User:Mathijs stegeman

Dark Reign is a Dutch metalband founded in 2002. The band, from the area of greater Amsterdam, plays metal in the broadest sense of the word, with diverse influences from all kind of genres within music.

Biografie
thumb|500px|Dark Reign The Dutch band Dark Reign forms around September 2002 when Eduard and Henk decide to stop with their old band. The two quickly search and find a new bassplayer called Maarten. Soon they find out that Maarten's neighbour ,David, is an old friend of Eduard also. These 4 guys are jamming a couple of months before they find vocalist Mathijs. All of them share the passion for Heavy Metal and therefore it's not difficult to create the right style. Influences from other Heavy genres also find their way into their music. This creates a mix of different styles with Metal as the concrete foundation for it. All 5 members know what it is to play for an audience and they played a lot of shows with their former bands. So at the end of march 2003 their first show takes place in Almere in a venue called Trapnotov. The response of the audience is outstanding and the band knows their on the right track. At the beginning of september Dark Reign performs again. Now at the welknown P60 stage in Amstelveen. The band sets a smashing performance and is called back on stage for an encore. The beginning of november 2003 marks the first studio experience for Dark Reign. With producer Hans van Kampen they record 3 tracks in only 2 days. The band manages to keep the live feel of their songs and bring them to a higher level. The time is right to do some more gigs and show the world what Dark Reign is about. The band has enough inspiration and idea for more Heavy Songs and are eager to unleash them to the outside world. In the meantime the song WHY THIS LIFE appears on the Fearsome records compilation BLOWN TO PIECES 3 which is released in January 2005. After playing multiple shows with bands like LAST BREATH DENIED and TEOTWAWKI and reaching the finals of the Amstelveen Popcontest, Mathijs announces his departure from the band. He can no longer combine DARK REIGN with his study and job. From that point on the band has to start from scratch again. Mathijs agrees to do the shows which were already booked. His last show is at Rockcafe Fred en Ed in Harderwijk at the pre-round of the dutch METALBATTLE where they finished second again. Still the band did not found a singer yet. Then finally in may 2005 after an 8 month search Jurriaan ter Burg joins the band. At last the band can focus on putting out the new record PRISONER OF IMAGINATION (with Mathijs still on vocals on that one) and stepping onto the stage again where they are at their best. In the meantime the record gets great reviews from LORDS OF METAL E-zine and FISHCOMCOLLECTIVE E-zine. Prisoner of Imagination was recorded somewhere between November 2004 and February 2005. The year 2006 is going fast and Dark Reign played some real good shows at the METALBATTLE ending in the semi final in De Goudvishal in Arnhem. A week later they played their last show with singer Jurriaan ter Burg at the P60 in Amstelveen. After that we decided that it was best to part ways with Jurriaan. He remains a friend and we wish him all the best in the future with other projects. In the meanwhile we started to look for a new frontman. And after only one week we found Juan Pablo Olarte. Well a year further now and we're sorry to say that Juan is leavingthe band. But we have good news. Our first singer Mathijs Stegeman will join us again from september so Dark Reign will be back in their original line up as they started 5 years ago.

Current line-up

 * Mathijs Stegeman - Vocals (2002-2005, 2007-present)
 * David "Ko" Paais - Guitar (2002-present)
 * Eduard "Ed-D" van Dugteren - guitar (2002-present)
 * Maarten Groeneveld - Bass guitar (2002-present)
 * Henk Biesterveld - Drums (2002-present)

Former Members

 * Juan Pablo Olarte - Vocals (2006-2007)
 * Jurriaan ter Burg - Vocals (2005-2006)

External link

 * Website Dark Reign