Destiny (band)

Biography

The story of Destiny took form back in 1982 as bassist Stefan Björnshög first met guitarist Magnus Österman. Together they formed the band HEXAGON but soon changed its moniker to DESTINY. After recording one demo in 1982 with singer Therese Hanseroth (1964-2012) they went though some line-up changes and vocalist Håkan Ring was added to the line-up. A contract was signed with a company called Musik Bolaget and recordings of the debut album Beyond All Sense took place in Studio Bohus, Kungälv in December 1984. The main instrumentation for the album was recorded live during one singel day, with only vocals, guitar solos and keyboards added afterwards. The album was later re-recorded with Kristoffer Göbel (FALCONER) handling vocals and was released in 2005, 20 years after the original album.

The band's second album, Atomic Winter, was released on U.S. Metal Records in 1988 with new singer Zenny Hansson joining the group. The record was mixed by Ilbert and Chips from the band SATOR. The cover art for the album was created by legendary artist Derek Riggs, who is otherwise most know for creating a wide array of art for the band IRON MAIDEN. The album got a lot of positive attention in international hardrock and metal publications and the band did a promotional tour in Germany and the Benelux area.

The recordings of the next album, Nothing Left To Fear, took place during the years 1989-1990. The band decided to leave U.S. Metal Records after encountering problems concerning the cover art (once again to be created by Derek Riggs) and the recording itself, which the label wanted the band to redo completely. Instead DESTINY signed with English label Active Records. The album was remixed and finally released in June 1991. The artwork by Riggs was never used. The same year the band filmed its first video for the song Evil Trinity and toured during the summer as openers for American progressive metalband SAVATAGE.

Sadly Zenny Hansson left the band during 1992 and without a singer the band's career was temporarily halted. Singer Daniel Heiman (LOST HORIZON/CRYSTAL EYES/HEED) joined for a few months in 1994 but in the end Zenny Hansson (now Zenny Gram) returned to the ranks and in 1996 recordings of the fourth album, The Undiscovered Country, could finally take place. As the musical climate for hard rock and heavy metal music was quite poor in 1996 the band decided to rest on its laurels and the albums wasn't released until 1998 when the band signed with label GNW. It received good reviews all over the world but as their new label didn't have enough resources to push the album it sadly went largely unnoticed.

Prior to the recordings of Future Of The Past the turbulence in the line-up continued. Vocalist Zenny Gram left the ranks again and new guitarists and drummers came and went. Kristoffer Göbel (FALCONER) joined the band in 2001 and the recording process of the fifth album could finally begin during spring of 2002. In 2003 the band signed with GMR but the release of Future Of The Past, due to various problems with the cover art etc., was delayed until March/April 2004. A video was also filmed for the song In The Shadow Of The Rainbow. In the autumn of the same year the band re-recorded their debut album Beyond All Sense, plus two extra songs, and released it as Beyond All Sense 2005 the following year. The band included a bonus DVD with the release; containing videos, live footage and other extras.

Apart from a few shows, opening for ex. BLACK SABBATH-singer Tony Martin on his tour of Sweden in 2006 for example, nothing much happened during the next few years. Recordings of a new album (then titled Cold Fire, now Global Warming) began in 2006 but was put on hold for the band to take part in the aforementioned tour. Singer Kristoffer Göbel also left later that same year. While most of the music for the new album was finished and recorded the band couldn't find a new singer and the years passed by with the band remaining mostly inactive. As 2012, and with it the band's 30th anniversary, drew closer, the idea arose to record and release an album to celebrate it. The original plan had been to re-record Nothing Left To Fear, but now the band decided to keep the 6 tracks they had already recorded for that and add other stuff to it. In 2012 they also finally found their new frontman Jonas Heidgert (DRAGONLAND) and recordings of the anniversary album could finally proceed towards completion. In the end this idea became the album Climate Change, which was finally released in October 2016, once again on GMR. On top of the 6 songs mentioned earlier it also contains one song each from three albums (Atomic Winter, The Undiscovered Country and Future Of The Past) and 5 previously unrecorded songs from the early days.

Currently the band is busy promoting Climate Change. The album has received great reviews from all over the globe and two acclaimed videos for the songs Living Dead and Sabotage have been released. The band plans to finally release the aforementioned Global Warming, their first album with only new material since Future Of The Past (2004), in the autumn of 2017.

Members

Discography