THE METAL TIMES: THE TIMES INTERVIEW : AMONG YOUR GODS

1.Introduce yourself and your band and tell us why we should listen to you.

- We are a band Among Your Gods and we make quality music with a soul. If you want to hear the drive of the riffs and the melodic solos, mixed with delicious female extreme vocals, then you should definitely include our tracks in your playlist🤘.

2.What do you classify your sound as, Who do you tell people you sound

like?

- We play Melodic Death Metal. ..all the best for which you fell in love with Arch Enemy, Cradle Of Filth and At The Gates in our music is present in the most lively, active and concentrated form and with the appropriate visual accompaniment.

3.With digital music in today's world would you vote to keep or eliminate physical

media?

- We love physical media!)

4.What is the reason you decided to be a musician and has that reason paid

off?

- We became musicians because it is in our blood. ..we don't see ourselves as anyone else. Yes, each of us has a job to make money. But the true calling is metal music.

5.How do you feel about females in metal getting special attention? Do you feel it is

fair?

- Many women in metal have fulfilled their talents and ambitions with dignity. And this is worthy of respect.

6.In the world climate with hatred being at an all time high and metal being an “ angry”

music. Do you think your music contributes to anger and

hatred?

- No, we do not call for aggression and violence.

7.Are you opposed to religious beliefs or politics being used in

music?

- Absolutely. ..we are against it. Musicians use politics and religion in their work, who can no longer attract the attention of the public.

8.We have dive into some pretty deep issues here do you think your music sends a

message and if so what is it?

- Our songs raise questions of morality, emotional experiences and suffering, the search for oneself and the meaning of existence ...

9.The market has changed and many bands believe that record labels are a thing of the past,

with many labels now charging bands to “sign” how do you think a band can make it in

todays scene?

- We had no experience of working with labels, so we cannot objectively judge about it.

10.Why with the thousands of options including netflix , sporting events everything on

demand

Why do you think people should take the time to listen to what you have to say in

your music?

- I think no one owes anything to anyone. We are not forced to listen to this music. We offer it. And the one who needs it will listen or watch the video instead of some soccer match with a couple of beers. ..it is a matter of priorities for each individual.

11.How do you feel about pay to play? Do you think it is fair for a band to have to pay money

to play?

- Concerts, recording, video production is hard work. And, of course, it must be paid.

12.It is fact that you are the talent and the entertainment explain what you think is the

most important key to success?

- The key to success?) It doesn't exist. Only hard work, skill, talent, and great luck can help a team rise.

13.In country music and even in some cases rock music is written and performed by

different people would your band perform a song written by someone else?

- I don't think so.

14.If you are pro female in music are you pro using sex to sell your

music?

- sexuality can help attract an audience. And what is written in the question rather describes another, more ancient profession🤣

15.What is your view on the lawsuits against people saying lewd or unprofessional things

to women or men and how does that affect an art described as sex drugs and rock n roll ?

- I think this concept is outdated. The generation has changed and sex, drugs, etc. have become irrelevant.

16. Ok lets lighten up a bit. What is your favorite band of all time and

why?

- There are a lot of them. ..when you are a musician you cannot be a fan of one band. You become an admirer of many bands, from which you draw inspiration and mood.

17.What would you be doing if you were not in a

band?

- I would look for a band))))

18. Do you have a favorite sports

team?

- No

19.If you could get on stage with anyone dead or alive who would it

be?

- Freddie Mercury, Chuck Schuldiner, Michael Emmett, James Hetfield

20.This is your shot to let loose, Throw down your biggest complaint about the music

biz

- Music biz has not yet appeared in our country 😥

Among Your Gods (Melodic Death Metal/Blr)

Participants: Alina Pochebyt : Vocal Sergey Ruzikov : Guitar Pavel Dziatko : Guitar Konstantin Fedorets : Bass Alexandr Prokofyev : Drums Schedule of Concerts 2019 year:

Information:

The history of Among Your Gods group is started in 2013 in a small industrial Novopolotsk city on the north-east of Belarus.

Virgin age-old forest framing this place with its greatness and beauty, unimaginable interlacing of railway tracks – trade and industry arteries, unchangeable like time Western Dvina flow – all these left their footprint on Among Your Gods reefs and melodics. Actually it’s difficult to imagine the better place for inspiration of Death Metall Melodics.

That was what Sergey Ruzikov, the leader of the band, has eventually said, - “This music is flowing in my blood”.

From 2013 to 2017 the staff of the band have been regularly changing. The first name “Sweet Blood” was nominal for the most part, but in November 2015 after thinking on its own conception and music development claim, they made a decision to rename the band. Next the young musicians have to set sail in an ocean of one of the best musical branches, Death Metal, with a new bold name “Among Gods”.

Who took part in Among Your Gods (till 2018 Among Gods) during the period till 2017 year, Sergey tells not willingly, but the backbone of the band just from the beginning consisted of himself and Alexandr Prokofyev the drummer, who came to the band almost immediately after the first public show.

The first concert of the band took place in 2013 on the main square of Novopolotsk as a part of a programme “Novopolotsk is a city without drugs”. By this time three songs had been ready: Rise Up, Vengeance, Nightly Ghost. Besides the main guitar player the band consisted of Dmitry Volodenok (percussion), Pavel Fedorov (vocal), Edward Korshun (guitar), Maksim Medvedev (bass).

In the same year in the studio of Sergey Afonasenko “Catch the Sound” (in Novopolotsk city) the work on matching and improving the songs began. Afterwards these songs appeared in the first full length album. In the same place in the “Catch the Sound” studio in 2015 the video cover-version on the Arch Enemy topic “Blood on Your Hands” was recorded.

In the beginning of 2016 the lead singer Pavel Fedotov left the band. Anastasia Solovtsova came to his place. Meanwhile, the first formal clip for the Nasty Blood song was recorded in Polotsk with the help of knight and horse club.

The lead singer’s band leaving removed the release date of debut album which was almost ready till the beginning of 2016. It was decided to lay the voice of the new lead singer on music with Pavel’s voice underlayed for making the recording.

On 16th February, 2017 another shock waited for the band. On the big rock-festival of “Discovery” school where Among Gods were invited for the performance, the lead singer didn’t wait for her musicians and crossed her band out of the lineup. This spontaneous action which led to the performance failure entailed to the doubt according to Anastasia’s attendance to the band. Moreover, it made another barrier for releasing the first full-length album. However, there was no more time to delay.

Finally, in May, 2017 in the “Catch the Sound” studio the debut album “The Feeding of Cruelty” was announced. The album consists of 10 audio tracks. Its continuance is 40 minutes. This album gets high ratings by heavy music trends’ critics and columnists. Among them: Victor Smolskiy, BUS, ByMetal, Metalheads.by, rusMetalRadio and Discovery rock-school.

Soon after the album’s coming out Anastasia Solovtsova leaves the band and a new frontwoman Alina Pochebyt comes to her place. Since August 1st, 2017 a new productive time in the development of the band began.

Due to qualitative work in the studio the number of audience and fans increases greatly, the invitations from managers of underground concerts from the hole Belarus become more often now. In spite of the fact that album was ready in May, 2017, its presentation took place only in November of the same year. It is notable that the album was released by the own funds of the band. And it was posted on the internet absolutely freely for the audience.

On September 2017 the second clip on the topic Galactic Abyss comes out with the participation of Alina Pochebyt. The band gave an interview on the air of radio “Stolitsa”, got into rotation of russian and belarusian internet-radio stations.

Now the delay of concert’s presentation of album becomes clear to audience. It’s always hard when the front man changes.

That is what Sergey Ruzikov told about the new frontwoman after a year since she has joined the band: “Her energy and dedication create an environment for the further development of the band.”

Autumn and winter are the periods of sadness and tedious work but not for Among Gods only.

On 24th November the presentation of a debut album “The Feeding of Cruelty” took place in a “Brugge” club in Minsk.

On 5th December – the headliners of “Apocalypse New Year 2017”.

In March 2018 the hard work towards a new clip on the “Frozen Heart” topic started and it was released on 22ND May, 2018.

May 2018 made everybody working hard. A bass player Maksim Medvedev broke his arm so Konstantin Fedorets, ominous and rigid in nature, came to his place from the Slave of Insanity band.

Also Aleksandr Pavlovsky replaced one of the guitar players.

By the summer concert season 2018, Among Gods had become the participants of the biggest belarusian metal event of the year – “The United Metal Festival” 2018 in Rechitsa city – the metal capital of Belarus.

This same summer a seminal work in promoting the band within the bikers’ community began (Polotsk Bike – Rock Festival, Taman – Poluostrov Svobody (rus), “Lastochki” bikers’ festival, the 12th international bikers’ festival in Lida).

For all the summer 2018 the band has been keeping its position steadily in the list of the best Belarusian metal bands as evidenced by numerous charts and the time in the lineups of the most prestigious events, such as “Kupalskae Kola”, “UMF”.

In Autumn 2018 the technical necessity of changing the name of the band became inevitable. However, the changes were not fundamental, they were connected with the necessity of registration on the European Union music venues.

By Sergey Ruzikov: “All these were verbal restrictions of the international community, nothing changed specifically, we have been choosing the previous name for a long time from more than one hundred possible, but now we are called Among Your Gods, this decision was forced”.

In 2019 the group gained its individual scenic image which allowed to make one more step towards their listeners. But, as well as Among Your Gods’ music develops, this image will always be in dynamics, it will be constantly improved to the joy of the audience.

In spite of the fact that it’s enough time before the end of the year, the plans for the following 2020 are making at full speed. The main vector of development is a promotion of the group in metal communities of near-abroad countries. For this purpose, the negotiations with organizers of the biggest festivals of Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine are carried on.

We will be glad to cooperate with organizers and promoters in new 2020, all the offers will not remain without an answer!

Yours faithfully, Among Your Gods.