Unpredictable beauty
Unexpected brutality
Stories and songs.
Soaring high notes, desperate screams.
Nostalgic melodies, shattered violins.
This is Ethereal Kingdoms.
Biography
Portrait by outstanding photographer Mathilde Maria Rønshof
Characterized by intense and unpredictable liveperformances, Ethereal Kingdoms deliver a unique and modern take on theatrical symphonic metal.
Intersecting show and concert, you are invited into a sonic universe with songs spanning from soaring high notes to shattering screams, from nostalgic melodies to haunting dissonances, from heartfelt solos to destroyed violins.
Fronted by Sofia Schmidt’s characteristic stage performance and unique vocal, spanning the highest soprano notes to the deepest growls, Ethereal Kingdoms deliver poignant stories and moods with heartfelt passion and unexpected turns.
Ethereal Kingdoms’s debut at Blastbeast’s The New Sh*t Showcase pt. 5 in January 2018 was followed by an intense first year. In the company of Forever Still, MØL, Xenoblight and many others, they displayed their musical dramas at SPOT festival, the finals of Wacken Metal Battle Denmark and ended the year in the company of Finntroll at a sold-out Gimle.
2019 the Copenhagen-based band returned to Roskilde as support for Finnish symphonic metal legends Wintersun at their 15th Anniversary show. Ethereal Kingdoms celebrated the night by bringing in legendary folk-musician Sigurboði Gretarsson (Danheim, Nidafjoll), The Kingdom Choir ensemble consisting of singers from The Men’s Choir of The Cathedral of Roskilde and violinist/singer Amalie Skriver in a special theatrical setup.
October 11th 2019 the band unveiled their debut ‘Hollow Mirror’, already well received by music critics around the world.
The album is a collection of selected ghost stories, brought to life by choir and classical soloists in fusion with the established metal ensemble.
Torn fates, ghost stories and metal fuses in a grandiose soundscape on the coming album, produced by Jakob Gundel (Invocator, Black Book Lodge, Siamese and more).
The stories have already been unleashed at their first critically acclaimed liveshows in 2019 at a special feature show at Royal Metal Fest and Nordic Noise Festival in Amager Bio.
These shows featured The Kingdom Choir, bringing the massive choir-parts to life. Ethereal Kingdom’s own voice ensemble featuring singers from the internationally acknowledged Men’s Choir of Roskilde Cathedral. The stories were made corporeal by dancers (Royal Metal Fest) and by award winning singer/ songwriter and violinist Amalie Skriver as special guest (Nordic Noise Festival).
Ethereal Kingdoms unfolds the theatrical metal universe.
You are invited
DEBUT ALBUM ‘HOLLOW MIRROR’ OUT NOW
MIGHTY MUSIC
VINYL / CD / DIGITAL
The ensemble
Sofia Schmidt
Schmidt brings an intense stage presence, musical-theatre inspired vocals, desperate growls and classically based orchestrations to the Kingdoms.
Broad performance experience spanning from classical music over melodeath to musical theatre.
She’s done lot’s of featuring and choir work for various metal- and non-metal acts as well and she’s always ready help you out if you need some vocals or a choir/orchestra arrangement.
Studies musicology at University of Copenhagen and classical singing at Sjællands Kirkemusikskole.
She sometimes posts things on Instagram and she curates her own playlist on our Spotify page. She creates covers and other goodies at her youtube channel.
Say hi or send a dank meme at:
Christian ‘Haystack’ Rasmussen
Rasmussen was in charge of guitars and heavy parts in the Kingdoms, as well as pre-production and general tech stuff.
A writing style consiting of catchy hooks, aggressive riffs and memorable themes is strongly present in Ethereal Kingdoms.
If you can’t find him on stage, chances are he’s at the gym or drooling over a new Solar guitar on the internet.
Former guitarist of Fall of Pantheon and The Vision Ablaze.
Jakob Holm
Holm keeps the bottom low and heavy with his tight and meticulous bass playing. His calm and stable aura is a powerful presence in the studio as well as on the stage
Being both a guitarist and a bassist, he’s spanned a variety of styles and stages. From playing bass at party band gigs to wielding the guitar at Copenhell stage with Fall of Pantheon, Holm is an experienced gentleman, regardless of the number of strings between his hands.
Jon Elmquist
Elmquist brings his charachteristic style and groovy feeling into the drum backbone of Ethereal Kingdoms.
Well versed in the world of drumming, he’s explored anything from extreme metal (Banahogg) over black metal to melodeath (Blaze of Barbaroid) and popmusic.
Energetic blasts, inventive fills and an absolutely unstoppable stage energy is Elmquist’s trademark.
Special guests
The Kingdom Choir
At our special theatrical show at Wintersun’s 15th Anniversary
The Kingdom Choir is the title of our wonderful live mens’ choir ensemble. The choir consists (from left to right) of countertenor Darnell Boddie, bass Christoffer Müller and tenor Frederik Gade.
The ensemble is specially curated for Ethereal Kingdoms, consisting of singers from the internationally acknowledged Mens’ Choir of The Cathedral of Roskilde. Their otherworldly voices and intense presence brings another level to every show they touch.
They were introduced to our live performances at our special theatrical show at Royal Metal Fest 2019 (backed by Dansk Artistforbund, Dansk Musikerforbund and Metal Royale Foundation) and have also joined us for Nordic Noise Festival as well as our theatrical special show at Wintersun’s 15th anniversary.
Follow The Kingdom Choir on facebook.
Amalie Skriver
At our special theatrical show at Wintersun’s 15th Anniversary
Amalie Skrivers emotive and wonderfully expressive violin style brought life to the solo passages in ‘Storm‘ and ‘Paper Stars‘ on our debut EP and she has enchanted our debut album Hollow Mirror with guest vocals and heartwrenching violin solos for ‘Heartchamber‘, ‘Distance‘, ‘Beginnings’, ‘Apparition’ and ‘Embrace Me’.
Amalie has played with us live at our show with Finntroll, at our visit to Nordic Noise Festival 2019 and when we created special theatrical magic at Wintersun’s 15th anniversary show.
Besides playing the violin and singing with us, she’s a brilliant and award-winning singer-songwriter with a prolific catalog.
Sigurboði Gretarsson
Portrait by Skoett Photography.
Sigurboði Grétarsson is an icelandic multi-instrumentalist who focuses on skaldic poetry, eddic poetry and norse mythology. He’s the singer of Danheim and has worked with many other great musicians.
His hurdy-gurdy and percussion enchanted our debut album Hollow Mirror on the tracks ‘Embrace Me’, ‘My Kantele’ and a hidden bonus track. His guest vocals on ‘My Kantele’ and ‘Apparition’ brought an intense and otherworldly quality to the songs.
Sigurboði joined us for our special theatrical show supporting Wintersun’s 15th anniversary show in Gimle in august 2019. He played alongside us with special guests Amalie Skriver and The Kingdom Choir in a theatrical production with video backdrops, special effects and light show.
Explore his folk music world on his youtube channel and dive into his work with Danheim.
He makes horn carvings in his spare time and posts things on instagram.
The Crew
Technical assistant and roadie // Crow
Besides being a dapper young gentleman, Crow is our technical assistant, special-effects-builder and roadie in Ethereal Kingdoms.
When he’s not helping out behind the stage, managing the larger scale live productions or soldering yards of cables, he studies mechanical engineering at DTU Lyngby.
Crow is also Sofia’s younger brother and they often argue about who has the better taste in music.
Roadie // Casper Reenberg
Casper is our friendly roadie, who is always ready to carry things, iron shirts, plug in cables and help Jon set up his drums.
You can find him at the venue rolling up cables or headbanging furiously to one of the other bands.
Ask him to recommend you some obscure black metal – he’s a walking encyclopedia of that stuff and you will not regret this!
Light tech // Martin Lundholm
Martin Lundholm is a light technician known for his majestic beard and furiously inventive light designs. He has worked with artists such as MØL, Hatesphere and at Copenhell.
We have worked with this brilliant mind for special theatrical show at Royal Metal Fest 2019 and for first visit to Beta2300 at Dirty Days of Summer 2018.
The Production
Gainfactory // Jakob Gundel
Coming soon
Wolf Rider Sound Production // Patrick Fragtrup
For the recording of Sofia‘s clean vocals and Amalie‘s harmony vocals and solo violin parts, we worked with Patrick Fragtrup of Wolf Rider Sound Production. The studio’s roster includes names such as Konvent, Pectora, Dirt Forge and more.
Patrick’s calm presence and attention to detail created the perfect environment for our vocal and violin recordings in the atmospheric studio at Vesterbrogade.
Wolf Rider Sound Production is now operating at legendary Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen.
Besides being an incredibly talented engineer, he’s the vocalist and guitarist of Dying Hydra.
Henrik West // Medley studios
Coming soon
Mighty Music
Coming soon
Lukas Rostgaard Hartvig // Theatrical and stage performance consultant
Coming soon.
The Voices and artists of ‘Hollow Mirror’
We did not bring the stories of Hollow Mirror to life on our own. We were joined by a trove of talented and inspiring musicians and artists in this production. Explore their names, faces and merits here.
Violin and guest vocals // Amalie Skriver
Live at Wintersun 15th anniversary support show
Portrait by Skoett Photography
Amalie Skrivers emotive and wonderfully expressive violin style brought life to the solo passages in ‘Storm‘ and ‘Paper Stars‘ on our debut EP and she has enchanted our debut album Hollow Mirror with guest vocals and heartwrenching violin solos for ‘Heartchamber‘, ‘Distance‘, ‘Beginnings’, ‘Apparition’ and ‘Embrace Me’.
Amalie has played with us live at our show with Finntroll, at our visit to Nordic Noise Festival 2019 and when we created special theatrical magic at Wintersun’s 15th anniversary show.
Besides playing the violin and singing with us, she’s a brilliant and award-winning singer-songwriter with a prolific catalog.
Hurdy-gurdy, guest vocals and percussion // Sigurbodi Gretarsson
Coming soon
Speaks and tenor // Simon Lillelund Larsen
The man with the golden voice. Simon lend us his remarkable voice and acting abilities in bringing to life the male spoken passages on ‘Hollow Mirror’. Ranging from crying whispers over emotive pleas to full-fledged screams of rage, Simon truly put his touch on Sofia’s lines and the stories on the album. You can hear him in ‘Embrace Me’, ‘Beginnings‘, ‘Ashes Within’, ‘Distance’ and ‘Apparition’
He sometimes does speaks for our live-trailers and announcements. If you own one of the 100 piece limited edition physical copies of our EP, you can hear his speaks in the interludes between the songs as well.
His voice is not only great for speaking but also singing, so he laid down the tenor voice in the choirs of ‘Endings‘, ‘Embrace me‘ and ‘Silent dance’ as well.
Tenor // Oliver Svensson
Oliver voiced the tenor lines in the massive choirs on ‘Hollow Mirror’.
You can hear him on ‘Embrace me‘, ‘Endings’ and ‘Silent dance’.
His good mood, outstanding musicianship and powerful, angelic voice shined through in both the production and the finished result.
He’s a dear friend of the band and is also the leadsinger in Downfall, Horns and EZHNO. He’s been a musical theatre actor for years and is currently studying to become a sound technician. The theatrical realm of Ethereal Kingdoms was no strange land for him.
Explore his music of Downfall here:
Bass // Christoffer Müller
If you have attended some of our special theatrical shows, you might be familiar with his face and voice. He’s the bass voice of The Kingdom Choir, Ethereal Kingdoms’ live voice ensemble.
Christoffer and Sofia went to the same classical vocal education, and Christoffer has been singing for years in the internationally acknowledged Men’s Choir of The Cathedral of Roskilde.
Bass // Mads ‘Arpeggio’ Sørensen’
Coming soon
Flute // Lærke Krarup Leth
Coming soon
Viola // Christian ‘Hansi’ Andersen
Coming soon
Electric cello // Asger Forchhammer
Coming soon
Actor and dancer // Magni Hansen
Coming soon
Illustrations // Anna Holm
Coming soon
Video // Mindspark Films
Coming soon
Video // Scott Rudd Films
Coming soon
Band portraits // Mathilde Maria Rønshof
Coming soon
Videography // Anders Groos Mikkelsen
Coming soon
Voices and artists of our debut EP
For our very first release, our eponymous debut EP from 2017, we had the help of some talented artists making our very first release happen.
Meet them here.
Violin // Amalie Skriver
Amalie Skrivers emotive and wonderfully expressive violin style brought life to the solo passages in ‘Storm’ and ‘Paper Stars’.
Not only does she play the violin, she’s also a brilliant singer-songwriter.
She has since worked with us for live shows and songs on Hollow Mirror.
Drums // Emil Frøsig
Our good friend Emil Frøsig of Downfall created the drums for our first EP. He’s an undisputed champion of classic powermetal drumming as well as the finest lasagna-chef in the Copenhagen metal scene.
Explore his work with Downfall if you enjoy epic powermetal.
Tenor // Tim Neederveen
Tim Nederveen sang the heartfelt and radiant tenor lines for the choirs of ‘Endings’. You might have heard and seen him as the vocalist of our metalcore friends The Vision Ablaze
Bass // Mads ‘Arpeggio’ Sørensen
Mads Sørensen’s voice created the warm and mellow bass voices in the choirs of ‘Storm’ and ‘Endings‘.
When he’s not doing choir for Ethereal Kingdoms, he does virtuoso stuff on his guitar with the thrash/power metal guys at Exelerate and used to create epic symphonic metal with Maelsteria .
Mastering // Patrick Simon
Patrick Simon brought the final polish and oomph to Ethereal Kingdoms’ deubt EP with his smooth mastering, adding depth and contour to the mix. He usually works with djent and contemporary metal, but bravely took on the challenge of adding the finishing touches.
Check out his beautiful compositions:
Illustrator // Malik Sigrist
The album cover art of our debut EP was envisioned and brought to life by the incredible Malik Sigrist. When he’s not dreaming up fantastical worlds for Ethereal Kingdoms, he’s studying at The Animation Workshop in Viborg.
You can find more of his colorful paintings and concepts here:
maliksigrist.artstation.com
