Zeraphine

Zeraphine is a gothic rock band from Germany and was formed by Sven Friedrich (voc, programmings) and Norman Selbig (guitars) after the dissolution of their then-current band Dreadful Shadows, together with their producer Thommy Hein. Starting in 2000 under the name "Helix" they played various gigs, such as supporting Letzte Instanz.
As the name Helix was copyrighted by another band, they changed their name to Zeraphine (Seraph - pl Seraphim - is hebrew for a celestial being with six wings, hands, and a human voice )
At first Zeraphine was seen only as a project with Manuel Senger (guitars, b-voc), Michael Nepp (bass) and Marcellus Puhlemann (drum) as something like session musicians. The lineup however hasn't changed since then and by now they consider themselves a band, sometimes referring to Thommy Hein as a sixth band member (completeing the Seraph- idea).

The music is overall very similar to Dreadful Shadows though notably less harsh and more upbeat. Another big difference on the first longplayer Kalte Sonne (2002) was the language - all songs were sung in German. Traumaworld (2003) features mainly english songs. It was written when the war in Iraq started and has a darker feeling to it, yet it is generally referred to being more alternative than gothic. In 2004 Zeraphine supported HIM on their tour through Europe, fans of both bands stating that Zeraphine clearly outplayed HIM on most concerts. Blind Camera (2005) features songs both in English and German; thematically focusing on contradiction and deception it combines the style of both previous albums. Now in 2006 Zeraphine are headlining their own tour through Europe and plan to release another album within this year.