Skyfire (band)
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Skyfire is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Höör, Skåne County. Formed in 1995, its initial lineup comprised Andreas Edlund (guitar), Martin Hanner (bass guitar), Jonas Sjögren (guitar) and Tobias Björk (drums). The band's lineup has significantly changed since its inception. The band has released four albums and five extended plays.
Biography
Skyfire was formed in the town of Höör, Sweden in 1995 by Andreas Edlund (guitar), Martin Hanner (bass guitar), Jonas Sjögren (guitar) and Tobias Björk (drums). The four were friends since high school and had similar tastes in music. The band recorded two demos: Within Reach and The Final Story. On the second demo, the vocals were performed by Henrik Wenngren. Skyfire got in touch with band members of Thyrfing who helped them find a record label with Dutch label Hammerheart Records. During two weeks in August 2000, Skyfire recorded their debut album Timeless Departure in the Abyss Studio.
In September 2002, the band recorded their second album Mind Revolution, again in the Abyss Studio with new drummer Joakim Jonsson. Mind Revolution was released in 2003 and showed the band's style evolving and branching off into different musical genres. The third album Spectral was recorded at Los Angered and Studio Underground and released on 10 May 2004 by Arise Records.
The vocalist Henrik Wenngren left the band and was replaced by Joakim Karlsson.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On 7 January 2008, Skyfire announced on their official MySpace page that they had signed with a Florida-based label Pivotal Rockordings, for a three-album deal, and the band entered the recording studio to begin recording their fourth untitled album. Mixing was done by Scar Symmetry's Jonas Kjellgren at Black Lounge Studios.
On 15 May 2009, Skyfire announced a digital only EP entitled Fractal for a July 2009 release. The EP is a collection of B-sides recorded between 2004's Spectral and Esoteric. Fractal was released on 6 July for digital download.<ref>http://label.pivotalalliance.com/news.php?subaction=showcomments&id=1246899113&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1& Template:Dead link</ref>
Skyfire's fourth album is titled Esoteric and was released on 14 September 2009 in the United Kingdom via Pivotal Rockordings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The album was released on 18 September 2009 in the rest of Europe and in North America on 13 October 2009 due to a scheduling issue.<ref name="Esoteric Delay">Template:Cite web</ref> The cover art was created by Pär Olofsson, who also made covers for Brain Drill, Psycroptic, Spawn of Possession, Persuader and others.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On 4 July 2017, the band launched a PledgeMusic campaign to fund their newest EP Liberation in Death. The campaign was successful, raising the full amount needed in under eight hours.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, the band has been put on hold since then.
Musical style
Skyfire has been described as a variety of genres including melodic death metal,<ref name="Sputnikmusic">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Blabbermouth">Blabbermouth review Template:Webarchive</ref> power metal,<ref name="Sputnikmusic"/><ref name="Blabbermouth"/> symphonic metal,<ref name="Sputnikmusic"/> neo-classical metal,<ref name="Blabbermouth"/> progressive metal,<ref name="Blabbermouth"/> black metal,<ref name="Blabbermouth"/> and progressive death metal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Band members
Current
- Martin Hanner − bass (2005−present); guitar (1995−2005), keyboards (1995−present)
- Joakim Jonsson − drums, guitar (2001−present)
- Johan Reinholdz − guitar (2005−present)
- Joakim Karlsson − vocals (2007−present)
Former
- Andreas Edlund − guitar, keyboards (1995−2015)
- Tobias Björk − drums (1995−2001)
- Jonas Sjögren − bass (1995−2005)
- Henrik Wenngren − vocals (1998−2007)
Timeline
<timeline> ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:16 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:80 top:10 right:20 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1995 till:{{#time:m/d/Y}} TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1995 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1996 Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4
Colors =
id:vocals value:red legend:Vocals id:guitar value:green legend:Guitar id:bass value:blue legend:Bass id:synth value:purple legend:Keyboards id:drums value:orange legend:Drums id:studio value:black legend:Studio_release id:other value:gray(0.6) legend:Other_release
LineData =
at:07/01/1998 color:other layer:back at:07/01/2000 color:other layer:back at:03/12/2001 color:black layer:back at:04/07/2003 color:other layer:back at:12/02/2003 color:black layer:back at:05/21/2004 color:black layer:back at:07/06/2009 color:other layer:back at:09/18/2009 color:black layer:back at:06/01/2012 color:other layer:back at:08/15/2017 color:other layer:back
BarData =
bar:Henrik text:"Henrik Wenngren" bar:Joakim text:"Joakim Karlsson" bar:Martin text:"Martin Hanner" bar:Andreas text:"Andreas Edlund" bar:Johan text:"Johan Reinholdz" bar:Jonas text:"Jonas Sjögren" bar:Tobias text:"Tobias Björk" bar:Joakim2 text:"Joakim Jonsson"
PlotData =
width:11 bar:Henrik from:01/01/1995 till:06/01/2007 color:vocals bar:Joakim from:06/01/2007 till:end color:vocals bar:Martin from:01/01/1995 till:end color:synth width:3 bar:Martin from:09/01/2004 till:end color:bass bar:Martin from:01/01/1995 till:09/01/2004 color:guitar bar:Johan from:09/01/2004 till:end color:guitar bar:Andreas from:01/01/1995 till:06/01/2015 color:guitar bar:Andreas from:01/01/1995 till:06/01/2015 color:synth width:3 bar:Jonas from:01/01/1995 till:09/01/2004 color:bass bar:Tobias from:01/01/1995 till:07/01/2001 color:drums bar:Joakim2 from:07/01/2001 till:end color:drums bar:Joakim2 from:07/01/2001 till:end color:guitar width:3 </timeline>
Discography
Studio albums
- Timeless Departure (2001)
- Mind Revolution (2003)
- Spectral (2004)
- Esoteric (2009)
Demos and EPs
- Within Reach (1998)
- The Final Story (2000)
- Haunted by Shadows (2003)
- Fractal (2009)
- Liberation in Death (2017)