Sworn (ARM) - Biography
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2006-2010
Biography
It all began in 2003, when Vladimir, a 16 year old heavy metal fan,stumbled across an Emperor cd in a music shop and after buying and listening to it realized that it was what's good for his ears. He also realized that he not only wants to listen to that kind of music but also has the urge to create and play it, which pushed him to buy his first electric guitar. As time passed, his musical taste changed from Iron Maiden, Zeppelin and Manowar to darker and heavier bands like Emperor, Opeth, Mayhem, Katatonia etc. Gradually his guitar skills increased too and also did increase his desire to have his own band, until one day, in 2005, he got acquainted with Aleksander, yet another extreme metal addict (Dark Funeral, Marduk, etc?) who knew how to handle a guitar and also had quite disturbing growling skills. Thus the two friends formed a band carrying the name "Sworn".
Soon another metalhead joined the band. It was a grindcore freak by the moniker of Inheller. He was Vladimirs's friend and was supposed to provide additional vocals. With this setup Sworn started recording their first song, "Fog of the Darkside". The recording of this song took almost half a year during which not only the band collected the equipment needed for recording, but also learned the skills as a band and developed the one thing that makes them stand apart from the majority of other Armenian bands - a descent sound, which was the result of Vladimirs's scrupulous experiments with his sound equipment. During these months Inheller lost his interest in the band and quit. Finally, aftermany months of experimenting Sworn developed the sound that the band was looking for and recorded "Fog of the Darkside". In 3 more monthsthe rest of the songs for their first album, "The Rise", were also recorded.
Being already concerned with the possibility of future concerts the band decided to recruit a keyboard player. Thus Mariam, a young girl with a musical education and appreciation for heavy music was recruited.
With this line-up in 2005 Sworn released its first album, "The Rise", which was quite a success and got warmly welcomed by the Armenian metal underground to which it was presented and distributed mostly in mp3 format. Music wise "The Rise" album sounded like atmospheric black/doom metal and it had great sound, which was something rare for Armenia. Naturally this album earned much interest and appreciation for the band.
Meanwhile by the end ofthe year 2005 Sworn started recording new material for the next album which in fact turned out to be an EP named "?Of Euphoria" and was released in February, 2006. This EP was a whole conceptual tale, broken into 3 parts that told the story of loss and genesis. The music of this EP was darker and more extreme while it also carried some progressive elements, the songs had more depth and complexity and the arrangements were richer and of course the sound of the whole thing was much better because Vladimir never stopped experimenting with sound and getting better results. By the end of the recording process a new song was also recorded though it didn't find place on "?Of Euphoria", because of differences in concept and style. The song was called "I am of Night" and marked Sworn's change of style and their move towards progressive atmospheric death metal. This song was saved for release on the next album.
Recording of the next album started one month after the release of "?Of Euphoria" and continued till November, 2006. During that period also some songs by well-known bands (Zyklon, SolitudeAeternus, Dimmu Borgir) were covered and recorded by Sworn in pursuit of technical and aural perfection. During the summer Sworn members got acquainted and made friends with Vardan, a promising young musician who was no stranger to the world of music, as he had been the keyboardplayer for the prog-rock band Oaksenham. Very soon Vardan replaced Mariam, who took up the responsibilities of the band's manager. By that time locally Sworn already became quite popular and even got involved in some activities out of the Armenian metal underground: the band gave interviews to Ardzaganq and Internews and was also presented along with some of their songs on metal show "Experimetal" hosted by Arsen and Aramazd.
Arsen had been quite interested in the band since the day he heard their music and feeling its potential he decided to help the band any way he could. Soon Vladimir invited Arsen to do the main vocals for the new album, Tended High. Gradually Arsen was integrated into the band as a full time member responsible for the distorted vocals and rythm guitar.
Since the day of the band's existence Sworn never had a drummer. But now, seeing the distant perspective of doing concerts in the future, it was decided to recruit one. The best choice seemed to be one of the most furious drummers of the Armenian rock/metal scene - Koryun. He had already known the band and had listened to their music so he gladly accepted the invitation to the band.
Indeed, very soon the possibility to do a concert appeared. It was going to happen in a month. Sworn had never performed together as a whole before and the band members were quite skeptical about the concert, because they didn't even have a place for rehearsing. But Mariam swiftly found a rehearsal room and after rehearsing for a month the band gave a marvelous concert at Avangtarde Folk Club on September 26th, sharing the stage with the bands LSD and Jam. Also the band's first video bootleg was shot that day. On November 1 2006 the recording of the newest Sworn album was complete. The album is called "Tended High". On December 10 and December 23 2006 there were also other two gigs where Sworn performed with other bands. Theese gigs were quiet successful.
After recording the "Tended High" album band started to seek way to distribute their material. After some time Sworn signed with russian label Haarbn Productions for "Tended High".
After that band started to rehearse their albums: "Tended High", "The Rise" and "Of Euphoria". In that time the new album: "Twilight" was recorded. "Twilight" is a compilation of remastered "The Rise" and "Of Euphoria" albums.
Sworn continued rehearsing for about one year and at december 13 2007 they give their first solo concert at Yerevan Puppet Theatre. The concert was very successful. Sworn recorded it's first live DVD that day.
By the end of 2008, after participating in two international festivals, Metal Attack Festival and Highland Metalfest 2008, organized by Zhesht.am, the band parts ways with Arsen, and on the next live appearance on Metalfront Festival 2008 Sadael handles the second guitar duties, while Alex does all distorted vocals. During these festivals Sworn had the privilege to play on the same stage with Sadist, Ambehr, Arkona, Rosomahaar and Melechesh.
After reaching a considerable success in 2008, the band decided to take a break in the succeeding year. During 2009 the members focused on improving their musical skills and the composer of the band, Vladimir worked on developing new musical concepts and new sound. In 2010, willing to incorporate their findings in new environments, the band decided to stop their activity in their current form. Thus, after a farewell live concert called "Live Obliteration", where Sworn were supported by the all-girl black metal act Divahar as an opening act, the band ceased to exist, with founding members Vladimir and Alex starting their own projects.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sworn/20886324704?sk=info
Soon another metalhead joined the band. It was a grindcore freak by the moniker of Inheller. He was Vladimirs's friend and was supposed to provide additional vocals. With this setup Sworn started recording their first song, "Fog of the Darkside". The recording of this song took almost half a year during which not only the band collected the equipment needed for recording, but also learned the skills as a band and developed the one thing that makes them stand apart from the majority of other Armenian bands - a descent sound, which was the result of Vladimirs's scrupulous experiments with his sound equipment. During these months Inheller lost his interest in the band and quit. Finally, aftermany months of experimenting Sworn developed the sound that the band was looking for and recorded "Fog of the Darkside". In 3 more monthsthe rest of the songs for their first album, "The Rise", were also recorded.
Being already concerned with the possibility of future concerts the band decided to recruit a keyboard player. Thus Mariam, a young girl with a musical education and appreciation for heavy music was recruited.
With this line-up in 2005 Sworn released its first album, "The Rise", which was quite a success and got warmly welcomed by the Armenian metal underground to which it was presented and distributed mostly in mp3 format. Music wise "The Rise" album sounded like atmospheric black/doom metal and it had great sound, which was something rare for Armenia. Naturally this album earned much interest and appreciation for the band.
Meanwhile by the end ofthe year 2005 Sworn started recording new material for the next album which in fact turned out to be an EP named "?Of Euphoria" and was released in February, 2006. This EP was a whole conceptual tale, broken into 3 parts that told the story of loss and genesis. The music of this EP was darker and more extreme while it also carried some progressive elements, the songs had more depth and complexity and the arrangements were richer and of course the sound of the whole thing was much better because Vladimir never stopped experimenting with sound and getting better results. By the end of the recording process a new song was also recorded though it didn't find place on "?Of Euphoria", because of differences in concept and style. The song was called "I am of Night" and marked Sworn's change of style and their move towards progressive atmospheric death metal. This song was saved for release on the next album.
Recording of the next album started one month after the release of "?Of Euphoria" and continued till November, 2006. During that period also some songs by well-known bands (Zyklon, SolitudeAeternus, Dimmu Borgir) were covered and recorded by Sworn in pursuit of technical and aural perfection. During the summer Sworn members got acquainted and made friends with Vardan, a promising young musician who was no stranger to the world of music, as he had been the keyboardplayer for the prog-rock band Oaksenham. Very soon Vardan replaced Mariam, who took up the responsibilities of the band's manager. By that time locally Sworn already became quite popular and even got involved in some activities out of the Armenian metal underground: the band gave interviews to Ardzaganq and Internews and was also presented along with some of their songs on metal show "Experimetal" hosted by Arsen and Aramazd.
Arsen had been quite interested in the band since the day he heard their music and feeling its potential he decided to help the band any way he could. Soon Vladimir invited Arsen to do the main vocals for the new album, Tended High. Gradually Arsen was integrated into the band as a full time member responsible for the distorted vocals and rythm guitar.
Since the day of the band's existence Sworn never had a drummer. But now, seeing the distant perspective of doing concerts in the future, it was decided to recruit one. The best choice seemed to be one of the most furious drummers of the Armenian rock/metal scene - Koryun. He had already known the band and had listened to their music so he gladly accepted the invitation to the band.
Indeed, very soon the possibility to do a concert appeared. It was going to happen in a month. Sworn had never performed together as a whole before and the band members were quite skeptical about the concert, because they didn't even have a place for rehearsing. But Mariam swiftly found a rehearsal room and after rehearsing for a month the band gave a marvelous concert at Avangtarde Folk Club on September 26th, sharing the stage with the bands LSD and Jam. Also the band's first video bootleg was shot that day. On November 1 2006 the recording of the newest Sworn album was complete. The album is called "Tended High". On December 10 and December 23 2006 there were also other two gigs where Sworn performed with other bands. Theese gigs were quiet successful.
After recording the "Tended High" album band started to seek way to distribute their material. After some time Sworn signed with russian label Haarbn Productions for "Tended High".
After that band started to rehearse their albums: "Tended High", "The Rise" and "Of Euphoria". In that time the new album: "Twilight" was recorded. "Twilight" is a compilation of remastered "The Rise" and "Of Euphoria" albums.
Sworn continued rehearsing for about one year and at december 13 2007 they give their first solo concert at Yerevan Puppet Theatre. The concert was very successful. Sworn recorded it's first live DVD that day.
By the end of 2008, after participating in two international festivals, Metal Attack Festival and Highland Metalfest 2008, organized by Zhesht.am, the band parts ways with Arsen, and on the next live appearance on Metalfront Festival 2008 Sadael handles the second guitar duties, while Alex does all distorted vocals. During these festivals Sworn had the privilege to play on the same stage with Sadist, Ambehr, Arkona, Rosomahaar and Melechesh.
After reaching a considerable success in 2008, the band decided to take a break in the succeeding year. During 2009 the members focused on improving their musical skills and the composer of the band, Vladimir worked on developing new musical concepts and new sound. In 2010, willing to incorporate their findings in new environments, the band decided to stop their activity in their current form. Thus, after a farewell live concert called "Live Obliteration", where Sworn were supported by the all-girl black metal act Divahar as an opening act, the band ceased to exist, with founding members Vladimir and Alex starting their own projects.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sworn/20886324704?sk=info