Alkonost was founded in 1995 by bass player Elk. He
had many ideas of music which would be based on European medieval
music and Russian folk melodies. Not long after that Elk switched to
lead guitar and Alex Nightbird
took on bass duties.
In August 1997 Alkonost recorded the
"Shadows of Timeless"
rehearsal tape and the
"Shadows of Glory"
demo.
During several occasions in 1998-2000 Alkonost
recorded the album
“Songs of the Eternal Oak”
. Alex Nightbird contributed the vocals himself. The
debut album was re-recorded in 2007, this time with a way better
sound and Russian lyrics.
The album was initially released on cassette by
Latvian label Beverina Production
and German label Ketzer
.
During year 2000 Alkonost shoot the promotional video
“Years of Prophecy”, shortly after which female lead vocalist
Aljona joined the band.
In July 2002, the self-titled
"Alkonost"
CD was
released on Beverina Production/Ketzer. It included the "Songs of
the Eternal Oak" album, "Spirit Tending to Revolt" demo, and 2
videos. The CD was well reviewed in the West, the German RockHard
magazine giving it 7.5 points out of 10 for example.
In September 2002 they began to work on the new
full-length album, the album where female vocals dominated. Alkonost
recorded both English and Russian versions of the album
“Between the Worlds”.
In September 2003 Dmitry
Sokolov
(ex-member of Flaming Hate as Anton) officially
entered the band ass second guitar-player. At the end of 2003, the
band signed on with Soyuz
label (Russia) for the re-release of the 2002
“Alkonost” CD.
In 2004 Alkonost continued the extensive touring,
performed in Folk Metal Fest-2 (St. Petersburg)
In August 2005 Alkonost went to studio for the
recording of the next full-length Russian album named
“Put’ Neprojdenny” (“The Path We’ve Never Made”)
. The album was mastered in famous Moscow studio
“CDM-records”. Finally “Mezhmirie” and “The Path We’ve Never
Made” were released
by Metallism Records in spring 2006 and in April-June
2006 Alkonost started a big Russian tour in support of “The Path
We’ve Never Made. Vic Records bought the rights of these 2 albums
for a world wide releases (except the former Sovjet Union).
Meanwhile CD “The Path We’ve Never Made” continued to
get good reviews and finally it took the 1
st
place in one of the most significant Russian
metal-charts – "Top Metal Album-100
.
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