AFTER FOREVER Guitarist Issues Update

March 24, 2008

AFTER FOREVER guitarist Sander Gommans who suffered a seizure last November while en route to a gig has posted the following message on his MySpace blog:

"Once more, I'd like to thank you all for all the messages we still receive supporting AFTER FOREVER! I've had good offers for gigs this year, but we really need to take the break for as long as we need.

"As you might read already, Floor [Jansen, vocals] is having her own project, Bas [Maas, guitar] is creating some real rock'n roll music, Andr [Borgman, drums] and Luuk [van Gerven, bass] are playing in the cover band CELL 29 (really cool hard rock covers!) and Joost [van den Broek, keyboards] is writing and arranging music for a lot of different projects! Obviously, I've been working on my own project HDK the past years, and now that it's ready I want to make sure to pick the right label for promoting it. This takes time, especially since HDK has got a lot of different metal styles, so it takes a good plan to help promoting it.

"In order to make good promotion, I also need the help of you! I'll give you more info about that soon, I think that MySpace is a great way to distribute music, and it would be great if you would help me out with it. Since no live gigs will be involved, this kind of promotion will be very important!

"I'd also like to mention that Martin Plag, a Dutch painter, made an awesome graffiti of Bas and me in a new music store. It's a very big graffiti, and, of course, I feel honoured! Looking forward to see that one for real. You can check out a pic in my pic section.

"I received several questions about whether I'm endorsed by Gibson or not, since I also play on Hufschmid guitars. Well, I have a Gibson endorsement indeed (and got two guitars, I've played on the Explorer during the last live gigs and I also got a Les Paul guitar) but I also use the Hufschmids a lot. You'll be hearing both of the brands on my new HDK album.

"The main reason for this blog is Amanda Somerville [Somerville; the American singer-songwriter and vocal coach who is better known for her collaborations with various European metal bands, including EPICA, AFTER FOREVER and EDGUY Ed.]. Since she has been a very important part of HDK (only female singer/co writer) I'm really happy for her to be on both the AVANTASIA tour and the American EPICA tour (replacement for Simone Simons). Hope you can check those gigs out (the AVANTASIA gigs will certainly be great, heard some good things about it:-),I can assure you she won't disappoint you since she has a lot more to offer than most female singers around. Check out her MySpace. I soon will be posting one of the HDK songs with vox of Amanda."

Gommans previously stated about his HDK project: "HDK is much more agressive and guitar-oriented than AFTER FOREVER, but in combination with the varied vocals we now have, I think we've created a unique style that might be very difficult to market, but shows a combination of all kind of metal styles. We've combined rap (yes, aggressive rap, I think it really works out awesome in combination with grunts and clean vocals),grunts/screams, whispers etc, male melodic voices and Amanda's vocals without making it too intense.

"I think people who love AFTER FOREVER might still find the project interesting, because obviously I've still put some of the AFTER FOREVER elements in it (I've written music for AFTER FOREVER since 1995 so it's impossible not to do so). Amanda's vocals are also perfect for this kind of music, especially while she's able to sing great melodies combined with lots of emotion. She can do practically every style, she can record and edit stuff and has great ideas for melodies and lyrics. What more could I wish for?"

HDK features contributions from the following musicians:

Amanda Somerville: Vocals
Andr Matos (ex-ANGRA, SHAAMAN, VIRGO): Vocals
Arin van Weesenbeek (GOD DETHRONED): Drums
Joost van den Broek (SUN CAGED, AFTER FOREVER): Keyboards
Jos Severens (SUSTAIN): Vocals
Patrick Savelkoul (CALLENISH CIRCLE): Vocals
Paul Niessen (I WITNESS): Vocals
Peter Vink: Bass
Sander Gommans: Guitar, Vocals

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).