CYCLOPHONIA was founded in 1997 as a four-piece, primarily doing covers of the fastest and angriest songs from bands like Helloween, Manowar, Blind Guardian and Riot. This came as a reaction to the local music scene, which was heavily influenced by the grunge movement and U2. We created quite a stir, got rave reviews in the local press and even triumphed in a music competition where hundreds of bands from all over Norway meet to compete. It was a good time, but it didn’t last.
In 1999 the band broke up, and its members followed different paths. A brief 2003 reunion, with new singer Andreas Angell, served to whet the appetite for Metal in CYCLOPHONIA founding members and brothers Øystein & Kristian Kvile Hanssen, but after a short while the band fell apart again. The members again found other constellations under which to practice music, but none quite as satisfying as CYCLOPHONIA.
It wasn’t until 2008 that today’s members came together. A dare from a local concert promoter made Øystein Kvile Hanssen and Kai Joar Kristensen, whom had become friends in the interim, resurrect CYCLOPHONIA with a mixture of old and new members: Kristian Kvile Hanssen and Andreas Angell returned, and the young local talent Nikolai Ursin stepped in to claim the drum spot. The challenge was to rehearse a whole set in three months, so we could play support for our old friends in TRIOSPHERE. Naturally, we decided to only rehearse new, original material, which made our set a bit shorter than we’d like, but the reception we got was overwhelming! Plus, the show resulted in guitarist Håvar Robertsen contacting us afterwards, completing our current line-up. We spent the next years rehearsing, recording, making a video and finally deciding to record an album. In March 2011 we hit the studio, creating what turned out to be our debut album, “IMPACT IS IMMINENT”! Battlegod Productions decided to release the album; a year later the official release is upon us, and this is where we are right now. Angry as ever, excited by what might await us – and hungry for the World.