Above Heaven, Below Heaven



Japanese heavy metal project created and led by Saeko Kitamae, with the help of some European and Japanese metal musicians. Japanese female singer born in Osaka in 1974, had a solo career governed by Lars Ratz (Metalium). In his homeland, his first experience inside the metal was the lead vocalist in the bands Evolution in 1994 and Insania in 1995, with the latter changing its name to Fairy Mirror in 1999, gaining national status. However, due to problems in vocal cords, Saeko was forced out of the Fairy and had to travel to Switzerland, where he had to undergo surgery and prolonged treatment, while taking the opportunity to improve themselves in English. Now in Germany, she begins to correspond by email with the integral Gammay Ray Henjo Richter, with the ambition to promote his tour in the famous world event, Wacken Open Air Festival in 2002 where Saeko would distribute flyers in order to get some heavy metal band to join. Admired for his determination, Lars Ratz decides to run it at a hearing of Metalium and evaluate its performance. After making all the assessments, Ratz produces and releases his first album, Above Heaven, Below Heaven, with the training: Saeko (keyboard and piano), Michael Ehre (guitar), Hermman Frank (lead guitar) and bassist his former band, Fairy Mirror, Mariko Inoue. The band starts to Saeko excurcionar along with the legendary Doro Pesch in 2004 during a tour of the album Classic Diamonds. In 2006, released his second album, Life, recorded at Tornado studios in Hamburg, and again produced by Lars Ratz and Michael Ehre. The third full-length album Holy Are We Alone was released on August 11th, 2021. As of 2020, SAEKO is: Saeko Kitamae – vocals & keys. Guido Benedetti (Trick Or Treat) guitars & keys. Alessandro Sala (Rhapsody Of Fire) – bass. Michael Ehré – drums (Primal Fear, Gamma Ray, The Unity). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.