End Zone - Biography
This band's profile is 'invisible', meaning that it's much less prominent on the site - either because it's incomplete, or maybe doesn't entirely fit MS format.
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1995
Biography
It was the beginning of 1993 when Igor Lobanov started looking for the appropriate candidates for a future musical cooperation. It took some time and was not without disappointments and replacements, but finally, by spring 1994, End Zone had turned into a more or less stable quartet of like-minded persons musically-educated and also willing to create. The first take was done when the musicians recorded their first demonstration tape with a few compositions in a rather raw form and performance. The sound and overall quality were not representative and that is why this tape was not distributed in any form among any audience.
The rest of the year the musicians spent on working, arranging and often rethinking the material. The result of this work was the first album by End Zone recorded at a professional studio in February 1995. Entitled First Bequest, it contained 13 compositions created during the period 1992-1993. The music was fast, mid-tempo, and occasionally slow but at any speed it was artistically performed and arranged. It was aggressive and hard but shrouded in melody. The vocals are probably the most outrageous on this particular album. They are harsh and distorted with the dramatic feelings brought to the listener through the lyrics which mostly dwell upon very personal and not always positive emotions. However the music speaks for itself and it manages to bring forth the most important thing - the beauty. Even where the lyrics and the whole atmosphere of the song explore the utter darkness, it is always with the touch of beauty that the listener enjoys.
With the album released, End Zone started playing concerts in Moscow, in major Russian cities and abroad (Shark Attack in Poland).
Shortly before the band started rehearsing the material for the next album the man behind the drums decided to leave the line-up due to his personal musical views. This short time out was exploited by the musicians to have a closer look at the future material and this resulted in the major "upgrade," so to speak, of the line-up. The new material, which was mostly written by the band's guitarist - Oleg Mishin - demanded a far broader approach in the terms of instrumental performance. Guitars, bass and flute were joined by synthesizers. Thus along with the newly-recruited drummer End Zone also invited a keyboardist.
The second album, Thalatta et Thanatos, was recorded in spring 1996. This is an absolute instrumental work: no word is spoken or sung. The album features End Zone's compositions and their interpretations of the classics: Hendel, Grieg, and Tchaikovsky to name a few. The work on the third album continued for one year. The album was mastered early in January 1998. Eclectica consists of six compositions, including four completely new songs and two covers: Sepultura's "Refuse/Resist" and the band's interpretation of Mussorgsky's "Khovanschina." Eclectica was recorded in one of Moscow's and all of Russia's best recording studios - SNC - with the help of Russia's best heavy metal producer (Evgeny Trushin) and thus the album sounds much better compared to the band's previous works.
The new work reveals the musicians' capability of writing more melodic and still heavy songs with an emphasis on keyboards. One of the numerous particularities of this album is using a few instruments unusual for this kind of music. These are End Zone's traditional flute, performed by the band's lead guitarist, and cello played by an additional musician. The important thing about the new album is using the so-called clean or "normal" vocals which creates the band's unique melodic patterns and strengthens atmospheric impulses to the songs' themes. The background vocals this time featured some female singing and a couple of spoken parts.
Now we have a completely new work that is once again a proof of the musicians' capability to create unique music.
With three full-length brilliantly- and professionally-produced albums, End Zone stands almost alone as Russia's most promising band in this genre.
During the four years the band was playing live with such bands as Cemetery Of Scream, Vader, Paradise Lost, U.D.O., Slayer, etc. Even though the band does not have such live sound support as the above bands, the complexity of music and the professionalism of musicians at times compensated for the bad sound.
- from Valiant Music Productions
The rest of the year the musicians spent on working, arranging and often rethinking the material. The result of this work was the first album by End Zone recorded at a professional studio in February 1995. Entitled First Bequest, it contained 13 compositions created during the period 1992-1993. The music was fast, mid-tempo, and occasionally slow but at any speed it was artistically performed and arranged. It was aggressive and hard but shrouded in melody. The vocals are probably the most outrageous on this particular album. They are harsh and distorted with the dramatic feelings brought to the listener through the lyrics which mostly dwell upon very personal and not always positive emotions. However the music speaks for itself and it manages to bring forth the most important thing - the beauty. Even where the lyrics and the whole atmosphere of the song explore the utter darkness, it is always with the touch of beauty that the listener enjoys.
With the album released, End Zone started playing concerts in Moscow, in major Russian cities and abroad (Shark Attack in Poland).
Shortly before the band started rehearsing the material for the next album the man behind the drums decided to leave the line-up due to his personal musical views. This short time out was exploited by the musicians to have a closer look at the future material and this resulted in the major "upgrade," so to speak, of the line-up. The new material, which was mostly written by the band's guitarist - Oleg Mishin - demanded a far broader approach in the terms of instrumental performance. Guitars, bass and flute were joined by synthesizers. Thus along with the newly-recruited drummer End Zone also invited a keyboardist.
The second album, Thalatta et Thanatos, was recorded in spring 1996. This is an absolute instrumental work: no word is spoken or sung. The album features End Zone's compositions and their interpretations of the classics: Hendel, Grieg, and Tchaikovsky to name a few. The work on the third album continued for one year. The album was mastered early in January 1998. Eclectica consists of six compositions, including four completely new songs and two covers: Sepultura's "Refuse/Resist" and the band's interpretation of Mussorgsky's "Khovanschina." Eclectica was recorded in one of Moscow's and all of Russia's best recording studios - SNC - with the help of Russia's best heavy metal producer (Evgeny Trushin) and thus the album sounds much better compared to the band's previous works.
The new work reveals the musicians' capability of writing more melodic and still heavy songs with an emphasis on keyboards. One of the numerous particularities of this album is using a few instruments unusual for this kind of music. These are End Zone's traditional flute, performed by the band's lead guitarist, and cello played by an additional musician. The important thing about the new album is using the so-called clean or "normal" vocals which creates the band's unique melodic patterns and strengthens atmospheric impulses to the songs' themes. The background vocals this time featured some female singing and a couple of spoken parts.
Now we have a completely new work that is once again a proof of the musicians' capability to create unique music.
With three full-length brilliantly- and professionally-produced albums, End Zone stands almost alone as Russia's most promising band in this genre.
During the four years the band was playing live with such bands as Cemetery Of Scream, Vader, Paradise Lost, U.D.O., Slayer, etc. Even though the band does not have such live sound support as the above bands, the complexity of music and the professionalism of musicians at times compensated for the bad sound.
- from Valiant Music Productions