Serenity

Few metal bands tie their songs so closely to the past as Serenity, the Austrian symphonic power metal group whose records revisit Sir Francis Drake, Marco Polo, Galileo, Beethoven and Napoleon. Formed in 2001, the band settled into a stable line-up in 2004, when it began weaving more progressive and power influences into its melodic, symphonic sound. The name itself comes from the spacecraft in the science fiction series Firefly, a show whose influence on the group's early work was, by their own account, huge.

Their first demo, Starseed V.R., came out in February 2002 to praise from fans and press, though a round of approaches to record labels brought no offers. A new line-up's first major test followed on 2 August 2004, when they supported Ronnie James Dio. The self-financed demo Engraved Within (2005) earned Demo of the Month honours in Rock Hard and Metal Hammer, and the full-length Words Untold & Dreams Unlived led to a deal with Napalm Records on 1 December 2006. They have now produced eight studio albums and two demos.