Alkonost (band)

Popularity

The band is best known amongst heavy metal fans in their native country of the Russian Federation. However, their music has been discussed and shared on the internet, particularly on Usenet, and they have found new audiences in Nordic Europe and the United Kingdom. Signed to Metalism Records, their albums are available with English titles, although the songs themselves are predominantly sung in Russian. In 2007, for the first time, the band was able to perform outside of Russia, touring Ukraine, Belarus, Slovakia and the Czech Republic., where they were warmly received.

Influences

The band's material is based on Russian paganism and mythology, and the melodies are drawn from indigenous Russian folk music, but the arrangements and riffs are drawn from power metal, black metal and symphonic metal, consisting of simplistic power chords under intricate "shredding" lead guitar (characteristic of power metal), male low-end shrieks (found in black metal) and soaring female operatic vocals (as found in symphonic metal). This has led them to be categorised in all these genres, as well as doom metal and folk metal.

Biography

The band was the brainchild of bass guitarist Elk who was interested in the idea of fusing Russian folk music with Heavy metal. After recording some experimental demos he decided to switch to lead guitar and recruited Alex Solovyov (nicknamed 'Nightbird') as new bassist. By 1997 the band was touring the local rock circuit and had cut their first promotional demo, titled "Shadows Of Timeless" with a further demo entitled Shadows of Glory following shortly after. In 1998 drummer Vladimir Lousshin was recruited and first proper studio album Songs Of the Eternal Oak was recorded. To "fill out" the sound, Almira was recruited on keyboards the following year.

In 2000, "Songs Of The Eternal Oak" was released on the Latvian label Beverina. A promotional video was shot and at the end of the year female soprano vocalist Alyona was added to the band. This lineup recorded new demo "Spirit Tending To Revolt" that December. In 2001 Vladimir Lousshin was replaced by Anton on drums. A further demo, exclusively in Russian titled "Nevedomye Zemli" (translation: Unknown Lands) and promo video, followed.

The band's "big break" came with a record deal with the Northern European label Metalism Records and eponymous second album "Alkonost" was released in July 2002. Albums Between the Worlds and The Path We've Never Made followed at two-yearly intervals; songs "Waiting" and "The Night Before the Battle" were accompanied by music videos.