Lapis Lazuli

There are at least two bands with this name: 1. A Japanese rock band which was formed by vocalist, Hiroshi Kitadani (きただにひろし) in 1999. 2. A Swedish symphonic/melodic metal band formed in Hammerdall in 2005. Lapis Lazuli (or the band formerly known as Aftermath) is a symphonic metal orchestra which spawns from the north of Sweden. The story of Lapis Lazuli started in the late summer of 2005, when Timo Hautamäki played with the idea of starting a symphonic metal band while watching a Nightwish DVD. He contacted members from his other projects, namely Henrik Nyman, Jocke Ivarsson and Erik Lindfors. To fulfill the lineup he asked Joey Karlsson and Marie Fjällström to join the band, and they both said yes. The first gig was 2 months later, where they performed their first original song, named "Archangel". But after the gig, Erik no longer wanted to be a part of the band. And the replacer was Tobias Rhodin, who had played guitar with Timo and Jocke in their former band Hatecrew. This lineup lasted for about 2 years, filled with several gigs and a demo called "Last Hour", which was released in 2006. In 2007 the band mainly did cover gigs with Timo on vocals since Marie lived 300 kilometers away from the rest of the band. The last gig with Marie on vocals took place in the summer 2007 in Backe, during an event named "Tribute to Lapis Lazuli". During that summer the foundation for Aftermath was laid down. From the beginning it was only supposed to be a studio project, recording an album to send around to labels. Timo already had a vocalist in mind, namely Meliesa McDonell for whom he had recorded keys on her demo to Nightwish while they where searching for a new singer. She gladly accepted, and in 2008 the debut album "Tides of Sorrow" was released. By this time, the project had evolved into a band, and when the first tour hit the road in 2008, Aftermath had recruited Henrik as a session basist. After the tour the band decided that they had to get a permanent drummer, and that position was filled by Jocke. For the next 2 years, the band was rehearsing and working on the new album. The band was going a little slow however, since both Joey and Jocke moved away from the rest of the band. However, in the summer of 2009 they both moved back, and after that the band has kept working hard. In 2010, the band changed their name back to Lapis Lazuli and kept working on their next release. In 2011, Meliesa left the band since the distance became hard to overcome and present singer Frida Eurenius joined the band as the new vocalist. Short after that the band released the album "A Loss Made Forever" which became a a great success and the band kept on working on their next release. In November 2011 the band released the brand new album "A Justified Loss". Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.