History
The story of PSILOCYBE LARVAE started in 1996 in the Russian city of Vyborg, when Vitaly "Larv" Belobritsky (voc/git), Denis Vinogradov (git), Oleg Peshkichev (bass) and Eugene Ushakov (drums) formed the band to indulge their passion for melodic and haunting death/dark metal.
After recording the first demo, Liar, the band soon entered a professional studio in the same year to record a song for the "Russian Alternative Extreme Music" sampler. Drum parts for that song were provided by Ilya "Alan" Piyaev (AZEROTH, PAINFUL MEMORIES) as Eugene decided to leave the band just before recording. The compilation, including PSYLOCYBE LARVAE’s "Death Is Not the End," was released in 1998.
Following a short interlude with METALLIZATION’s Eugene Golubkov, PSILOCYBE LARVAE finally found a permanent drummer in 1999 when Alan took over drum duties. The new line-up entered the studio again in mid-2000 to record their first full-length album, Stigmata. This self-released effort garnered some favorable feedback, including the "demo of the month" award in Germany's Legacy magazine, so Black Side Productions decided to re-release Stigmata on CD in 2001.
Meanwhile, the band underwent further lineup changes with Andrey replacing Denis on guitar and Den joining the band as a keyboardist. The year 2002 saw PSILOCYBE LARVAE contributing two cover songs to MANOWAR and CHIMERA tributes, but more importantly, the band finally finished recording their second album. Agony was released by Black Side Productions at the beginning of 2003.
The following months dealt another blow to the line-up, as Oleg's addictions started to get out of hand. For that reason, the band decided to part ways with him in December 2004, leaving PSILOCYBE LARVAE without a bass player for quite some time.
A “silver lining” appeared in 2005 when Russia's major label CD-Maximum agreed to remaster and re-release the two albums with bonus tracks. The band also found a new bass player in Alex "Liga" Legotin, but unfortunately, the new trouble was ahead: after a few months, Alex had to leave the group. Keyboardist Den was fired as well, and in the fall of 2005, the band was eventually forced to relocate to St. Petersburg with no stable line-up in what looked like a semi-hiatus. Things were slowly falling apart.
What could have been the final nail in the coffin, however, surprisingly heralded a new dawn for PSILOCYBE LARVAE: in St. Petersburg, Alex rejoined the ranks, and keyboardist Dmitry "Chaos" Orekhov completed the line-up to release the band from its forced inactivity. After headlining the Ukrainian "Triple Interaction" tour in autumn 2006, the band entered DDT Records in January 2007 to record their third album, Non-existence. It was mixed at Studio Hertz (Poland), mastered at Cutting Room (Sweden), and finally released in February 2008 by Moscow label Mazzar Records. In March, the band headlined a Russian Non-existent tour to support the new album.
During 2008, the band continued to promote Non-existence by doing shows in Russia and taking part in a Belarus tour named "Creative Breath of Death" together with KATALEPSY, DEATHBRINGER and THELEMA.
In 2009, PSILOCYBE LARVAE signed to Dark Harvest Records (USA) for an international release of Non-existence and started songwriting for future releases.
After two years of intensive work, Russian musicians returned with a brand new album called The Labyrinth Of Penumbra. The recording and mixing process took place at studio Kontakt under the guidance of Yury Smirnov, the mastering duties were handled by Mats Lindfors at Cutting Room and cover art was taken care of A-Ra Design and W. Smerdulak. The time has come to find a new label, and in 2012, The Labyrinth Of Penumbra was released by Buil2Kill Records/Nadir Music (Italy). With great success, the band played many gigs in Russia, the Baltic States and Finland to promote the album.
The beginning of 2013 was marked by the signing of an agreement with Albagi Music Promotion to help the band with promotion in Germany. PSILOCYBE LARVAE continued their concert activity in support of the new album; they went on a 6-day tour of Belarus, called the "Penumbra Divisus Tour," in February, and the "Tour By Fire," including 8 cities in Poland and the Czech Republic, in November. In summer, the band participated in the largest Estonian open-air festival, Hard Rock Laager, sharing the stage with TESTAMENT, MARDUK, and others.
At the same time, another line-up change happened. The band has parted ways with guitarist Andrey "Luke" Lukashkov and drummer Ilya "Alan" Piyaev. Konstantin Kot'h (guitar) and Evgeny "Evg" Trefilov (drums) from industrial metal band VERGELTUNG came on board as the new members of PSILOCYBE LARVAE.
2014-2015 were very difficult years for the band. PSILOCYBE LARVAE have gone through several major line-up changes again: the split with Kot’h and Evg, Liga's departure and his comeback after a while, recruiting a new drummer, Alexander Yakovlev (MISANTHROPE COUNT MERCIFUL, THARTARIA) and a new guitar player, Roman "Dorian" Kondratev (REFAWN, TOPHET).
Due to personal reasons, Alexander left PL in 2015, and his place behind the drum kit was taken by the band's former drummer Alan. With the renewed line-up, PSILOCYBE LARVAE played at Wave-Gotik-Treffen Festival in Germany, Dobry Festival in Slovakia and Metalurg open-air festival in Russia in 2016/2017.
In 2018, a brand new single “The Fall Of Icarus” was out on all digital platforms, and the lyric video followed it up. The song was also presented at two European open-air festivals: Metalshow.lv in Latvia and Meltdown Festival in Germany.
During the process of recording a new album in 2019, the band parted ways with Dorian and Alan. Alex Yakovlev replaced Alan on drums again and Anton Veresov (BUICIDE, SEVERNYE VRATA) filled in for Dorian on guitar. The new album was finished in 2020. Recorded in different studios in St. Petersburg, mixed by the band’s friend Dmitry Vasiliev in Moscow and mastered by renowned engineer Thomas Eberger in Stockholm Mastering, the album got the title Where Silence Dwells.
Invigorated with the new line-up and a new album scheduled for release at the end of 2021, PSILOCYBE LARVAE resumed their concert activity, celebrating the 25th band anniversary in their hometown, Vyborg, and taking part in the open-air festival Тьма (Darkness) in the woods near St. Petersburg. The album came out in the world on December 15, 2021, via Red Rivet Records and Fono Ltd. in CD format, as well as a cassette version (self-released). The vinyl LP was released by the band in February 2022.
Despite the tragedy and horror that occurred in February 2022, the band was able to find the strength to continue making music. Two years later, the musicians entered the Dobrolet studio in St. Petersburg and recorded their most experimental and unusual material. Mixing and mastering were done by Igor Butz at Pentagram House in Moscow. The EP called “Новый Дивный Мир(Brave New World)” includes two brand-new songs in Russian – the first in the band's history – alongside a re-recorded version of the track Hostile Emptiness from their 2003 album, “Agony”. Unleashed digitally on August 15, 2025, the EP is available for listeners worldwide on all major streaming services. The story continues.
