(Heavy Metal/Hard Rock) John Harv's Twisted Mind - Into the Asylum - 2019, MP3, 320 kbps

John 'Harv' Harbinson began his career as a singer with legendary NWOBHM band Sweet Savage when bassist/vocalist Ray Haller decided that the band would be better if it featured a front man. Sweet Savage also featured guitarist Vivian Campbell who went on to join Dio before entering the ranks of Whitesnake and eventually Def Leppard. Metallica recorded a Sweet Savage song 'Killing Time' as a 'b Side for their 'The Unforgiven' single. When Vivian left the band Sweet Savage became 'Emerald' and adapted it's style to a more classic hard rock sound by introducing keyboards. When Metallica covered the Sweet Savage song it was a platform for the original line up to be reunited to record an album, and as the original line up did not feature John Harv as singer he decided to let the guys do their own thing while he could explore the possibilities of forming a band of his own in the meantime. Den Of Thieves was formed in 1993 and after getting an excellent review of their first demo in the legendary Kerrang magazine John Harv was approached by Ivan Gunn who was in a position of getting Den Of Thieves exposure in Japan. Ivan was good to his word and Den Of Thieves signed to Zero Corporation in Japan in 1996.
The first Den Of Thieves album, 'Honour Amongst Thieves' got great reviews when it was released, which prompted German label Long Island records to release the album in Europe. Two years later in 1998 Den Of Thieves recorded a second album for Zero Corporation, 'Conspiracy'. Things were changing in the music business in the mid-nineties though and with the emrgence of 'grunge' music many labels lost interest in rock and heavy metal and the Den Of Thieves deal with Zero Corporation came to an end when the company decided to call it a day.
For the next few years John Harv Harbinson sang with legendary Whitesnake tribute band 'Snakebite', formed in 2001 and still going strong to this day. In 2004 John Harv was asked to support Danger Danger on tour, but the singer did not want to be playing support to such an important band as Danger Danger with a tribute act. So he decided to put a collection of original songs together which he had written years earlier with his post Sweet Savage band Emerald, and the Whitesnake band for this occasion became Stormzone and played to packed audiences in support of Danger Danger, and then Danny Vaughn and White Lion. It was apparent that interest had very much returned towards bands who played original rock and metal, so John Harv decided to self finance an album with the songs he had been singing as support to the legendary bands over those two great years. He entered the studio in July 2006 with excellent session musicians and one month later the album had been created. This was supposed to be just a solo album, but it made it's way to the desk of Escape Music owner Khalil Turk who loved what he heard and asked John Harv if Escape Music could release the album. And so was born the first Stormzone album, 'Caught In The Act', released in Japan in January 2007 and Europe shortly afterwards.
Then came several years of Stormzone rising rapidly up the ranks and getting some fantastic opportunities. The band's debut appearance was at the Firefest festival in October 2007 where they were spotted by Spanish promoter Robert Mills. Robert was very impressed with the band and John Harv's vocals and asked Stormzone if they would be the backing band for legendary Dokken guitarist George Lynch when he toured Spain. The band obviously agreed and John Harv got to play alongside George Lynch and sing classic Dokken songs with what George himself described as his 'European Lynch Mob'!
In June that year the band played the Zeppelin stage at Sweden Rock festival where they impressed German label SPV's owner Oliver Hahn. Oliver signed the band shortly afterwards and the second Stormzone album 'Death Dealer' was released. In promotion of this second album John Harv and Stormzone played as support to Tesla during their European tour as well as Y&T. Other festivals followed including Headbangers Open Air and Raismesfest France.
In 2011 Stormzone supported another two legendary USA bands on different tours of Europe, Cinderella and Stryper, but the highlight of that year was thei invitation to play at the famous Wacken festival. To mark this occasion the band released their third album 'Zero To Rage' on SPV.
2013 saw the band support Sebastian Bach and during a Metal Assault festival appearance in Germany they met ex Tygers Of Pan Tang singer Jess Cox who owned a record label metal Nation Records. Their contract with SPV was at an end so Stormzone signed to Jess's label and shortly afterwards released their 4th album 'Three Kings'. During the promotion of this 4th album they caught the ear of legendary music agent Steve Strange who was looking after Saxon's 2014 tour of the UK. Stormzone were asked to support and with Steve's influence they were then also asked to play at the Sonisphere Festival on the same line up as Iron Maiden and Metallica and an invitation to Bloodstock Open Air quickly followed. That year was rounded of with a capacity second stage appearance at Hard Rock Hell.
John Harv then moved to Madrid in 2015 and did not have to travel far for Stormzone's biggest show that year, an appearance at Leyendas Del Rock festival in Alicante as well as headlining the Skulls of metal festival in Jaen that year. John Harv travelled back to the UK to do shows with Stormzone as support to Kamelot and further supports with Saxon. 2016 also saw the release of the 5th Stormzone album 'Seven Sins'.
John Harv then moved back to Northern Ireland permanently and struck up a great relationship with German manager Eddy Frieberger. He quickly set to work organising shows for Stormzone in Switzerland and Germany and wanting to impress their new manager with the speed at which they could write and release an album the 6th Stormzone release 'Lucifer's Factory' was created. In promotion of this 6th release Stormzone embarked on their first headline tour which culminated in 5 excellent shows in Spain, John Harv's home-from-home and from where his Whitesnake tribute band Snakebite are based now that it features, apart from the singer, all Spanish musicians.
And so we reach 2019, and with Stormzone having just released two albums in quick succession it was time to concentrate on something new for a while to let the Stormzone song factory re-charge it's batteries. John Harv set about recording a solo album which was completed in July 2019 and is now ready to take the world by storm. Entitled 'John Harv's TWISTED MIND - 'Into The Asylum', it features 14 brand new songs, once again performed by the best of Irish session musicians, and seeing John Harv sing within the rock and metal genre but embracing a more power metal style than Stormzone would have been known for. It was important for John Harv's solo album to be just that little bit different from anything he has previously released with his band Stormzone, he has definitely achieved that and he is now very much looking forward to the next chapters in this biography, the chapters which have yet to come!!