THALARION..S THALARIOGRAPHY The musical roots of THALARION are bound to the middle of the 80s when all current members were engaged in several local underground metal bands. Since 1990 the founding members were Peter Bartakoviè-bass, Peter Schlosser-drums, Jozef Mlynek-guitar, vocals and Juraj Schlosser-guitar. In the beginning they played under the monicker BASTARD. It all happened in Western Slovakian city Topolèany promptly in March of 1990 as motive to get their emotions off and desire for playing metal music.

The first demo tape named -Black Raven"was recorded in February 1991 at Cranio Studio on four-track machine by the band itself. The demo tape was distributed among the friends only without any promotion. In the summer of 1992 guitarist and vocalist Jozef Mlynek left the band. Bassplayer Peter Bartakoviè kept the vocals and BASTARD ran as a trio. The band moved from melodic thrash metal to death metal waters playing very fast but still melodic songs. The second demo -Best Art"was recorded and mixed at Exponent Studio in October 1993 by Tomas Kmet. The 9 songs showed very progressive death/thrash metal style. This demo was supported by Armyhell Tour around Slovakia that covered 15 shows. The demo was very well received by Slovakian press and fans, but it wasn..t distributed abroad. Anyway, -Best Art" surely established BASTARD in underground Slovakian metal scene.

The new period of the band began when Juraj Grezdo joined the crew on vocals in March 1994 after the split-up of his former band NAILED NAZARENE. With the arrival of new vocalist the band then changed its name to FATAL INFECTION. The next recording session is set to October 1994 and the result of this became the 3rd demo entitled -Behind The Door Of Sorrow". This demo was recorded and mixed at Slovakian Exponent Studio again and produced by Tomás Kmet. The music on the demo is more matured, aggressive and catchy at once and received very good reviews and responses in Slovakia andf Czech Republic. Shortly after the new demo was supported by many live shows and the second 12 gigs tour across the homeland of Slovakia. Afterwards, the band began to rehearse and arrange the songs for the new recording. During 1995 the members.. musical feeling crystalized into the entire direction which showed much more matured and different development in musician skilfulness and the music itself is more brutal from the old times.

At the beginning of 1996 FATAL INFECTION..s concept turned into dust to enrich the soil for even stronger crammed by energy line-up coming forth and this time the definite monicker THALARION that corresponded with new musical dimension of the band. In January 1996 THALARION..s quartet entered the Exponent Studio once again and with the help of four guests( Maria Halaszová-female vocals, Dana Dudziková-female vocals, Juraj Topor-lead guitar and Ondrej Papay-flute)managed to record the full-lenght debut album. This album was released by HALLELUJJAH PRODUCTIONS as a Cassette LP under the title -Towards The Obscure Slumberland" in March 1996. Throught the 9 songs with total running time of 45 mins, the band managed to create a wide spectre of emotions blending the elements of death, doom and thrash metal in the compact yet diversified concept. This album branded by individual band..s style and supported by tight and heavy sound along with great musicianship created the intense crescendo of emotional based varying melo-brutal metal tunes that only THALARION can deliver.

This album established THALARION in international underground scene and was distributed and promoted in Europe, Northern and Central America, South-Eastern Asia and mainly brought THALARION among the elite of Slovakian underground scene. In the summer of 1996 the band received an offer from the American label WILD RAGS RECORDS who wanted to release a MCD with the band. So in August 1996 THALARION entered the Top Studio to record four heavy and slow songs for the MC entitled -Dominion Unfound". Unfortunately WILD RAGS RECORDS ripped off the band and THALARION have never gotten the DAT-tape and original cover back, so this recording was only released as a demo. ale vocals and keyboards. This hybrid has turned out extremely melodic, catchy and charming . CD -Tales Of The Woods..." was very well received by the world wide metal scene, gaining highly positive reviews and established THALARION as one of the leading bands from the upcoming Slovakian metal scene .

THALARION have granted a heaps of interviews for magazine After the sad experience with WILD RAGS THALARION decided to spent some time writing new material. A keyboards were used on -Towards The Obscure Slumberland" and -Dominion Unfound" and since then Juraj Grezdo develope his skill on the instrument. New songs were inspired with atmospheric doom and black metal moods and it..s reflected in the new songs. In March 1998 THALARION entered the Exponent Studio for the 4th time to record their second album with the help of two female vocalists (Nela Horvathova - ex-Dysanchely, Slavka Tomayová - Morgain). THALARION then did a promo tapes and sent out this recording album to a lot of record companies world wide in search of a record deal because in the period HALLELUJJAH PRODUCTIONS forfeited forever. The band got many offers but decided to go for the deal offered by Danish label MIGHTY MUSIC. The album was then entitled -Tales Of The Woods...Thus Was Written" and was set for release on CD worldwide in December 1998. The album contains ten songs with roots in death, doom and black metal, spiced with several rock elements with national Slavic folk elements plus both male and fem s, fanzines and radiostations over the world.

During the preparation of the new material, starting in the summer of 1998, Nela Horvathova entered the band as fulltime member. Nela has also done backing vocals on -Tales Of The Woods-" and she brought a new mysterious feeling into the music of THALARION, resulting in the fact that the songs became more emotional. Months of hard work and creation of new songs passed by and the time of the recording arrived. THALARION entered the Exponent studio for the fifth time on September 1999. The band has a very good, long-standing experience with the studio and sound engineer Roman Slavik, who participated in the process of the recording with THALARION for the third time, so the co-operation in the studio between Roman and the band was more than excellent. This can be easily heard on -Four Elements mysterium"! Roman also sang some vocal parts on the song -A Staircase To My Soul".

The permanent vocals are a combination of Nela..s beautiful voice and Juraj Grezdo..s aggressive roars. The lyrics are very personal, sad and depressive, taking inspiration from personal experiences and original ancient Slavic rites of vernal equinox and the honour to Perun (one of the oldest and highest pagan gods of the ancient Slavs). After spending a lot of time in the Exponent studio in September and October 1999 and finishing the new reording, the final mixing was done by Tomas Kmet, who has mixed and produced for THALARION four times before. -Four Elements Mysterium" is heavy, severe and aggressive and at the same time it doesn..t lose its original, painfully melancholic atmosphere. The album also shows the 10-year anniversary of THALARION, who have existed since 1990 and what a way to celebrate with such an amazing album! -Four Elements Mysterium" was released through Mighty Music on the 29th of May 2000. On February 2001 the new record deal is signed between the band and Mighty Music. THALARION worked over new material from January 2000 until August 2001. During the period the band played a lot of gigs in the area of Slovakia and Czech Republic and performed their music on the biggest festivals to ascertain the response of audience on the new material.

Because all the responses were excellent, the band enetered the Exponent studio for the sixth time ever in its career. The band recorded and mixed the ten brand-new songs in September/October 2001 by sound engineers Roman Slavik and Peter Saniga. Also Tomas Kmet himself was in the studio as a sound assistant, so the final result is grandiose. The sound of the album heaviest and clearest they ever recorded. A great production makes this recording strongest in all the band..s history. On the album THALARION have changed their style slightly on the new album into being a little bit faster, heavier and less goth oriented. The fact that there are less female vocals, faster and more aggressive parts and a great in-your-face sound has brought something new and exciting into Thalarion's sound which, however, still can be catagorized as melodic doom/death, so old fans should not be worried. Some of the lyrics shows an honour to the ancient Slavic warriors (-911 A.D. - As The War Raged" and -Confined") and ancient Slavic gods (-The Endless Cacophony") who forever dwell in the hearts of each one member of THALARION.

The song -Tatyana" is taken from the -Eugene Onegin" work written by Russian poet A.S.Pushkin. The guys love the works of the poet so they do homage to this great man. The other lyrics are only the release of inner desires and deepest states of solitude unleashing these moods through the lyrics out. In the beginning of December 2001 the enw guitarist named Michal Zatko joined the band after the split-up of his band Maltum playing fast death/black metal. By the way, bassplayer of Maltum called Gabriel plays in the Slovak death metal band number 1. Depresy in the peresence. A killer album is about to be released in March/April 2002 with stunning artwork by Jacek Wisniewski (Vader, Decapitated, Withering Surface etc.). SALES POINTS: - Fourth album (third CD on Mighty Music) from this Slovak doom/death metal pride. - Great and strong production from the famous Exponent Studio - Only for the true epicures of melodic but still aggressive doom/death metal - Stunning artwork by Jacek Wisniewski (Vader, Decapitated, Withering Surface etc.). - Already a wellknown band in the international underground

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