Narnia is a Swedish
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
band founded by guitarist
Carl Johan Grimmark
Carl Johan Grimmark (born October 14, 1977
) is a Swedish guitarist. He has appeared with several influential Christian metal bands including Narnia, Saviour Machine, and Rob Rock. He recently joined the band Beautiful Sin in 2006, he has also ...
and singer
Christian Liljegren
Per Christian Liljegren (born 3 February 1971), is best known as the lead vocalist, and primary lyricist, for the Swedish Christian melodic power metal band, Narnia.
Liljegren is also the frontman of the metal bands Audiovision, Divinefire, Flag ...
. The band formed in Sweden in 1996, disbanded in 2010, and reformed in 2014. Their music references ''
The Chronicles of Narnia
''The Chronicles of Narnia'' is a series of seven high fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' has been adapted for radio, tele ...
'' by
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...
.
History
Liljegren and Grimmark met for the first time in 1993 in
Jönköping
Jönköping (, ) is a city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland.
The city is the seat of Jönköping Municipa ...
, a town in the south of Sweden. At this time Liljegren and his band Modest Attraction were just about to release their first album, ''The Truth in Your Face''. Grimmark was a member of a band named Sentinel. They remained in contact over several years, during which both had trouble with their bands. Modest Attraction produced its second album ''Divine Luxury'' in 1996, at the same time as Grimmark decided to leave Sentinel. Liljegren phoned Grimmark and asked him whether he was interested in working together on a project. Liljegren had a passion for melodic hard rock, which he was not able to explore in the band Modest Attraction. Grimmark was instantly interested in a project along those lines.
A few months later Liljegren called Grimmark again and told him that Modest Attraction would go on tour to Germany and the guitar player Stephan Mohlin could not accompany them. Thus Grimmark replaced Stephan. Stephan soon left the band all together, and Grimmark was asked whether he would like to become a full-time band member. Grimmark accepted, thus giving Liljegren and Grimmark time to plan their project. They took a few old songs from other bands and altered them to their own preferences. In September 1996 they went into the Top Recording Studio. Grimmark played all of the instruments and Liljegren sang. The recordings took several months. They had several guests on the album, including Jakob Persson, who later played bass in Narnia.
Janne Stark
Janne Stark (born 1963 in Karlshamn) is a Swedish guitarist and author.
Biography
Stark recorded his first 7" single with the band Paradize in 1979, then formed the band Overdrive in 1980. He released the 12" MLP ''Reflexions'' in 1981, aft ...
(
Overdrive, Locomotive Breath,
Baltimoore
Baltimoore is a Swedish rock band, led by Swedish singer Björn Lodin. Lodin was originally approached by Elektra Records in 1987 to record a solo album, but Lodin opted to use the moniker ''Baltimoore'' rather than his own name.
In 1992, Lodi ...
) was responsible for the guitar solos and Mart Hallek played the violin.
In January 1997, the recordings were finally finished. After hard work the album ''Awakening' was mixed.
Thanks to their manager Magnus Söderkvist their album was taken up by ten Japanese labels. Nine of these labels wanted to take Narnia under contract, finally Narnia decided for
Pony Canyon
, also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...
. In May, Liljegren and Grimmark went on their last tour with Modest Attraction. They met Matthias Mittelstädt, who possessed an enterprise named MCM Music. Mittelstädt, along with his brother, Rainer Matthias, loved the album and Mittelstädt became their manager.
With a demo in hand and new management, they began to search for talented new members and finally Narnia was born.
Subsequently, the group signed with
Nuclear Blast Records
Nuclear Blast is a record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label mov ...
, and would release the albums ''Long Live the King'' (1999), ''Desert Land'' (2001), and ''The Great Fall'' (2003) on that label. They opened once for
Stratovarius
Stratovarius is a Finnish power metal band that formed in 1985. Since their formation, they have released sixteen studio albums, five DVDs and six live albums. In its history, the band has gone through many chaotic lineup changes, and after fo ...
during this time.
A live-DVD and live album was released of their concert in Germany, both titled ''At Short Notice... Live in Germany'' (2006). The following album, ''Enter the Gate'' (2006), was released on MCM Music, as was the compilation album ''Decade of Confession'' (2007).
On 9 April 2008 Narnia began recording their latest album. On 29 April Liljegren announced his departure from the band. On 29 August the band announced on their official MySpace that the new vocalist is Germán Pascual. Germán grew up in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil, but moved to Sweden in his teens. Previously he has worked with various bands and artists, such as Minds Eye and Mendez. ''Course of a Generation'' was released in Europe by Massacre Records on 24 July 2009.
On 15 April 2010 the band announced that they would be breaking up. On 20 October 2010 they announced that they would hold two final concerts - one in Germany, and one in Mexico. Original keyboardist Martin Härenstam (Claésson) rejoined for the final two concerts.
Post-breakup and reunion
Since their farewell shows in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
, (at
Revolution Metal
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
), and Germany, (at
Christmas Rocknight), there has not been a great deal of information about the members of Narnia. That changed on 22 January 2012, as former frontman Carl Johan Grimmark took to the band's official MySpace and revealed that he had been quite busy in the past year.
According to Grimmark, he had joined the band
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
during the summer of 2011, playing guitar and keyboard. He also stated that he was also involved with the band
Full Force
Full Force is an American music group of hip hop and R&B singers and producers from Brooklyn, New York.
Members
*B-Fine (Brian George) - drums and drum programming, backing vocals
*Shy Shy (Hugh Junior Clark) - bass guitar, backing vocal ...
, composed of
Mike Andersson, vocals (of
Cloudscape),
Anders Johansson (of
HammerFall
HammerFall is a Swedish power metal band from Gothenburg. The band was formed in 1993 by ex- Ceremonial Oath guitarist Oscar Dronjak.
History
Early days (1993–1996)
HammerFall was formed when rhythm guitarist Oscar Dronjak quit Ceremo ...
, formerly of Yngwie Malmsteen's
Rising Force
''Rising Force'' is the first studio album by guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, released in late 1984 through Polydor Records.[Stefan Elmgren
Stefan Elmgren (born 17 May 1974) is the former guitarist of the Swedish power metal band HammerFall from 1997 to 2008.
History
Before becoming a member of HammerFall, he was the guitarist in the band Highlander. Elmgren has also worked with his s ...]
(formerly of
HammerFall
HammerFall is a Swedish power metal band from Gothenburg. The band was formed in 1993 by ex- Ceremonial Oath guitarist Oscar Dronjak.
History
Early days (1993–1996)
HammerFall was formed when rhythm guitarist Oscar Dronjak quit Ceremo ...
) and
Tommy Larsson (formerly of
Heed
Heed or HEED may refer to:
People
* Anneli Heed (born 1978), Swedish stand-up comedian impersonator and voice actress
* John Clifford Heed (1862–1908), American composer and musician
* Jonas Heed (born 1967), Swedish former professional ice ho ...
). He hinted at something big taking place in the future, but has since remained tight-lipped regarding the news.
On 31 January 2014 the band announced they were active again, celebrating the 15th anniversary of their ''Long Live the King'' album by playing live shows and re-releasing the album as a deluxe edition.
Band members
Current
*
Christian Liljegren
Per Christian Liljegren (born 3 February 1971), is best known as the lead vocalist, and primary lyricist, for the Swedish Christian melodic power metal band, Narnia.
Liljegren is also the frontman of the metal bands Audiovision, Divinefire, Flag ...
– lead vocals
* CJ Grimmark – guitars, bass guitar, keyboards, vocals
* Martin Härenstam – keyboards
* Andreas Johansson – drums
* Jonatan Samuelsson – bass guitar,
bass pedals
Bass pedals are an electronic musical instrument with a foot-operated pedal keyboard with a range of one or more octaves. The earliest bass pedals from the 1970s consisted of a pedalboard and analog synthesizer tone generation circuitry packag ...
, vocals
Former
* Fredrik Junhammar – drums
* Sonny Larsson – backing vocals
* Jakob Persson – bass
* Linus Kåse – keyboards
* Germán Pascual – lead vocals
* Andreas Olsson/Passmark – bass
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
* ''Awakening'' (1998)
* ''Long Live the King'' (1999)
* ''Desert Land'' (2001)
* ''The Great Fall'' (2003)
* ''Enter the Gate'' (2006)
* ''Course of a Generation'' (2009)
* ''Narnia'' (2016)
* ''From Darkness to Light'' (2019)
* ''Ghost Town'' (2023)
Live albums
* ''We Still Believe – Made in Brazil'' (2018)
Compilations
* ''Decade of Confession'' (2007)
* ''Soli Deo Gloria'' (2021)
Video albums
* ''At Short Notice... Live in Germany'' (2004)
References
External links
Official Narnia Myspace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Narnia
Swedish power metal musical groups
Swedish Christian metal musical groups
Musical groups established in 1996
Musical groups disestablished in 2010
Nuclear Blast artists