AFTER FOREVER Guitarist Releases First Song From HDK Project

The song "Request" from HDK (formerly HATE DEATH KILL) — the Dutch project led by AFTER FOREVER co-founder, main songwriter and guitarist Sander Gommans — is available for streaming on Sander's MySpace page.

According to Gommans, "The song 'Request' is about MySpace. Although MySpace certainly has a positive side, this song reflects the negative side. I wanted to write a song about this, because I saw a lot of things happening on MySpace that attracted my attention."

He continued, "[The song's] lyrics are about the fact many MySpace users seem to be obsessed with having as many friends as possible online, they don't realize they forget to make friends in real life. Again, I'm not saying it's not possible to make friends through MySpace, but there's also another world out there you should pay attention to, in my opinion. You can't 'add' and 'delete' friends, and the way friends are chosen online by their looks or interests is also a bit strange, in my opinion. The way people can make remarks about other people online and share all their private stuff on their profile with their new 'friends' worries me, and that's what these lyrics are about. I'm sure a lot of you out there have gained great friendships because of MySpace, but I'm talking about the ones that don't seem to connect with people in real life and are obsessed to keep their online friends happy, no matter what.

"This song has a somewhat different style than some of the more extreme song; it's a mixture of death/thrash and power metal. The power metal influence is certainly because of André Matos (ex-ANGRA, SHAAMAN, VIRGO) participating in this one! He used his more agressive voice, though, which sounds great, in my opinion! His vocal ranges were crucial for this song; man, what a voice! I think this is also one of the more progressive songs composition-wise and I'm happy to have had the chance working with those great musicians who make the song really heavy and tight. The whispers were done by Amanda [Somerville; the American singer-songwriter and vocal coach who is better known for her collaborations with various European metal bands, including EPICA, AFTER FOREVER and EDGUY] and me, I also did the grunts in the midpart. Just like all of the other HDK songs, Joost [van den Broek; SUN CAGED, AFTER FOREVER] and I did the mix. I loved mixing this song especially because of all the different sounds in it and the percussive character of the verse and chorus. The solo in this song is also played by me; it was the first solo I wrote for HDK and since I never really played this kind of solos in AFTER FOREVER, it was a cool experience!"

You can read the lyrics to the song "Request" on Sander's MySpace blog.

A two-minute trailer for "System Overload", the forthcoming debut album from HDK, can be viewed below (courtesy of D'images). The clip features audio samples of various tracks that appear on the CD, which will be released on February 23 in Europe and on April 21 in North America via France's Season of Mist.

The track listing is as follows:

01. System Overload
02. Request
03. Let Go
04. Terrorist
05. Pedestal
06. On Hold
07. Breakdown
08. March
09. Perfect
10. Fight Or Flight
11. Fine Lines

Check out the artwork below.

HDK features contributions from the following musicians:

Amanda Somerville: Vocals
André Matos (ex-ANGRA, SHAAMAN, VIRGO): Vocals
Ariën van Weesenbeek (GOD DETHRONED): Drums
Joost van den Broek (SUN CAGED, AFTER FOREVER): Keyboards
Jos Severens (SUSTAIN): Vocals
Patrick Savelkoul (CALLENISH CIRCLE): Vocals
Paul Niessen (I WITNESS): Vocals
Peter Vink: Bass
Sander Gommans: Guitar, Vocals