Christian Hermsdörfer from Beyond the Black and Serenity checked in with a “just for fun” song (as he called it) featuring plenty of Toontrack in the mix – and an update on his band endeavors!
Check out the short track here:
What Toontrack gear did you use for this track?
For this first instrumental track, I got inspired by the grooves from Toontrack’s High Energy and Progressive Metal MIDI packs combined with the Death & Darkness SDX kit. Even though the song isn’t death metal at all, I wanted to experiment with this kit to see how it would blend with a more melodic instrumental vibe. I’m always chasing a sound that stands out – something that’s not just the typical tone.
For the new Beyond the Black album Break the Silence (out in January 2026), you relied heavily on some Toontrack stuff for the songwriting. Tell us more!
Toontrack has been part of my songwriting and arranging process for more than 15 years now. There’s simply no better tool to kickstart an idea or, in my case, to build a solid beat and bassline around a riff or song concept. For the new Beyond the Black, my go-to setup was The Metal Foundry SDX combined with the Progressive Metal EBX for EZbass. I love how deep and powerful it sounds, especially for our C standard tuning and 7-string riffs. I also always rely a lot on the Tap2Find tool – it’s brilliant. I usually have a groove in mind and instead of wasting time scrolling through hundreds of MIDI files, I can tap the rhythm and instantly find a pattern that fits. That workflow just keeps the creativity flowing and helps me shape killer riffs way faster than before.
Beyond the Black “Break the Silence”
What’s next up with your bands and projects?
Of course, the band and I are super excited about the release of Break the Silence on January 9 (pre-orders are already up at beyondtheblack-shop.com). Right after the release we’ll hit the road for our European tour, starting mid-January and running all the way through mid-February. You can check out all the dates and tickets at beyond-the-black.com/#tour. We’ve got a completely new stage setup, some special surprises as always and of course a bunch of brand-new songs from the new album. It’s the perfect way to kick off 2026 – and we’re already looking forward to a full festival summer and seeing where the second half of the year will take us! And since I’m never really standing still, there’s also something new coming from me personally – not a typical solo album but definitely a music-related project that’s very close to being released. I’m sure it’s something you don’t want to miss! On top of that, Serenity will be back in the studio working on their next album, so it’s shaping up to be another year full of amazing musical journeys. And of course there’ll be more instrumental or “just for fun” tracks coming soon – some in collaboration with Toontrack and others still to be revealed!
