Narnia (band)
| Narnia | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Neoclassical Metal , Progressive Metal , Christian Metal , Power Metal , Heavy Metal |
| founding | 1996, 2014 |
| resolution | 2010 |
| Founding members | |
| Christian Liljegren (formerly Rivel) | |
| Carl Johan Grimmark | |
| Fredrik Junhammar (until 1997) | |
| Jakob Persson (until 2001) | |
| Martin Claésson (until 2003) | |
| Current occupation | |
singing |
Christian Liljegren |
Guitar, keyboard |
Carl Johan Grimmark |
bass |
Andreas Passmark (formerly Olsson) |
Drums |
Anders Johansson (since 1997) |
Keyboard |
Martin Härenstam (formerly Claésson) |
| former members | |
singing |
German Pascual |
Keyboard |
Linus Kåse (2003-2004?) |
Narnia is a Christian metal band from Sweden . The name of the band goes back to the work The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis .
history
Christian Liljegren and Carl Johan Grimmark met for the first time in 1993 in their hometown Jönköping in southern Sweden. Liljegren was working with his band “Modest Attraction” on their first album The Truth in Your Face , while Grimmark was guitarist for the band “Sentinel”. They exchanged phone numbers and stayed in touch.
Shortly after Grimmark left Sentinel in 1996, Liljegren asked him if he would be interested in participating in a solo project; Liljegren had a passion for melodic hard rock, a style of music that his band met with little enthusiasm. Grimmark agreed. A few months later, Liljegren Grimmark won as a substitute for the guitarist Stephan Mohlin who had failed on the Modest Attraction tour in Germany. When Mohlin finally left the band, Grimmark became a permanent member. So Liljegren and Grimmark found time to plan their project. They experimented with pieces from other bands, trying to play and vary them as best they could. In September 1996 they recorded the results in the Topz Recording Studio; Grimmark played the instruments and Liljegren sang. The recordings lasted several months. Several guest musicians were also involved, including Jakob Persson, who would later become the bass player for Narnia.
In January 1997 the recordings were finally finished. After hard work, Narnia's first album Awakening was mixed. Her agent at the time, Magnus Söderkvist, finally secured a contract with the Japanese label Pony Canyon . In May Liljegren and Grimmark went on their last tour with Modest Attraction. They got to know Matthias Mittelstädt, who runs the record company MCM, which specializes in Christian bands, together with his brother Rainer. Mittelstädt offered to be her manager after listening to her album. Liljegren and Grimmark agreed and signed the contract. Other bands at MCM include B. Savior Machine and Rob Rock . After this success, Liljegren and Grimmark wanted to be able to perform live as well. That is why they completed the band with bassists, keyboardists and drummers.
Carl Johan Grimmark is outside the band at Savior Machine both as a studio and live guitarist, which was prompted by the departure of Jeff Clayton from this project. Since 2004 he has been a permanent member of Rob Rock's band .
Christian Liljegren was meanwhile married to the great-grandson daughter of Charlie Rivel - the world-famous clown - and has adopted her surname. Since 2004 he also sings in the Christian power metal band Divinefire . Since his divorce in 2007, his name is again Christian Liljegren.
In May 2008 the band announced that Liljegren was leaving as a singer. He would like to take a break and take on other projects. Germán Pascual joined as the new singer. He is from Brazil and has lived in Sweden since his youth. So far he was u. a. active at Minds Eye and Mendez. With Germán, the band recorded the album Course of a Generation , which was released on Massacre Records .
In April 2010, the band announced their early breakup. The band gave their last concert on December 3, 2010 at the Christmas Rock Night in Ennepetal.
In January 2014 the band announced their reunion.
After the re-establishment, the seventh studio album Narnia was released, which received good to very good reviews from international trade magazines and from which two singles and two videos have already been released . In the next few years, Narnia will play concerts all over the world with the former and now current regular line-up. A few concerts in home Sweden (Jönköping, Stockholm, Västerås) will kick off this. Until the end of 2016, bass player Andreas Passmark will not take part in the band for private reasons and will be represented by Jonatan Samuelsson as a guest musician.
Discography
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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| Albums | ||||||||||||
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- 1998: Awakening
- 1999: Long Live the King
- 2001: Desert Land
- 2003: The Great Fall
- 2004: At Short Notice… Live in Germany (DVD)
- 2006: Enter the Gate
- 2006: At Short Notice… Live in Germany (CD)
- 2007: Decade of Confession ("Best of" double album)
- 2009: Course of a Generation
- 2016: Narnia
- 2018: We still Believe - Made in Brazil
- 2019: From Darkness to Light
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Narnia Announces Its Dissolution - DarkScene Metal Magazine
- ↑ Sweden's NARNIA Is Back
- ↑ puremetalfan: Album Review: Narnia - Narnia. In: The Pure Metal Fan. September 5, 2016, accessed September 27, 2016 .
- ↑ NARNIA Releases Second Single & Video 'Messengers'. August 23, 2016. Retrieved September 27, 2016 .
- ↑ NARNIA the BAND - Chronicle | Facebook. In: www.facebook.com. Retrieved September 27, 2016 .
- ↑ Narnia in the Swedish charts