Skyfire

Skyfire is a band from Sweden that has mixed the respective styles of power metal, black metal and death metal in their music. They were formed in the town of Höör, Sweden, in 1995. Thus far, two of the founding four members of the band have remained in the lineup: Andreas Edlund, Martin Hanner, Jonas Sjögren, and Tobias Björk. The main songwriters of Skyfire are Andreas and Martin, but alas, none of these four members had any singing talent. When they decided to record a demo, the band contacted Mattias Holgrem of Embracing who was found to be amicable to the idea. The resulting demo, recorded at TMS Recording in Hässleholm during December of 1997, was entitled Within Reach. The band was ambivalent about the result and changed their sound accordingly for a second demo. For this demo, known as The Final Story, they found a new singer in Henrik Wenngren, a diminutive man with a large voice who lived far removed from the rest of the band. Still, the resulting sound was infinitely preferable. The demo was heard by a friend of the band's, Patrik Lindgren, a member of the band Thyrfing, who sent the demo along to the label Hammerheart. They were signed by Hammerheart for two albums. The first release of Skyfire was Timeless Departure on March 12th, 2001. The main thrust of the music is heavily black metal, with so much melody that the term barely even applies. Suffering from a few production faults and a lack of promotion among the metal scene, the album still was noted for its original sound and employment of a literal wall of sound. A 6 - track MiniCD, entitled Haunted by Shadows, was released on The End Records on April 7 2003 in support for their Korean tour. Tobias Bjork was replaced by drummer Joakim Johnsson, who also served as a third guitarist. The MiniCD featured 3 previously unreleased tracks, one of which would appear on their second CD Mind Revolution. Mind Revolution, Skyfire's sophomore effort, was released on May 5, 2003. The effort showed musical progression and flexibility, utilizing keyboards more sparsely and atmospherically than Timeless Departure had and introducing soft, keyboard - based passages into the otherwise heavy music. Spectral, the third album, came out about a year later on May 21, and again demonstrated a versatility and creativity through the keyboard based harmony lines and rhythmic innovations introduced on the album. While Jonas was still a member of the band during the recording of Spectral, he was unable to record with the band for Spectral. Bass was recorded by Andreas Edlund, Martin Hanner, and Joakim Johnsson, foreshadowing Jonas's departure several months after Spectral's release. Guitarist/keyboardist Hanner switched to bass and the band recruited Johan Reinholdz of Andromeda as a replacement guitarist. At that time, the band had finished recording material for their fourth album, but had troubles finding a record label. On 2007, vocalist Henrik Wenngren left the band and was replaced by Joakim Karlsson. On January 7, 2008, Skyfire announced on their official MySpace page that they have signed with Florida-based label Pivotal Rockordings on a three-album deal and the band has now entered the recording studio to begin recording their fourth untitled album. Mixing will be done by Scar Symmetry's Jonas Kjellgren at Black Lounge Studios. Current line-up: Joakim Karlsson - Vocals Andreas Edlund - Guitars/Synth Johan Reinholdz - Guitars Martin Hanner - Bass/Synth Joakim Jonsson - Drums Past members: Tobias Björk - Drums Jonas Sjögren - Bass Henrik Wenngren - Vocals Official website: http://www.skyfireonline.net/