Misanthrope Count Mercyful

Now how did it all begin?... One day, on a cold January morning in 2001, Sergey MISANTHROPE Merciful (known as "JOHN SILVER" in the world of heavy and deep underground music of the early 90s, and spotted in such bands as Attack, CRUCADE, Verdict, Alex, Nostradamus) was sitting on a soft sofa, sipping out beer, torturing the strings of his dearly loved guitar and pondering on the total madness of human mass.

Little by little, the idea of reviving one of his crews shaded his beer-laden mind and became predominant. The decision to plunge into the abyss of insanity was made. But this requires insane people...

The first one who came across was B.M. Yershov, a most famous and renowned drummer of old jazz school who was greatly enthusiastic about trying himself in the hard 'n' heavy domain. Plans were discussed, agreements made, and search went on. Next, we captured the sight of a notorious and completely reckless personality named Alexei THRASH Sevastianov (RE-INCARNATION, MESSA, Nostradamus etc.) - a time-proven virtuoso bassist and a cool guy. The crew was named "Green Mile" after the novel of Great Stephen King of the same name.

Driven by our inner emotions and vision of the world, we decided to play ambient/atmospheric doom; the sound was draggy, gloomy, tearful, and sad... melancholy was the right word. Furthermore, the little girl tested for the lead singer ran off after the first rehearsal. However, the advance along the road leading to ultimate madness and destruction of human brain continued.

As it usually happens, the scene changed in a moment. In June 2001, Vlad Sivkov, a very innovative and unusual guitarist, joined the band (he had to be rescued from a dark forest near Belovezhskaya Puscha after a cruel escape from Lepel Sanatorium for HUMANS with off-standard mentality. At the same time, the drummer left for medical treatment, to be replaced by young and promising Dan Stepanov.

And the story went a new way... It was decided to rename the band Misanthrope Count Mercyful - and to change the style of music into the same bargain. Melancholy was forgotten. The band's style was turned round 180 degrees to become some mix of technique-based death, brutal despair, and a bit of tunes. MIZANTHROPE became the vocalist along with seconding Vlad on the guitar, and thus the style was ultimately defined.

It was not before March 2002 that we had our debut appearance at the JAM club, to make several persons stray from the path of proper understanding of the reality surrounding them.

The spring of 2003 brought us another personnel replacement. Vladislav Saltsevich, the drummer of legendary band Gods Tower, came to make up for Dan who left for medical treatment (gee, we have bad luck with drummers). He, too, was caught in the primeval backwoods of Belovezhskaya Puscha. With our cast so refreshed, after a few appearances at different venues, a demo comprising four tracks was recorded in the BLACK OBELISK studio.

Currently, no replacements are expected in the band, and we actively play venues.