Dale City Heavy Metal Band Hits Europe

Heavy metal band While Heaven Wept may be based in Dale City, but it’s Germany where the band has seen their music take off.

The band is currently on its first official European tour of the year after having made two earlier trips to perform at festivals in Germany and Greece.

The group’s founding member, Tom Phillips, said the band has focused most of its 21-year history on Europe. The band’s first three albums, “Sorrow Of The Angels,” “Of Empires Forlorn” and “Vast Oceans Lachrymose” were released only in Europe. The most recent album, “Fear of Infinity,” was the first to receive a U.S. release, but it’s still Europe where the band sees its success.

“Fear of Infinity” was the band’s first effort to hit the music charts, debuting on the German albums chart at number 98. Phillips called that a “miracle for a heavy metal band from Dale City.”

“The majority of the chart is German dance and pop apart from major artists such as Adele, Lady Gaga, Foo Fighters, Bruce Springsteen, etc.” Phillips said. “There were only five other artists even remotely heavy metal on the entire chart.”

The current tour will take the band through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Phillips said five of the tour stops are at large open air festivals with some of the biggest names in the industry.

Phillips said 2011 marks the most activity in the U.S. for the band. Along with the U.S. release of “Fear of Infinity,” the band is preparing to perform at ProgPower USA XII in Atlanta later this year.