Vision Divine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Country Flag of Italy Italy
Years active 1998 – present
Genres Power Metal
Progressive Metal
Labels Scarlet Records
Members Olaf Thorsen
Michele Luppi
Cristiano Bertocchi
Federico Puleri
Alessio Lucatti
Alessandro Bissa

Vision Divine is an Italian progressive power metal band formed in 1998 and still active.

Contents

[edit] History

Vision Divine was born in 1998, originally as a solo project from Olaf Thorsen (former guitarist and mastermind of the Italian band Labyrinth). Very soon, Fabio Lione (currently Rhapsody of Fire's singer) rejoins him after the first Labyrinth period ("No Limits"), and then what was supposed to be a solo project quickly turns into a real band, taking its new name from Labyrinth's previous name ("Vision") and from the title that was supposed to be given to Olaf's first solo album ("Divine"). Completing the line up Mat Stancioiu (drums), Andrew McPauls (keyboards) and Andrea "Tower" Torricini (bass).

In its first 3 years the band released 2 albums, and thanks to the good results with the sales they start touring around the world (South American Tour in Dec. 2000), where for the 1st time an Italian Heavy Metal band got the chance to play (and sold-out) in countries like Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Panama and Mexico.

In 2001 the band started writing and recording the new album, titled "Send me an Angel", that was released in January 2002. At the end of the same year, Olaf decided to leave Labyrinth, to focus just on VD and also deciding to stop any annoying rumours from some magazine, pretending to consider VD as nothing but a "side project". For the same reason Andrew and Mat split from the band and were replaced by the highly talented Oleg Smirnoff at keyboards (ex Eldritch and now Death ss) and Matteo Amoroso at drums (ex Athena). In 2003 the band started the songwriting for the 3rd album, when unfortunately Fabio started having some problem regarding the coexistence of his career and Vision Divine related duties. After a few months, they mutually agreed to split in a friendly way. They then proceeded to add new singer Michele Luppi, a highly skilled and talented vocalist (graduated in 1998 at VIT of L.A.) with a previous experience in live performancess. With this new line-up it they completed the final songs for the album that was to be titled "Stream of Consciousness". The album was released in April of 2004.

With a brand new line-up and with renewed ambitions the band cancelled any previous deal, deciding to join Scarlet Records for the Italian Territory, King Records for the Japanese territory and Metal Blade for the rest of the World. In 2005 the band released their latest album titled "The Perfect Machine", which was recorded at Goldenworks Mixing Suite studio and produced by Stratovarius' leader Timo Tolkki.

In 2006 Andrea "Tower" Torricini leaves the band for not being able to guarantee full-time dedication to the band, and Cristiano Bertocchi replaces him. By September, The Perfect Machine "was immediately described as one of the best Italian metal releases ever, becoming one of Scarlet's all time best-sellers", according to their website. A new digipack was released containing 4 bonus tracks. Also, Riccardo "Ricky" Quaggliatto has also left the band due to personal problems.The new drummer is Alessandro Bissa

Currently, Vision Divine is recording their new studio album, "The 25th Hour", along with Timo Tolkki and Alessandro Bissa in New Sin Studios.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Videos

  • 2005 - Stage of Consciousness

[edit] Members

[edit] Current members

[edit] Former members

[edit] External links

Vision Divine
Olaf Thorsen | Michele Luppi | Cristiano Bertocchi | Federico Puleri | Alessio "Tom" Lucatti | Alessandro "Bix" Bissa
Former members: Fabio Lione | Matteo Amoroso | Andrew Mc Pauls | Oleg Smirnoff | Mat Stancioiu | Andrea "Tower" Torricini | Ricky Quagliato
Discography
Studio Albums: Vision Divine | Send me an Angel | Stream of Consciousness | The Perfect Machine | The 25th Hour
Live videos: Stage of Consciousness
Related articles
Timo Tolkki | Labyrinth
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