Band:

Merlin

BiografieMerlin was formed in 1992 by a unique female vocalist and bassist, Mary Abaza and one of the best Russian guitarists, Alex Ioffe. After a long search, they met Nick Byckoff; the drummer they were dreaming for!

Their first demo "Welcome To Hell" was played in a Death/Thrash style but as soon as three months later, they were releasing their second demo, which was more in a Death/Grind direction. However, their third demo "Prisoner Of Death" (1994) became the most well known of all three. It was reviewed in several influential Russian fanzines and got a positive appreciation from the medias.

Since their first Live performance in 1992, Merlin has been known as the most aggressive and brutal Death Metal band from Russian soil and after their "Deathkoteque" tape was released in 1997, they were being referred to as the leaders of Russian Death Metal! That recording was in fact so impressive that we decided to license it on Grind It!, a division on GWN, for the North-American territory and elsewhere in the world. Grind It!´s version has also been re-mastered and sounds better and more powerful than ever before!

Several of their songs were included on compilations, such as "Thrash Your Mother", "Deathtalker", "Russian Metal Ballads" and more… And they also took part in all considerable festivals and gigs. In 1998, they added a second guitarist to the line-up; Arteom « Bolt » Nazarov (ex-Anal Pus).

Shortly thereafter, the band was approached by Great White North Records, who offered the band a deal to release their second full-length debut album "They Must Die", recorded in May 2000. This album was also the band´s debut in North-American soil and it is blowing all Death Metal fans away!
Quelle: http://www.gwnrecords.com/merlin_bio.html

Reviews

Deathkoteque - Cover
"Deathkoteque” ist das auf CD wiederveröffentlichte erste Demo dieser russischen Death Metal / Grind Core-Band. Und für ein Demo ist dieses Teil ausgesprochen gut gemacht.