It all began in 2003, when
Vladimir, a 16 year old heavy
metal
fan,stumbled across an Emperor cd in a music shop and after buying and
listening to it realized that it was what’s good for his ears. He also
realized that he not only wants to listen to that kind of music but
also has the urge to create and play it, which pushed him to buy his
first electric guitar. As time passed, his musical taste changed from
Iron Maiden, Zeppelin and Manowar to darker and heavier bands like
Emperor, Opeth, Mayhem, Katatonia etc. Gradually his guitar skills
increased too and also did increase his desire to have his own band,
until one day, in 2005, he got acquainted with Aleksander, yet another
extreme metal addict (Dark Funeral, Marduk, etc…) who knew how to
handle a guitar and also had quite disturbing growling skills. Thus the
two friends formed a band carrying the name “Sworn”.
Soon
another metalhead joined the band. It was a grindcore freak by the
moniker of Inheller. He was Vladimirs’s friend and was supposed to
provide additional vocals. With this setup Sworn started recording
their first song, “Fog of the Darkside”. The recording of this song
took almost half a year during which not only the band collected the
equipment needed for recording, but also learned the skills as a band
and developed the one thing that makes them stand apart from the
majority of other Armenian bands – a descent sound, which was the
result of Vladimirs’s scrupulous experiments with his sound equipment.
During these months Inheller lost his interest in the band and
quit.
Finally, aftermany months of experimenting Sworn developed the sound
that the band was looking for and recorded “Fog of the Darkside”. In 3
more monthsthe rest of the songs for their first album, “The Rise”,
were also recorded.
Being already concerned with the possibility
of future concerts the band decided to recruit a keyboard player. Thus
Mariam, a young girl with a musical education and appreciation for
heavy music was recruited.
With this line-up in 2005 Sworn
released its first album, “The Rise”, which was quite a success and got
warmly welcomed by the Armenian metal underground to which it was
presented and distributed mostly in mp3 format. Music wise “The Rise”
album sounded like atmospheric black/doom metal and it had great sound,
which was something rare for Armenia. Naturally this album earned much
interest and appreciation for the band.
Meanwhile by the end
ofthe year 2005 Sworn started recording new material for the next album
which in fact turned out to be an EP named “…Of Euphoria” and was
released in February, 2006. This EP was a whole conceptual tale,
broken
into 3 parts that told the story of loss and genesis. The music of this
EP was darker and more extreme while it also carried some progressive
elements, the songs had more depth and complexity and the arrangements
were richer and of course the sound of the whole thing was much better
because Vladimir never stopped experimenting with sound and getting
better results. By the end of the recording process a new song was also
recorded though it didn’t find place on “…Of Euphoria”, because of
differences in concept and style. The song was called “I am of Night”
and marked Sworn’s change of style and their move towards progressive
atmospheric death metal. This song was saved for release on the next
album.
Recording of the next album started one month after the
release of “…Of Euphoria” and continued till November, 2006. During
that period also some songs by well-known bands (Zyklon,
SolitudeAeternus, Dimmu Borgir) were covered and recorded by Sworn in
pursuit of technical and aural perfection. During the summer Sworn
members got acquainted and made friends with Vardan, a promising young
musician who was no stranger to the world of music, as he had been the
keyboardplayer for the prog-rock band Oaksenham. Very soon Vardan
replaced Mariam, who took up the responsibilities of the band’s
manager. By that time locally Sworn already became quite popular and
even got involved in some activities out of the Armenian metal
underground: the band gave interviews to Ardzaganq and Internews and
was also presented along with some of their songs on metal show
“Experimetal” hosted by Arsen and Aramazd.
Arsen had been quite
interested in the band since the day he heard their music and feeling
its potential he decided to help the band any way he could. Soon
Vladimir invited Arsen to do the main vocals for the new album, Tended
High.
Since the day of the band’s existence Sworn never had a
drummer. But now, seeing the distant perspective of doing concerts in
the future, it was decided to recruit one. The best choice seemed to be
one of the most furious drummers of the Armenian rock/metal scene –
Koryun. He had already known the band and had listened to their music
so he gladly accepted the invitation to the band.
Indeed, very
soon the possibility to do a concert appeared. It was going to happen
in a month. Sworn had never performed together as a
whole before and
the band members were quite skeptical about the concert, because they
didn’t even have a place for rehearsing. But Mariam swiftly found a
rehearsal room and after rehearsing for a month the band gave a
marvelous concert at Avangtarde Folk Club on September 26th, sharing
the stage with the bands LSD and Jam. Also the band’s first video
bootleg was shot that day. On November 1 2006 the recording of the
newest Sworn album was complete. The album is called “Tended High”. On
December 10 and December 23 2006 there were also other two gigs where
Sworn performed with other bands. Theese gigs were quiet successful.
After
recording the "Tended High" album band started to seek way to
distribute their material. After some time Sworn signed with russian
label Haarbn Productions for "Tended High". After that band
started to rehearse their albums: "Tended High", "The Rise" and "Of
Euphoria". In that time the new album: "Twilight" was recorded.
"Twilight" is a compilation of remastered "The Rise" and "Of Euphoria"
albums. Sworn continued rehearsing for about one year and at
december 13 2007 they give their first solo concert at Yerevan Puppet
Theatre. The concert was very successful. Sworn recorded it's first
live DVD that
day.
Discography
The Rise [Demo] Atmospheric Prog .Black Metal (Self Released In 2005)
Of Euphoria [Demo EP] Atmospheric Prog. Black Metal (Self Released In 2006)
1.The Rise (intro)
01:23 2.Fog OF The Darkside 05:52 3.The
Eclipse 05:08 4.Into The Abyss
05:27 5.The Majesty Of Death 06:56 6.Grave
Syphomania 01:47 7.Under Eternal Rain
04:52 8.Fall (Outro)
02:53 ******************** Total Playing Time
34:18 Link For The Download
Album
1.My Euphorical Atmosphere 06:05 2.Through The Ubiquitous Mist05:59 3.The Majestic Precipice 07:22 ******************** Total Playing
Time 19:26 Link For The Download
Album
Tended High Avantgarde Sympho. Black Metal (Haarbn Prod. 2007)
Twilight [EP] Avantgarde Sympho. Black Metal (Self Released in 2007)
1.Once A Rainy
Solitude 03:57 2.In My Soul Despair
08:44 3.Church Obliterations 08:13 4.I Am
Of A Night 05:06 5.Yearning
02:14 6.Tended High 09:45 7.Nothing
Lasts 02:48 ******************** Total
Playing Time 40:47 Link
For The Download Album
1.The Rise (intro)
01:23 2.Fog OF The Darkside 05:52 3.The
Eclipse 05:08 4.Into The Abyss
05:27 5.The Majesty Of Death 06:56 6.Grave
Syphomania 01:47 7.Under Eternal Rain
04:52 8.Fall (Outro)
02:53 1.My Euphorical Atmosphere
06:05 2.Through The Ubiquitous Mist05:59 3.The Majestic Precipice
07:22 ******************** Total Playing
Time 49:33 Link
For The Download
Album
It all began in 2003, when
Vladimir, a 16 year old heavy
metal
fan,stumbled across an Emperor cd in a music shop and after buying and
listening to it realized that it was what’s good for his ears. He also
realized that he not only wants to listen to that kind of music but
also has the urge to create and play it, which pushed him to buy his
first electric guitar. As time passed, his musical taste changed from
Iron Maiden, Zeppelin and Manowar to darker and heavier bands like
Emperor, Opeth, Mayhem, Katatonia etc. Gradually his guitar skills
increased too and also did increase his desire to have his own band,
until one day, in 2005, he got acquainted with Aleksander, yet another
extreme metal addict (Dark Funeral, Marduk, etc…) who knew how to
handle a guitar and also had quite disturbing growling skills. Thus the
two friends formed a band carrying the name “Sworn”.
Soon
another metalhead joined the band. It was a grindcore freak by the
moniker of Inheller. He was Vladimirs’s friend and was supposed to
provide additional vocals. With this setup Sworn started recording
their first song, “Fog of the Darkside”. The recording of this song
took almost half a year during which not only the band collected the
equipment needed for recording, but also learned the skills as a band
and developed the one thing that makes them stand apart from the
majority of other Armenian bands – a descent sound, which was the
result of Vladimirs’s scrupulous experiments with his sound equipment.
During these months Inheller lost his interest in the band and
quit.
Finally, aftermany months of experimenting Sworn developed the sound
that the band was looking for and recorded “Fog of the Darkside”. In 3
more monthsthe rest of the songs for their first album, “The Rise”,
were also recorded.
Being already concerned with the possibility
of future concerts the band decided to recruit a keyboard player. Thus
Mariam, a young girl with a musical education and appreciation for
heavy music was recruited.
With this line-up in 2005 Sworn
released its first album, “The Rise”, which was quite a success and got
warmly welcomed by the Armenian metal underground to which it was
presented and distributed mostly in mp3 format. Music wise “The Rise”
album sounded like atmospheric black/doom metal and it had great sound,
which was something rare for Armenia. Naturally this album earned much
interest and appreciation for the band.
Meanwhile by the end
ofthe year 2005 Sworn started recording new material for the next album
which in fact turned out to be an EP named “…Of Euphoria” and was
released in February, 2006. This EP was a whole conceptual tale,
broken
into 3 parts that told the story of loss and genesis. The music of this
EP was darker and more extreme while it also carried some progressive
elements, the songs had more depth and complexity and the arrangements
were richer and of course the sound of the whole thing was much better
because Vladimir never stopped experimenting with sound and getting
better results. By the end of the recording process a new song was also
recorded though it didn’t find place on “…Of Euphoria”, because of
differences in concept and style. The song was called “I am of Night”
and marked Sworn’s change of style and their move towards progressive
atmospheric death metal. This song was saved for release on the next
album.
Recording of the next album started one month after the
release of “…Of Euphoria” and continued till November, 2006. During
that period also some songs by well-known bands (Zyklon,
SolitudeAeternus, Dimmu Borgir) were covered and recorded by Sworn in
pursuit of technical and aural perfection. During the summer Sworn
members got acquainted and made friends with Vardan, a promising young
musician who was no stranger to the world of music, as he had been the
keyboardplayer for the prog-rock band Oaksenham. Very soon Vardan
replaced Mariam, who took up the responsibilities of the band’s
manager. By that time locally Sworn already became quite popular and
even got involved in some activities out of the Armenian metal
underground: the band gave interviews to Ardzaganq and Internews and
was also presented along with some of their songs on metal show
“Experimetal” hosted by Arsen and Aramazd.
Arsen had been quite
interested in the band since the day he heard their music and feeling
its potential he decided to help the band any way he could. Soon
Vladimir invited Arsen to do the main vocals for the new album, Tended
High.
Since the day of the band’s existence Sworn never had a
drummer. But now, seeing the distant perspective of doing concerts in
the future, it was decided to recruit one. The best choice seemed to be
one of the most furious drummers of the Armenian rock/metal scene –
Koryun. He had already known the band and had listened to their music
so he gladly accepted the invitation to the band.
Indeed, very
soon the possibility to do a concert appeared. It was going to happen
in a month. Sworn had never performed together as a
whole before and
the band members were quite skeptical about the concert, because they
didn’t even have a place for rehearsing. But Mariam swiftly found a
rehearsal room and after rehearsing for a month the band gave a
marvelous concert at Avangtarde Folk Club on September 26th, sharing
the stage with the bands LSD and Jam. Also the band’s first video
bootleg was shot that day. On November 1 2006 the recording of the
newest Sworn album was complete. The album is called “Tended High”. On
December 10 and December 23 2006 there were also other two gigs where
Sworn performed with other bands. Theese gigs were quiet successful.
After
recording the "Tended High" album band started to seek way to
distribute their material. After some time Sworn signed with russian
label Haarbn Productions for "Tended High". After that band
started to rehearse their albums: "Tended High", "The Rise" and "Of
Euphoria". In that time the new album: "Twilight" was recorded.
"Twilight" is a compilation of remastered "The Rise" and "Of Euphoria"
albums. Sworn continued rehearsing for about one year and at
december 13 2007 they give their first solo concert at Yerevan Puppet
Theatre. The concert was very successful. Sworn recorded it's first
live DVD that
day.
