not only to evoke a goosepimple atmosphere but also to narrate a gripping story in a credible and convincing manner. Their debut was based on a storyline, as was their second, equally successful album, "Awaking The Centuries". Even more mature and expertly produced, Haggard raised the French astrologer, Michel de Notredame - better known under the name of Nostradamus -, from his gloomy prophecies, breathing a mythical, sonic spark into his lyrical visions, releasing an energy that even touched the New World. Two major tours took the group as far as Mexico, where the legendary Haggard atmosphere was captured on their DVD, "Awaking The Gods".

On "Eppur Si Muove" (Italian for "and it (Planet Earth) does move"), Haggard, who now encompass 20 band members, concentrate on the historic figure of Galileo Galilei, inviting their audience to a third journey into the past. In the 16th century, the Italian philosopher and mathematician, Galileo, challenged the Roman Catholic Church's geocentric conception of the world, claiming that the earth rotates around the sun, and not vice versa. Like everybody who opposed God's truth, he was sentenced by the Church for his blasphemy.

Following a sabbatical of three years, Haggard have returned to transform their ideas into a vibrant, even more vivid epic: their linguistic authenticity is reinforced by the use of Italian, German, Latin, and English lyrics, the sonic picture is refined by an expanded instrumentation including a grand piano, and the compositions are even more straightforward, pithy and driving without losing their familiar playfulness.

Galileo's story of dreams, faith, belief, hope, humiliation and heresy takes on a breathtaking musical life of its own, full of power and fragility, emotiveness and sensitivity, brute force and tenderness, and last but not least full of independence. Like Galileo, Haggard have always believed in themselves, following their own aspirations and ideals.

Source: The Official Haggard Website