Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Lapis Lazuli was founded in 2005 by Timo, who came up with the idea of starting a symphonic metal band. The rest of the band was made up by Jocke and Tobias who was playing with Timo in his other band Hate Crew, Henrik Nyman who had played with him in Hautamäkiz, Johan who had played with Henrik in Crystal Edge, and Marie Fjällström on vocals. This lineup played together for 2 years, doing several gigs and releasing a demo.
Afterwards, Timo, Johan and Tobias released an album with Meliesa McDonell as vocalist under the name Aftermath. Aftermath was meant to remain a studio project, but as it evolved into a band they recruited Jocke and Henrik to fill the line-up.
After releasing the album, working on the follow up and changing the name back to Lapis Lazuli, the band parted ways with Meliesa and recruited Frida as their new vocalist, shorty thereafter releasing 2 albums within the year.
How would you describe your style? Which bands influenced your music?
Symphonic metal, to keep it simple. We take influences from everything we find good and try not to focus on particular genres, but to point out more prominent influences i would say Within Tempation, Delain and Nightwish.
Why should a metalhead buy your demos/albums?
Because they want to hear awesome music!
What have you released so far and how were your releases received by the public/media? The releases we feel represent us today are ”A Loss Made Forever” and ”A Justified Loss”, both which have received very good reviews all over the world. Our older releases have gotten good reviews aswell.
Do you play live as well? How's your live activity so far?
We play live as often as we can, and since the release of ”A Justified Loss” our scedual has been farly hectic, at least compared to how it was a year back. We have gigs planned until May, and are allways looking for more!
What sould labels/zines/promoters know about your band? Why should they be interested in it?
That we allways give our everything into what we do, and we dont release anything that we dont have complete faith in. Of course, nothing that we can say or write can say it as good as our songs. Listen to them!
What plans do you have for the near future as a band?
Except doing the gigs we have planned, our focus currently lies on the making of a new album. We are currently writing and rehearsing new material, and getting ready to hit the studio once again.
Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
You can find everything you need at our website: www.lapislazuli.se
March 2012