History Sieges Even

Sieges Even was a progressive rock/metal band from Munich, Germany. The band was originally formed under the name Sodom (not to be confused by fellow German band Sodom) in the early 80s and released their first demo in 1983 before becoming Sieges Even in 1985.

The only constant members of Sieges Even were brothers Oliver Holzwarth (Blind Guardian) and Alex Holzwarth (Rhapsody of Fire, ex-Avantasia, ex-Angra) who performed bass and drums respectively. Original guitarist Markus Steffen originally departed in 1992, but later returned.

Sieges Even's early works are often criticised for resembling closely those of tech-metal pioneers Watchtower and then their forerunners Rushbut by the time of the band's fourth album, Sophisticated (1994), they had left those comparisons behind.

Shortly after 1997's Uneven the band split, primarily due to the prior commitments of the Holzwarth brothers. However, by 1999 the brothers had begun meeting up with Steffen again and sounding out fledgling new projects. Of these, the project to reach the most advanced stage was arguably Looking-Glass-Self featuring vocalist Andre Matos, however even this project did not progress much further than a four track promo cd when the group parted ways.

It took the trio two years to replace Matos in Looking-Glass-Self, but Dutch unknown Arno Menses was eventually chosen, triggering a name change to VAL'PARAISO just one year before the 2004 first show once again under the Sieges Even banner. The following 2005 album The Art of Navigating by the Stars was considered a long overdue comeback and was highly regarded by fans and music press.

The band's new lease of life, however, didn't last long as following just two studio albums and the live album Playgrounds with the final line-up the band decided to split due to internal differences in September 2008. Markus Steffen and Arno Menses, however, continue their partnership in Subsignal

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