Metka | METALSITES.net

Biography

2006 Winter passed as a vacation for a band; In spring Metka gigs in Saint-Petersburg and Moscow supporting just released english version of debut album - "Stepping through the Mirror".

English name was changed into "METKA" - universal word, spelled and pronounced equally both in English and Russian.

In June band arranges large 2-hours long solo concert and after that some band members take summer vacations and others work hard on new music stuff. In mid-summer Pavel Voronin (bass) announces his quit from a band.

Autumn 06 band finds a manager Igor Chernomor, a professional concert organizer and a local representative of such famous russian heavy metal bands as "Master", "Mavrik", "Aria". Together with him Metka does some solo gigs in Roks club and prepars for the first mini-tour. In October-November new bassist joins in - Ivan Vetrogonov.

2005: At the end of January, new drummer Sergey Bushkevich joins and the band starts working on a tight rehearsal schedule preparing for upcoming gigs, which resulted in a number of spring season concerts at St.Petersburg clubs.

Due to problems with the design, the debut album release has been delayed until June. Meanwhile the band enters the studio again to record one of their brightest ideas, a cover song "Plastilinovaya Vorona".

Also in June, Daniil Kuzin becomes the band's new lead guitarist. A band is preparing entirely new material for the autumn concerts. Late December, on the very eve of Christmas band changes it's English name ince again to "METKA" - a unique and well-turned word that is equally pronounced and spelled both in English and Russian.

2004 In January, solo guitarist Alexander is fired, being replaced by young but very talented Sergey Tshe, co-leader and founder of Citadel.

February, the band enters the studio to record their first album, planning to finish by June. However, the recording sessions continue till autumn for technical and other reasons.

Mid-summer, Black Label change the band's English name to Label of Black for reasons of copyright.

August, sadly, drummer Kirill Dmitriev quits the band to pursue his career in a different kind of music. The band starts looking for an adequate substitute.

2003 The band continues to gig at St.Petersburg venues. The autumn brings the decision to add keyboards to the material, and soon Joe, co-leader and founder of girls hard'n'heavy band Gorgona steps in for live concerts and becomes the band member.

2002 The band is working hard polishing old and rehearsing new material. June 13, they give the first concert at a small underground (in both senses of the word) Front club, which goes down very well with the crowd. Metka caught the eyes of some concert organizer, who invited them to play at then up-and-coming Orlandina club.

Under the influence of vocalist Vladimir Vetyukov, the band decides to perform both English and Russian versions of the songs, which is followed by long work on lyrics translation and editing.

2001 Metka (originally Black Label) was born as a project in the spring of 2001, when Zack Eswee made demo records of songs "Black Label" and "Triangular Dream", and born as a band later when he met up with solo guitarist Alexander Kiykov. After some practice they start looking for other musicians, but for six months the search is fruitless. At last, in September bassist Pavel Voronin and drummer Kirill Dmitriev join the band. Soon, October 8, 2001 the line-up was completed by vocalist Vladimir Vetyukov, and this date is considered the birthday of Metka.

The musicians get down to work, hold regular rehearsal sessions and prepare a set for live concerts. All lyrics are written in English.