Cellar Darling are a heavy progressive folk rock band from Lucerne, Switzerland. The band formed in the summer of 2016 after Anna Murphy (vocals, hurdy-gurdy, multi instrumentalist), Merlin Sutter (drums) and Ivo Henzi (guitars and bass) left Swiss folk metallers ELUVEITIE, which they had all played in for over a decade. But they weren’t ready to end their musical journey together yet, and embarked on a new and different path. “With Cellar Darling, we deliberately didn’t set ourselves any limits – and that really enabled us to find the type of music that we wanted to play," the band explain.
What quickly developed was a unique and fresh combination of grand and heavy riffs, powerful drumming, and a unique voice, along with the signature earthy tones of the hurdy-gurdy, confidently fusing progressive metal & rock with elaborate lyrical tales.
In September 2016, following a summer of intense songwriting sessions, Cellar Darling self-released their first single "Challenge" along with the bonus track "Fire, Wind & Earth", to overwhelmingly positive reactions from around the world. Signing to Nuclear Blast Records in January 2017 was swiftly followed by 3 single releases ("Black Moon", "Avalanche", "The Hermit"), all met with a staggering support from an ever growing fanbase. Cellar Darling's debut album "This Is The Sound" was released on June 30th 2017 and entered the top 100 charts in Switzerland, Germany, and the UK.
In support of “This Is The Sound”, Cellar Darling toured three continents and more than 20 countries. Cellar Darling's second full-length concept album "The Spell" was released on March 22nd 2018, and it cemented the band firmly in the progressive music world. This ambitious release weaves a dark fairy-tale for the modern era, told through heavy yet intricate, progressive metal, enchanting visual art and utterly immersive storytelling. With this album, the trio decided to take their musical ideas and creativity a step further, and to create a concept album.
It tells the tale of a girl who is birthed into a world full of pain, damaged and debilitated by the human beings that inhabit it. We follow her as she meets death and falls in love with him, trying desperately to join him – concluding with an ambiguous ending that leaves the listener wondering.