Biography

Shiva was founded on September 16th, 1995, in Akureyri. The guys responsible for this were Hlynur Örn Zophaniasson (vocals/guitar) and his brother-in-law, Viðar Sigmundsson (guitar). They had been searching for a drummer for some time, but with no luck. But there, on the evening of the 16th, Hlynur met Kristján B. Heiðarsson, a good friend of his from grammar school. Kristján quickly agreed to be the much-anticipated drummer (in fact, he himself had been trying to get a band together for a couple of years). Later they bumped into Bergvin F. Gunnarsson, a bass player that Hlynur had worked with a few years back.

With this line-up, Shiva began rehearsing like crazy. The band, at that time called Stonehenge, played their first gig on November 10th, 1995. Sadly, that concert didn’t attract a lot of attention, but on March 29th and 30th, 1996, Shiva participated in "Músíktilraunir Tónabæjar", an annual Icelandic music competition. Shiva ended up in 5th place, which must be considered a rather good outcome for such a young band as they were back then.

Soon after that, on May 30th, Bergvin (or Beggi as he was called) quit the band. The remaining members acted quickly, and contacted a friend of theirs, Hörður Halldórsson. He was a guitar player, but agreed to become Shiva’s new bass player. But a guitarist will always be a guitarist, and Hörður quit after a successful concert in the local Highschool in the autumn ´96. The bands next bass player was also a guitar player, Aðalsteinn M. Björnsson.

Shiva had recorded several tapes since they started, but now they decided to do it more properly. The guys recorded the instruments in their rehearsal space, and then took the tape to Kristján Edelstein, a young producer, who owned the only recording studio in Akureyri at the time. There they dubbed the vocals over it. These recordings became the bands first demo.

On February 20th, Shiva sent the demo to several record companies around Europe, England and USA, but unfortunately this kind of music wasn’t what publishers were looking for at the time. Aðalsteinn quit a week after that, to do what he was born to do: play the guitar.

The band now recruited a proper bass player, Lúðvík Þorsteinsson (formerly of Tartarus). The line-up hasn’t changed since.

Shiva was:

Hlynur Örn Zophaniasson: Vocals/Guitar

Viðar Sigmundsson: Guitar

Lúðvík Þorsteinsson: Bass

Kristján B. Heiðarsson: Drums

In mid-summer ’97, Shiva entered the studio to record a number of songs for their second demo. But due to technical problems, and other delays, the recordings couldn’t be finished until late-summer 1998.

In March 1999, before they had time to send the new demo to publishers. Shiva got the chance to go into a studio once more. This time it was their good friend, Ásgeir Ómarsson (guitarist from Tartarus, Lúðvík’s old band), who invited them to record a handful of songs in "Hljóðverið", another studio in Akureyri. After having recorded all drum tracks and a lot of guitar and bass tracks, the studio went bankrupt, and now it is unknown if these recordings will ever be finished and/or released.

Shiva soon started sending the new demo, titled “Godsend”, to publishers and magazines all around Europe and USA. In May 1999, Godsend got reviewed in Metal Hammer (UK) and got 8/10. Since then, Shiva have been receiving letters and e-mails from record companies, magazines, radio stations and individuals in Europe and USA, asking for a copy of the demo and/or something else also.

Shiva were considering offers they have got from a couple of record companies.......

Shiva
1995-2000