Blackthorn is a five-peace all-female Russian

symphonic A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning ...

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

band formed in 2004 in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. As of 2017, they released three studio albums: ''Gossamer Witchcraft'' (2009), ''Codex Archaos'' (2011) and ''Witch Cult Ternion'' (2015).

Band history

Blackthorn were formed in 2004, by the Sakha-born singer Aina. A year later the original line-up, featuring Aina, Verbena (bass guitar), Max (a blind from birth drummer), Lydia (guitars) and Olga (keyboards), entered the studio to record their 3-track demo, ''The Prologue of Eschaton''.Blackthorn
profile at the Spirit of Metal Mixed by the

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i black metal band Arafel, it was released in February 2007. Two of its tracks later appeared in the "Metal World Compilation Vol.3".Band history
at dark-world.ru Lydia left Blackthorn in 2007 after giving birth to a baby, to be replaced by Elvira Alchemida (guitars, keyboards, growling). With a new drummer Alexander Karpukhin and Freya on keyboards, the band recorded a 10-track debut album ''Gossamer Witchcraft'', released by Ravenheart Music Records on 30 November 2009. In February 2010 its Russian version ''Araneum'' (Аранеум) came out via the Moscow-based Musica Production label. The record's digital version was released internationally by Hunter's Moon. In the course of the next two years the band toured Russia,

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

and

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

, and played at the Metal Heads Mission X and Metal Crowd festivals, in 2009 and 2011, respectively.Blackthorn
at playmuz.ru In 2010 the band, now with Varaska (Alexandra Archangelskaya) on drums, Greta (Tatyana Grevizirskaya) on bass and Less (Elena Lesnykh, ex-Shallow Rivers) on violin, entered the Magna Opera Studios to start to record their second album. ''Codex Archaos'', "one of the most anticipated emale metalreleases of 2011," according to FemmeMetal, was released on 10 December 2011 by MSR Productions. Some of its tracks featured the Moscow Conservatory Silver Voice choir. The main lyrical idea behind the album was "an attempt to describe rituals of an ancient magic Codex Archaos," according to Aina.Blackthorn interview
for MetalSoundScapes. ''Witch Cult Ternion'', a concept album, telling the "story of ancient triple goddesses, but interpret ngit in its own way, enfleshing the vision as three evil witch-sisters, reigning over the world with their dark powers," came out in December 2015. It drew comparisons with the early works of

Cradle of Filth Cradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band formed in Suffolk in 1991. The band's musical style evolved originally from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic metal and other metal genres. Their ly ...

, as well as

Epica Epica or EPICA may refer to: * Epica (band), a Dutch symphonic metal band * ''Epica'' (Kamelot album), 2003 * ''Epica'' (Audiomachine album), 2012 * The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) * The Epica Awards (International Adver ...

Dimmu Borgir Dimmu Borgir () is a Norwegian symphonic black metal band from Jessheim, formed in 1993. The name is derived from Dimmuborgir, a volcanic formation in Iceland, the name of which means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic lang ...

and

Lacrimosa The ''Lacrimosa'' (Latin for " weeping/tearful"), is part of the Dies Irae sequence in the Catholic Requiem Mass. Its text comes from the Latin 18th and 19th stanzas of the sequence. Many composers, including Mozart, Berlioz, and Verdi have set ...

, and "has finally brought the band into the Premiere league of Russian heavy music scene," according to one reviewer. After the release Varaska left the band to concentrate on her work with the Polish band Minetaur.Official Statement
from Varaska. YouTube She was replaced by Acotath (ex-Instorm, Khaos Labyrinth), who first appeared on the December 31, "Death of Love" single release. More concerts followed, including an appearance at the

Metal Female Voices Fest Metal Female Voices Fest was a heavy metal music festival dedicated to List of female heavy metal singers, female vocalists, held annually in the Oktoberhallen in Wieze, Belgium from 2003 to 2016. It was organized by the ''Metal Organisation'', wh ...

in Belgium.

Band members

Current line-up

* Aina – vocals (2004-present) * Elvira Alchemida – vocals, guitars, keyboards (2007-present) * Elena 'Less' Lesnykh – violin (2010-present) * Tatyana 'Greta' Grevizirskaya – bass (2009-present) * Acotath – drums (2015-present)

Past members

* Lydia – guitars (2004-2007) * Olga – keyboards (2005-2007) * Verbena – bass guitar (2005-2009) * Max – drums (2007-2009) * Freya – keyboards, backing vocals (2008-2010) * Alexander Karpukhin – drums (2008-2010) * Aleksandra 'Varaska' Arkhangelskaya – drums (2009-2015)

Discography

Demo

* ''The Prologue of Eschaton'' (2007)

Studio albums

*''Gossamer Witchcraft'' (2009; Russian version: ''Аранеум'') *''Codex Archaos'' (2011) *''Witch Cult Ternion'' (2015)

References

{{Authority control Russian black metal musical groups Russian symphonic metal musical groups Extreme metal musical groups Symphonic black metal musical groups Musical groups established in 2004 2004 establishments in Russia Musical groups from Moscow