SERIOUS BLACK Featuring Former HELLOWEEN, BLIND GUARDIAN Members: Tilburg Concert Footage

Fan-filmed video footage of SERIOUS BLACK, the new band featuring Roland Grapow (MASTERPLAN, ex-HELLOWEEN),Thomen Stauch (ex-BLIND GUARDIAN),Mario Lochert (ex-VISIONS OF ATLANTIS),Dominik Sebastian (EDENBRIDGE),Jan Vacik (ex-DREAMSCAPE) and vocalist Urban Breed (ex-TAD MOROSE),performing on January 19 in Tilburg, The Netherlands can be seen below.

SERIOUS BLACK will release its debut album, "As Daylight Breaks", on January 20 via AFM Records.

SERIOUS BLACK is different to many of the so-called "all-star" projects, because in fact, they are a real band. "As Daylight Breaks" is a real teamwork effort, a melodic metal jewel displaying conviction, amazing musicianship and outstanding songwriting.

It all started on a sunny August 23, 2013 in Spain, when Roland Grapow and Mario Lochert had a conversation backstage over a cool beverage, talking music business — you know, what musicians usually do. For quite a while, Mario had had the idea of bringing together six musical masterminds to form a band floating around his head. After a few initial concerns about igniting various conflicts when getting together in that configuration, eventually Mario was able to convince Roland of his intentions.

Back in Munich, Mario immediately contacted his friend of many years, Thomen Stauch, telling him about his idea. Thomen was sold and joined the bunch right away. After that, Jan Vacik and Dominik Sebastian were quick to agree to a collaboration, too. With that, a new band was born, consisting of five highly motivated musicians.

Initially, it turned out to be quite a task to bring these full-time musical workaholics together in one studio at the same time. However, against all odds, they got together on short notice in January 2014.

Needless to say, when they arrived at the Dreamsound Studios in Munich, none of the blokes had any idea yet where exactly their musical venture would take them.

After a long night, accompanied with numerous anecdotes from the world of music and a solid amount of beers (which, of course, were just "meant to keep the vocal cords smoothly"),the band started the songwriting phase.

The chemistry was perfect right away, as if they had been working together in this configuration for decades. The fact that they were able to collectively write songs, without any pressure and in an awesome environment, gave another motivation boost to these five maniacal musicians and the flow was there to create something outstanding. Everyone was bubbling with ideas and just seven days later, they had written eight roughly structured songs, building a foundation for a powerful and melodic power metal record.

But even the best songs are nothing if there is no great voice to carry them, right? After a few considerations as to a fitting singer for SERIOUS BLACK, the newly formed group contacted U.S.-based Swedish expat Urban Breed. After exchanging just a few emails and samples, the answer was loud and clear: "Okay, I'm in, if you really want it!" After a short wait, he submitted his first song ideas which fit in with the existing songs seamlessly.