More popularly known as Chity, Chitral was born into a famous musical family in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 4 November 1966. The son of Chitra and P.L.A. Somapala, at the age of 10 he took guitar lessons then switched to electric bass at the age of 14. He began singing soon thereafter and at the young age of 17 he was able to hit the Top 40 nightclub circuit in Sri Lanka. He ended up giging with the leading bands and artists of the country.
In 1986 Chity travelled to Europe as the bassist and singer of a Top 40 band, playing in the biggest nightclub circuits in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Finland. The band backed many well-known artists in these countries as well. After touring for some time in the club circuit playing Top 40 Hits, he decided in 1994 to leave this scene to concentrate only as a vocalist of original Hard Rock/Heavy Metal---one of his long awaited dreams.
In 1996 he joined a popular German metal underground act called Court Jester (Germany) and recorded the album Forced To Believe which received favorable reviews throughout the European Press. After gaining much popularity, he performed the famous Nadee Ganga song that became the most demanded Lion beer TV & Radio commercial for Sri Lanka in 1998. The performance was even more unique as it was sung in the traditional Sri Lankan language with a soulful Rock touch.
Shortly thereafter he was invited to team up as the front-man for Avalon, a melodic power & progressive quintet from Germany. Avalon was produced by Charlie Bauerfeind who also produced such acts as Helloween, Gamma Ray, Blind Guardian, Saxon, Hammerfall etc.
Avalons third album, Vision Eden, received excellent international press reviews and the CD of the month in France 1998, including the best new-comer band on the Aardschok magazine in Holland the same year! The Vision Eden tour saw Avalon as a support act for bands like Manowar, Hammerfall, Uriah Heep, Metallica, Motorhead, Royal Hunt, Pink Cream 69, and many others.
During the summer of 2000 he recorded Avalons 4th album Eurasia under the skilful hands of Sascha Paeth, who was known for his work with Rhapsody, Kamelot, Heavans Gate, Angra and many others. On Eurasia one can be hear some of the Asian musical influences from his home, Sri Lanka. These sounds received the best reviews by the international press, even better than those for previous albums. Besides his vocal contribution on Eurasia, Chity can also be heard playing the Chapman Stick . The release of Eurasia was followed by a European tour with Metalium but disbanded shortly thereafter.
In 2002 he contributed the song Greenlands for the Isipathana International Rugby Championships in Sri Lanka with guitarist Frank Rohles. After this session he formed a melodic rock AOR group together with Frank called Faro. This new band released Dawn of Forever through MTM Music in summer 2003 and that same year completed the album Echoes of a Nightmare with a Swedish symphonic metal band named Moonlight Agony.
At the end of 2003 he was invited by the young Greek guitar virtuso, Gus G., to join Firewind for a January 2004 headlining tour of Japan. After a successful Japanese tour, Gus G. asked Chity to join the band on a permanent basis and they began collaborating ideas for a 3rd Firewind album: Forged By Fire. This album entered the Japanese National charts Top 100 for few weeks and received excellent reviews. The associated video for this album, Tyranny, was given tremendous play on popular TV channel Viva and afterwards the band toured Europe with the band Hammerfall, Lordi, and Thunderstone on Icebreaker Festivals . By the summer of 2005 Chity left the band for personal reasons.
In 2006 he released the 2nd Faro album Angelost and along with the producer M arkus Teske released the Red Circuit debut album Trance State. This same year he recruited Aldo Lonobile, Luca Cartasegna (both members of Secret Sphere) and Pierre Emannuuel Pelisson (Heavenly) to form his own group Civilization One. The fruits of this new effort were the release of Revolution Rising in 2007. Also in 2007 he briefly joined Domain but later left that project because of dissatisfaction with the direction it was going and to concentrate more on Civilization One. Even later that same year he was asked to contribute his talents to NWOBHM legend Rekuiem (England), performing support shows with Gotthard in the UK.
In 2008 he was requested to join David Shankle Group (DSG, former Manowar axeman). Unfortunately because of the great distance between the USA and Euope, Chity wasnt able to continue with this musical project because support shortfalls and coordination difficulties both parties experienced. This same year he performed again in his native country, Sri Lanka, with Civilization One, making history as first ever foreign metal act to perform for several thousand amazing metal fans at the TNL Onstage show in November 2008.
His tireless efforts continue.
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( Melodic Rock/ AOR) AURAS - NEW GENERATIONby ZANTOSAOR13,369 views
@metalonroad Yes it is
jecdown 1 year ago
Ist das wirklich die deutsche Band * Court Jester * ???
Is this really the German Band * Court Jester * ???
metalonroad 1 year ago
la primera es una foto de firewind, no de court jester...
HEADBANGER144 1 year ago