Read On.

Virus is your fourth album. This was my first ever exposure to Heavenly, how does this album vary from previous works and why?

Virus is the fourth album by Heavenly and album after album, our vision of the music has changed and our inspiration too. We are really proud of each album, from Coming from the Sky to Virus without exception. But now, for Heavenly, the best album is a mix of big rhythm guitar, very loud, strong and also a lot of melody with different ways of emotion. You can see this evolution through our albums. This new one is simply heavy metal, we try to go directly to the essential and forget the unnecessary part! We are all very proud of our work and it’s the most important today to take pleasure.

To those that haven’t ever heard Heavenly how would you describe the band’s sound?

Heavenly is a speed melodic metal band. For us, the “perfect” album should be a mix of big rhythm guitars, very loud and strong and also a lot of melody with different ways of emotions. So that's what we want to do with our music. We do not have a sole message to diffuse, our lyrics deal with a lot of every day’s life themes. Our influences are very vast, from Queen to Judas Priest throwing Stratovarius and Helloween. Well, today, I think the most important for us is to take pleasure and to bring it to the listeners.

Can you tell us what inspired you to go with the name Heavenly for the band? I envisioned a band that sounded like Journey or something like that.

I was looking for a name which evoked “the grace” and celestial orchestrations. I think our music not sounds “extreme metal” and doesn’t come from Hell, so we thought Heavenly was a good name.

How has the reception been to Virus in Europe? And are the expectations of the album for the North American market?

The responses were unbelievable from listeners and press alike. It was I think the first time we had 98 % of good reviews all around Europe and Asia! Now we hope the reception to Virus will be great in US which is very important because we’ve never been there and so we don’t know if people is receptive to this kind of music?

I’ll have to say that having heard and reviewed Virus, there is a need for bands like Heavenly to balance out the metal food chain. How long was writing process for Virus? Who wrote for this album? What inspired the direction of this album?

The writing process began in March 2005 and we finished one year later so it ended in March 2006. I'm still the main writer in Heavenly, but I always listen to the opinion of the other guys. The writing process is really simple, I bring a demo of a song and everyone can touch and do modifications to create the best. Charley and Olivier rearranged guitar parts if it's necessary and Thomas and Matthieu do the same. So in that way, each member is important in the writing process.

What track is your favorite on Virus? And why?

It depends, my favorite track changes according to the mood but at this moment it is “Virus” because this song makes feel too many emotions in less than 7 minutes. I also have to say that I’m fond of "Spill Blood on Fire" because still after several months I always sing the chorus everytime and the last one, "Prince of the world", this is the story of a guy who has to say goodbye to his little life, all his childhood friends and family to go to a new destination and reach the glory and dethrone the king of the kings.

What are some of your influences as a musician and as a song writer?

I still listen to a lot of Heavy metal music like; Manowar, Iron maiden, Gamma Ray, Angra, Helloween, Running Wild, Metallica, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Nightwish, Spinal Tap, Iced Earth and Dio. I also like other styles like; Queen, The Doors, Muse, John Miles, Alice Cooper, and many others.  Then, each members of the band come from different horizons like classical music, jazz, extreme metal and heavy metal of course.

What was the first album that you ever bought?

I think it was Yngwie Malmsteen and Rising Force – Marching Out, great album.

What’s the French music scene like? How does it differ from North America to other places in Europe?

The metal scene is very vast and develops everyday. There are different styles like hard rock, heavy metal, black metal, trash metal and others.  There is a real expansion because bands combine all these kinds of music with other styles like classical music, jazz, celtic or traditionnal music. Well this is very rich for the music. Now the place of metal into the other music styles, metal progresses step by step.  For example in France, the most popular music styles are Hip-Hop, pop-rock or traditional music but metal in general is not played on the airwaves. Only few metal bands success to export their music. We've had an underground metalhead community which supports metal bands. Thanks to this people, metal is still alive in France. I think is the same in other countries. In Europe, Lordi won the Eurovision contest, this shows that metal enter slowly in our culture.  Anyway, all over the world, there are still a lot of loyal metal fans and just for them and thanks to them, metal will survive and the light will shine forever! (laughs)

Locomotive Records has just issued your latest album Virus in The United States. What are the plans for promoting the album in North America? Are there any plans for a package tour? Or perhaps special appearances in select American cities? Unfortunately in North America we don’t have the luxury of having multiple festivals where we can get to discover new bands.

Nothing is planned yet. To be honest we want to play live everywhere and anywhere we can. We don’t know the impact of the Virus album in US, if we got the possibility to come in North America, we’ll come there for sure.

Speaking of tours, you guys just landed a slot opening for The Scorpions. I love them, congratulations. How did this happen? You must have management pushing hard to get you guys on a tour.

Our French label gave us the chance to open for The Scorpions Tour. This tour support is a very big opportunity for us and of course we were too happy and exciting to learn this confirmation. The Scorpions is one if not the most important heavy metal German band. On this tour, we will play in front a vast audience and in big venues. This is a big challenge but so exciting. Now, we wait for the D-Day. (laughs)

What’s been you most memorable touring experience so far? And Why?

Well, I think our best stage experience were at the first show of Virus tour in Paris. It was the best moment because of the audience which was crazy and warm, well an exciting moment.

We at Pivotal Rage love Virus.  I hope you got a chance to read the review for the album?

Well not yet. I’ll do it after this interview. Thanks for listening to it.

In closing is there anything you’d like to say to the readers of the site?

Heavenly and I would like to thank you too. I hope our new album Virus can please all of you guys. And maybe we could meet you in US. All the best and thank you.

I thank you very much for taking the time to answer some questions and we wish you all the best for the rest of the promotion cycle for Virus. Hopefully we’ll see Heavenly on U.S. shores very soon. A big thank you to Shanna @ Kayos for setting this one up.