Ilium (band)
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| Ilium
<tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3">Image:Ilium permian.jpg Ilium </td></tr>
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| Background information
<tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Heavy metal |
Ilium are a melodic power metal band from Newcastle, Australia who have formulated a unique musical style whilst still retaining familiar elements from pioneering heavy metal and Euro-styled power metal bands. Guitarist Jason Hodges and original vocalist Mark Snedden formed the band as Iliad in 1998 having previously played together in Oracle in the early 1990s. With the introduction of Adam Smith on guitar (also formerly or Oracle), the band changed their name to Ilium.
Recording their debut eponymous EP in 2002, the group received critical appraisal and, together with producer Lord Tim of Dungeon set about recording their debut album "Sirens Of The Styx".
The album, which also featured guest drummer Steve 'Stevo' Moore from Dungeon on drums, was released December 18, 2003 to widespread acclaim and contained such instant classics as "Antigone", "Semblance" and "Incipience: Beowulf Defeats Grendel", part one of a trilogy centred around the Beowulf legend, as well as the title track. The album also featured "The Celestial Sphere", which later became the subject of Ilium's first video clip.
Prior to recording their second album, founding vocalist Mark Snedden left due to family and financial restraints and was replaced with Lord Tim, whilst David Walmsley was recruited as the band's new drummer. With another fantastic album cover, this time featuring some of the extinct creatures from the Permian Period (namely Dimetrodon, Edaphosaurus and Erythrostega), the band released their second album 'Permian Dusk' in November 2005. Immediately the album garnered critical praise, with Wolfram Kueper, in Europe's premier heavy metal magazine Rock Hard!, proclaiming it to be the best power metal album of the year. Such melodic metal classics as 'Vacuous', 'An Odyssey Through Time', 'Dark Breed' and the title track helped gain the band further exposure. The song 'Chloroform Divinity', with it's accompanying clip gained numerous accolades on the band's myspace page (www.myspace.com/iliummetal) to quickly become one of Australia's most potent and loved metal anthems.
The group are currently in the final stages of completing a deal for their third album 'Vespertilion', featuring Dungeon and Lord drummer Tim Yatras alongside the nucleus of Smith, Hodges and Lord Tim.
In November 2006, it was announced that Swedish keyboardist Kaspar Dahlqvist Dionysus/Stormwind/Treasureland/Circle II Circle has joined the band.
