Skyfire is a Swedish

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...

band, from

Höör Höör (formerly spelled Hör, , old da, Hør) is a locality and the seat of Höör Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 7,865 inhabitants in 2010. Name The town was previously known as Hørg (in the 12th century), Hørgh (in the 15th centu ...

, Sweden.

Biography

Skyfire was formed in the town of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

in 1995 by Andreas Edlund (

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

), Martin Hanner (

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

), Jonas Sjögren (guitar) and Tobias Björk (

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

). The four were friends since high school and had similar tastes in music. The band recorded two

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

: ''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 Thyrfing is a viking metal band from Sweden. The band is named after the royal sword Tyrfing from Norse mythology. History Thyrfing was formed in 1995 by Patrik Lindgren (guitar), Jocke Kristensson (drums), Peter Löf (keyboard) and Kimmy Sj ...

who helped them find a

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

with Dutch label

Hammerheart Records Hammerheart Records (known as Karmageddon Media between 2004 and 2010) is a Dutch independent record label specializing in death metal, black metal, doom metal and folk metal bands from around the world. The label was founded in 1995 and is current ...

. During two weeks in August 2000, Skyfire recorded their debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Timeless Departure ''Timeless Departure'' is the debut full-length studio album by the Swedish melodic death metal band Skyfire, released on 12 March 2001 by Hammerheart Records. Common themes on the album include death, mysticism, and armageddon. Track listing # ...

'' 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. On 7 January 2008 Skyfire announced on their official MySpace page that they had signed with a

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

-based label,

Pivotal Rockordings Pivotal Rockordings is a record label that was founded in 2004 by Leevan Macomeau and Alexi Front. Following its inception, Pivotal Rockordings signed its first artist, Sonic Syndicate, a melodic death metal band from Falkenberg, Sweden and relea ...

, for a three-album

deal A deal, or deals may refer to: Places United States * Deal, New Jersey, a borough * Deal, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * Deal Lake, New Jersey Elsewhere * Deal Island (Tasmania), Australia * Deal, Kent, a town in England * Deal, ...

, and the band entered the recording studio to begin recording their fourth untitled album. Mixing was done by

Scar Symmetry Scar Symmetry is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Avesta, formed in 2004. The band has released six albums, with seven released singles. They are signed to Nuclear Blast Records. History Formation and ''Symmetric in Design'' (2004−200 ...

's Jonas Kjellgren at Black Lounge Studios. On 15 May 2009 Skyfire announced a digital only EP entitled ''

Fractal In mathematics, a fractal is a geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scales, as illu ...

'' for a July 2009 release. The EP is a collection of B-sides recorded between 2004's ''Spectral'' and ''

Esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...

''. ''

'' was released on 6 July for digital download. Skyfire's fourth album is titled ''Esoteric'' and was released on 14 September 2009 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

via Pivotal Rockordings. The album was released on 18 September 2009 in the rest of Europe, and in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

on 13 October 2009 due to a scheduling issue. The cover art was created by Pär Olofsson, who also made covers for

Brain Drill Brain Drill was an American technical death metal band formed in 2005 from Ben Lomond, California founded by guitarist and songwriter Dylan Ruskin. They released 2 albums while signed to Metal Blade Records and self released their final third alb ...

Psycroptic Psycroptic are an Australian technical death metal band formed in Hobart, Australia in 1999. Mainstay members are Dave Haley on drums and his brother Joe Haley on guitar. Their lead vocalist, Jason Peppiatt, joined in 2004. In 2008 they signed ...

Spawn of Possession Spawn of Possession was a Swedish technical death metal group, which formed in 1997 in Kalmar. The band have collectively released three studio albums. A fourth album was planned, but in 2017 the band announced their split up. Biography Spawn of ...

Persuader Persuader is a Swedish power metal band from the city Umeå in the Swedish province of Västerbotten Norrland. The band was formed in 1997, and they have since released five full-length albums. They have a sound similar to bands including early ...

and others. On 4 July 2017 the band launched a

PledgeMusic PledgeMusic was an online direct-to-fan music platform, launched in August 2009. It was started to facilitate musicians looking to pre-sell, market, and distribute projects; such as recordings and concerts. It bore similarities to other artist p ...

campaign to fund their newest EP "Liberation in Death." The campaign was successful, raising the full amount needed in under eight hours.

Band members

Current members

* Martin Hanner − bass, synthesizers (2004−present); guitar, synthesizers, (1995−2004) * Joakim Jonsson − drums, guitar (2001−present) *

Johan Reinholdz Johan Reinholdz (born 30 June 1980) is a progressive metal artist best known for his work with the Swedish progressive metal band Andromeda, Swedish death metal band NonExist and the melodic death metal band Skyfire. He composed Andromeda's deb ...

− guitar (2004−present) * Joakim Karlsson − vocals (2007−present)

Past members

* Andreas Edlund − guitar, synthesizers (1995−2015) * Tobias Björk − drums (1995−2001) * Jonas Sjögren − bass (1995−2005) * Henrik Wenngren − vocals (1998−2007)

Timeline

Discography

Demos and EPs

* ''Within Reach'' (1998) * ''The Final Story'' (2000) * ''Haunted by Shadows'' (2003) * ''Fractal'' (2009) * ''Liberation in Death'' (2017)

Studio albums

* ''

'' (2001) * ''Mind Revolution'' (2003) * ''Spectral'' (2004) * ''

'' (2009)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skyfire Swedish symphonic metal musical groups Swedish melodic death metal musical groups Musical groups established in 1995