Metal-Rules.com has issued a new interview with SYMFONIA vocalist Andre Matos (ex-ANGRA). The following is an excerpt from the interview, conducted by Marko Syrjala & Arto Lehtinen:

Q: Overall this whole Symfonia thing it's kind of all-star lineup for power metal fans. How did the whole thing get started for you in a first place?

A: "It all started like a project you know. I've known Timo for many, many years and we've been friends and we've been keeping some kind of contact here and there and then about one and a half year ago I moved to Sweden and for some reason Timo knew that I was in Sweden. In fact when I played here at the Finnish Metal Expo two years ago with my solo band I gave him a call, said look I'm in Helsinki. I mean Timo is one that I know here in Helsinki, I said it would be cool to talk to Timo after so many years and I said 'I am in Helsinki and you could come to the show and we could meet', and then he just said something like 'yeah I don't think I can come to the show but we can catch up and go to the sauna together'. And the phone is very funny it's like do you really take it serious about the sauna thing here in Finland. And now we understand why. It's really great. So after that I mean when I was already in Sweden someday I got a phone call from Timo and I said look man I find it very funny that you are living in Sweden now so it's right around the corner, it's like not far away from me so why don't we catch up and try to write some stuff together. Cool, I mean that's like I really like as a friend and I really like him as a musician so why not you know. So he invited me to Helsinki, I came here about a year ago and spent quite a week with him like writing songs and talking about everything. So that's when the idea of this project started. And it was about the same time that he was done with his REVOLUTION RENAISSANCE project."

Q: Did that happen last summer?

A: "A little bit before that actually. And I just remember I was supposed to fly back to Sweden then but then there was this volcano thing going on in Iceland and I had to stay even longer here, we had to compose more stuff together so we basically started the whole idea back then. And then he came up with you know other names for this what was supposed to be a project first and then turned out to be a real band. And after that things developed very fast, it was like successive happenings. Timo went to Sweden to visit me over there so we wrote the rest of the stuff and then we recorded these on a demo you know with three songs. And after that I came back to Finland so I got to meet the rest of the guys in the band including Uli (Kusch). That's when we made our photo sessions and we basically established everything, how it would be for the recordings and so on. And in the end the whole process started to run so he was responsible for the production, we did the drums and the rest of the instrumentation and then he came back to Sweden when we recorded the voice a couple months ago. I mean for me I cannot say more than it's a real honor, a real pleasure to be playing together with such guys."

Read the full interview at this location.

Former STRATOVARIUS guitarist Timo Tolkki's Symfonia have updated their website to stream a clip of the new song 'Fields Of Avalon'. Go to this location and check out the audio player at the bottom of the page.

The song is taken from Symfonia's debut album, In Paradisum, to be released on April 1st via Edel Germany GmbH. The track 'Pilgrim Road' is still available for streaming on the page.

In Paradisum tracklisting:

'Fields Of Avalon'

'Come By The Hills'

'Santiago'

'Alayna'

'Forevermore'

'Pilgrim Road'

'In Paradisum'

'Rhapsody In Black'

'I Walk In Neon'

'Don't Let Me Go'

Symfonia made their live debut at the Finnish Metal Expo on February 18th. Fan-filmed footage is available below:

BW&BK; scribe Mark Gromen checked in with the following update from the show:

"The Finnish Metal Expo was the site of former Stratovarius guitarist Timo Tolkki's resurrection, alongside vocalist Andres Matos (ex-Angra), the new Symfonia debuted material from their forthcoming album to an enthusiastic crowd. A return to the power metal format, the live setlist was as follows:

'Fields Of Avalon'

'Come By The Hills'

'I Did It My Way'

'Dreamspace'

'Rhapsody In Black'

'Stratosphere'

'Santiago'

'Pilgrim Road'

'Forevermore'.

A complete, in-depth review of the FME weekend, along with photos, will be posted on BraveWords.com in a few days."

Edel Germany GmbH, in cooperation with Hamburg based international marketing office IAM - International Artist Marketing, recently announced the signing of a worldwide distribution deal (excluding Asia) with Symfonia, for their debut album, In Paradisum.

Carrying the legacy of names such as Stratovarius, Angra, HELLOWEEN and SONATA ARCTICA, Symfonia is one of the most awaited metal bands to make their debut this year.

Recorded and mixed in Sweden, Finland and Italy, the album In Paradisum carries the legacy of this incredible group of musicians who have written some of the most successful and exciting pages of the last 15 years of heavy metal.

Timo Tolkki, guitar player, and producer of the album says: “I am extremely happy about the signing with Edel Germany and IAM and taking the next step in my career. I believe we have now gathered a team that enables Symfonia to bring its music to a wider range of audience around the globe. We have worked very hard for six months for this album and we think it is a positive and powerful and yet has a fresh and melodic approach. Last time I felt like this was when I signed the first international record deal with Stratovarius back in 1991. A lot has happened ever since but the ship sails on to a new horizon with new and positive energy and we cannot wait to get In Paradisum released and take it on the road.”