"And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour of light."
Romans ch. XIII v. 11-12

A New Dawn was founded in 1997, after the split-up of Featuring Frantic, a Delft-based rock/metal formation. To prevent that none of the Featuring Frantic material would ever be properly released, guitarist Elbert de Hoog starts recording three Featuring Frantic songs in March of 1997: Reign Will Fall, Idle Illusions and Wall Of Emotions. The project is called A New Dawn. Elbert also recorded two cover-songs: I Will Remember (Queensrÿche) and Once Solemn (Paradise Lost). The choice of these songs already indicates that A New Dawn is not limited to one musical style.

For the recordings of the first A New Dawn demo, Elbert is helped out by fellow musicians. From the Dutch metal band Skintag (later to become Mental Captivity), singer Alain Cazelles and bass-player Arthur van Ameijde are featured on some songs. Female singer Natascha Petras is featured on I Will Remember. The demo was released on April 10th 1998.

Not too long after the release of the self-titled demo, Elbert joins Mental Captivity and decides to put all his energy in this band, leaving little time to promote the demo. With Mental Captivity, Elbert wrote and co-wrote a lot of material. However, not all of the ideas fitted the style of the the band and were put on a shelve. Some of the riffs were used in various Mental Captivity songs, but the original versions were bound not to be released.

Until in 2003, Elbert teamed up with the talented female singer Sanne Kluiters to start recording a new E.P., called 'The Wisdom Of Hindsight'. The E.P. also features vocalists Monica Janssen (IMP, X-Tinxion) and Sanne's sister Josta. The new material even broadened the musical horizon of A New Dawn with songs that varied from gentle to ultra heavy, but always melodic. As with the debut, the E.P. featured both original material and covers. One of the cover songs (Savatage's Last Dawn) is dedicated to the late Criss Oliva.

In September 2004, the final touches are being put to the formation of an all-star band to promote the new E.P. The band now featured Sanne Kluiters on vocals, Monica Janssen on bass and vocals, Mark Barth (Severe) on guitar, Gijsbert Spek (Mental Captivity) on drums and Elbert de Hoog on guitar. Rehearsals began in November 2004. Shortly after rehearsals began, Mark decided to leave the band due to personal reasons. It was not until April 2005 that the line-up was completed again by Willem Cremer. Being back at full capacity, the band began performing live three weeks after Willem joined.

In September of 2006, A New Dawn split ways with drummer Gijsbert Spek. Peter van Toren, drummer of the thrash-formation X-Tinxion, took place behind the drumkit to replace Gijs. A New Dawn immediately started rehearsing for the upcoming shows that were only weeks away. The first gig with Peter van Toren would take place only four weeks after joining the band.

Although often labeled as a Gothic-metal band, A New Dawn has a lot more to offer. Not only is the music more guitar-orientated than most bands in the genre, A New Dawn has a few more aces in its deck. Bassist Monica Janssen finished second in the first Dutch Championship grunting in June 2006, leaving many male contestants behind. Monica's vocal brutality completes the pure and clean melodic vocal lines of Sanne and Josta, giving the music both contrast and depth. The presence of more vocalists gave the band more opportunity to experiment with vocal melodies, separating them even further from the grey masses. With the song 'Ascension', A New Dawn began experimenting with counterpoint, giving the band much acclaim by the critics.

Sanne Kluiters - Vocals
Josta Kluiters - Vocals
Monica Janssen - Bass, Grunts, Vocals
Peter van Toren - Drums
Willem Cremer - Guitar
Elbert de Hoog - Guitar