Opeth, Madrugada, Wardruna and Myrkur are the first artists confirmed for the 14th ARTmania Festival, which will take place between July 26 and 27, 2019, in the Sibiu Medieval Fortress.
Opeth returns to the stage of the festival 10 years after the first concert held for the first time in Romania, at ARTmania.
Madrugada reunites 10 years after breakup and performs for the first time in Romania.
Wardruna comes for the first time in Romania, on a stage in Sibiu Square.
Myrkur: “Folkesange” -returns to our country for ARTmania 2019 with a special show, part of her acoustic tour.
Opeth, one of the most famous names in the international music industry, returns to the ARTmania Festival, 10 years since they walked for the first time on the Sibiu stage. The Swedish band that redefined a whole genre, dismantled the musical conventions and did not stop surprise their fans, was founded at the initiative of Mikael Åkerfeldt in 1990 in one of the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden.
With 12 active, intense, varied and stylish albums, Opeth is one of the world’s best music projects, whether we’re talking about live shows or albums. Along with the career, the band has gone through a very diverse and interesting styling route: “Orchid” (1995) has redefined the death metal boundaries. Six years later, with “Blackwater Park”, they reached the heights of genre-specific musicality, for “Damnation” (2003) to break the established rules. Five years later, “Watershed” marked the end of the death metal chapter after visiting and capturing the darkest corners and its most brutal shades. In 2014, the album “Pale Communion” was the official bridge to the progressive genre, marked by a novel, contemporary interpretation of the 60s, 70s and 80s.
As proof of the band’s musical achievements, are not only the positive reviews of specialist critics, but also a Grammy Award for “Best Hard Rock Performance” in Sweden and the award of countless positions in international charts such as Billboard 200. Opeth is a name which will always reinvent itself to become better.
The Norwegians of Madrugada are for the first time in Romania and first tour after the 10-year break; the band chooses the ARTmania Festival to be part of their rebound tour. This European Force Tour marks 10 years since the release of their legendary debut album, “Industrial Silence,” which is why three of the four artists who originally formed Madrugada include Sivert Høyem, Frode Jacobsen and Jon Lauvland Pettersen will be on stage.
Madrugada, which means “blue hour” in Spanish and Portuguese, was set up in 1993 in the Norwegian town of Stokmarknes. The name was suggested to members of the band by one of their friends, a poet who also compose lyrics. In over 13 years of existence, the band released six albums, some of which were the best-selling albums in Norway and brought them five awards in the annual “Spellemannprisen”, the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammy Awards (in the “Best Rock Album” , “Best Song” and “Best Spellemann of the Year”).
Wardruna, known to the public especially due to the Vikings series, is a Norwegian band of neo / dark folk that exposes the depths and mysticism of the traditional Nordic culture, reinterpreted in a contemporary style with accentuated mystery notes.
Set up in 2003 by Einar Kvitrafn Selvik, the band impressed the neofolk lovers with their debut album, “gap var Ginnunga,” the first of the Runaljod musical trilogy, under the sign of 24 runes. Each record was made in nature, in places or relevant circumstances for each of the 24 runes. In the period following the release of the first album, the band focused on adapting the songs to the demands of live concerts. The effort was crowned by the success they had seen in the series of shows, culminating in a show at the Norwegian Viking Ship Museum, in front of Gokstad, a 1,100-year-old ship.
The second album of the trilogy, “Yggdrasil”, was brought to life using the old traditional Nordic instruments and ancient rhythms, propelled by the lyrics written in the Old Norwegian. The ancient sounds of traditional instruments are complemented by the musicality of voices, whisperings or incantations, and sounds coming from less commonly used sources such as the sounds of trees, stones, water or torches.
The last album of the trilogy, entitled “Runaljod – Ragnarok”, was released at the end of 2016 and lead the listener further in this journey.
At the 14th ARTmania Festival, Wardruna will play songs from the last album, “Skald”, which will be released in November 2018. “Skald” promises many surprises. The new approach, straightforward but equally intense, will sink the listener into a mystical combination of poetry, voice and ancient sounds of traditional instruments.
Myrkur: “Folkesange” – the artist returns to Romania with a special show which is part of the acoustic tour. Along with a group of young instrumentalists and a girls’ choir, the artist will perform songs from Nordic folklore and his own compositions in acoustic version, both of which are included on the most recent album “Mareridt”.
Myrkur, a term that translates into “darkness” in Icelandic, is the name of the black-metal musical project and the alter ego of the artist and Danish model Amalie Bruun. Born from the Scandinavian shadows, Myrkur combines the raw intensity of masculine energy with the black metal tones and the sophisticated and delicate feminine vocals. The debut album, “M” (co-production with Ulver, in collaboration with members of Mayhem, Nidingr and Arch Enemy), brought to Amalie Bruun the award for “Best Hard Rock Album” at the Gaffa Awards, in 2015, the ” year “and” Metal album of the Year “at the High Voltage Awards.
ARTmania Festival, the first Romanian festival that has developed in Romania the idea of combining art and entertainment, is a platform dedicated to all forms of artistic expression inspired by rock culture. Throughout its editions, ARTmania has become the main regional promoter of contemporary music projects. However, ARTmania Festival does not just mean concerts. Music is the basic component from which everything started, but it is only a part of the experience the festival wanted to offer to art lovers from Romania and abroad. From the beginning, ARTmania was thought to be a cultural platform designed to offer the audience as many events and ways to experience varied forms of artistic expression, such as concerts, exhibitions.
This common meeting of artists and audiences at the level of sounds, colors, images or letters, hosted Sibiu and the medieval fortress, creates the space of the story and the magic that essentially represents the spirit of the festival. Being the longest rock festival in Romania and one of the oldest traditions on the regional cultural scene, ARTmania has shaped its own identity through a bold concept and a special ambience: one of the most beautiful medieval citadel in Eastern Europe.
Tickets: ARTmania
Via Bestmusic