THE DIVINEFIRE STORY SO FAR... DIVINEFIRE was formed in early springtime of 2004 with the colaboration of Finnish composer and drummer, Jani Stefanovic, and vocalist Christian Rivel (NARNIA). Jani Stefanovic has been playing and touring with the bands Am I Blood, Sins of Omission, and Renascent. Christian Rivel is known for his work in NARNIA and run his own record label Rivel Records. They also added bass player Andreas Olsson (NARNIA, ROB ROCK & STORMWIND) into the band. A couple of month later they decided that these members will be the holy trinity of DIVINEFIRE. Christian Rivel and Jani Stefanovic are the main composers of the material & Andreas Olsson is the good and well educated musician who helps Christian Rivel out to do great vocal arrangements. The line up for DIVINEFIRE: Jani Stefanovic - Drums, Guitars, Keyboards & Growls Christian Rivel - Lead & Backing Vocals Andreas Olsson - Bass Jani Stefanovic came with many ideas to Christian Rivel what would later be DIVINEFIRE. Already at their 1st phone conversation the 26th of February 2004 the musical chemistry was there and the rest is history. Both felt that they should work together and a musical flow started to happen in a way that is not so common these days. Melodies and songs exploded from the duo, and within a month they had written all the material for their debut album GLORY THY NAME. They excitedly commenced the recording sessions for the album in April 2004. DIVINEFIRE combines the heaviness from the more aggressive styles of metal with the melodies from the symphonic style of hardrock; while also blending in beautiful vocal harmonies. The result has been a tremendous mix and it takes the listener on an illustrious adventure and celebrated musical journey. Christian, Jani & Andreas understood this and have worked very hard during the spring of 2004 to deliver a powerful debut album to the world. They also wanted a big and bombastic sound on their debut album to make the best possible impact so they invited some friends on the recordings to fulfil their musical vision of DIVINEFIRE and the Guest players who appeared on the GLORY THY NAME album are: Pontus Norgren - (Talisman & Great King Rat) Thomas Vikström -(Brazen Abbot & Candlemass) Fredrik Sjöholm - (Veni Domine) Carljohan Grimmark - (Narnia) Eric Clayton - (Saviour Machine) Hubertus Liljegren - (Crimson Moonlight) Torbjörn Weinesjö - (Veni Domine) When they had recorded 5 songs of the album Christian Rivel got in touch with A&R Magnus Söderkvist of ATENZIA RECORDS in Sweden. Christian has been in touch with Magnus since the early days of NARNIA where he helped them to get a deal in Japan. Christian hired Magnus for this service and delivered the promotional CD of 5 songs from the forthcoming album of DIVINEFIRE and Magnus started to present the songs of DIVINEFIRE to a lot of labels in Japan and several labels responded pretty quick and wanted to sign the band. They felt the same passion and fire that Jani & Christian felt when they started to make music together. When the response and offers came in, Christian & Jani really understood that they have something special together. Their new mix of metal will attract a lot of metal fans all over the world and decided to work even harder to fulfil their dreams and visions of DIVINEFIRE. The band finally signed a great deal with King Records in Japan and the album titled Glory Thy Name was released the 18th of DECEMBER 2004 & through Christian Rivel´s own label RIVEL RECORDS 18th of January 2005. The response has been tremendous for the debut album GLORY THY NAME all over the world because of the great new mix of metal with both melodic and aggressive elements. DIVINEFIRE had done what every band tries to do and have created their own unique sound and style. Because of the response for the debut album GLORY THY NAME metalfans start asking for a tour to see DIVINEFIRE live in concert. One thing that DIVINEFIRE decided in the beginning was that they will not start touring until the doors were open in Japan. I know it sounds strange but it was a part of the vision for the band. See later what´s happening. The market these days for metal music is pretty hard so already in November 2004 before Jani & Christian had released their 1st album GLORY THY NAME on King Records in Japan they started the preparations for the 2nd album. You always have to be one step further to make good impact. They already knew that if they should really put DIVINEFIRE on the metal map and make it happen they have to deliver a follow up album pretty quick after the debut album GLORY THY NAME. The fans and media will see that this band really works hard to show the world that DIVINEFIRE are here to stay so expect a lot of music from DIVINEFIRE in the future. On GLORY THY NAME - DIVINEFIRE recorded a version of the song FREE LIKE AN EAGLE by TALK OF THE TOWN as bonus track for JAPAN. A song that topped the charts in Sweden 1988 and Christian did this as a duet with the original singer Thomas Vikström known for his great vocal work in Candlemass, Brazen Abbot & Stormwind. Christian & Thomas collaborations have worked so well because of the same passion for music and how to express the vocals. Christian nowadays works out nearly all backing vocals arrangements together with Thomas because their voices works so good together. You can hear their good team work on the AUDIOVISION & FLAGSHIP albums. Please check out the forthcoming album of a new band called SEVEN DAYS featuring Thomas Vikström on lead and backing vocals and Andreas Olsson (DIVINEFIRE) on bass. Good bombastic epic metal! One important thing for DIVINEFIRE was also to make a music video to show the vision and power of the band. They shot the video for the opening song THE WORLD´S ON FIRE on GLORY THY NAME and fans of the band like it a lot. They signed a sub-publishing deal with NIPPON TV to get more attention for the band. Their video also appeared on a DVD released IN SWEDEN with big bands like CRADLE OF FILTH, MEGADETH and many more people caught attention of DIVINEFIRE and the video is also featured as bonus video on the METAL HEAVEN release of GLORY THY NAME. The words start spreading around the world about DIVINEFIRE and after the release of GLORY THY NAME. many great reviews came in like 84 points out of 100 in BURRN! MAGAZINE JAPAN, 88 points out of 100 in Aardschock Magazine - the biggest metal magazine in Benelux countries. Most of the metal magazines have given fantastic and great response for the album. See the review section. Record labels got in touch with Rivel Records to release this wonderful piece of music and in May 2005 RIVEL RECORDS SWEDEN signed a label deal with Georg Siegl at METAL HEAVEN in Germany and with good co-operation with PROMOTION company GERMUSICA led by Birgitt Schwanke. METAL HEAVEN in Germany re-released the debut album GLORY THY NAME 18TH of July including the video of THE WORLD´S ON FIRE so the wheels are running! The chemistry works perfect between Jani & Christian and new songs just exploding again like the first time they started writing material together. The 2nd album will be titled HERO. Everybody needs a hero in their lives. DIVINEFIRE wants to deliver a powerful, positive and divine mix of METAL MUSIC that shows their respect and dedication to their Heavenly Creator & Hero. The same process started like with the first album and in January 2005 they had all songs ready for the 2nd album. This time they have a better budget and could sacrifice a lot more time in studio. Thomas  Plec Johansson who mastered GLORY THY NAME album is known for his great work with UNMOORED & CRIMSON MOONLIGHT, MAJESTIC VANGUARD and many more. PLEC handled the mix and mastering the new album HERO. Jani even worked out more orchestral arrangements on this album and it will have a bigger and more bombastic sound that the debut. On the new album HERO they have recorded a version of QUEEN´S classic song THE SHOW MUST GO ON from INNEUNDO, the last studio album with the legendary FREDDIE MERCURY (R.I.P) behind the microphone. Christian also invited Thomas Vikström & Maria Rådsten on this track to make that little extra spark and energy and the result is amazing. Maria is known for her vocal work in the famous Swedish pop band ONE MORE TIME who topped the charts with the album HIGHLANDER in the early 90´s. The man in charge of ONE MORE TIME is Peter Grönvall the son of legendary BENNY ANDERSSON OF ABBA. Requests to see DIVINEFIRE - LIVE IN CONCERT, comes in all the time. JANI, CHRISTIAN & ANDREAS were now in the process to find the right members for the live show. One important thing was to find the right musicians with the musical quality to deliver this power on stage. Through studio owner Thomas  Plec Johansson they found a new guitar hero named PATRIK GARDBERG (AMMOTRACK) and his guitar style is like John Petrucci, Michael Romeo, Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai. On keyboards they have ANDERS BERLIN (SHINE). Anders have been involved on albums and touring with ECLIPSE & TIMESCAPE. He has the talent they were looking for and are very good on stage. On drums we have the extremely talented drummer ANDREAS JOHANSSON who work close together with CHRISTIAN RIVEL & ANDREAS OLSSON in NARNIA and he is also the drummer of ROB ROCK from USA (EX singer of IMPELLITTERI & PROJECT DRIVER) The future looks bright for DIVINEFIRE and they are happy to now have a great live line-up. In August 2005 everything got confirmed that DIVINEFIRE will go to JAPAN on their first tour ever together with SKYLARK & VISION DIVINE from Italy. October 4 - Tokyo Unplugged show ROCK INN , SHINJUKU WEST October 5 - Tokyo - Club Quattro October 6 - Osaka - Club Quattro This is what all members in DIVINEFIRE have been waiting for and now the doors were open in Japan and their vision came true. The album HERO was released 22nd of September 2005 and the tour in Japan went fantastic and the response so far for the new album HERO have been very good. The fans in Japan were so kind and DIVINEFIRE is really missing Japan. The band will hopefully return to Japan next year when the 3rd album is ready to be released. Now DIVINEFIRE is ready to tour a lot more if the chances are coming so check out the tour dates section and please get in touch with info@rivelrecords.com if you are interested to arrange a concert with DIVINEFIRE. The new album HERO will be out November 28, 2005 for the rest of the world. See discography for more information. THE LIVE LINE-UP FOR DIVINEFIRE: CHRISTIAN RIVEL - LEAD VOCALS JANI STEFANOVIC - GUITARS & BACKING VOCALS ANDREAS OLSSON - BASS & BACKING VOCALS PATRIK GARDBERG - LEAD GUITARS & BACKING VOCALS ANDERS BERLIN - KEYBOARDS & BACKING VOCALS ANDREAS JOHANSSON - DRUMS People & friends who will appear on the new album HERO are: MIKKO HÄRKIN - (WINGDOM, RANDOM EYES, KOTIPELTO & EX.SONATA ARTICA) PATRIK GARDBERG (AMMOTRACK) THOMAS "PLEC" JOHANSSON (UNMOORED) CARL JOHAN GRIMMARK (NARNIA, SAVIOUR MACHINE, FLAGSHIP & ROB ROCK) THOMAS VIKSTRÖM (SEVEN DAYS, STORMWIND & EX. BRAZEN ABBOT & CANDLEMASS) MARKUS SIGFRIDSSON (HARMONY & SEVEN DAYS) MARIA RÅDSTEN (ONE MORE TIME) With 2nd album HERO DIVINEFIRE hope to make bigger impact on the metal scene. Hope to see you on tour and thank you so far for your support! The story of DIVINEFIRE will continue...