Jochen Schnur

Jochen Schnur — German bassist — was part of At Vance in the classic line-up, the most stable period in the band's history. He was on the records that established the group in the European power metal circuit — No Escape (1999), Heart of Steel (2000), Dragonchaser (2001) and Only Human (2002) — made with Oliver Hartmann on vocals. His function in At Vance's repertoire carries a specific difficulty. Olaf Lenk's band adapts pieces of classical music into a metal format, and the bass has to accommodate harmonic lines written for orchestra within a rock band's foundation. In tracks derived from Vivaldi or Beethoven, the progression does not follow a riff's logic — the cadences resolve at points that sound unexpected to the metal vocabulary, and it falls to the bass to make that harmony legible. In the band's own material the demand is power metal's usual one: following the guitars in unison at fast tempos, with clean articulation and no lag against the double kick.