Cardamon

Cardamon is a melancholic rock/metal band formed in early 2004 in Zeist, Netherlands bij Thomas Kalksma (drums) and Koen Romeijn (guitar) of renowned Dutch Death/Thrash metal band Detonation. A short while later, they ran into Floortje Donia, an old schoolmate and friend of Thomas and Koen. After doing a short try-out session, she joined the band. During the following months they recorded 3 melancholic songs at Thomas' home studio. When Hans Pieters, owner of Excess studios in Rotterdam, heard the material, he insisted that the band should record the 3 tracks anew at his studio. In the meantime the decision was finally made to name the band Cardamon. Now the band became more serious, they started looking for a 2nd guitarplayer. They asked Michiel Bikker, an amazing guitar player who was already a friend and a bandmember of Koen in M-90's, to join the band. Michiel decided to join almost instantly. Now it was time to find a bass player in order to complete the live line-up. Bass player Patrick Velis soon joined the band and the line-up was finally complete. Michiel Bikker left the band in late 2005 due to personal reasons. Not long after he was replaced by Kevin Storm. In autumn 2006 the band entered Excess studios to record 11 songs for the debut album. Spread out over a period of several months the album was completed and in summer 2007 "The Primrose Path" was finally finished. Now the search was on for a label to release the album. Patrick Velis decided to leave the band in the autumn of 2007 due to lack of time. After some searching and auditioning he was replaced by Bram DeWachter. Due to logistic difficulties, Bram left the band in early 2008. Not long after, After Forever bassist Luuk van Gerven joined the band as temporary bassist for as long as the After Forever hiatus would last. As the hiatus became permanent, Luuk is now Cardamon's permanent bass player. 2009 started out very well for the band, as they signed a deal with Femme Metal Records for the official release of the debut album "The Primrose Path". In June 2009, founding member Thomas Kalksma decided to leave Cardamon. He was replaced by Michael van der Kolk. The band meanwhile kept playing live and writing new material. Come November 2011 and finally the 2nd album "Sun as Never" is ready to be released. 10 songs and one bonus track show a more rock-oriented sound with punch and infectious groove. The album is released independently as a free download and can be spread freely as one pleases. For those interested, there's a strictly limited-to-100-copies 'tree-branch' USB-stick edition of the album. Available exclusively directly from the band. Official site: http://www.cardamon.nl Official Facebook: www.facebook.com/cardamonband Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.