The group was created by guitarist and vocalist, author of musical compositions in one person - Marco Heubaum. The genre in which the musicians work is called symphonic metal.
Beginnings: the history of the creation of the Xandria group
In 1994, in the German city of Bielefeld, Marco created the Xandria group. The sound was unusual, combining elements of symphonic rock with symphonic metal and supplemented with electronic components.
The audience really liked the musicians, who presented the listeners with a radically new sound.
Three years later, the group broke up, this was due to a disagreement about how the musical accompaniment should sound. Ultimately, Marco and the soloist remained from the previous composition. In 1999, an updated line-up was formed.
To the judgment of his comrades, Marco presented new compositions and offered to perform previously written ones, such as: Kill the Sun, Casablanca, So You Disappear.
From underground stars to masters of spectacle
In the 2000s, the group used a small studio to record their first compositions, which they presented to the audience, or rather, their demo versions, on Internet resources. The Xandria group became popular in the underground society, not only in Germany, but also abroad, for example in the USA.
The group was invited to concerts. Successful performances on various online music platforms culminated in the release of the first album.
A contract was signed with Drakkar Records, then the band's first full-length album, Kill the Sun, was released. This happened in 2003, the album hit the album chart immediately after its release. There was a successful debut.
Concert activities of the Xandria group and communication with the audience
In the spring, a three-week concert tour took place in Germany together with Tanzwut. During the tour, the Xandria group actively won the hearts of new fans, communicated with them.
Then there was another festival performance of the musicians at the M'era Luna Festival and another concert tour, this time with the gothic band ASP.
Communication with fans, live performances in front of a large audience, gave impetus to the generation of new ideas, which should have been urgently implemented in the second album.
2004 did not start well for Xandria, as bassist Roland Krueger had to leave. Nils Middelhaufe was chosen to replace him with great difficulty. He was a new person in the team, however, it turned out that the soloist Lisa was familiar with him.
The second album of the group is again a success
In May, the second album Ravenheart was released, thanks to which the performers enjoyed great popularity. For 7 weeks it was played in the Top 40 of German albums. The clip, filmed as a small fantasy film for the song, became bright, standing out from everyone.
The next successful step in the band's career was a performance at the Busan International Rock Festival. 30 thousand spectators were delighted with the performance of a very bright team.
The new successful work of the Xandria group was a video clip filmed in an old castle for the ballad Eversleeping. In November, a disc with the same name was released. In addition to three new songs, there were already well-known ones performed by the group earlier, including one of the very first, which appeared in 1997.
Steps on the career ladder: conquering new heights
In December, after a long tour, the band returned to the studio, charged with the energy of the fans and filled with new ideas. During the first half of 2005 the musicians worked on their third album India.
It ended up coming out at the end of August. To this day, the album India remains the unsurpassed creation of the group. No wonder so much time and effort was wasted.
The time of conquest of the Russian audience can be considered 2006. The Xandria group has become even more popular, and fans are very happy that they are given the opportunity to see their idols at "live" concerts, in three different cities of Russia - in Tver, Moscow and at the festival in Pskov.
2007 was marked by work on a new interesting project, embodied in the fourth album of Salome - The Seventh Veil.
The studio in which the recording took place was chosen in advance, and Marco himself produced it. This was done very often in the community. The work was completed at the end of May, on May 25 the disc went on sale.
Tours took place in the autumn - the musicians performed in different cities of Germany, as well as abroad - in the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands.
In 2008, soloist Lisa Middelhaufe left Xandria for personal reasons after 8 years of working together. The breakup did not affect the relationship of former colleagues.
Changes in the Xandria group
In early summer, a collection of the best compositions of the group Now & Forewer was released. It included 20 songs, at the same time becoming the logical conclusion of Xandria's collaboration with Lisa Middelhaufe. Then three more singers soloed in the group: Kerstin Bischoff, Manuela Kraller and Diana van Giersbergen from the Netherlands.
Three more new albums, similar in style, appeared in the band's discography: Neverworld's End (2012) and Sacrificium (2014), as well as the work Theater of Dimensions (2017).
