Реферат: История творчества группы "Ария"

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In the middle of the 80s anenormous number of domestic heavy metal bands came to stage. We could say it was the first wave of RussianHeavy Metal. What can you say about thattime?

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Ijust don’t know… I feel nostalgic about those years. Back then we had to constantly be on our toes– we always had some committees or administrators getting in our way. There was this wall that messed with ourlives, but our lives were interesting. Right now the wall is gone, and it is not clear what to do next… All people want nowadays is to make somemoney and retire… Some still have their drive, their energy, but life gets moreand more difficult. Apathy iseverywhere…

From a 1992 interview with Valery Kipelov, Aria’s vocalist[1]

Now,in 1999, seven years, two full albums and several independent projects later, Aria is stillgoing strong, filling up the largest stadiums and arenas, and selling outpractically every concert.

Itall started back in 1984, when Vladimir Holstinin, alead guitar player for a group called ALFAdecided that he wanted to play somethingheavier and left the group in search of others who shared his views. With the help of AlexandrGranovsky, an old friend and a base player, and a lucky meeting with Vladimir Vekshtein who agreed to become their manager, a new groupwas born. Finding a worthy vocalist wasonly a matter of time. It did not taketoo long, since the very first candidate won everybody’s affections. It was Valery Kipelov, a former vocalist for a band called Leisja Pesnja. With Aleksandr L’vovat the drums and Cyrill Pokrovskyat the keyboards the fist album named “Megalomania” was recorded in 1985. The group called themselves Aria, which borea hidden challenge, since the musicians and the fans alike called themselves “arians” – a name displeasing to the authorities at the time[2]. Despite such a name, the group neverassociated itself with nazi-type outlook on life.

Thecommunists did not even allow printing posters with the bands’ name, butdespite the lack of publicity the first album was a hit. It showed the need for heavy metal in the SovietUnion, the unwillingness of young men and women to follow communist propaganda,to listen to the popular music they were presented with on the radio and TV. They were willing to risk their futures andfreedoms to live the life they wanted.

The tension around Ariawas growing,and it turned into a riot at the very first concert of the band in February of’86, when 40 people ended up in jail. Butthat was only the beginning. At the “Rock-Panorama”festival same year someone spilled water on the electrical equipment during theband’s performance. The music had tostop for almost an hour, but no one from the audience left. Aria was namedthe winner of the festival, despite lousy sound and lack of special effects dueto water damage. «Melodia»– the official recording studio in USSR – later released LPs recorded at thefestival– Aria’sperformance was not included on the LPs. Due to that incident, the poets at that timerefused to write lyrics for Aria, presuming that none of Aria’s futuresongs would ever be recorded. In spiteof the future looking glum, the band continued touring and getting enormousaudiences everywhere it went.

Atthe end of 1986 after recording the next album («Whom Are You With?») disagreementscaused the band to split, leaving only Kipelov and Holstinin as members of Aria. Alex Granovsky led the others to create a bandcalled Master, which focused on playing trash metal, while Ariacontinued to play themelodic heavy metal of their idol, Iron Maiden. The album was named after one of the songs, but the name also signifiedthe break, leaving the fans with a choice to make.[3]

Despitethe loss of the larger part of the band, its spirit was still strong. About half a year after the break, the “new”band released a fantastic album “Hero of Asphalt”. The words for this album were finally writtenby a professional poet, Margarita Pushkina, whose lyricsenhanced and empowered the band's music. The album is still considered one of their best, and the songs that comprisedit are played at every concert. Unlikethe first two albums, this one was released on an LP rather than on tape. The communists finally recognized the band –and LP release was official. However,they renamed the album without ever consulting the band (the original album namewas same as one of the songs — “Serving Evil Forces”) to make it “lessoffensive”. Also, they chose not to paythe musicians a dime.

Fortwo years after the release of “Hero of Asphalt” Ariawas on tour, going from city to city inRussia, as well as the satellite countries. However, when an invitation came in 1988 to go to the Capital Radiofestival in London, the government informed the festival authorities that theband did not perform live. They wereclearly threatened by the effect the band might have on the opinion of theWest, as well as the satellites, by going to an international musicfestival.

Sameyear the first music video got filmed for the song “Street of Roses”. The filming caused chaos, since instead ofhaving two or three hundred onlookers, about seven thousand people showed upfor the filming; as a result the musicians were practically torn to pieces bythe adoring fans that wanted to get close to their idols. The musicians and the administrations learneda lesson in popularity, and the video took the number one spot in the rating.

Inthe summer of the same year, Ariafinally went abroad to Germany, wherethe musicians got an invitation to the “Days of the Wall” festival, where theysurprised everybody with their music and won the sympathy of the people.

Aroundthe same time the band's manager, whose outstanding leadership took the bandpast all the barricades built by communists, suddenly lost interest in thegroup. He told the band that their musicwas loosing popularity, that they should try to give as many concerts aspossible and retire. He insisted that therewas no need to work on a new album. Thelack of productivity and the uncertainty of tomorrow took its toll; thedrummer, Maksim Udalov, leftfor a band called Zenitsa Oka. Aleksandr Manjakin took his place. In the fall the band was forced to retire its manager, since themusicians were not ready to give up what they have so hard worked for. Their next album titled “Playing with Fire” wasreleased the following spring. MargaritaPushkina became the official writer for the band, Yury Fishkin became the manager.

Anotherlong tour followed, with visits to Germany, where the group lost its guitar andbase players to a local band. Theirplaces were taken by Dmitry Gorbatikovand Andrey Bulkin. The tour continued, but professionally, theband was going nowhere. Fortunately, thetwo “traitors” come back, just in time for their fifth anniversary shows inOctober of 1990.

Thenext album “Blood for Blood” was released in the fall of 1991. The album had a new crisp sound, the band wasexperimenting with new types of guitars, but their theme of Good vs. Evilcontinued[4]. However, SintezStudios where the album was recorded was definitely not equipped to handle theheavy guitar riffs or the drumbeat the band produced. The recorded version sounded distorted, butthe tour that followed the album release made up for that and once again crowdsgathered in all parts of the country to see their idols perform live.

In1993 Ariadecided to create its own recording studio in order to avoid theproblems they faced with their previous albums. In 1994 they signed a contract with MOROZ Records – one of the largestrecording companies that produced for many of the artists that came out of theSoviet era. The studio releasedcompilations entitled “Legends of Russian Rock” with digitally re-masteredsound for such monsters as Alisa, Akvarium, Kino, Krematoriiand many others. Since then Moroz Records had re-released allfive of Aria’s earlier albums, and published all of their following projects.

In 1994, after their fourth Germany tour,the band came to the brink of extinction, when the vocalist abandoned Ariafor Masterseveralmonths before recording their next album. Sergei Mavrin (guitar) became discouraged and also left. Fortunately, Sergei Terent’ev,a very talented guitar player who had just recorded his solo album at AriaRecords offered his services. Afterseveral months of trying to record with Aleksei Bulgakov (vocalist from Legion), the band got Kipelovto record the vocals for the new album. It took a threat of pressing charges for breach of contract from theowner of Moroz Record to get Kipelovto come back[5].

“Night is Shorter Than the Day” wasreleased at the end of 1995. The album wasstill Ariastyle, but the styleseemed to be changing; in addition to their usual crisp, angry, Good vs. Evilsongs, there were several mellow songs, more associated with rock than heavymetal. Opinions about the album split. Some called it the best to date, while othersattributed it to the death of metal[6].

The tour following the release of “Nightis Shorter Than the Day” was in the best traditions of the 80’s, loud andnerve-wrecking for local governments. This could be attributed to the new manager Sergei Zadora,who did a large advertising campaign for the tour. It is on that tour that the band celebratedits ten-year anniversary and released a live album titled “Made in Russia” asits gift to all the fans.

In 1997 MorozRecords released the second of its “Legends of Russian Rock” series, with Aria being one ofthe six performers in that series. Thecompilation is a “best of” collection, with digitally re-mastered sound and adetailed band history booklet[7]. It also included the song “Give Me Your Hand”previously only released on the tape version of “Hero of Asphalt”, a song thatwas for marketing reasons excluded from the re-mastered CD version of the albumre-released in 1994. The song expressedthe musicians’ feelings during the break in 1986 when

Masterwas created.

Also in 1997, the musicians decided torealize their differences in music without jeopardizing the band; they recordedindividual projects. ValeryKipelov, along with his old friends Alex Granovsky,Sergei Mavrin, and Pavel Chinjakovrecorded a pure hard rock compilation that is full of patriotic and cultural themesof Russia. At the same time Vitaly Dubinin, Vladimir Hosltinin, and Alexandr Manjakinrecorded a “hits re-mixed” album titled “Accident”, where old hits were given anew life when played in a mellow soft-rock style. The album was somewhat comical, which wasreflected in the album title, and even in the caricature portrayal of themusicians on the cover. Nevertheless it wasnot to be taken lightly – it took a lot of work, and it contained two newsongs.

In 1998 the band released anothermasterpiece for its fans. The quality oftheir work was getting better and better, which was possible due to fewerdisagreements among the musicians and less shuffling between other bands. The reason for the latter was a lack of newbands being created, and the old ones settling their ranks. One way or another “Generator of Evil” onceagain topped the charts and brought the band’s fans together for yet anothertour. The songs in this album stillfollowed the Good vs. Evil theme, but they were more down to earth, creatingmore realistic images than those of Pontius Pilate asdoes “Blood for Blood”, or Queen Zhanna of France asdoes “Street of Roses”. The songs conveythe messages that were too dangerous during the communist reign. Being a decade too late with their messages wasthe price they paid for freedom to perform for the past fifteen years.

In 1999 the first part of the longanticipated “best of” album was released. It contained hits from 1985 to 1989 and brought new popularity for oldsongs. The album was meant to be a tasteof what the future holds, with the next album anticipated early in the year 2000. The times that were chosen to separate the “bestof “ album were meant to divide the music into pre- and post- communistperiods.

Aria is unique inmany ways. No other band in Russia hasknown so much popularity for so long, no band has been able to attractgeneration after generation of fans for fifteen years[8]. Not too many bands during soviet time wereable to perform their music so close to what they wanted it to be; almost nonewere known to be as much trouble for the government and were still keptaround.

Ariastarted out as “Russian IronMaiden”. Many still say they are. However, you will never hear Maiden addressthe themes encountered in Aria’s songs – love, loneliness, as well as the usualthemes in Heavy Metal – Good vs. Evil, tales of things from long ago, andmystical heroes. Very few bands outsideUSSR ever had cope with censorship in music and lyrics in order to play. In Russian Rock, emphasis is placed onlyrics, people sing to express themselves, Ariaexpresses everything through music,perhaps because lyrics were off limits for a long time. Very few bands went through so many changesand still stayed together. Ariais inherentto Russia – its’ success anywhere in the world is highly doubtful.

To address the extract from a 1992interview with Valery Kipelovin the very beginning, the future is not as dark as it seemed back then. A new generation of “arians”is born every year – and as long as the group exists they will find all themotivation they may ever want in the eyes of a fifteen-year-old coming to an Ariaconcert forthe first time in his or her life…

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1.

Whois Who in Soviet Rock, Alekseev, Aleksandr, “Ostankino”, Moscow1991

2.

Back in the USSR, Troitsky, Artemy,“Omnibus Press”, Great Britain, 1987

3.

Legends of Russian Rock 2, “Moroz”,Moscow 1997

4.

MoskovkyKomsomoletsnewspaper, various issues 1990-1995

5.

FUZZ magazine,July 1998, April 1999

6.