Shadow Host

Shadow Host is a power metal band from Russia that was formed in 1993 by guitarist Alexey Arzamazov. Alexey soon recruited Sergey Ramzin on guitar, Platon Yukhnovetz on bass, and Max Zelenskiy on drums. The band played with a number of vocalists for nearly the next year. Finally, in August of 1994, Sergey Kayumov was made the first official vocalist of Shadow Host. Sergey Ramzin had, prior to Kayumov becoming vocalist, left the band, and Kayumov replaced him on rhythm guitar upon joining the band.

The band was now writing and rehearsing songs for their first demo. A change was made to the band's line-up in order to record this demo, which would be titled "Nothing Left Behind." Yukhnovetz, the band's drummer, was replaced by Roman Proschenko, who is commonly recognized as the band's first official drummer. In December, the demo was recorded. It included 8 tracks including "The Last Hope" which would be re-released later on their debut album, Twilight Legend.

Soon after their next release, “Neverland”, an important event occurred, which skyrocketed the band to a considerable new level – Shadow Host performed in Luzhniki arena as the opening act for their idols, Blind Guardian. Performances with bands such as Grave Digger, Stratovarius and Nightwish followed. Later, Shadow Host continued their concerts on large stages before foreign musicians: Edguy and Gamma Ray became the next milestones soon after the release of their third studio album, “Curse Of The Angeleye” in 2005. This album had already a much heavier feel.

The release of the band, titled “Bringer Of Revenge”, became the logical continuation from the predcessor, came out in December 2011. The music became even faster and more aggressive, and, in essence, became a type of melodic thrash metal.

Soon after the release of this album, the position behind the microphone was taken up by Alexey Markov (also STARSOUP), the band started out on a tour and played several significant concerts, including as the opening act for the legendary thrash metalists Annihilator and Overkill. At the start of 2013, Shadow Host released the EP “Demon Hunter”, and, at the end of the year, a whole two releases: the EP “Lunacy Divine” and the follow-up full-length album “Apocalyptic Symphony”, to this day the fastest, heaviest, and best-quality release by the band.