Vanden Plas

Vanden Plas grew out of a Kaiserslautern school band called Exodus, run by brothers Andreas Lill (drums) and Stephan Lill (guitar). Andreas heard Andy Kuntz singing in the punk band Rock Zock and brought him in. When the group looked for a new name, they picked Vanden Plas after the car maker, and the band dates its start to 1986.

With keyboardist Günter Werno and bassist Torsten Reichert on board, the line-up stayed the same from 1990 until 2023. Their first studio album, Colour Temple, came out in late 1994 on Limb Music, followed in 1996 by the acoustic EP AcCult. The God Thing (1997), Far Off Grace (1999), Beyond Daylight (2002) and Christ 0 (2006) established them as one of Germany’s top progressive metal names.

Alongside the albums, band members worked in musical theatre, and Vanden Plas created their own rock operas for German stages. On record, The Seraphic Clockwork (2010) was followed by the two-part Chronicles of the Immortals: Netherworld (2014 and 2015) and the two The Ghost Xperiment albums, Awakening (2019) and Illumination (2020).

In January 2023 Günter Werno left after more than three decades, and Italian keyboardist Alessandro Del Vecchio was introduced as his successor in January 2024. The Empyrean Equation of the Long Lost Things followed on 19 April 2024 via Frontiers. On 12 June 2026 Frontiers released AcCult II, an acoustic sequel to the 1996 EP with new versions of band songs, covers of Styx’s “Boat on the River” and Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”, and saxophone from Supertramp’s John Helliwell on the closing “You Fly”.

Current line-up: Andy Kuntz (vocals), Stephan Lill (guitar), Alessandro Del Vecchio (keyboards), Torsten Reichert (bass), Andreas Lill (drums).