Spotlight Narnia.

This month a Swedish band in the Spotlight.


I think we all know about the name Narnia.
It is the title of the Cronicles written by C.S. Lewis.
Do you like this Swedish band?

In the end of the year 1993 Christian Liljegren and I met for the very first time. The location was a no longer existing recordstore in our hometown Jönköping. Jönköping is a small town in the south of sweden, with a lot of musical activity going on. At that time Christian and his band Modest Attraction was just about to release their debut album "The truth in Your face". I was in a band called Sentinel. We had a short conversation, swapped phonenumbers and kept in touch after that first meeting.


NARNIA was formed in -96 and since -97 there have been 5 studio albums and 1 live DVD/CD released. (A low-res sample is available at "videos" section.) After a few changes in lineups the band now stands on it's most solid foundation ever and the latest release "Enter the Gate" was highly praised in the press. The "Sweden Rock Magazine" voted it "Leader of the Pack" in one of their issues of 2006.
After years of touring the band has grown to be a fine live-act that always delivers.

The members of NARNIA have also been seen in different bands, on records or on tour around the world such, as Rob Rock, DivineFire, Stormwind, E-type, Planet Alliance, Saviour Machine, Wisdom Call and many more.
The band members of Narnia are involved in many other bands.
But Narnia is still together.

"In a world of chaos, violence and fear we want to spread the news about our savior Jesus Christ. No matter if you are a believer or not - join us on our journey! You might discover something - musically and spiritually".


Discography.

Awakeing
Long Live The King
Desert Land
The Great Fall
Enter The Gate
Decade Of Confession.


http://www.angelicwarlord.com/

Here you can read reviews of the Narnia albums.

I just got "Enter The Gate" about a month ago, and have been listening to it, or parts of it, every day. It is fantastic.

I dindn't know which Narnia lp to get next, but, I read that the guitarist Grimmark likes Desert Land, so I probably will get that one.

The music and lyrics really don't compare, IMO-to me, to very much out there right now = It really is my cup-of-tea!!

"Desert Land" was absolutely phenomenal. You can't go wrong with that one!

Do you think the sound of Narnia has improved since they released the first Narnia CD?
More rockin?
What do you think of the lyrics of Narnia and special the lyrics of
"The Great Fall"?

I have two CDs of Narnia. "The Great Fall" and "Enter The Gate".

Awakenings was one of the first Christian metal albums I bought. Great neo-classical sound, and some of the songs had great hooks to them. I did overplay this one though and got a little burnt out on it, but at the time I only had about 12-20 Christian albums to listen two.


Long Live the King, musically great album, but I tend to get a little lost in the songs. They all kind of run together for me. Not a bad album at all, just not my favorite.


Desert Land, again musically fantastic, but a few of the songs tend to run together on me. Still a good listen, and I would rate it better than Long Live the King.


The Great Fall, Apt title because I was seriously disappointed with this album. So much so that I traded it.


Not a big fan of live albums so I never got this one.


Enter the Gate - Without a doubt the best album they have ever done. Hands down my favorite. If I could keep only one Narnia album this would be the one. I seriously hope they continue in this vein.

Narnia is one of my all time favorite Christian bands. Great thread topic. In a recent update to Angelic Warlord, I reviewed Narnia's new "Decade Of Confession" compilation. I started off the review with a detailed band biography, which I thought would be appropriate to include here:

The year was 1993 and guitarist Carl Johan Grimmark crossed paths with a vocalist by the name (at the time) of Christian Liljegren at a record store in the small Swedish town of Jönköping. Christian’s band, the 70s influenced hard rock outfit Modest Attraction, was preparing to release its debut album, The Truth In Your Face, while Carl remained active in his group, Sentinel. The two exchanged telephone numbers and kept in touch. As 1996 arrived, Modest Attraction had put out its sophomore effort, Divine Luxury, and Christian – wishing to expand his musical horizons – contacted Carl and asked if he would be interested in doing a melodic hard rock project. Carl answered in the affirmative and, hence, Narnia was born. In the meantime, when Modest Attraction guitarist Stephan Mohlin backed out of the bands upcoming tour of Germany, Carl was asked to take his place. Stephen eventually departed the group with Carl replacing him full time. Working together in a band for the first time, Christian and Carl soon began planning the previously discussed project in question.

After revamping several older songs from bands they were part of in the past, the two entered Topz Studio in September of 1996 and proceeded to finish Narnia’s first album, Awakening, in early 1997. Awakening was officially released in Japan (on Pony Canyon Records) on July 18, 1997 while the European release, on Nuclear Blast, came out February of the following year. With drummer Andreas Johansson, keyboardist Martin Claesson and bassist Jakob Persson later rounding out its line up, Narnia spent the summer of 1998 in the studio working on the sophomore effort Long Live The King. While Awakening can best be described as a project due to featuring primarily the contributions of just Carl and Christian, Long Live The King proved more of a group effort in that all members of the band participated on it. Immediately upon finishing Long Live The King on September 22, 1998, Narnia hit the road as the supporting act of a 15 city European tour with metal legend Ronnie James Dio.

Subsequent to releasing Long Live The King in early 1999, Carl spent the remainder of the year putting together the material that would encompass Narnia’s next project, Desert Land. The band proceeded to enter the studio in March of 2000 to begin work on the album, which saw a December 20, 2000 release date in Japan and European release on February 14, 2001. The fall of 2001, however, found bassist Jakob Persson leaving Narnia and replaced by talented newcomer Andreas Olsson. The band soon began work on the songs for the follow up effort The Great Fall, an album that got its start in the spring of 2002 but was not completed until early 2003. Upon finishing The Great Fall, keyboardist Martin Claesson left the group while his replacement, Linus Kase, was brought on board in time for Narnia’s show in Owens, Germany on March 29, 2003. The concert in question ended up being recorded and released on DVD in the spring of 2004 under the title At Short Notice: Live In Germany (it eventually was re-issued on CD in early 2006). By late 2004 the songwriting process began for Enter The Gate, the fifth studio album from the band and first to be released on Massacre Records. Narnia spent the better part of 2005 concentrating on the project, which saw Linus Kase depart during the recording process (Carl ended up handling all keyboard duties). Enter The Gate officially hit the shelves in Japan in March of 2006 and the rest of the world the following month.

Finally, in order to commemorate its 10th anniversary, Narnia released a 2 CD compilation album entitled Decade Of Confession in the summer of 2007. Decade Of Confession features three songs from Awakening, six from Long Live The King, five from Desert Land, two from The Great Fall, three from At Short Notice and two from Enter The Gate. You will also find one new song in “In His Majesty’s Service”, several bonus tracks that were exclusive to the Japan only releases of Awakening and Enter The Gate (“Can’t Get Enough Of You” and “Hymn To The North” respectively), a Uriah Heep cover (“Sunrise”) and a dance remix of the Enter The Gate track “Show All The World”.

Thanks for the review Dynamis. They are my new FAV band.

Quote :

If I could keep only one Narnia album this would be the one. I seriously hope they continue in this vein.

You can say that again!

alldatndensum wrote:

Quote :

If I could keep only one Narnia album this would be the one. I seriously hope they continue in this vein.

You can say that again!

Well ok, if you insist.

If I could keep only one Narnia album this would be the one. I seriously hope they continue in this vein.



hmm should it be vein, or vain? hmmm

It's vein.

avdb11 wrote:

It's vein.

Thanks!

I never heard of Narnia till a couple of years ago on the internet. Even at the christian music stores in town, I had never seen them.

I have recently heard a few songs on a compilation disc and from what I read here,If I were to get just 2 discs,they would be Enter the Gate & Desert Land.

Quote :

I never heard of Narnia till a couple of years ago on the internet. Even at the christian music stores in town, I had never seen them.

Without either a really knowledgable buyer for the Christian bookstores or Narnia getting a distribution deal with a Christian label, you won't be seeing them in stores. It's sad, but that's the reality of life.

alldatndensum wrote:

Without either a really knowledgable buyer for the Christian bookstores or Narnia getting a distribution deal with a Christian label, you won't be seeing them in stores. It's sad, but that's the reality of life.

Even if they did have a U.S. distro, I don't think you would see them in many of the music stores (certainly not around here).
This style of music is not the "flavor of the month". It seems the best you can hope for in Christian music stores is modern rock or nu-metal/emo. That and a healthy (or unhealthy depending on your view) dose of CCM.

Narnia is one of my favorite bands. I have spoken with Christian on several occasions via e-mail and he even sent me some incredible material that he made me promise not to share with anyone because he plans on releasing it in the future.

Several people did not like "The Great Fall", but I loved the album. It was much darker lyrically than their other albums, but I still greatly appreciated the album. "Enter the Gate" is my favorite album by them, followed closely by "Awakening".

I have never seen their albums in any store, I have ordered them all online, and I have never regretted any of them.

The live album is absolutely one of the best live albums I have ever heard. I generally don't like live albums, but this one is very well done and has great sound quality. Don't let the fact that it is a live album put anyone off from it. It is a great album.

I wouldn't have heard Narnia if it hadn't been for Tri-Rock. Then I started reading about them and seeing links on CMR, then here.

Quote :

This style of music is not the "flavor of the month".

But it really interests me how popular this style is in other parts of the world.

Narnia is slightly too progressive for my tastes (I think that's why I find them hard to listen to), and I'm not 100% a fan of Christian's vocals, but their albums are always great if you like that sort of thing. I have their 2nd, 3rd and 4th albums (Long Live The King, Desert Land and The Great Fall) and find it a bit tricky to get into them. My favourite has to be Long Live The King as that has some wonderful tracks on it.

Wish I liked them more as the music is well done, and the production is up there with the best and Christian does have a powerful voice.

Fundy

Narnia ties with Rob Rock as my favorite Christian artist.

Here are my favorite cd's from Narnia:

1. Enter The Gate
2. Long Live The King
3. The Great Fall
4. Desert Land
5. Awakening