Archontes

The group was organized by vocalist and keyboardist Andrei "Archon" Fedorenko in 1993 . After several changes in composition, guitarist Eugene “Gene Hans” Savostyanov joined the group. Thus, the composition was formed that recorded in 1993 the first demo tape "Concerto For A Little Darkness And Orchestra":

• Andrey "Archon" Fedorenko - vocals, keyboards
• Eugene "Gene Hans" Savostyanov - guitar
• Alexander Riconwald - guitar (subsequently Mongol Shuudan , Diagel & Mongols , session work with different performers)
• Grigory Kozlov - bass (subsequently Mongol Shuudan)
• Vladimir Latintsev - drums

The demo contained 4 songs. After the release of the demo, the group gave a number of concerts in clubs and took part in several festivals, becoming widely known among Moscow fans of the bands Helloween and Blind Guardian .

The songs of the group were heard on the radio " Echo of Moscow " in the program "Keeper of the Rings". The well-known music critic Vsevolod Baronin, the host of the Rock Intensive program on Radio Russia in 1995, called the group one of the most promising young bands and noted it as "the best concert line-up of 1995".

In late 1995 - early 1996, there were changes in the composition. Rikonvald, Kozlov and Latins left for their place: guitarist Roman Zorkaltsev, bassist Sergey Zakharov (later King and Jester ) and drummer Alexei Bykov (ex Iron Stream, Corrosion of Metal , later Mongol Shuudan , The Arrow , Hunters , etc.). In 1996, the band recorded the second demo of “Holy Battle has Begun” in this roster. The demo contained 2 songs and was intended specifically for Germany. The demo received a good rating from the musicians of Gamma Ray . Officially, the phonogram did not come out and soon, due to some internal conflicts, the team broke up.

In 1996, after the breakup of the group, Andrei Fedorenko worked for a while with Adolf Castle . About six months later, Evgeny Savostyanov returned to the group and the group reanimated with Sergei Shvor on bass and Alexei Bykov on drums.

Composition 1996-2000:

• Andrey Fedorenko - vocals, keyboards
• Evgeny Savostyanov - guitar
• Alexey Bykov - drums
• Sergey Shvora - bass

In the summer of 1997, the band recorded their first album, “Saga of Eternity,” released by Metalagen Records in 1998. The album received good marks not only in Russia, but also in western rock publications.

In 1999, Valiant Music released the second album of The World Where Shadows Come To Life . In 2000, the album was released in some European countries (particularly Italy, Germany). According to Andrey Fedorenko, the album develops the ideas inherent in Saga Of Eternity - a person’s desire to go to another, better world that exists in his dreams, fantasies, in good books, in music.

In 2000, the group breaks up. Savostyanov and Shvora create a group of Hunters , at the same time Alexey Bykov leaves. In the same year, the new composition of the group was formed from the musicians of the Moscow group “ Four of a Kind ”:

• Andrey Fedorenko - vocals, keyboards
• Zakhar Karpikov - guitar
• Sergey Belyavsky - drums
• Vasily Marchenko - bass

In this composition, the group performed until 2001, when the composition of the group underwent further changes. The composition of 2001 looked like this:

• Andrey Fedorenko - vocals, keyboards
• Vyacheslav Molchanov - guitar (ex- Legion , Nikolai Noskov , group of Alexander Losev , Hieronymus Bosch (group) , later - Kipelov , Rondo , Sixth Sense , session work)
• Dmitry Krivenkov - drums (ex-Legion, subsequently - Epidemic )
• Sergey Zakharov - bass (later the King and the Jester ).

2002 was a year of failure for the group. Archontes were included in the Russian participants of the Long Live Rock'n'Roll rock festival in June. It was planned that such bands and artists as Doro , Glenn Hughes , Gamma Ray , Uriah Heep , Sodom , Grave Digger , Saxon will take part in the festival. The festival was canceled, according to the organizers, in connection with the riots in the center of Moscow arranged by football fans due to the loss of the Russian team.

In October 2002, Archontes were invited along with Shadow Host as warm-up teams for the Moscow Blind Guardian performance at the Luzhniki Small Sports Arena. Before the very performance of Archontes, an unknown man called with a message about the bomb planted. The concert was interrupted. No bombs were found, but Archontes' performance failed, and the Blind Guardian had to cut the program.

At the end of 2002, Sergey Zakharov left the group - Vasily Marchenko returned to the group, and at the concerts of Vyacheslav Molchanov was replaced by Leonid Fomin (ex- Master , Valkyrie , Sabotage , later Charisma ). Vyacheslav Molchanov at the same time continued his studio work with Archontes.

In September 2004, Archontes released their third studio album, Book One: A Child Of Two Worlds.

and continued their active concert activities consisting of:

• Andrey "Archont" Fedorenko - vocals, keyboards
• Leonid Fomin - guitar
• Dmitry Krivenkov - drums
• Vasily Marchenko - bass.

In 2005, Saga Of Eternity was re-released by Valiant.

September 24, 2009 at the Moscow annual exhibition "Moscow Music 2009" was a performance of the group in an updated composition with a new program.

• Andrey "Archont" Fedorenko - vocals, keyboards
• Roman Guriev - guitar
• Sergey Belyavsky - drums
• Alexander "mr G" Goralnik - bass

In the spring of May 23, 2010, the band performed at Plan B in Moscow, opening for Blaze Bayley (ex-vocalist Iron Maiden). The concert featured both new songs and old hits.

September 16, 2011 Archontes released the single "Lullaby", which is fully available for download on the official website of the group. For the first time in the group’s history, Russian-language material is presented on the disc ^[1] .

In early 2012, Alexander "Snake" Tsvetkov (a member of groups such as The Arrow , Mental Home , "Falconry") joined the group as a bass player, replacing Alexander Guralnik. ^[2]

On April 19, 2012, the group introduced the new song "Back in the Game" for free download ^[3] .

In the summer of 2012, the group took part in the Czech Masters of Rock festival, and also made their first tour in Europe.

On May 17, 2014, Metalism Records released the first ever album in the history of the group, “Sometime and Never” ^[4] .

In 2014, drummer Sergey Belyavsky left the band due to moving to another country ^[5] . He was replaced by Eugene Laikov (ex-Pompeii, Epidemic ).

In 2016, due to his employment in the Arida Vortex group, Roman Guryev left the group. He was replaced by Eugene "Jin" Mishchenko (ex- "Miriada", Jin, "Epitaph"). ^[6]

As of the spring of 2017, the group is preparing a new album in parallel with the preparation of a concert program ^[6] . In 2017, there were concerts with German bands Running Wild and Primal Fear .

• The band’s vocalist Andrei Fedorenko is the author of the music of many domestic and foreign computer games ^{[7] [8]} .
• Andre Andersen, the founder of the Danish band Royal Hunt , in an interview mentioned Archontes as the only Russian rock band that he “really heard” and praised the level of musicians ^[9] .
• On December 11, 2016, Andrei Fedorenko replaced the frontman of the Danish Artillery band Michael Bastholm Dahl at a concert in Tbilisi . ^{[10] [11] [12]}

• Andrey "Archon" Fedorenko - vocals, keys
• Eugene "Jin" Mishchenko - guitar
• Vladimir Tupikov - guitar
• Alexander "Serpent" Tsvetkov - bass
• Eugene "John" Likes - drums

Timeline

Studio Albums

• 1997 - Saga Of Eternity
• 1999 - The World Where Shadows Come To Life
• 2004 - Book One: A Child Of Two Worlds
• 2014 - Sometime and Never

Singles

• 2011 - Lullaby
• 2018 - Saga of Eternity XXI

• Archontes profile at Last.fm
• Official Archontes Facebook Page
• Discographies and reviews on Russian Darkside e-Zine
• Archontes on MusicBrainz
• Lyrics and several records of the group on the site lib.ru
• Archontes on the Encyclopaedia Metallum website

Interview

• Exclusive Interview for ALIVE Magazine (1999)
• Interview with Andrey Fedorenko 2002
• Interview with Andrei Fedorenko 2003
• Kucherenko, Valery Features of the national soundtrack (neopr.) . MUSIC BOX Magazine No. 39 (April 11, 2006). - Interview with Andrey Fedorenko. Archived on April 21, 2014.

• Interview with Dark City Magazine No. 21, 2004, p. 48
• Interview with Rock City Magazine No. 30, 1999, p. 27
• Performance of the group on the radio "Mayak" in the program "Fatal weekend" 2015

Reviews

• Review of the album “Book One: A Child Of Two Worlds” in Dark City Magazine No. 24, 2005  
• Review of the album “The world where shadows come to life” in Rock City Magazine No. 29, 1999  
• Review of the album "Saga of Eternity" in Rock City Magazine No. 24, 1998