Click the images for individual members profile
 Ian E. Highhill |
 Hank J. Newman |
 Thomas Henry |
 Dr. K. Lundell |
 Arnold Hackman |
History of Astralion
When drummer Tom Wallen and singer Ian E.Highhill sat in a pub in southern Finland enjoying their beer in 2011, they talked about music and about the songs that they had exchanged amongst themselves. It soon became clear that a band would be the perfect outlet for their creativity. Both musicians had kept in contact with each other after a band project, which had fizzled away. One of the songs they talked about had been written by a friend, Hank J. Newman, who very quickly joined the founders of the planned combo and whose visions were similar to those of Ian and Tom.
Thanks to the great contacts, which the three lads had in the Finnish music scene, they soon had more interested musicians in their circle, who also envisioned a lasting band. Finally bassist Dr. K. Lundell and keyboarder Thomas Henry who, together with Ian, was involved in another band project that just broke up, joined the group. Now that the first line-up was settled, the musical visions were set in stone and they decided on the band name of ASTRALION.
It did not take long for it to become clear that Hank and Ian were in perfect harmony on the song writing front and who were able to put words and music together with incredible speed. The speed was increased during band rehearsals and it didn't take long before the first live shows had been booked. During this period of musical self-discovery the musicians' experience became noticeable. Everybody could look back on their broad experience with other bands such as The Addication, HumanGod, Olympos Mons, etc...
In December 2011 the band released their first demo, entitled "Roadside Rose", put their new website online and had the first professional band photos made for the forthcoming press releases.
However, ASTRALION, like so many other bands in their early periods, had to go through some heartache. Just one year after the band's formation, founding member Tom Wallen threw in the towel. Accepting the loss and as a temporary solution, the band found a professional, very committed drummer with a great background in the form of Arnold Hackman. They continued to look for a permanent drummer until they came across Mr. Voltage a couple of months later. He didn't stay long though, leaving the band in order to concentrate more on his sporting ambitions. So the lads asked Arnold Hackman back and offered him the job as official ASTRALION drummer.
Discussions about the plans for the first album took place whilst the band played as many live shows as they could. In Autumn 2012 they began filming a video clip which, however, was not released until July 2013. "At The Edge Of The World" went online and Lady Luck seemed to be smiling on the band. Before the end of 2013 the group had completed its debut album and began looking around for a label who would support and stand behind the band's musical orientation. They came into contact with Limb Music, who saw enormous potential in ASTRALION and who immediately took the band under contract.
November 2014 saw the release of the self-titled debut work and, at the same time, a new video clip entitled "We All Made Metal" also took shape. The release was very successful and amazon.de saw the album reaching number 50 in the "Highest Selling Albums of the Melodic Metal Genre". Members of the press pricked up their ears and soon the album was receiving extremely positive echoes all over the world. The number of live appearances increased and 2015 proved to have been a very successful year for ASTRALION.
Stagnation is death for any creativity and so the Finns began songwriting for new demos shortly after their debut release. In July 2015 they had hardly begun recording the second album when they received the news that keyboarder Thomas Henry would have to take a two month leave of absence for medical reasons. The news delayed any further recordings and even live shows booked to finance the studio rental had to be cancelled.
However, the problem did prove one thing - the band stayed together and came out of it stronger than before. Once Henry was well again the lads finished the recordings and again asked D-Studio's Jarno Hänninen, who had mixed the debut, to mix the new album. In early 2016 the new work, entitled "Outlaw" was wrapped up and showed that the band had taken a huge step forwards in the quality of their work.
ASTRALION's trademark is: melodic Power Metal, marked by needle-sharp guitar parts, huge keyboard melodies, clear vocals and choruses which are made to be sung by masses of metal heads. The band's motto remains: Forget the dragon, forget the sword - here's true power from the chord!
