10 . 12 . 2016
More updates coming soon. Thanks for your endless support to the band, please look forward to more things from us.
After careful consideration and long discussions between the members, we have decided to postpone the release of our acoustic album to the end of the year. One of the reasons is because we do not want to settle to 'mediocrity' and we'd like to present you only the best and nothing less. There are several songs that are in the working process right now, and we are convinced that with a little bit of an extra time, we can create something that's even better than what we have at the moment. A Musical Journey from the Era of Black Symphony to Winter Falls 10 . 12 . 2016 Also we are very happy to let you know that due to high demand, this EP will be available in physical CDs under an Indonesian label, and also in digital format via Bandcamp. We are considering iTunes, Spotify, and other major online retailers. Let us know if that's what you want!
More updates coming soon. Thanks for your endless support to the band, please look forward to more things from us.
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It's always amusing to find out what people think about our releases, and different opinions and views are always great to read. But when we got our eyes on this particular review by Metal Temple, we were pleasantly surprised: There are times when a Metal audiophile is taken aback by a discovery they have made, and this is one of them. With more material (which I hope they release soon!) I can see this band doing very well, not only for their local scene, but they sure deserve international attention. Being compared to the sound of Stratovarius and Kamelot (Epica era) are just one of the things that make us smile when we read the review. And here's our favorite part: 10 vanilla doughnuts on fire with "MASTERPIECE" as it's caption? Y-E-S please!
Read the whole review HERE and make sure you check out their website as well! Metal Temple features writers from all over the world and they've got very interesting news and reviews everywhere! Our EP "When Autumn Ends" has reached MetalTalk and this is what they've got to say about the album: Blodwen may be Indonesian but they have bought completely into the Celtic and norse influences of their main influences and this album sounds like another European female fronted symphonic Metal band with no eastern flavour to it at all... 'When Autumn Ends' is competent and often enjoyable but they are in danger of drowning in an ocean of similar sounding bands and need to find more identity to make them stand out. A very sound and understandable concern; we liked the honesty and straight-forwardness of the review and accept all kinds of feedback for a better and distinct sound in the future! Being an Asian band, this is something that we would have to face every time we release an album; we will be compared with 'real' European bands in terms of musical identity. We have never pretended to be something we're not, we are just very much influenced by classical music (which happens to evolve historically in Europe) and since almost everyone in Blodwen was a music student (some even classically trained), the main influence cannot be avoided. Although traditional Indonesian music has not been a trait of Blodwen since it was first founded, but . . . who knows? :) if you're interested, read the whole review HERE. Another point of view from Tribe4Mian webzine: Blodwen means “mountain white flower” in welsh, a name that points the orientation of their music: atmospheric epic metal with opera vocals by Bernice Nikki. Along with the folk and medieval scales which gifted guitarist Alexander Lexy follows, you get a dark yet impressionable combo free of senseless brutality and pretentious melancholy. Take for instance, “Blue Romance” a wonderful ballad which kicks off from Clannad’s soundscapes and develops into a theatrical epic, or the closing track “Riverfall” a power but delicate metal theme. Wow, Clannad . . . 'Nuff said. Read it HERE. Meanwhile, we got an opportunity to be interviewed by Lead The Youth Zine - a webzine dedicated to female metal musicians in Indonesia. This is something our vocalist, Bernice, has a lot of passion about. Not being a feminist or anything, but being respected as a musician and not a sex object has been a struggle for all female metal musicians since day zero. Increasing awareness to the issue, especially in our own country, is a first step to modernize the views of fellow local metalheads. And this is something we are very excited to be a part of. We also got the opportunity to be featured and interviewed in Lost in Chaos Magazine issue #24 - which is a milestone on its own right. This independent magazine had to stop its printing on issue #23, which was a few years back for several reasons. But now the magazine, fronted by Chief Editor Herry Sic, is back and ready to kick ass. You can order the physical copy in the website link and support the revival of the magazine! Make sure you check them out!
PS) The interviews are all in Indonesian. But hey, there's Google Translate, no? Thanks to all of your support and votes, Blodwen is listed as 3rd place in Best Album of 2013 of the Female Symphonic Rock & Metal Show from AiiRadio (UK)!
The other nominees are really respected, powerful bands, including bands like Amberian Dawn, Vandroya and Tyranny of Hours - to name a few. Being the only Asian nominee and listed with all of these great bands from all over the world is a huge honor for Blodwen and the experience has been very humbling. We'd like to thank all of our fans who made it happen. We'll make sure that our upcoming 2nd album is even better, and hopefully we can be nominated again next year! You can listen to the recording of the show dedicated for the competition HERE. Make sure to tune in to AiiRadio.net every Monday night 10 PM UK Time - they support female metal bands from all over the world. You'll be delighted with finding gold-level unknown indie bands every time they air the show! There's a chat-room to mingle and they also take requests from the listeners. Check it out! 10 years ago, this journey started in a modest town in the middle of Indonesia. Time passed by very quickly and without realizing it, Blodwen has celebrated our 10th anniversary as a band! We almost can't believe it ourselves. We have been striving with our own music for quite a while, but everything still feels brand new. We realize that none of this would have been possible without our family, friends and most importantly, the fans support. Getting through 10 years is hard, and there were a lot of difficult times, but we never wanted to give up because we know that there are people out there who have faith in us. So to show our gratification towards all the people who have been supporting us since the very beginning, we are re-releasing our "Requiem for Odette" EP for FREE via BandCamp! The option is actually free / name your price; which means if there's any of you who'd like to make a 'donation' with the gift of this EP, you're free to do whatever you wish. Or you can just enter "0" on the 'name your price' box and you'll get to download the EP in any format you want! We released an extremely limited version of "Requiem" in 2012 (if not mistaken, less than 20) and when we listened to it again, we thought it'd be such a waste to let the songs forgotten and never had its deserved share of exposure. While we are still working on our second full-length album with all brand new songs, why not let the fans enjoy this EP first? So there you go, and we hope you enjoy it! --- T R I V I A --- + "Requiem for Odette" was written by Bernice who was inspired by Natalie Portman's movie "Black Swan" -- the movie became one of her all-time favorites + The last lyric of the song "it's perfect..." was the last line that Nina (the main character, played by Portman) said in the ending of the movie when she 'killed' herself + "Empty Song" was written when Bernice was overseas and away from her loved ones + "White 2012" is the 'advanced' version of "White Noise" which showed up in Blodwen's debut album "Black Symphony" First of all, we'd like to thank Andreas from Amboss Magazine (Germany) who was kind enough to give us this review (in German) of When Autumn Ends EP. Although we only understand a little bit since it's in German (there's so much you can do with Google Translate...) but from the gist of it, it seems that our EP is well-liked. We reminded Amboss Magz of Howard Shore - one of the most recognized composers in the world today; which is a huge honor for us. Here's what Amboss Magz said (via Google Translate, some grammatical errors have been altered but the rest of it is as close as the real broken translation): ...Like a soundtrack of a fantasy movie comes the dreamy, occupied with orchestral charm "Blue Romance". It's very quiet and presented with multi-faceted vocals, and it seduces the listener to fall into a strange world of thoughts. While in other songs the bombastic orientation reminded the listener of composer Howard Shore rather than Wagner when it's concerned. After a short classical interlude ("Once Upon a Time") builds "Riverfall" at the point where "Eye of Storm" has begun. Punchy strings, beguiling melodies, seductive vocals and a knack for dramatic song structure with cleverly placed tempo changes. Please check out Amboss Magazine as well, the webzine is cool and full of alternative music (not only metal, but goth, electro, etc). Thanks again Amboss, you've been too kind!
The long awaited EP is finally here. The EP consists of 5 dramatic metal tunes bound to make you feel high and low. It's been a lot of fun (and stress) making this and we hope you enjoy it! This is the appetizer before we hit the main course (2nd full-length album) next year! "When Autumn Ends" available for sale for only $4! Please check out our STORE or BANDCAMP for more info and watch the trailer on the video below to get a glimpse of what you're going to find! \m/ |
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