End Zone

It was the beginning of 1993 when Igor Lobanov started looking for the appropriate candidates for the future musical cooperation. It took some time and was not without disappointments and replacements that finally, by spring 1994, End Zone turned into a more or less stable quartet of the 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, middle-tempoed and occasionally slow but at any speed it was artistically performed and arranged. It was aggressive, hard but shrouded in melody. The vocals is probably the most outrageous on this particular album. It is harsh and distorted with the dramatic feelings brought to the listener through the lyrics which mostly dwells upon very personal and not always positive emotions. However the music speaks for itself and it manages to bring forth the most important- the beauty. Even where the lyrics and the whole atmosphere of the song explores 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 “up-grade”, so to speak, of the line-up. The new material which was mostly written by the bands guitarist- Oleg Mishin- demanded a far more 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, Tchaikovsky to name a few . The work over 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 interpretation of Mussorgsky`s Khovanschina. Eclectica was recorded in one of the Moscow`s and whole Russia`s best record studio SNC with the help of Russia`s best heavy metal producer (Evgeny Trushin) and thus the album sounds much better comparing to the band`s previous works. The new work reveals 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 few unusual for this kind of music instruments. 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 bands unique melodic patterns and strengthens atmospheric impulse 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 bands in this genre. During the four years the band was playing live with such bands as CEMETARY 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 the bad sound. Anyway there’s still lots and lots of things to learn and discover. Line-Up Igor Lobanov - original guitarist, vocalist Oleg Mishin - guitarist Alexander Dronov - keyboardist Andrei Ischenko - drummer Official discography FIRST BEQUEST - 1995 THALATTA ET THANATOS - 1996 ECLECTICA - 1998