The Dark Horizon were born in the September 1996, as a power metal cover band. Only after a year they succeed to have a complete line-up: Pietro Gandolfi: voice; Daniele Mandelli: guitars; Alessandro Battini: keyboards; Claudio Gallini: bass; Luca Capelli: drums.
After several local live-exhibitions, in 1998 the band wants to write their own songs and begins to create riffs and lyrics for a fantasy concept-album which contains eight songs. Four of these were recorded in May the same year into the demo-tape Legend in opera, receiving good reviews and approval from the specialized press and the Underground.
In 1999 there is a big change into the core of the band, which loses three of its original elements and revolutionizes radically the initial line-up:
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Luigi Maione: voice;
Daniele Mandelli: guitars;
Alessandro Battini: keyboards;
Andrea Galli: bass;
Marco Poliedri: drums.
With this new line-up, the five Dark Horizon members the new demo-cd Unnamed, which is the key to obtain a contract with Underground Symphony. The album is recorded between December 1999 and January 2000 but it takes a long time to see the light and so the band without loosing time increase the live-activity joining many power metal festivals with important bands like: White Skull, Mesmerize, Skylark, Projecto and Wonderland playing in several importants pubs.
In the June 2000, at the ZENITH STUDIO in Lucca, the band records, under the supervision of Frank Andiver, the Warlords cover of the track Aliens for a tribute created by the Underground Symphony that is still unpublished. The album, in the meantime, remains in the drawer for more than a year and the band is obliged to break the contract, looking for a more active label. The search finds a result with the Northwind records, where Mauro Saija appears really interested to produce the band, publishing the album in November 2001 for the newborn Steelborn record. The album remastered by Luigi Stefanini at the New Sin studio in Treviso with the title Son of Gods. Its a concept album with power metal height songs with strong symphonic shades that receives good reviews although its penalized by a old recording dating to two years before.
In May 2001, at the new Elfo Studio in Piacenza, Dark Horizon record Manowars cover of Heart of steel for a tribute created by Steelborn records with Majesty, Dark Avenger, Twisted tower dire, Logars diary, released in November 2002. Another big revolution takes place in the band: the line-up changes again for most of the components and there is a deep crisis but after some time the five heroes enter the best phase of the whole Dark Horizon history with the most gorgeous line-up:
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Roberto Quassolo: Voice;
Daniele Mandelli: Guitars;
Alessandro Battini: Keyboards;
Davide Marino: Bass;
Luca Capelli: Drums.
In 2002 and 2003 the Dark Horizon make many live exhibitions with the new line-up obtaining very positives responses. (Transylvania live in Milano, at the Indian Saloon next to Skylark, at The field with Domine, at Tendenze festival in Piacenza in front of 5000 persons). They sussequently record the cover of Stratovarius Hounting high and low, for a tribute-album that in November 2004 was in the record shops.
The new album Dark Lights shades has been recorded at Elfo-studio in Tavernago (Piacenza) by Daniele Mandelli between October 2003 and May 2004 and mastered in the great Gate & Pathway studios of Wolfsburg (Germany) by Sascha Paeth, producer of Rhapsody, Angra, Edguy, Aina, Shaman.
It will be released in December 2004 under the label Northwind records. Dark lights shades is ten track melodic heavy metal album, with power/symphonic and prog rock 70s / 80s influences. A quartet of strings has participated to the recording. The arrangements have been made with the collaboration of the famous arranger Massimo Braghieri. The lyrics have epic & story themes such as the trilogy of Hannibal.