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In 1999, Jens, Vincent, Bart and his brother Johan formed a band called ‘Spinal Chill’ with Jens on guitar, Bart on bass, Vincent on drum and Johan handling the mic. At the time the music style was a kind of primitive death metal and they managed to record a demo called ‘Demonic’, but luckily for the public, it’s no longer available!

Just after the inauguration of the new millennium, a line-up change took place, with guitarist Kevin joining the band and Johan, who wasn’t working out musically (and personally) leaving Spinal Chill. He was replaced by Niklaas and soon after the group decided to change its name to Lemuria.

With the combined song writing talents of Jens and Vincent, the band’s sound evolved into a kind of black heavy metal with folky riffs and this is still what it sounds like today. After a year of officially playing under the alias of Lemuria, the band recorded their first ‘serious’ demo in the Cavern Studios in Antwerp in April 2002.

The CD was called ‘The Vault of the Witness’ and was praised by metalheads and non-metalheads alike, despite the relatively poor quality of the recording. During the summer of that same year, the band’s webmaster Siegfried was officially made the 6th member, taking up his post as keyboard player and in November the first gig as the new Lemuria was a fact.

Unfortunately, during the spring of 2003, Lemuria was forced to replace Kevin with Pascal, a previously unknown and inexperienced guitarist for professional reasons.

And so the path was set: During next one and a half years or so, the band continued to evolve and expand horizons. Fusing heavy and black metal with folk melodies and an epic atmosphere, Lemuria has created a unique sound for Flanders.

After a lengthy recording- and mixing process during the summer and autumn of 2004 at Midas Studios (Lokeren), ‘Tales, Ale & Fire’, the band’s second CD was released upon the world in February 2005. Once again the disc was received well (Aardschok: 80/100, mindview: 5/7, Rock Tribune: 81/100,...) and the group did some promotional performances during the following months.

But as the Dutch proverbs warns us, good tunes are not meant to last. After a year of headlining and supporting concerts, the band went through a line up shift, with Pascal leaving during the summer of 2005. Later that year, his vacancy was filled in by Thierry Van Der Meiren, but it was in vain: Lemuria ceased to be in August 2006 and everything seemed to have shifted to past tense.

However, all was not lost: Vincent, Siegfried, Bart and Niklaas kept in touch during this period of public silence and something was stirring... Vincent and Siegfried became full-blown music producers in 2008 and as a graduation assignment, they had to produce their own material. These songs ended up being the seeds to a new beginning: The songs were played by Vincent, Siegfried, Bart and Niklaas in the Ghent conservatory studio, with the help of Shadow's Veil guitarist Jan Bergmans. And so it was decided to re-emerge from the shadows and proclaim the rebirth of Lemuria!

With the addition of one more guitarist, Roman Samonin (known from Morituri and FolkEarth), the band was whole again. Re-enforced with the two new quitar players, Lemuria held their comeback gig on Octobre 10th 2008 in the Pand Demonium, a metal pub in the heart of Antwerp. The newly recorded songs showcased a refreshing, slightly altered musical direction, which was very well received by fans and new listeners.

And it doesn't stop there: Lemuria is currently writing new material and is planning to record the follow-up to their 2004 album "Tales, Ale & Fire" during the summer of 2009, aiming for a late 2009 release. You have been warned --> watch this space!