Late last year Anneke Van Giersbergen announced a new band Vuur (Dutch for Fire), and now she is giving fans a sneak peek into the process of making a debut album. Giersbergen is joined by drummer Ed Warby, bassist Johan VanStarum, vocalist Marcela Bovio along with guitarists Ferry Duijsens and Jord Otto in the project created as a vehicle for the heavy progressive metal side of Van Giersbergen’s career which was announced this past December. Van Giersbergen said that she would continue going in a folk acoustic direction as a solo artist but also include in a heavy progressive metal direction as a band vocalist.

“The band has a different name, because the music will be slightly different from THE GENTLE STORM, but most band members are still involved and the music will be heavy too, so in that perspective not a lot will change, especially in the live situation. I think people will really embrace VUUR as a live band because there are nothing but stars in this band. [Laughs] They’re some of the best heavy metal players in Holland so I didn’t want to let them go.”

Van Giersbergen’s most recent update on the project reveals that the lyrical content of the album is going to be inspired by traveling and touring:

“We have just finished writing and we’re now in the middle of pre-production in the studio. I’ve wanted for such a long time, because we tour so much and see so many countries and cities, to make a kind of concept album about the cities we’ve visited. Often I have a strong feeling for a city. It can be anything – sometimes I visualize a city as a man or a character, or sometimes something happened in that city and I want to write about that.”

No official release date has been given for the as-yet-untitled album, but Van Giersbergen has previously hinted the goal would be for a late 2017 launch.