Imperio

1- Imperio is an Italian dance act, that was produced by Norbert Reichart. Members were Manuela Ray and Michael Harris in a first stage. They released the album "Veni Vidi Vici": In a second one, Imperio was performed by Manuela herself and Lawrence Madia. They recorded the album "Return To Paradise". 2- Imperio is also a Metal Rock band from Argentina. This "Metal Empire" of melodic Speed Metal in the German style, exist since 1996. One of the founding members was the great singer Christian Bertoncelli, who was short time member of HORCAS, and wrote some lyrics for their third album, but left the band before he recorded anything. Already 1997 they opened for GAMMA RAY and later for many other international bands. The brothers Gonzales joined as new drummer and guitar player. In 1998 they played on the big "Metal Rock" festival and had one song on the compilation, belonging to it. 1999 was the first album released, completely independent and in 1000 copies. These were sold out in one month, and they got known till Japan, where the album got a license deal. Sadly the Korean guitar player had to quit because of health problems. So Juan Gonzales switched from bass to guitar, and a cousin, Gabriel Gonzales took over the bass, and a new very talented keyboarder joined. The first album got released again, including the 3 bonus tracks from the Japanese version. The new CD includes more keyboard, and even more Teutonic Metal. As there are now hundreds of bands around in this style (especially from Italy), it was clear, that it will be hard to get international recognition, even as absolutely skilled musicians. But the Argentine fans loved them for that and they were on the way to become one of the biggest bands in the country. They got some first ranks at the polls of the biggest Metal mag in the coutry, "Epopeya". But they seemed not to be too happy with their sound, and in the beginning of this year the keyboarder left. They started now to play more straight and powerful, what I liked much more. Finally the news came like a shock, that they split in mid 2001! The singer and one guitar player were soon very active again under the new name RENACER. Their first album contained a bonus CD with unreleased IMPERIO tracks, and the band played soon in the first row of national Metal bands. The other guys founded the band PIRAMIDE, which released one goode CD, but seems to have disappeared after this. In 2005 the old manager fabricated a CD with unreleased material. It contains demo songs from 1997, a V8 cover version, live tracks and 2 video clips. For some informations about IMPERIO and RENACER, look at: http://www.blackstar3.com