HEAVENLY
B I O G R A P H Y
On a beautiful day in the year 1994 two friends, namely
Benjamin Sotto and
Maxence Pilo, sat in a cafe enjoying a
drink and decide to become musicians. Max tries his luck with the drums and Ben starts singing, guitar and keyboard
playing. Inspired by bands like The Doors, they found their own band called
SATAN'S LAWYER and start to play cover
versions, but Ben very soon grew tired of that and started composing his own songs. The rock legends got boring
as well and the guys started looking for other idols like Guns' N' Roses, Iron Maiden, Stratovarius, Helloween and
Angra and finally changed the band’s name into
HEAVENLY. A promising career was about to start...
Finding additional members proved to be difficult. Various auditions showed that those in question either didn't
know how to handle their instruments properly or they were of the opinion that metal was dead and that nobody
would like to listen to music like that of Helloween anymore. Staying true to their cause Ben and Max finally
came up with guitarist
Anthony Parker. They recorded their first demo (
‘Miracle’,
‘Riding Through Hell’ and
‘Million Ways’). The following is already history:
Noise
added the demo to the "Be Your Own Label Boss" section on their website and received overwhelming reactions.
After another line-up change (
Chris Savourey replaces Anthony on guitars and
Laurent Jean is the new bass player),
the band enters Horus Sound Studios in Hannover in February 2000 to start drum recordings under Piet Sielck ’s
(Iron Savior) guidance. When these were completed they headed for Piet’s studio in Hamburg to record their debut
album
"Coming From The Sky", with both Piet and Kai Hansen as guest musicians. Even though the press didn’t care
much about the album, it turned out to be Noise’s bestselling debut in ages. And before Stratovarius started
paying attention to the band and eventually took them along on their
INFINITE TOUR throughout Europe, the band
played the French
HARD ROCK FESTIVAL opening up for Symphony X. Shortly before they hit the road with Stratovarius,
Heavenly underwent in another line-up change.
Pierre-Emmanuel Pélisson replaced
Laurent Jean on bass and
Frédéric Leclercq joined
HEAVENLY on keyboards.
One final line-up change (Chris Savourey leaves the band and Frédéric takes over the guitar) and the band is now
ready to record their second album. Under the watchful eyes of Tommy Hansen the new songs are being recorded in Paris
and Denmark.
"Sign Of The Winner" is to be released on September 24th, 2001.
L I N E -U P
Ben: Vocals
Max: Drums
Fred: Guitar
PE: Bass
D I S C O G R A P H Y
Coming From The Sky (2000)
Sign Of The Winner (2001)
