Moonlyght

.. Moonlyght was formed in the beginning of 1995 by Roby (vocals/guitars) and 3 long time friends. After a year of hard work the band entered Onyx Studio to record the demo «Midwinter melodies» which sold out in a couple of weeks.Moonlyght then played some shows in the Quebec City area motivated by the impressive response they were getting from Quebec's metal fans. Success was increasing but tension inside the band was starting to burst. For the next few years Moonlyght would have to rebuild itself with fresh and motivated musicians. The band was finally completed in 2000. Throughout those though years Moonlyght played a lot around the Quebec province and got a solid live reputation. The only thing Moonlyght needed to break out was to finally capture their songs on a full length cd and that's exactly what they did.The 5 Moonlyghters entered Sonum Studio in October 2001 to record their first full-length album: "Progressive Darkness". In May 2002 after a year of hard work "Progressive Darkness" is released in Canada through Metal Disk records. The album features 7 tracks of progressive and melodic extreme metal totalizing near one hour of music. The album gets outstanding reviews : 10/10 at the Metal Observer (www.metal-observer.com) the largest metal related website in the world and 9.5/10 from the well know Canadian magazine Unrestrained. The album really seems to please heavy metal fans as well as music fans in general. In only a couple of months the first pressing of Progressive darkness is sold out. Shortly after the cd is released, guitarist Vincent Gauvin calls it a day, and leaves Moonlyght. Immediately, Fred Bedard shows up and demonstrates his interest in Moonlyght. With it's new line-up, Moonlyght gets a lot of on and off-stage experience, leading to much more dynamic and tight performances. In the following year and a half, they play a lot of gigs and are the supporting act for Opeth, Paradise Lost, Kataklysm, Strapping Young Lad and Anonymus to name just a few.At the beginning of 2003, the people behind the Metal Observer website communicate their enthusiasm for Moonlyght's material, and became the official managers for Europe. Almost immediately numerous label show interest in the band and after a couple of weeks the band decided to go with Escapi record for the "worldwide" re-release of "Progressive Darkness". It then drawed a lot of attention to the band from fans all over the world. Escapi's partnership with major distributors such as Universal Music in Canada, Navarre in the U.S and Pony Canyon in Japan was a major reason why PD was able to reach much more people.In April 2006, the band finally entered Nokturn studio in Quebec City to begin recording the long-awaited follow-up to Progressive Darkness. The second album, named "Shining", should surface in early 2008. The new material is very strong, exploring many more progressive elements in its more brutal sound! Lyrics are dealing with strong anti-religious beliefs, rebellion, human feelings about love/hate, depression, suicide, hope, etc. This new weapon of war was all crafted at Nokturn Studio with producer Sebastien Groleau, and was mastered by Peter in de Betou (Dimmu Borgir, Dark Tranquillity, etc) in Sweden at Tailor Maid prod. in 2007. Retaining certain elements from the first album, "Shining" will be the ultimate fist in your face!In late December 2007, Roby took the decision to leave Moonlyght for many personal reasons. The band decided to call it quit after 13 years of existence, following the departure of the lead singer/guitarist. On January 18th 2008, the band announced that the long-awaited new album "Shining" will be released through Quebec City's promising new label Mankind's Demise Records. The release date is set to March 25th 2008. In Canada, the album will be available in most stores through Galy Records/Fab Distribution.