Amanda Somerville has been diagnosed with a brain tumour that her family describes as malignant and aggressive, and the news has travelled through symphonic metal faster than almost any illness announcement in the genre's recent history. There is a reason for that: a large share of the people passing it on have worked with her.
Her husband, the After Forever co-founder and guitarist Sander Gommans, made the announcement on Saturday 19 September in a statement on social media. "The love of my life, mother of my three daughters and my beautiful wife Amanda Somerville, has a malignant and aggressive brain tumour," he wrote, calling the family shocked and devastated and thanking the friends and relatives already helping them.
He asked for something specific rather than general sympathy: positive thoughts, prayers, and for people to keep the family in mind. Somerville gives a great deal to the scene, he wrote, and it is time for the scene to send some of it back.
The replies came quickly. Alessandro Del Vecchio of Vanden Plas and Edge of Forever posted that he was sending all the love they have, and strength to Somerville, Gommans and their daughters. Tobias Sammet of Avantasia, whose records she has sung on, wrote that the news breaks his heart and wished her the strength to beat it.
Somerville grew up in Michigan and moved to Germany in 1999 to build a career, which she has done in two directions at once. As a performer she has recorded and toured with Epica, Kamelot, Avantasia, After Forever, Ayreon, Edguy and Docker's Guild, and she stepped in for Epica's Simone Simons on that band's 2008 North American tour when Simons was unwell.
Under her own name she co-founded Exit Eden alongside Clementine Delauney, Marina La Torraca and Anna Brunner, and she fronts the Kiske/Somerville project with Helloween's Michael Kiske. She has shared stages with Alice Cooper and Ian Gillan, and has released solo records in a pop and rock register, including 2008's Windows.
The other half of the work is the reason so many singers are posting. Somerville is one of metal's most sought-after vocal coaches, and a generation of frontwomen in the symphonic and power metal scenes have been through her sessions. That is why a diagnosis in one household is landing as news across a whole genre.
No further details about her condition or treatment have been made public. Another guitarist, L7's Jennifer Finch, disclosed a brain cancer diagnosis earlier this year. More metal coverage sits on our genre hub.
The facts
- Amanda Somerville has been diagnosed with a brain tumour.
- Her family describes it as malignant and aggressive.
- Her husband Sander Gommans announced it on 19 September 2026.
- She has recorded and toured with Epica, Kamelot, Avantasia, Ayreon and Edguy.
- She covered for Epica's Simone Simons on a 2008 North American tour.
- She co-founded Exit Eden and fronts Kiske/Somerville with Michael Kiske.
- No treatment plan or prognosis has been made public.
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