Chapter I. Genesis.

After long search I found Micro$oft Word in my computer at last (strange enough, I've stumbled over Steinberg Cubase SX five times at least). And I've sharpened my pen and began poking it into keyboard trying to depict something that could be called History in some time. Or Prehistory, at least (thanks to Mr. Ballantine and Son for the stuff nourishing my brain at the moment).

The beginning was vague. I was playing in a nameless school band; then Autodafe band appeared (it was in 1985), I worked with Alexei Bazanov (guitar) and Anton Chadulin (drums) there. You won't believe, but we played what is called Doom now, without looking to the West. But isolation from the world of real music in those times and own teenage problems led to termination of this activity and everything fell apart in a year. In some time my American friends presented me a malicious Musician magazine. I studied it and gave up my music activities for good (judge for yourself - overseas vermins played decent instruments at the same time we are to be satisfied with 2A9 speakers and homemade guitars with awful strings). Very sad events in August 1996 encouraged me to deal with music again - and it went on.

In 2000 I found myself in a very interesting Llanfair P.G. band where I successfully played for exactly a year, day to day, then I was fired for psychological incompatibility with the band frontman (hi, Dr.Leo!). Being on my own ass then, I decided at last it was high time to realise something of my own. Andrew Sokolov (very slow but successfully working author of lyrics) and Rob McReddin (a man of renown who was ready to support my project even in Llanfair P.G.) were on their own asses beside me. All this happened in the beginning of summer of year 2001. I enjoyed delights of Northern summer enough and sat down to the music. Some ideas appeared in course of work, some were in my head for some years already (i.e., the Njord main theme appeared 15 years ago - oh my!). At the very least, material enough to work with was ready in January 2002; then I began searching those worthy people able to make a reality of those insane musical ideas with their skills of musical instruments wielding (I must mention that McReddin, vocals, was cleared for action long time ago without stopping his Llanfair P.G. activity).

So, Raynach was the first. She came up to me before a Moonspell concert (I remember that clearly, it was 26th January) and said: "They say you are looking for musicians? Do your need keyboards?" Thus, for rather a long period the Wolfsangel band became a union of keyboards and bass.

The second worthy musician was Alexei, drummer. Our friend Sherkhan advised us to pay attention to him in July 2002. We decided to conduct a casting. By the way to the rehearsal dreadful rain broke out, and that was a good sign. After long attempts to play something sensible (and to get dry as well) Raynach and I realised that Alexei was our man.

And Feodor, at last. He appeared in our band totally unexpectedly, exactly at the moment when all potential candidatures of guitarists were completely exhausted. He just said that he was finally free of any musical projects and would like to try working with us - and it found out that he was exactly the very person Wolfsangel needed.

I am extremely appreciated to all those people I am working with in the band, people with whom the Fortune brought me together. Long live us! Well, I just wish Insert key would not be pressed without reason...

Chapter II. Mother Goose Rhymes (2002-2003 A.D.)

Now it is my turn to use the keyboard and maybe my brain. Although the first chapter of Wolfsangel story is called Genesis, it will not be followed by Exodus. Actually we do not plan to leave St. Petersburg, at least before New Year. It may be called Kama Sutra, but it is still for us to finish our first album and find a label. "12 Heraclis" (as there were 12 live shows by Wolfsangel) sounds too large since not every appearence of the band was heroic. So let me call it Nursery Rhymes since Wolfsangel is still a baby (please take note of that the name differs from the title of one of Genesis's early albums).

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon,
The little dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

So once upon a time the men mentioned in Genesis (our Genesis!) had started their work. The gig brought us delight of the audience. The second one brought us experience of playing a lengthy 15-minute song (I mean our epic Wolfsangel). Exactly it was quite daring for a new folk metal act. The third one gave us friends - a melodic death band Seducer's Embrace from Moscow. Meanwhile we were already seven since hired the second guitarist Kirill Baturin, so our sound became more heavy. Everything was good and fine, but it was stranger and stranger that no misadventure happens. So they happened in time.

Doctor Foster went to Gloucester
In a shower of rain.
He stepped in a puddle
Right up to his middle,
And never went there again.

Indeed a band that wants to reach something must play in different places. Our band did not, so we began to seek for another club to play at. So one fine day we found ourself in Pyatnitsa (Friday) club. The day was Kalevala day, February 28. The sound was strange a bit, but we decided that it is by chance. We were partially right, since there was a thing that was by chance - nevertheless we had acceptable sound this time. Our next (and undoubtedly last) visit to the club revealed this secret. So we need to state that Friday club is not for the rock shows. As for celebrating the Kalevala days, we think it might become a tradition, but we need a good place to celebrate at.

For want of the horse,
The rider was lost.
For want of the rider,
The battle was lost.

Maybe you want to know that while improving our old songs and writing new ones we were invited to support Cradle of Filth at their gig in St. Petersburg. We were almost ready to agree, but some technical details forced us to change our mind. Let me note that it was not our first encounter with international show business. Some weeks before we failed to play with Immortal, who have just died (of course as a band).

Then Jack went courting,
A lady so gay,
As fair as the lily,
As sweet as the May

Meanwhile the winter was over, the snow melted, and sky above our heads cleared. In May we played at Red Club with Cat Harsis (according to announce in one of the shops) and Nomans Land. Let me not describe that in details, since it was only a training for the event of the year (not only for us but for the whole metal scene of St. Petersburg). So let us pass to the first international metal fest Russian Roulette (thanks to Big Brother Entertainment, who had arranged it). It was the first appearance of Wolfsangel at a big stage, and the first significant metal fest in the city. However you may read reports from the fest at various sites (it does not matter that I said something about "details", let journalists to do their work). One thing I must say that the fest should become a tradition...

Then it was one more gig and a long vacation. Then we opened another season with James of Seducer's Embrace as a guest vocalist. Dirty sound, faulty devices, hellish heat, but outstanding support by the audience. In fact, it was a punk show by Wolfsangel, even more so we used cucumbers, bones, sickle and vodka as the stage props. After this show we understood that more rest is badly needed, and rested untill Halloween, October 31. At time we have recorded the most of instruments for our first album and encountered another problem.

Old King Cole was a merry old soul,
And a merry old soul was he.
He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl,
And he called for his fiddlers three.

It took time to call a fiddler. Eveyone we called missed the first meeting or the second one at least. No one of them had even played a song with us. So we began to think why we don't need a fiddler, but in vain. One of these days he found us himself. It turned out that our fiddler lives in Helsinki and bears a proud Finnish name Nikolai Kirsanov. You can hear his remarcable solos in "Widdershins", our first album. Hope we will also play live together someday.

There was a man in our town,
And he was wondrous wise,
He jumped into a bramble bush,
And scratched out both his eyes;
But when he saw his eyes were out,
With all his might and main,
He jumped into another bush,
And scratched 'em in again.

This year chronics will not be complete if not to mention that by some reasons we have parted with our guitarist Kirill Baturin (good luck with your new band!) and found the substitute Stas Matveev (ex-Morrah) in few days. The new guitarist cought what to play immediately so you might have seen him at our December gigs at Red Club (December 3, together with TYR and Nomans Land and December, 14 The Morrah birthday).

So it is left to draw a summary of the year. Wolfsangel have played live 12 times and have almost recorded the album. There are no problems with staff. Almost 4000 unique hosts have visited our site. Rather good for beginning.
With best regards, sincerely yours,

Andrew, 24-XII-2003

Chapter III. Kama Sutra (2004-2005 A.D.)

Everything is as usual. When it comes to perversions, they call me, since I used to be the infernal side of the band. Unlike the previous talkers, I have no choice on position to write the next chapter of the Band Chronicles. They had just ordered me to write Kama Sutra and I had to obey.

Mastering Kama Sutra is eternal as eternal the bliss of realizing the concepts of Krishna.
The process of choosing a name for the style of the music we play was truly eternal. Striving for constant perfection we passed from the ordinary folk metal through the folk death (when I was a death and others were my folk), but every masterpiece begins with a joke. So the definition of true'n'evil folk metal was born in roar and laughter. Isn’t it nice? Yeah?

Master Kama Sutra only with one (those?) you want.
The issue of "Moskovsky Komsomoletz v Pitere" №2/3 of January 16 2004 included an interview with Wolfsangel. I should notice that it was our first interview in rather respectable periodical with rather big circulation, so we were impressed. Impressed with the event, but not with the contents. E.g. they wrote "the band sounds somewhat like ENSTURDZEN NOEBATEN" (that band name is also cited from this paper!).

Without mastering the laws and training asanas, one cannot master the positions and poses in the love games that require specific dexterity and constitution, stamina and quick responses.
So the everyday life began with two concerts in two weeks, and we realized them as one long gig. Influenza did not pass us by, so coughing and sneezing we played first February 7 at the Arctica Club at the first St. Petersburg folk metal fest (with Nomans Land and Butterfly Temple), and second February 21 at an international fest called Black Winter Day (with Morrah, Fragile Hollow (Finland), Septima and Citadel).

The soul knows two pleasures – to insist and to endure...
February 11 the recording sessions for our first album were over. We had drunk all we infused during these sessions and now the result does not depend on us. The record was to be mastered. We were to endure. It is well known, that any sexual contact without preservation leads to such painful process as birth. Such is the album titled Widdershins.
My spring knocked to the hospital door with a merry ejaculation (it is an old word that means exclamation) by Petras: "Stand up, bucket head! We are going to rehearsals since we are to play an important gig soon!" In this view the FONO label (we already agreed with them upon the album but did not sign yet) gave me the document for the doctor. It proclaimed that I am an important member of a signed band and I must rehearse... So I endured and rehearsed.

Chevabandha is a sexual contact through the auricle, or to say more precisely it is petting an auricle with penis.
March 27 we played at the fest for the year of return of the "Twilight of the Gods" show to the air of the ROKS radio. We were accompanied with our friends Morrah, Seducer's Embrace (Moscow), Nomans Land and Void (a brand new project of Llanfair P.G., now Void Void). It was a great party with announced beauty contest and improvised shadow dance by me and Redin... Let me reveal some details. It so happened that in this time the make-up room in Arctica Club was just curtained of the scene and was lightened with a lonely bulb at the back wall, and the light was directed right to the curtain. As a result, everything that happened in the make-up room could be seen from the audience as the Shadows behind the band playing. Me and Alexey did not realize it, but began to dance and gesticulate as Void played. The audience was pleased by it and started to laugh, and the founding father of Void was puzzled by it and asked sternly: "Why do you laugh? Just say me and we will laugh together"... I should notice that it took time for Alexey and me to realize that we are the reason of laughter, so it was a good and POSITIVE show by Void.

If a man distracts a woman with kisses and petting passing his knee under her one it is called a trap.
The April Fool’s joke forced panic in our guest book. Maybe we should not joke this way: "We decided to change the cast. Those musicians are welcome: a bassist, a vocalist/frontman, a keyboardist, two guitarists and a drummer. We also need a manager and a lyricist".

These embraces are perfect if the calm motions take turn with the fast ones, and the frictions alternates with occlusions...
So we changed our partners in gigs. May 2 they were Void and Nomans Land, and May 21 – Troll Gnyot El’ and Perun (Rostov). At the middle of May we signed with FONO.

What state leads to love? Exertion and passion. What follows love? Relief and caress.
June 10, 2004 our album Widdershins was released!

Wakumbana is a kiss supported with fingers. It is called a kiss of dying passion.
It was just for no particular reason. A week before the presentation we parted with Feodor. Incompatibility progressed for all this time and both sides realized that it will be no more. It was a serious loss for the band, but we took the decision to play release party without him. If look into nowadays, we can state that it was a good decision. Feodor is in Stalwart now and they say that he is at his best there.

One has three desires: knowledge, love and wealth. The life begins with knowledge, continues with love and ends with wealth. Soul likes friendship, mind likes respect and body likes intimacy.
June 19 at Arctica Club we presented Widdershins. Stalwart also presented their album called Jerk. There also were special guests Hieronimus Bosch and White Owl from Moscow, and Tartharia. I need to note that there were other feelings except the joy of the event and excitement of the "truncated" cast. These feelings were about our closest friends Pizzles & Scrotum. As we offered them to be the very special guests at our presentation, they agreed with pleasure, but we should realize that this band played live years ago, and they current incarnation never played live. I cannot justify myself the last phone conversation with their lead vocalist Magnus Phallos. We quarreled and passed all the bounds in our quarrel. We offended and insulted each other... as a result the mourning of June 19 was marked with another call from Dr.Pizzle. He said that Magnus is in a mental hospital, and he is very bad. He is still there now.

Since touching the most sensitive part of penis with sharp teeth does not please it, but can bring pain and even wound it...
It was a hard summer. Everybody solved his own problems with job, health, sex et al. There were some benefits as several new songs and some losses... Alexey Evdokimov left the band.
Obviously, the band almost panicked since drums take a critical part in this kind of music and Alexey was one of those who walked through the First Rain... We even thought of using drum machine, but everything was good at last. The summer gone, the heat died and we met <a drum-roll> Max Znaevsky.

Historical note: Unlike Europeans, the people of the East through the ages considered a woman not only as a wife, a slave or a housewife, but first of all as a subject to praise, to admire and even to deify, and of course a perfect tool of pleasure.
December 2 of 2004 we revealed our secret and everybody knew of "she, who will enrich our sound with her voice" – Tanya Frolova.

The lovers must completely know internal purge and bring up the good feelings in themselves, such as kindness, friendliness. They must never hurt each other mentally of physically. They must treat themselves to be satisfied with that they have, with no effort...
The new cast rehearsed through the autumn and appeared on stage far from home. December 4 we played in Moscow at R-Club together with Morrah, Alkonost (Naberezhnye Chelny) and local bands Rest in Pain, Svarga and Obesity. The Arctic spaces of St. Petersburg were conquered at December 18 (together with Morrah, Abnormal, Mind Eclipse, and Llanfair P.G.)

Coitus must be four times longer than is needed to satisfy the passion...
...decided the technical service of our hosting company, so our site was down at Christmas holidays.

Coitus must always be anticipated with petting and kissing games.
All the January we rehearsed our renewed program. The first concert of the year was also not at home: February 6 we visited Moscow again. Again we opened the venue but this time the show was sold out. The audience was great... Other bands to play were Troll Gnyot El’, Arkona and Nevid’. As we returned, we saw the black-orange bills of our next gig of February 12, Black Winter Day Fest (together with Rossomahaar, Morrah, Alkonost, Asguard). Good work.

Coitus without using genitals is a benefit of people of refined taste, as a coitus of other type may be a passing caprice of one or both partners...
We thought a lot and turned the next "Twilight of the Gods" birthday to a "regular family party". We invited guests from Finland, Ensiferum, as Wolfsangel and Frosted Glass were hospitable hosts. The party succeeded. Of course there were some problems and troubles, of course there was some heroic deeds and some victims, but we have done it. I think more-than-600 audience also thinks so...

Chapter IV. Twelve months.

I: IANVARIVS • In the beginning there was a penis. Not just an ordinary penis, but a festive, sparkling one jolly ejaculating with fireworks. It was two meters long, it was made of snow and it stood under a fir-tree. It was the New Year. There was also some Karelian vodka infused on either the oak bark or alder bark (I don’t remember exactly), there was a sauna with a bucket of ice beer and there were the sounds of Onkel Tom's Christmas album. As a result, at the sunny morning of January 1 there was a heavy hang-over, accompanied with chopping the firewood, drinking some beer (they say some beer in a sunny morning will never make you no harm) and making yellow snow of course.

II: FEBRVARIVS • They also say that you will spend the year in exactly the same way as you met it.... So the year began with the gig in Moscow already mentioned by RayNach, followed by another gig in St. Petersburg 6 days later.

III: MARTIVS • In March we had celebrated the “Twilight of the Gods” radio show birthday. There was Ensiferum. Their session drummer who had a pretty hangover and was in anabiosis during the whole Russian tour and the only sober-minded band member was a girl who played keyboards. Maybe it was since she drunk only water. As for us, we presented our new musician Anna Fukalova, a girl with violin.

IV: APRILIS / V: MAIVS • During the April we prepared for the visit of our Irish friends Cruachan, who, when we met at Moskovski railway terminal, said as one: "Hey, hello, guys! Where can we buy clean socks and t-shirts?" It was Sunday’s 9:00 o’clock, so "Possibly nowhere..." was our answer. Nevertheless, we gathered some socks and t-shirts labeled as "Abibas" and "Ribok" and wended our way to the club all together… As we walked along the banks of Smolenka river, after the long sound check, Keith Fay decided to play with his bassist John Clohessy. So he grabbed the first stuff from the ground he could grab. Unfortunately, it appeared to be neither a piece of stone nor a piece of wood, but a real piece of dog shit, old and ready to petrify. As he realized what is it, he thrown it away and began to search for some coat to clean his hands. That’s why we were ran fast and appeared in club in time. At the evening of this day (and the day was 1st of May, 2005) we played a jolly concert for the crowd of our and Cruachan’s fans. The whole month was full of gigs, and some of them were remarkable. E.g. May 8 we were supported by naked girls. It was a result of our joke at the Fool’s day, when we posted a notice that we would like to see 15 naked women on stage. We really did not expect to find the girls, but they have found us. May 28 we became the winners of the first all-Russia prize Metalheart 2005 as our album Widdershins was voted the album of the year.

VI: IVNIVS • Good work was followed by good leisure. Almost the whole band came to Karelian Isthmus to meet our good friends, lakes and rocks. We did our best but vodka was finished before pike cukes and goose liver pie.

VII: IVLIVS • Another gig was at the airfield of Sivoritsy (Leningrad region). It was the Night Wolves MG Bike-Rock-Fest. We played with support of deadly drunk but still undead mummy made of toilet paper, which jumped and twisted in the spotlights and barred the view of the stage. It was the first performance with Dmitry Yakovlev, now our regular piper and just a good man. As for Alexey A. Redin, he left the regular on-stage cast because of numerous troubles with his cords and switched to the studio works.

VIII: AVGUSTVS • The eighth month was marked with supporting Finnish band Moonsorrow, who appeared to be good and jolly.

IX: SEPTEMBER • September 15, 2005 we took part in a show with another Finnish band Korpiklaani. I was appointed to make an important part of the show, namely to sing an intro of our epic Wolfsangel. Unfortunately, I was too absent-minded that day so I lost my suit anywhere. So I the fans saw me in pants and t-shirt. Excuse me...
Since there was still plenty of space on stage and since there was still nobody to run across it and please the girls, and since we needed one more instrument to satiate the sound, we recruited another musician, Vlad Varnavsky, guitar. Hooray, the vacancies are filled up!
Suddenly I received a message from Keith Fay from Cruachan. He offered us to play and sing the song "Some Say the Devil is Dead" together when they visit us in October. Of course we agreed and offered them to play "Villemann og Magnhild" with us. They also agreed.

X: OCTOBER • Wolfsangel took place in another remarkable venue. It was devoted to the marriage of Dmitri Petras and Iana Nikulina. Here is the detailed story of this date and tour with Cruachan. And here is a short story from Keith Fay:

Hi guys, I'm really busy working on the new album at the moment, it is going really well, and we finally are working with a professional top quality producer. Anyway, I just want to say a few words about the last tour we done with Wolfsangel. We had a fantastic time with them, they are the coolest and weirdest people in the world. We arrived very late in St.Petersburg and entered the venue while the first band was on stage. We never hide back stage, we are always out front with the fans, shaking hands signing cd's....whatever, we respect our fans and will always do that. We got to see the second band of the show and then had to go backstage to get ready. It was very hectic, I think John Ryan went on stage with Wolfsangel and had a lot of fun. After the show it was back for a night train to Yaroslavl. The place was so cold and the venue had really bad equipment but hey it was a fun night anyway, we had a great time. Next to Moscow. This was amazing, sold out!!! We had a lot of fun in the bus on the way to the show. I kept everyone awake shouting my head off "JULIE!!!!!!!!!!" I paid for this during the day as I was a little hung over. What a show!! We got the Wolfsangel guys on stage at the end and had a good laugh on stage. We then continued for 2 more shows without Wolfsangel which were brilliant and we met a lot of fans there. It was an honour for Cruachan to be the first Irish band in history to tour Russia!!!!!!!!!!!!
regards, Keith Fay

By the way, due to our tour with Cruachan we cancelled supporting hard rock veterans KROKUS, but we do not regret...

XI: NOVEMBER • After this wonderful time we were invited to support TIAMAT at their gig at the Port club at November, 12 2005.

XII: DECEMBER • By December we realized that we are a little bit tired from the live concerts and decided to make a break after headlining the Tarakan birthday at December 17, 2005 at the Arktica club. So it was... We had a long break.
The last rehearsal of the year took place at December 30 and it turned to the general rehearsal of celebrating the New Year. It was good and soon the holiday happened. I celebrated it at home with friends and brothers-in-arms from Wolfsangel and Frosted Glass. We pleased our neighbors with triple playing Annihilator’s "King of the Kill" at the maximum volume of our stereo and left for the forest park to cook some meat. Somebody lost a cell phone, somebody – a gift, and somebody – the last shades of consciousness there. So we headed to the place of my good old friend Ashot Markaryan (ex-Ambehr, ex-Sankt-Peterburg) to continue. Almost dead but jolly I see an old lady on the street. She cleaned the bus stop from snow. I decided to begin the first day of New Year with a good deed and took the shovel away from the old lady. I cleaned the whole bus stop and began to seek for other deeds. So I and S. Sudakov (Bestial Deform, Necrosarcoma, ex-Frosted Glass) found an empty wooden coil of approximately 200 lbs weight and followed our way kicking it. Suddenly I slipped and fell and could not raise by myself... It was intra-articular fracture of the knee followed by two months in a plaster, so I did not need any warm clothes at the cold winter of 2006.
That’s why nobody heard anything of Wolfsangel for a long time. But now everything is alright and we are ready to entertain our friends and fans with new albums and live performances.