Myriad (9)

MYRIAD is a band from Tilburg, Holland, which was formed in 1988 by guitarists Harrie van Erp and Frank Verraes. In 1989 the band released its first demo "Down To Earth". In 1990 bass-player Ad van Osch and drummer Lex van Wanrooij joined Myriad, and with that line-up, with still René Emmen on vocals, the band released their second demo "Cadances" in 1991. When René decided to quit with Myriad, it was Danny "Bidi" van Drongelen who became the second vocalist of the band. With this "classic" line-up the band recorded the demos "The Well" (1992) and "Naturalism" (1993). When guitarist Harrie left the band, Myriad just recorded their last demo, named "Deprofundis", but that demo has never been officially released. After 21 years, Harrie, Ad, Lex and Danny decided to re-record some old songs from the 90's. And the first two songs the band started with to re-record were "Thoughts" and "Back To Nature". Even "Back To Nature" is slightly re-arranged by Ad, on advise of 'Bidi'. The recording date was set on June 11th 2017, only the sad news arrived on June 4th, 2017 that Danny 'Bidi' van Drongelen died on a heart-attack on June 3rd in his hotelroom, during the Rock Hard Festival in Germany. It was Danny who introduced American Progressive/Thrash Metal band ANACRUSIS in 1991 to the rest of the band members. Danny, who had his own bookings agency "BIDI BOOKINGS" for 15 years, booked some club shows for ANACRUSIS in 2016. Shortly, after Danny had passed away, drummer Lex contacted their idol Kenn Nardi, told him the sad news about Danny, and asked Kenn if he wanted to do the vocals for two newly recorded songs. And Kenn said "Yes, I would do that for Danny and for you guys". So Kenn did the vocals for the newly recorded songs "Thoughts" and "Back To Nature". On December 8th 2018, MYRIAD did their first gig since years at the first edition of the "Bidi-Fest"-festival in Little Devil, Tilburg, to honor their friend 'Bidi'. Tim de Meijer, vocalist of the band IZAH, was prepared to do the vocals for that gig, so Tim rehearsed since October of 2018 with the band. The gig was great and very successful. And even weeks after the gig, also Tim did the vocals for the newly re-recorded versions of "Thoughts" and "Back To Nature". Now, Headbangers Records is releasing a CD of Myriad, titled "Maior Quam Vita (The Bidi Years 1991-1994)", which features the demos "The Well" and "Naturalism", the song "End Of Memory" from the never released demo "Deprofundis", and the two newly recorded songs "Thoughts" and "Back To Nature". MYRIAD (from left to right): Harrie van Erp (guitar), Lex van Wanrooij (drums), Danny "Bidi" van Drongelen (vocals), Frank Verraes (guitar) and Ad van Osch (bass).