History of the band

July 2005: Founding of the band
On the 6th of July Bas Willemsen (guitar) asks former bandmate Maartje Gorte (bass/vocals) to join him in a new and still unnamed band. Wijb Sommer, a friend of Bas, shortly afterwards joins the band on guitar.

September 2005: Line-up complete
On september 6th Arno Veldhorst joins the band on drums. The bands starts out playing classic metal songs and taking things easy with bi-weekly practice sessions.

November 2005: Alerion
The band is named Alerion.

May 2006: First gig
On May 20th Alerion plays its first gig, featuring the songs Dragnipur and Ruins, among various metal classics.

December 2006: January 2007 - Demo recordings
The bands starts to record the demo Fledgling at the home of Rob Willemsen, Bas' dad. The idea is to get some recordings done to be able to finally acquire some gigs.

February - September 2007 - Line-up changes
Maartje Gorte (bass/vocals) and the band part ways on February 1st, Ronald van Schaik joins the band on bass and the search begins for a singer to appear on the Fledgling demo recordings. On May 13th, both Wijb (guitar) and Arno (drums) announce their departures, both preferring to pursue other interests. Lennert Stap, a friend of the band, joins Alerion on drums on June 2nd.
After tons of correspondence with singers, one of them even briefly joining the band, Romy Muste is asked to help the band out by singing on the demo recordings. Romy subsequently joins the band on July 11th.
On September 2nd Joey Klerkx joins the band on guitar, completing the line-up again. The band starts rehearsing weekly for the first time now after six months of little rehearsing at all.

August 2007: Fledgling (demo) and Biton CD
After some final vocal tweaks and the mixing process, Fledgling is released online as a free download on August 25th. The songs Hindsight (1976), Estrangement and Ruins are included on the 'Biton CD', a compilation of songs made by members of student society Biton in Utrecht, released on August 14th.

September 2007 - March 2008: Reception, gigs and new singer
Many positive reviews of Fledgling start coming in, to the (surprise and) delight of the band. However, after two gigs singer Romy decides to leave the band for personal reasons (December 27th), though still appearing on three more gigs. After contacts with many singers and several auditions, guitarist Bas' former fellow student Maaike Siegerist joins on March 2nd.

Summer 2008: Keys & guitars
As new material is being written, the wish for a keyboardist rises. In time Paul Bouman, a friend, joins the band. Joey leaves the band on August 8th, having never really fitted in with the rest. Original guitarist Wijb Sommer temporarily returns until a replacement can be found.

December 2008 - February 2009: Turn of Fate (promo)
With a keyboardist and a new vocalist in the ranks, new recordings are planned. The intention is to show the extra possibilities of the new line-up while also improving the production. The promo Turn of Fate is recorded in late 2008 / early 2009 in Storm Studio and produced by Kevin Storm of Female Fronted Metal band Cardamon. Turn of Fate is released online on February 22nd, 2009. A CD version follows.
After several great gigs with Wijb, Bart Lubbers joins the band as permanent guitarist on January 28th.

June 2009: Archeon Midsummer Fair
Alerion plays on the first edition of the Archeon Midsummer Fair on June 20th.

October 2009: Paul leaves
In consultation with the band, keyboardist Paul Bouman leaves Alerion on the 26th due to musical differences. Paul agrees to participate in the coming gigs of Alerion until a replacement can be found.

May 2010: Nathalia Hoogkamer joins Alerion
After auditioning several keyboardists, Nathalia Hoogkamer joins Alerion on May 17th. Formerly Nathalia was a member of folk metal band Thronar from Arnhem, The Netherlands, with whom she released two albums.