Amatory


Amatory is a Russian metalcore band from Saint Petersburg, Russia, formed in 1998 by Denis Zhivotovsky and Daniil Svetlov.
Later in 1998, they were joined by Eugene PJ Potekhin, but the official birthday of the band is April 1st, 2001, when Sergey Osechkin joined and the trio became a quartet.
They are considered to be among the pioneers of Russian alternative metal, also their musical approach changed over the years.
Despite relatively little media exposure, Amatory in a short time gained huge popularity through their live performances in Russia, Eastern and Northern Europe, and Central Asia.
The band's current lineup comprises lead vocalist Sergei Raev, bassist Denis Zhivotovsky, rhythm guitarist/keybordist Dmitriy Muzychenko, lead guitarist/vocalist Ilya Borisov and drummer Daniil Svetlov.
At the moment they have released 7 full-length studio albums, 2 instrumental albums and 4 EPs.

History

1998–2001

founders Denis Zhivotovsky and Daniil Svetlov met as teenagers in the spring of 1998. They have been hanging out and skateboarding in the courtyard of the block of flats where they both were living at the time.
They started to rehearse in Svetlov's apartment at the age of 13 – Daniil played the drums, and Denis played the acoustic guitar.
In the autumn of 1998, they met Eugene PJ Potekhin, who became the long-awaited vocalist and the « real » guitarist of the newborn band. Zhivotovsky then left the guitar in favor of the bass. A little later, the rehearsals were held in his apartment.
The trio began performing live by covering Nirvana songs in a nearby school. In 1999, Potekhin and Zhivotovsky got carried away by Korn, but in the same time Svetlov became "addicted" to black metal and grindcore. He started to pull away from his bandmates, therefore they did a little trick to return their drummer - they began to write music in the grindcore style, but little by little introduced the elements of alternative metal.
In 1999, PJ came up with the name for the band and called it Amatory. The name itself is said to have come from an English - Russian dictionary and was chosen because it was in tune with Crematory, Obituary and Cemetery. With the new name they started to regularly play concerts in schools and underground clubs. In June, 2000, Amatory performed at the Summer Bike Festival in Krasnoye Selo. Later in the same year, their first demo was recorded.
Gradually, they realized that they needed a second guitarist, and after a short search they found Sergey Osechkin. The first rehearsal with him took place on April 1, 2001 - that day became the band's official birth date.
With this new line-up the band played several concerts until June, when unexpectedly for all of them Potekhin was drafted into the military service for two years. After losing their vocalist and songwriter, they decided to move on. took the vocals and the writing of the lyrics, and music writing was gradually assigned to . This new team composed a new demo called « I Will Not Survive ».

2001-2004

After the demo was recorded, Amatory decided to experiment with innovative musical approach. In September, 2001, Alexey Ovchinnikov, the school mate of , joined the band and became their rapper. His recruitment played a large role in shaping the band’s new sound.
In the spring of 2002, they also recruited Alexey Liolik Skornyakov, who had AKAI S1100 - a professional sampler of the late eighties. It diversified their new rap/metal approach with electronic sound.
The team recorded an EP called « The Bread » together with SPERMADONARZ. It was released on double-sided cassettes by independent record label Caravan Records in November, 2002, with Amatory at the A-side and SPERMADONARZ at the B-side.
The concert in support of "The Bread" was scheduled on November 26, 2002, in a new club "Orlandina". All the bandmates were there on time except of Liolik who had mysteriously disappeared. Later they found out that Liolik was on his way to the club when he was stopped by a patrol to verify his documents and unexpectedly was drafted into the military service for two years following PJ. In this way Amatory lost their second musician because of the Russian armed forces.
In April, 2003, the band released the single « Fragments ».
Their first full-length studio album titled « Fortune's Always Hiding » with and on vocals, was released on November 14, 2003. The album was named after one of the songs that was inspired by Irvine Welsh's novella « Fortune's Always Hiding » from his trilogy.
Shortly before its release, Alexander Pavlov became the second guitarist of the band.

2004—2007

In 2004, left the band, and his place was taken by the guitarist of Stigmata - Igor Kapranov. The team immediately took up work on the new album with and on vocals, it was recorded with Danish producer Jacob Hansen. Through working with Jacob, began to play "in a western manner”. Their second studio album titled « Inevitability » was released on October 14, 2004, and shortly thereafter , according to the statement of FUZZ magazine, became the voice of a generation.
In November, 2004, "Inevitability" entered the top five best-selling rock albums in Russia according to the Fuzz Magazine.
The album received the FUZZ People's Choice Award 2005. After such a resounding success the band was invited to perform at some major Russian festivals.
File:6nh9ja7g5hl21.jpg|thumb|, 2005. From Left to right: Igor Kapranov, Daniil Svetlov, Sergey Osechkin, Denis Zhivotovsky, Alexander Pavlov
In 2004, Amatory together with the bands Psychea and Jane Air, formed the « Spb Music » coalition. In the following years they were also performing on joint tours with some other bands from Saint Petersburg..
On February 6, 2005 the band released the single "Black and White Days" which was dedicated to guitarist Dimebag Darrell of the bands Pantera and Damageplan, who was shot and killed on stage by a deranged fan during a concert in December 2004. "Black and White Days" won RAMP 2005 for "Best Music Video", and won "Best Band" category.
In early 2005, the band released their first DVD titled ost criptum, consisted of home videos recorded by themselves and their crew and friends during the tour in support of the album "Inevetability". It provided an insight into the band's tour and concert life, their experiences and adventures on the road and during the shows.
In September 2005, supported Korn in Saint Petersburg and Moscow.
In the spring of 2006, during the "Rock 5 Tour", Sergey Osechkin suddenly felt severe pain in his right side. In the summer of 2006, when the band was working on their third album with the same producer Jacob Hansen, he felt himself unwell.
released their third album titled « Book of the Dead » on Friday the 13th, in October 2006.
Five days later was diagnosed with liver cancer. He passed away at the age of 23 on March 15, 2007. On the album "6" there is the song dedicated to him, titled "15/03".

2007—2010

On April 26, 2007, the band did a sold-out show at Yubileyny Sports Palace in Saint Petersburg as a part of the second leg of their Live Evil Tour. It was filmed and later released as the concert DVD+CD "Live Evil".
Also in 2007 released their second DVD "EVol.01" made of home videos filmed during their tours since May 2005.
In the beginning of 2008, ESP Guitars together with the band's guitarist Alexander Pavlov created a signature guitar named ESP LTD - it became the first signature guitar awarded to a Russian guitarist.
On April 5, 2008, received the FUZZ Award for "Best Alternative Band".
In September 2008, their session guitarist Dmitry Rubanovsky became the band's new guitarist and principal music writer.
In November, released the single « Breathe with Me » and signed a contract with the music label FG Nikitin. This single was widely played on the radio and video music channels in Russia and the near abroad. In 2009, it won Rock Alternative Music Prize for "Best Song".
On December 18, 2008, Amatory released their fourth studio album titled « VII », which was recorded with Danish producer Tue Madsen. It became the first album with the new guitarist and caused mixed reactions and excitement from the fans.
In 2009, Daniil Svetlov became "Drummer Of The Year"
On October 27, 2009, the band introduced the internet single « Crimson Dawn », mixed by American producer Chris Zeuss Harris.

2010—2012

In March 2010, a book "Black and White Days. The truth about " by Aleksey Kuzovlev was published, it contains many exclusive interviews with the members of the band taken over the years.
On July 28, 2010, Igor Kapranov announced that he is leaving the band and going to devote himself to religion. For the band and the fans this was a complete surprise which caused a storm in music media and among the fans, and a large number of discussions. After that Igor stayed in the Valaam Monastery for some time. He was replaced by Vyacheslav Sokolov. The fifth studio album « Instinct of the Doomed » with and on vocals was released on October 24 of the same year. It was also produced by Tue Madsen. File:AMATORY, 2010.jpg|thumb|, 2010. From left to right: Daniil Svetlov, Dmitriy Rubanovsky, Vyacheslav Sokolov, Alexander Pavlov, Denis Zhivotovsky. Photo by Maria Mitrofanova.
In June 2011, joined Slipknot as the special guest at their show at Olympic Stadium. Then, on the occasion of the band's tenth anniversary, the band goes on the "X Anniversary Tour" with their new vocalist and former vocalist as the special guest. Before the tour, they released the internet single « Fragments 2.011 ». Later in the same year, Dmitry Rubanovsky left the band.
In 2012, Ilya Kukhin was officially announced as the new guitarist. Also in 2012, Alexander Pavlov left the band and was replaced for the tour by the session guitarist Ilya Borisov, who later became a permanent member of the band.
Shortly afterwards in 2012, announced the suspension of its activities, saying this on the official website where the band explained this decision by the fact that the musicians were not able to go on long tours. In the same news, they announced a tour called « The Last Concert? ».
On September 8, 2012, the band released their second concert DVD "The X-Files: Live In Saint-P & On The Road 2011–2012".
After the end of "The Last Concert?" tour in December 2012, went on hiatus performing at only few festivals in 2014.

2015—2018

In 2014, the new guitarist and music writer Dmitriy Muzychenko, ex-Naily, joined the band. Since 2015 the musical activity of Amatory had resumed with the single "Stop The Time". In October 2015, Amatory released their sixth studio album simply titled « 6 » with on vocals. This album received very mixed reactions from the fans because the band had changed its musical style and in the same time it became the first album without on vocals.
On October 12, 2016, released their third EP « Fire ». It consisted of three tracks, one of which was recorded with Russian rapper ATL.
Since the summer of 2017, the band toured throughout Russia with a new approach where the fans could suggest a song for a concert set list.
On March 11, 2018, Vyacheslav Sokolov was dismissed from the band because of his unprofessional behaviour, heavy drinking, and the last straw was the participation of Slava in TV project « The Songs on TNT » where he acted not correctly towards the band.

2019 — present

On March 29, 2019, unexpectedly released the single « Space Kamikaze » with a new incognito vocalist, whose face was covered by a mask. The inspiration behind this song arose from their discontent with the political climate in Russia.
On July 5, the second single "The Knife", recorded together with Russian rapper Dirty "RAM" Ramirez, was released, and a lyrics video for this song appeared on the official Amatorytube YouTube channel. A few days later, the band announced a live broadcast on VKontakte and posted another photo with the new singer, now without a mask. Many guesses were confirmed - Sergei Raev became the new vocalist of the band.
The seventh studio album « DOOM » with Sergei Raev and Ilya Borisov on vocals was released on October 18, 2019. File:IYlp3srsw2o.jpg|thumb| live in Saint Petersburg, November 10, 2019. Photo by Elizaveta Bulaeva.
Some of the songs on this album deal with sensitive topics: Cherno is dedicated to Chernobyl disaster, it was inspired by Chernobyl ; Locusts was inspired by major wildfires in Russia and across the globe that have shaken the world in 2019; Angel 141 is dedicated to the Russian submarine Kursk that sank in the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000, killing all 118 personnel on board.
The music video for the song « Star Dust » was filmed with participation of the fans of the band, it was released on November 5, 2019.
After the "DOOM tour" Amatory announced two concerts with guest musicians on the occasion of the band's 19th anniversary - on March 22 and April 3, 2020. But due to pandemic COVID-19 they were moved to September 2020.
On April 17, 2020, the band released 2 instrumental albums: "The Unvoiced Pt. I ", "The Unvoiced Pt. III ", and an instrumental EP "The Unvoiced Pt. II ".

Members

Current
Past


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Discography

Studio albums

Russian
English

Russian Music Awards