BIOGRAPHIE

Vocals - Tracie Law / Violin & Keyboards - Pamela Chowhan

Bass - Diane Fox/ Guitar - Dave Dart

Truly fresh and inspiring UK act Symphony of Pain might well be termed Symphonic Gothic Metal. Fusing colossal riffs to lush harmonies and clever arrangements, this London based quintet are garnering massive critical acclaim.

Imagine a musical hybrid of The Cult, Queensryche, Thin Lizzy, The Sweet and Kings X and you'll be thinking along the right lines, but with additional interjections of sublime classical violin playing throughout. Totally Recommended!

The music of Symphony of Pain is an exquisite blend of raw untamed hard rock juxtaposed with the dynamics of classical instrumentation, the outright aggression of rock 'n' roll guitar, bass and drums coupled with strings, harpsichord, voices, piano and violin.
Their songs, whilst being diverse, maintain a sound that Symphony of Pain alone have captured. Soaring, melancholic and brooding ballads that wrap themselves around kick-ass rockers that go straight for the jugular.

In short, Symphony of Pain are dark, moody and uncompromising yet eloquent, melodic and unique.

“Brilliantly executed vamp rock with a flair for the melodramatic”
Terrorizer Magazine.

Its usage first appears in a manuscript written in 1769 by Dr. Frederick Lawe, a gentleman alchemist. The document recounts how Dr. Lawe, while collecting samples of flora in a heavily forested part of central England, disturbed a savage adolescent living like an untamed beast amongst the indiginous creatures of the forest. Seemingly intelligent, crafty and showing considerable craftiness this half-beast, half-boy quickly cornered the astonished scientist. Shocked into action, Lawe escaped by plunging himself into a nearby river and he was quickly transported down stream by the current, suffering only minor cuts and some bruising. Obsessed with his new find, Lawe returned to the same location again and again, offering morsels of food in an attempt to communicate with the youth. Over time, Frederick earned the trust he needed and bestowed the name of Valpayne upon the boy. A surprisingly quick pupil, the boy was eventually adopted by the doctor and brought into civilised society. However, the boy's dark nature was never far from the surface being only tempered by music. In an attempt to nurture that love of music, Dr. Lawe employed the services of Countess Stasya Nourov, a gifted pianist and violinist from eastern Europe. Nevertheless, even with the feminine influence and presence of the Countess, Valpayne still suffered from sudden aggressive rages coupled with extremes of mood, one moment of hyperactive ecstacy could easily and suddenly plunge into a deep, black melancholia. Several years passed when, suddenly, Valpayne and the Countess disappeared from England and the house of Dr. Frederick Lawe. Months later, he finally tracked the pair to a remote and mountainous area of Romania, only to discover from the locals that both Valpayne and the Countess were presumed dead, murdered by religious fanatics amid rumours of blood rituals. Some of the more forthcoming villagers whispered of vampiric slayings that had begun shortly after the pair's arrival, while others theorised that the couple had fallen madly in love and had simply vanished together...

Padshah-zadi, or Khanam, a lady, a woman of rank, a princess and title of the wife of a khan.

In the year 1176, deep in the Aravali mountains of Rajasthan, to the ruling clan Chauhan was born a girl-child. In honor of Parvati, the goddess of the Himalayas, she was named Premila (Queen of a women's kingdom). Premila spent her formative years tending to the clan's animals and ensuring their welfare with an unusual zeal, but a pre-arranged marriage to seal a union between her family and that of the rulers of Mount Abu interrupted her vocation at the end of her eleventh year. Her reign was not a happy one, the kingdoms were threatened on several borders and finally, in 1192, the dynasty came to a bloody end in fierce fighting that shook the very walls of Vimal Vasahi - the oldest of the Dilwara Jain Temples on Mount Abu.

Her husband slain and surrounded by vicious enemies, Premila either committed suttee or was thrown upon her husband's funereal pyre by force. It is said that her blackened ashes still stain the white marble steps of the temple, but in truth her soul was not ready to depart this mortal coil and her patron, the goddess Parvati, petitioned the Lord Shiva to intercede on Premila's behalf.
Shiva the destroyer recalled the girl's kindness with the animals and at the request of his consort he granted Premila life eternal. He tore the ashes from his own body and sprinkled them over the pyre and upon the steps of the Vimal Vasahi, the temple dedicated to his glory. Unfortunately, this decision was not greeted with joy universal. The god of death, Yama, had been cheated of a soul and so he claimed the body of Premila for his own, leaving her soul to wander free among the living. Centuries passed. Premila restlessly moved from body to body, a bitter soul inhabiting whichever mortal shell she desired, yet unable to find peace. Then, one day, as a milkmaiden she came across a gypsy violinist playing his fiddle under a tree at a crossroads. He sat upon a tiger skin, which was laid on the back of a large bull decked in garlands. The fiddler asked the milkmaiden to sit awhile, to take a drink from his water jug and listen to his playing.
So entranced by his virtuosity which, if only for a moment, had erased the memory of her joyless existance, she asked if she might try the instrument. Smiling graciously, the fiddler passed her the violin. With great disappointment, she realised that she couldn't eek out even the simplest melody from the instrument. In frustration she cried out that she'd give her soul to play as he had done. The fiddler declined her offer, saying that he would not want something which she placed so little value upon, and instead he offered a different bargain...

Ever since that fateful day Premila plays the violin like the Devil himself and with the breath and blood of mortal men pays his due.

One of the first papers in English on Chinese Fox Myths was read by Thomas Watters before the April 1873 meeting of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society at Shanghai. Watters was a British consular official who had been stationed at Takow (Takao, Kaohsiung) in 1866 and was to return to Taiwan later in the 1870s.
In his paper Watters discusses the two major perceived characteristics of the fox according to Chinese beliefs: its exceedingly long life, and its great preponderance of Yin , the female portion of things. The life of the fox, through its craftiness, was believed to extend to 800 or 1,000 years, and he could even achieve immortality. As a result, temples and shrines were built to the Fox-genius. The fox's accumulation of Yin is due to his nocturnal habits and this enabled the fox to easily assume the guise of woman. Further, as the fox naturally wishes to have a well-balanced constitution, it looks to gather Yang , the male element, wherever it can. Thus is created the powerful myth that the fox-spirit must prey on the life-force of men in order to achieve longevity.

The tale of the 'Fox Faerie' begins as a supernatural one-night stand. This is one of the earliest forms of the fox myth, where the 'Fox faerie' robs the man of his jing, meaning his sperm and life essence, in order that the fox may live its full life. As mentioned above, the 'Fox Faerie' is always in the quest of Yang , the male element, to balance its constitution. In the earliest tales the 'Fox Faerie' would arouse the man to multiple orgasms during the night and would then slink out, sometimes to be sighted in fox-form, before dawn

However, in this story, the 'Fox Faerie' does not simply flee the next morning, but attentively returns. Moreover, when scorned by the man's father, she finds her seduced scholar a beautiful human woman as a substitute.
Tragedy soon befalls the scholar when a powerful man kidnaps the young substitute wife, who then commits suicide rather than be raped. Next, with suspicion for the subsequent murder of the kidnapper falling on the scholar, his infant son is thrown down a mountainside and left for dead.
Following these tragedies, the 'Fox Faerie' reappears as the saviour. She rescues the son and returns to help the man reestablish his life. Thus, by the end of the story, the 'Fox Faerie' has acted as her supposed victim's righteous saviour and not as his parasite.