Empyray () is an Armenian rock group, working in heavy rock,

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

genres. Their works are characterized by imposing vocal, surprising melody transitions, thoughtful lyrics in

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

and English languages, and complete, harmonic musical forms.

History

The group was formed in 1993 on the initiative of Sargis Manoukyan and Karen Arzumanyan. There have been about 50 concerts since then, but they got wide recognition only in 2005. In 2006 Empyray recorded its debut CD album with 13 tracks in the group's own studio, gave its first solo concert and won Armenian National Music Awards in category "Best Rock Band". The group won the Best Rock Album category at the 2007

Armenian Music Awards Armenian Music Awards was an annual music awards ceremony first held at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California on October 7, 1998. It was created and produced for the first eight years by Peter Bahlawanian who wanted to support Armenian artist ...

Title etymology

"Empyray" is the English transliteration of ''эмпирей'' - the Slavonic version of

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''empuros'' (

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, ''empyreus'', English ''

empyrean In ancient European cosmologies inspired by Aristotle, the Empyrean heaven, Empyreal or simply the Empyrean, was the place in the highest heaven which was supposed to be occupied by the element of fire (or aether in Aristotle's natural philos ...

''), the highest part of the (supposedly spherical) heavens, thought in ancient times to contain the pure element of fire and by

early Christians Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and bey ...

to be the abode of

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

and the

angels An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

Band members

*Sargis Manoukyan - vocalist, band's manager, graduated from university as an

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

, has got 2-year training in vocal under the guidance of Yerevan State Conservatory professor Sergey Danielyan *Karen Arzoumanyan - guitarist, composer, graduated from university as a

medical doctor A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis ...

, has got secondary musical education, is the husband of Gisaneh Palyan *Gisaneh Palyan - keyboardist, author of lyrics, graduated from Yerevan State Conservatory as a

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

, is the wife of Karen Arzoumanyan *David Khurshudyan - bass guitarist *Koryun Bobikyan - drummer

Discography

Albums

* 2007 - Sev u Spitak (Սև ու սպիտակ) * 2009 - Hure (Հուր է) * 2011 - Mekendmisht (Մեկընդմիշտ) Empyray-ը նոր ձայնասկավառակ է թողարկել - News.am
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DVD

* 2008 - Evolution

References

{{reflist

External links

Empyray, Du chkas clip
Armenian rock music groups Armenian rock musicians Musical groups established in 1994 1994 establishments in Armenia