Tour cancelled + Album news! April 2021

We put it off for a long time, considered and weighed it up, but unfortunately the development of the last few months, but above all the still uncertain prospects for autumn, leave us no other choice than cancelling our joint tour of “seven steps, which has already been postponed to 2021 to the green door “+” CYRIL “+ Manuel Schmid & Marek Arnold now completely.

The reasons are certainly not surprising: for many months there have been no rehearsals, no joint planning in terms of technical and organizational implementation. The lack of government support for artists / self-employed soloists and the existential cancellation of all concerts for some of us and the resulting loss of income make it impossible for us to (pre-) invest in the implementation of the tour. Printing posters, PR & promo, trips to rehearsals or investments in technology (s) and organization are currently hardly possible for us.

If, as a result of a positive pandemic development, concerts can actually take place again in October without too great restrictions and hygiene concepts that additionally drive up costs, some of the band members are dependent on their income from regular musical services. We also think it is unlikely that the fans will return to the normal “concert routine” in the autumn as they did before “Corona”, uncertainty and respect for the virus and its mutations are still too deep. It is also not yet foreseeable whether all organizers will be able to carry out such concerts economically.

We very much regret that the long planned tour with dear friends, motivated partners, the committed organizers, lighting technicians, videographers and sponsors cannot take place. The planned live DVD will of course not be recorded either.

We are very grateful that they stood by us until the end, and hope that under better conditions we can catch up on the tour at a later date. All 3 bands / projects are currently working all the harder on the next releases, which will soon see the light of day.

Please follow us on our website and on facebook for news and updates.

There are more gratifying things to report about the work on the new album: the majority of the recordings for “The? Truth” – the third and final part of our “The? Book” trilogy has been completed. George Andrade is currently working on the elaboration of Thoralf Koss’ storybook as well as on the lyrics. We are therefore planning the vocal recordings for summer, and I think I can say with a lot of self-confidence that it will be a worthy and rousing conclusion to the album trilogy.

Let yourself be surprised! Marek

ssttgd introduces new guitar player : Martin Fankhänel

January 2020 –

NEW at seven steps to the green door:

Martin Fankhänel (guit)

We are pleased to announce that ssttgd will return to the Progrock stage

with a new permanent line up from 2020.

 

 

Martin Fankhaenel has released three studio albums with power rock trio “THE LATERISER” ( https://www.facebook.com/thelateriser/ ) and played countless concerts, including together with Ian Pace (DEEP PURPLE), TEN YEARS AFTER, Henrik Freischlader, Randy Hansen and Buzz Dee Bauer of KNORKATOR, to name just a few.

Welcome to the family, Martin! A lot is planned for 2020 and the future: the completion of the? BOOK trilogy with a new album, various festival gigs and a small tour at the end of 2020.
And that’s just the beginning …

A big thank you to Stephan Pankow (git), who took over the guitar parts at ssttgd in such a short time in 2016 and played gigs with us through Europe until 2019 and also participated in THE?LIE. Check out his homepage to stay connected to him and his diverse projects: http://stephanpankow.de/

We wish you all the best and will certainly continue to work together regularly in the future. Many thanks, Stephan!

NEW SHIRT available!

The new shirts are available now!

If you are interested in wearing a high quality shirt ( B&C, silk-screen printing made in germany ) with the design of your most beloved band ? , just write a message to:

info@ssttgd.band

for details- we ship worldwide ?

Sizes: S – XXXL & Ladys M / L

There are also ( some last ) ‚FETISH‘ – shirts left – don’t wait too long…

NEW LIVE TRAILER -CHECK OUT!

Live snippets from Artrockfestival 2019 – LIVE TRAILER

Music: “Hear my voice tonight” ( THE?LIE – new concept album 2019 )

Check out:

www.ssttgd.band

www.facebook.com/ssttgd and join ssttgd live!

CDs available on www.ppr-shop.de and band contact

First reviews and some pics from ARF 2019

Only some days ago we officially released new concept album THE?LIE.

There are a few ( great! ) reviews already, and want to show you some of them.

music in belgium (BE) 5/5

NONSOLO PROGROCK (IT)

progarchives (USA) 4,5/5

sea of tranquility (USA)

babyblaue seiten (DE) 12/15

FFM-rock (DE) 8/10

 

There are a lot of pictures of our last gig at Artrockfestival Reichenbach (DE) –

the first one with Dan Mash on bass –

here are some of them, made by Anna Lie. Thanks!

 

FINALLY! Preorder for new album!

FINALLY – PREORDER STARTS NOW!

Check www.ppr-shop.de for details

There`s a special edition ( signed CD, lyricbook 48 pages, bloody surprise ) for a special price,
and a limited edition ( 30 pcs only! ) including handwritten lyricsheet by George Andrade. (SORRY: Ltd Ed. sold out already)

THE?LIE ( THE?BOOK, part 2)
release @ progressive promotion records www.ppr-shop.de

featuring Peter Jones ( Tiger Moth Tales, Camel, Francis Dunnery Band ),
Luke Machin ( Maschine, The Tangent, DAMANEK),
Steve Unruh ( Resistor, UPF, The Samurai of Prog ) and other guests…

– – – – –
concept: Thoralf Koß & Marek Arnold
story: Thoralf Koss
storyline/narrative: George Andrade
lyrics: George Andrade

music: Marek Arnold & Ulf Reinhardt
vocallines: Marek Arnold, Ulf Reinhardt & Lars Kehlor
arrangements:
Marek Arnold, Ulf Reinhardt & Luke Machin

recorded & edited by Marek Arnold (b`side-music)
mixed & mastered by Martin Schnella (overlodge recording studio)

Produced by Marek Arnold

– – – – – –

musicians:

Ulf Reinhardt – drums
Marek Arnold – piano, organ, keyboards, soprano & alto saxophone, clarinet, seaboard, venova
Luke Machin – main electric guitars
Michael Schetter – main basses
Stephan Pankow – electric guitars
Andreas „Eddy“ Gemeinhardt – electric &acoustic guitars
,bass
Denis Strassburg – bass
Steve Unruh – violin solo
Jason Melidonie – guitar solo
Susan Kammler – oboe
Gerd Albers – acoustic guitar

vocalists / characters:

Lars Köhler – as Samuel
Peter Jones – as Father
Jana-Christina Pöche – as Mother
Anne Trautmann ( Enna Nnamtuart ) – as Lover / Samuel`s girlfriend
Sören Flechsig – as Noah
Annemarie Schmidt – vocal adds
Amelie Hofmann – vocal adds

– – – – – –

Seminal progressive crossover band “seven steps to the green door” from Germany is back with the new album “THE?LIE” – and surprise us with the second part of their concept trilogy “THE?BOOK”, in which authors and band deal critically with religious fanaticism. In 2011, the band of masterminds Marek Arnold (Toxic Smile, Cyril, Damanek, UPF, Flaming Row u.v.a.) and Ulf Reinhardt caused some stir with the first part “THE?BOOK”, an ambitious and profound piece of art.

With their 2015 release “FETISH”, the band managed to make some furore internationally, embarking into their first ever European Tour 2016/17, also performing at some of the biggest festivals in the prog-scene (including Night of the Prog, Crescendo, Summer’s End, Artrock Festival etc). The album was hailed by critics and reached high positions in every poll of that year.

With “THE?LIE”, ssttgd are once again proving that they are among the most innovative and creative bands in the genre – and in George Andrade, the band was able to convince and win over a lyricist for the concept, who developed a compelling lyricbook, with stirring and disturbing lyrics, out of Thoralf Koss’ story.
To match the intriguing storyline, some outstanding members of the progrock scene were ensembled to take on the roles of the characters and to perform the instrumental parts: British multi-instrumentalist and singer Pete Jones (Tiger Moth Tales, Camel, Francis Dunnery Band) delivers stunning vocals as the “Father”; gifted guitarist Luke Machin (including Maschine, The Tangent, Francis Dunnery Band, Damanek …) played and arranged most guitar parts; Steve Unruh (Resistor, UPF, Samurai of Prog) and Jason Melidonie (Cytotoxin) added brilliant violin and guitar solos. That’s just to name but a few.

The album, produced by Marek Arnold and mixed/mastered by Martin Schnella (Flaming Row, Melanie Mau & Martin Schnella, ssttgd), will be released by Progressive Promotion Records on April 30, 2019. All pre-orders will feature the album, signed by Marek and Ulf, with an extensive lyricbook of the storyline and a -by now usual for every ssttgd release- supplement for a special price. After that, the lyricbook will be exclusively available through the ppr-shop and the band. There’ll also be a strictly limited edition of the album featuring a hand written and designed lyricbook by George Andrade! Only 30 copies of this very special item will be offered.

George Andrade explains: ” “THE?LIE” is a new rock opera/concept album that I’ve co-written with the magnificent Seven Steps to the Green Door, the second album of a proposed trilogy**.

It tells the story of a family intimately caught up in the fanatic actions of their religious leaders, their church “fathers”, and the unfolding tragedy that befalls them all, while having to reconcile their faith turned religion with the repercussions of those fanatic actions committed in their God’s name, and coming to terms with the divergent and symbiotic relationship of a faith’s moral authority with the political realities of administrating and growing any organized religion…

I think “THE?LIE” contains some of my best and most ambitious writing for music to date (I hope you’ll agree), and combined with the stellar performances of the musicians and vocalist assembled for this record, I’m confident you’ll be entertained, thrilled, and ultimately moved by the musical experience…”

New design!

Some really exciting news:

ssttgd is working on complete relaunch of webpage and all official merchandising products with new design, made by Shelter Design Studio ( creator of the legendary Artrock-Festival design ).It will be released with new album, very soon!

Stay tuned! ssttgd