Trillium

Trillium is the personal project of American singer and songwriter Amanda Somerville, based in Germany since the early 2000s. Somerville has built a singular career in European metal: besides singing, she works as a composer, lyricist and vocal coach, and her voice and writing signature appear on records by Avantasia, Epica, Kamelot, After Forever and Aina, among others. Trillium came about as the space where she takes centre stage — not as another band's guest, but as principal author. The name comes from a North American wildflower, and the musical proposition is harder and more direct than much of the repertoire in which Somerville appears as a supporting or counterpointing female voice. Alloy, released in 2011 on Frontiers Records, presented that side: weighty melodic metal with dense guitars, occasional symphonic arrangements and markedly personal lyrics dealing with conflict, resilience and transformation — the metallurgical metaphor of the title is deliberate. Tectonic followed in 2018 after a long gap, holding the first album's line with more modern production and an even wider emotional range. Between the two records Somerville remained extremely active on other fronts, including the Kiske/Somerville duo with Michael Kiske and the HDK project alongside After Forever's Sander Gommans, which largely explains Trillium's spaced-out pace. Two albums in nearly a decade make Trillium a low-frequency project, but one with a clear identity. For anyone who knows Amanda Somerville chiefly through her contributions to other people's work, this is where you hear what she writes when she writes for herself.