Russian thrashers Shadow Host bring the classic 90′s thrash sound with influences in Testament, Blind Guardian, Forbidden, Artillery, Evile and others. These guys play well, they can also keep you entertained and wanting more. Here's the interview for Soulgrinder Zine with Alexey Markov.
1- Hello there. So give us some details concerning the bands career so far.
Hi! I'm Alexey Markov from Shadow Host, Russia. The band was founded by our guitarist Alexey Arzamazov in 1993, and the first album "Twilight Legend" was released in 1997. Soon after the 2nd release, “Neverland”, an important brought the band to a new level – Shadow Host performed as the opening act for Blind Guardian. Performances with bands such as Grave Digger, Stratovarius and Nightwish followed. The third studio album, “Curse Of The Angeleye” had already a much heavier feel. The next release of the band, “Bringer Of Revenge”, became even faster and more aggressive, and became a type of melodic thrash metal. Soon after the release of this album, I was invited to sing for the band. We started out on a tour and played several significant concerts, including as the opening act for Annihilator and Overkill. At the start of 2013, we released the EP “Demon Hunter”, and, at the end of the year, a whole two releases: the EP “Lunacy Divine” and the full-length album “Apocalyptic Symphony”.
2-Current line-up
Finally an easy question :)
Alexey Markov - vocals
Alexey Arzamazov - guitar
Yury Naletov - guitar
Artem Molodtsov - bass
Erland Sivolapov - drums
3-Did you have any support from family and friends when you first started the band? Which were their reactions?
Alexey Arzamazov definitely had support from his family (and still has!) - in contrast with me. My family never quite understood my interest for the heavy metal.
4-Which member or members of the band take care of the lyrical content of the songs?
Usually Alexey (the founder) sends me the main idea, the concept of the song - the title, what it's about and some thoughts, - sometimes some rhymes that he feels should be there. Then I sit behind my computer with all the internet stuff: a dictionary, a rhymer, a thesaurus, and try to come up with the verses. I put it off for a week or so, then return to it and see if it needs any corrections or improvements.
5-Do you believe that your music and lyrics can inspire a repressed society to stand up?
We do not hope for this. But we definitely want our listeners to stop for a moment and at least think about it.
6- What is your view on the Russian Thrash metal scene from the 80?s till today?
It's basically dead. Russia had a few good bands, but they all turned into shit or are gone now. We're one of the few bands that still play speed/thrash, along with our good friends from bands Manic Depression and Exister.
7-Which bands would you dream of playing with as a support act?
I guess our all-time-favourite will be Testament, and maybe Megadeth and Metallica.
8-So let’s talk a bit about the artwork. It’s very impressive.
Again, the concept was designed by Alexey Arzamazov. We had two sketches from two different artists, but we all voted for the one from Alexander Kwaadnar Balinets, who also drew our previous cover (for "Bringer of Revenge"). He also worked with Deicide.
9-What should the Thrashers expect of your album and how would you describe it to the fans that have not listened to it yet?
It has very oldschool, traditional thrashy sound with a little melodic twist. It's speedy, heavy and catchy at the same time. Musicwise it's something inbetween Testament, Blind Guardian and Artillery.
10-Is there a special story from the recording of the album you’d like to share with us?
The recording process was really fun, and we filmed an hour-long video about it. Too bad it's only in Russian. I guess the most jokes were about food. We were always hungry cause we spent all the money on the recording and we were constantly looking for meat in our biscuits :)
11-Which bands were your idols and the ones that made you want to play in a Thrash metal band?
It all started with Blind Guardian and Rage. Then we turned to stuff like Metallica, Testament, Anthrax, Exodus, Overkill and Slayer. We still love them!
12-What are the future plans for Shadow Host?
We plan to record a few cover songs this spring, and then we definitely want to shoot a video or two! We haven't started working on new material yet. I think we'll really take our time working on the next album.
13- I want to thank you very much for your time. Is there any message you’d like to send to your American fans?
Thanks for this interview! Listen to thrash and we hope you'll find some time to listen to our "Apocalyptic Symphony"!
www.shadowhost.ru
www.facebook.com/shadowhostband
http://metalism.net
Interview by Paul Caravasi
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