The origins of Heavenly go way back in 1994, near Paris, when Benjamin Sotto (born on 22/09/80) met Maxence Pilo (born on 19/06/79). At that time, both of them were starting to learn music. Max took the drums, and Ben began to sing, as well as playing guitar and keyboards. They decided to form a band called Satan's Lawyer. At the beginning, they were listening to The Doors, and played covers. But Ben started to compose very soon. They discovered Guns'n'Roses, and then the metal mania took both of them when they began to listen to Iron Maiden and especially Helloween and the rest : Stratovarius, Angra, Rhapsody, etc. They renamed the band Heavenly in 1996, and at that time, Ben and Max started to play in another band Twilight, a thrash metal band playing covers of Metallica, Megadeth, Sepultura, etc. Leaving Twilight, they started playing with a lot of musicians, trying to get a stable line-up. A lot of guitarists and bassists played in Heavenly, but none of them seemed to fit. At that time, most of them laughed when they heard Ben's compositions, saying that heavy metal was dead, and that Helloween was much too outdated !
Finally, guitar player Anthony Parker joined the band, and Heavenly started to rehearse heavily. In october 1998, they recorded their first demo, which contained three tracks : " Miracle ", " Riding Through Hell ", and " Million Ways ". The last two would later appear on Heavenly's first album. The demo was sent to dozens of record companies. Heavenly received positive reactions from some of them. Among them was Noise records, who decided to put the songs on its website, as part of their " Be your own label boss " contest. The response towards Heavenly's demo was overwhelming, and Noise Records decided to sign a contract with the young musicians in November 99. Prior to that, Anthony Parker had left the band. Bass player Laurent Jean joined Heavenly, followed shortly by guitar player Chris Savourey (Laurent and Chris had played together in an another band).

In February 2000, the four musicians flew to Hannover to start recording their debut album, produced by Piet Sielck. The drums were recorded at the legendary Horus Sound Studio in Hannover, and the rest in Piet Sielck's Powerhouse studio. The whole process took six weeks, and the release of " Coming from the sky " (which featured metal master Kai Hansen, who sang part of " Time Machine ") was set at the end of May 2000. The album was very well received by metal fans all over the world, turning Heavenly into one of the most successful newcomers of the year.

As a result of this success, Heavenly was chosen to be the opening band on Stratovarius' second European leg of their " Infinite " tour in December. The band started to rehearse for this tour, and tried to find a keyboard player for the stage. But before that, in the end of October, the musicians decided to part ways with bass player Laurent Jean. They found a replacement with Pierre-Emmanuel Pélisson (born on 25/06/79), who lived in the same city as Chris, in Besançon, east of France. But the first show was coming closer and no keyboard player was there yet. Finally, Frédéric Leclercq (born on 23/06/78), who had played in an another band with Chris and P-E, joined Heavenly two days before the first concert !

Apart from a small warm-up show prior to the recording of " Coming from the sky ", Heavenly never had the opportunity to play live, because of all the line-up problems. So Heavenly's first real live appearance took place in Tours, France, on November 24th, 2000, opening for Double Dealer, Majestic, and Symphony X. The day after, Heavenly played in front of their biggest audience yet in France : they took part of the Hard Rock festival, organized by the biggest French magazine, at the famous Elysée-Montmartre in Paris with bands like Avalon, Double Dealer, Majestic, Metalium and Symphony X. The show was a huge success, the band received an overwhelming response from the 1,600 people attending the show. One week later, on Heavenly embarked on their first European tour, opening for Silent Force and Stratovarius. From december 1st to the 14th, the crowds in France, Holland, Belgium, Germany and Czech Republic reacted very well to songs like " Riding Through Hell ", " Carry Your Heart " or " Time Machine ".

Back in France, the band finished to prepare the last songs for the second album. But in February, one week before the beginning of the recording, guitar player Chris Savourey decided to leave the band. The replacement was chosen right away : it was Frédéric Leclercq, who had played keyboards on the tour ! Fred was actually a guitar player, and his involvement in the band went smoothly, as he was already part of Heavenly during the tour. So Ben, Max, P-E and Fred entered the studio in the beginning of March to record the follow-up of " Coming from the sky ". The new album " Sign of the Winner " is produced by Tommy Hansen (Helloween, Pretty Maids) and Heavenly, and will be released on September 24th.

source : tartareandesire.com