-Heavenly-

On their latest and third album, entitled Dust To Dust, French rock band Heavenly present a very special story: three „chapters„ (13 tracks with a total running time of 75 minutes) narrate the story of a man, who, after being bitten by a vampire, wanders through the centuries and fights against the urge to become a bloodsucking creature himself. Of course, although this is reminiscent of the storylines from movies like “Interview with a Vampire” or “Bram Stoker´s Dracula”, there are parallels to life in the 21st century represented on the album. Amongst songs more traditionally associated with the heavy metal genre such as “Evil”, “Lust For Life” or “Fight For Deliverance” there are tracks that have a direct reference to contemporary life: “Illusion Pt. 1 & 2” mirror the condition of our Earth; “Keepers Of The Earth” is a critical view on mankind today and “Miracle” shows how important love and emotion is for our existence. Altogether Dust To Dust has turned out to be more aggressive and powerful than the bands earlier albums and proves that Heavenly have found their direction, while still remaining loyal to their speedmetal roots.

The majority of the album was recorded in bands own studio in Hyeres in the South of France, but the services of Ferdy Doernberg (Rough Silk) were engaged for the recording of the drumtracks while Philip Coloditti and Sascha Paeth (Angra, Rhapsody) took on the mixing duties.

Vocalist Ben Sotto and drummer Max Pilo started their musical collaboration back in 1994, when they played songs by G´nR, Iron Maiden, Stratovarius, Helloween and Angra in a covers band called Satan´s Lawyer. Soon Ben discovered his own talent for songwriting and formed Heavenly with Max.

The association with Noise Records began with three songs (“Miracle”, “Riding Through Hell”, “Million Ways”), which were put on Noise Records´ website (“Be your own label boss”) and gained such fantastic response, that Noise signed the band immediately.

After Chris Savourey replaced guitarist Anthony Parker (who is in Fairytale today) in 2000 and Laurent Jean joined the band as the bassist, the band commenced recording the first album “Coming From The Sky” (under supervision of Iron Savior´s Piet Sielck). Even though some parts of the media ignored the album, it sold better than any other newcomer on Noise Records. A few months later Heavenly played shows with Stratovarius on their “Infinite”-Tour and appeared on the first festival organized by Hard Rock Magazine in Paris, which featured Symphony X among others.

At the time Heavenly were preparing for the recording for the second album, guitarist Chris Savourey left the band to be replaced by Frédréric Leclercq and Laurent Jean was replaced by Pierre-Emmanuel Pelission. This change at short notice proved to be a lucky strike. Under the reins of Tommy Hansen (Helloween, Pretty Maids) “Sign Of The Winner” was mixed and released in September 2001. This time acclaimed by the press and fans alike, a full European tour with Edguy followed on which they were joined by a second guitarist Charley Corbiaux, who has since become a permanent member of the band.

In 2002 Heavenly played the Wacken Open Air before starting work on Dust To Dust this great album will be finally released January 14th 2004.