Mortifer

Mortifer was formed in July ..1988.. in Kostroma by Sergey Novikov and his pal Anatoly Chebotarj . Two years earlier, they used to appear at parties in a local Medical College performing pop songs and even covers of AC/DC and Alice Cooper. It was rather venturesome to play such “dangerous” stuff in those times.

The risk was related to anti-Western policy of the former USSR. After Sergey’s return from military service, the guys decided to form a band to play exceptionally heavy kind of music. Within a month the band's line-up was completed.

Sergey’s College classmate Alexander Kamenschikov joined on bass. On the first demo tape there was Valeriy Mukhin as a lead guitar player, but he has abandoned the band in half a year, having preferred to play in restaurants and take care of his family. At that time the band name was Knyaz Serebryanny .

They were playing mostly covers of Savatage, Dio, Loudness, Ozzy, Saxon, etc., but also had started writing their own material in a hard'n'heavy vein. The lyrics were all in Russian then. It wasn’t until ..1991.. when they have switched over to English lyrics and started to play a radical style - aggressive thrash metal.

The new material was recorded as a demo in ..1992.., but later on it was re-recorded and released as their debut album "Euthanasia" in ..1993.. by BIZ Enterprises . Release of such kind of music was considered a breakthrough event at that period. But having succumbed to the demand of music market, BIZ Enterprises soon has re-orientated to pop field and has abrogated all contracts with hard rock bands.