illuminatus

Farewell

Rupert — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:17:54 +0000

dear friends

illuminatus stands for honesty and integrity. it is why we write our kind of music; why we sing about our kind of issues; and why we play to our kind of fans.

we take pride in the effort we put into this love of ours, which was never aimed at making money, or being famous, or conforming to anything other than our own goals and expectations.

for ten years we have followed this path. and it took us to places we never expected, gave us experiences we could have never hoped for, and made us create music we only ever dreamed of. but as all creative people out there can attest to, success will always come at a cost.

we had several line-up changes over the years, with the last being our bassist and friend Leo Giovazzini effectively leaving the band last summer due to injury. we managed to continue touring through the year, with our friend and founding member Mark Freestone helping out on bass. but we have now reached a point where we have to decide if and how we want to go on.

and at this point we simply are not able to face our fans and claim to offer the same energy, as we did when we first started. and we have therefore decided to call a halt to our band operations.

we do not know if this is forever, especially as we have seen far too many “band re-united” tours to want to claim that that is the case. we are also all continuing to be creative in our own ways. and we are discussing maybe playing one last show together in Nottingham, as a tribute to our fans, and perhaps releasing more video or other snippets from our archives.

but to continue writing and touring as a band at this point, would not give our music the honesty and passion it deserves.

we must therefore bid you all farewell. and we leave you with our latest video “You’ll Never Know What This Means” as a fitting dedication to all those who understand our struggle. and all of those who do not.

we thank you for ten years of unbelievable joy.

we love you all.

julio – jon – felix

illuminatus

Hawklords, Porkswords and Merch

Rupert — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:28:17 +0000

After an extremely successful, not to mention fun, trip to Belgium, Holland and Germany with the mighty Hawklords (aka, Porkswords), we’re back and settled into the build up to Damnation Festival on November 5th. The guys from the Hawklords were an absolute bunch of Gentleman and it was a pleasure playing with some of the most talented musicians we’d ever met. The tour wound up in Bierhof, Berlin at an outdoor stage in the middle of the park playing the “Silver Machine Festival”. It was a fitting end to a great tour and thanks to all who supported us on tour and came to the shows. Check Facebook for photos!

We’ve also upgraded our merch and added two new designs to our store. The Eagle shirt was particularly popular on tour! It was designed by Nottingham’s Michael Cowell and features an intricate, hand drawn design. We’ve also bought back the first shirts we ever made, black shirts with our logo on the front. Since we ran out of the first batch, people have been asking us to print these ever since. We’ve even got girly shirts this time too.

Review on No Clean Singing

Rupert — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:03:52 +0000

This is an interesting one: a website that focuses on extreme metal, a reviewer that prefers extreme metal, and some tough rules that normally only allow the reviewer to listen and write about a single track from an artist. Despite that, they’ve given us a great review and a personal message from the reviewer himself.

And don’t stop there, keep reading. There are some excellent reviews on nocleansinging.com.

8/10 from Dead Press

Rupert — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 08:33:39 +0000

Another great review here from deadpress.co.uk. The reviewer picked up on one of the important parts of the album for us: the flow between the tracks.

“The entire album is perfectly organised, and sounds as if it’s one everlasting song. The changeovers between tracks are brilliant, and combining that with the fantastic sound these guys produce you have an album perfect to sit back and listen to.”

It’s always been important to us to create albums that work as complete pieces of music and it’s great to get recognition for that.

Read the full review here: http://www.deadpress.co.uk/6667/album-illuminatus-glasnost/

9/10 from Germany’s Power Metal Zine

Rupert — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 08:39:52 +0000

Another belting review here from the German web-press. The introductory paragraph shows something we’re really proud of – listeners n0t knowing what to suspect and being and being extremely happy with what they’re listening to. To quote Google translate’s version of the article:

“It’s always nice when you discover totally unprepared and without any expectation of bands for themselves. ILLUMINATUS is one such band that has recorded with “Glasnost” is a wonderful album.”

You can read the full review here: http://powermetal.de/review/review-Illuminatus/Glasnost,18753.html

Amazing Radio Airplay… again!

Rupert — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:41:43 +0000

Following on from our interview with the guys over at Amazing Radio, they’ve told us that they’ll be playing one of our tracks on their next show.

The show’s being aired on this Saturday, the 23rd of July at 6pm GMT. In case you miss it, don’t worry, the show it repeated again the following Tuesday (26th July) at 10pm GMT.

Happy listening!

Metal Gods festival cancellation

Rupert — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:01:29 +0000

Due to the situation with Leo’s hand, we regret to announce we won’t be able to perform at this year’s Metal Gods Festival 2011 at the Marcus Garvey Ballroom in Nottingham.

Sorry to let you down guys, and we’ll see you in September. Check out our tour dates page for info on upcoming shows.

Interview with Amazing Radio Tonight at 6pm

Rupert — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 12:18:32 +0000

Whilst we were at Download festival, the guys from Amazing Radio kindly had a chat with the band about Download, our past and what’s planned for the band. The show will be aired on Amazing Radio at 6pm GMT today, and then repeated on Tuesday 21st June at 10pm.

If you have a DAB radio, you can listen to Amazing Radio on there. Otherwise the show is streamed live on their website: www.amazingradio.co.uk

Happy listening!

Stay with us during Download!

Rupert — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 10:12:56 +0000

The time is here: our bags are packed, the guitars are restrung, the snare is tuned and our set is sounding nice and tight. Now we just have to contain our excitement before Sunday!

For those of you that are attending Download, we’ll be playing on the Red Bull Bedroom Jam stage (conveniently located near the real ale and Guiness tents) on Sunday at 4:45pm. Come and say hello after the show and share a much needed beer with us.

For those of you that aren’t going to Download, there are a number of ways you can stay in touch.

We’ll be updating Facebook as and when we can, but you can also follow us through the Download website.

The show will be steamed live on the Download website. If you’re able to get near a PC with an internet connection on Sunday at 4:45pm, we’d love to share the show with you. You can view the websteam by visiting http://www.downloadfestival.co.uk/2011/video/webcam.aspx.

Photos will also be posted “live” throughout the day and you can see those photos by visiting http://photos.downloadfestival.co.uk.

See you at the front!

European Invasion with Hawklords

Rupert — Mon, 23 May 2011 08:17:59 +0000

We’ve got some great news for our European fans: we’ll be joining you on the continent in September of this year! We’ll be joining space-rock heroes, Hawklords, on tour in September playing across Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany.

Here are the dates:

08.09.2011 SPIRIT OF 66 – BE – VERVIERS
11.09.2011 W2 Poppodium – NL – Den Bosch
13.09.2011 Cafe Central – Weinheim
14.09.2011 Vortex – Siegen-Weidenau
15.09.2011 Rosenkeller – Jena
16.09.2011 Parkbühne Biesdorf – Berlin
17.09.2011 Kulturhof – Lübbenau

See you on the road!