Concept
“Rise” is a concept album talking about the life of Arminius in the most historically accurate way possible.
This means that we don’t want to take the part of the Romans or the Barbarians, as we think that this story really shows that there was good and evil in both parts.
Arminius was the son of a chieftain of the Germanic tribe Cherusci and, when he was a young man, he and his brother were sold to the Roman Empire by their father to maintain the peace. Raised as a Roman soldier, he was sent back to Germania by Emperor Augustus under the command of Varus, where he secretly planned against the Roman Empire.
In fact, after a conflict between his Roman and Barbarian souls, he decided to fight to free his people. Thanks to the help of his uncle Inguiomer, he persuaded Varus to move the legions through the Teutoburg Forest, where most of the Germanic tribes united were ready to ambush. Even if the Barbarians were outnumbered, they took advantage of the battlefield: a forest they perfectly knew and where Roman’s weapons and tactics could not perform well. Moreover, a strong rain immobilized the legions in the mud, because of their heavy armors.
The slaughter lasted three days: almost every Roman was murdered and Varus killed himself. This was the greatest defeat that Rome had ever suffered. Two years later, the new Roman Emperor Tiberius sent Germanicus to take revenge. For years, avoiding open battles and fighting with guerilla techniques in the forest, the barbarians had managed to stand up to the Romans.
However, Germanicus and Flavus (Arminius’ brother, who remained loyal to the Romans) kidnapped Thusnelda, Arminius’ pregnant wife. This pushed Arminius out into an open fight in the Battle of the River Weser, where the Romans were able to use all their tactical and military might, defeating the Germans. After this victory, Germanicus and his legions came back to Rome: they had their revenge and they decided not to underestimate Arminius again. From that moment on, no Roman would ever cross the Rhine again.
Being free, the different Germanic tribes were not motivated to stay united anymore and some of them revolted against Arminius, but he was never defeated. Ironically, in the end Arminius was treacherously killed by his allies, because they feared the power he had gained.
In this album, we decided to have some guests and each singer plays a specific role or character of the story. Talking about the languages, we used Italian for Roman characters and English for Barbarian ones, to symbolize the clash between the two cultures in this unusual but effective way.