Early years
The beginning of Welicoruss is rooted in 2002 in Novosibirsk (Western Siberia, Russia), when founder and permanent leader Alexey Boganov spontaneously decided to make a musical project which experiments with different styles for creative expression. Even then, he was a fan of such styles as symphonic, gothic, progressive, death, and black metal, all of which can be heard on his first demo “Winter Moon Symphony”.
Then in 2010, as a result of creative disagreements inside the band, Welicoruss stopped all live activity, but despite that Alexey continued to work hard on writing new songs.
Move to Europe
In the spring of 2013, as a result of long deliberation, Alexey and Anastasia made the brave decision to move to Prague (Czechia), effectively starting from scratch. Alexey’s former bandmates would remain in Novosibirsk, and for that reason Alexey had to find a completely new lineup in the Czech Republic. After a while spent on adapting to new conditions, he met multi-instrumentalist Gojko Maric, who became the band’s guitarist; bass player Dmitry Zhikharevich; and drummer David Urban. With that lineup, in the spring of 2014, Welicoruss began performing on Czech soil, periodically dropping into neighboring Germany and Austria and arousing genuine interest from European metalheads.
At the beginning of 2015, Welicoruss independently released their third album Az Esm, which includes 12 songs, four of them having been reworked from the previous mini-album Kharnha. While lyrics were still performed in Russian on this release, for the first time in the band’s history English translations were also presented in the booklet, which were painstakingly provided by close friend and long-time supporter of the band, Justyn “JC” Roberts, helping Welicoruss to attain an even broader global audience. The album was noted by many music critics for its compositions, for its complexity of arrangements and pristine sound, having received many high marks. At the end of the same year, the official video for title song “Az Esm” came out, showing something very different from everything the band had ever done previously. The video was made in a mysterious, surreal chamber, depicting various abstract scenes described in the lyrics. More than 30 people took part in the filming, and the video was shot during three nights in a huge theater in Novosibirsk in 2013, but the entire post-production of the video took place much later in 2015, after Alexey moved to Prague.
The whole of 2016 was filled with many concerts, as the band played many gigs in the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and even France. Welicoruss performed at some very big festivals – Ragnarök festival in Germany, Rock of Sadska Fest (Czech Republic), Czech Death Festival (Czech Republic), Gothoom festival (Slovakia), Heathen Rock Festival (Germany), and Exit Festival (Serbia). The following year of 2017 was marked by an even greater breakthrough, because the band was invited to take part in one of the largest metal festivals in Europe – Hellfest in France. During Hellfest, Welicoruss played for more than 12,000 people and received many excellent reviews as the festival left a lasting impression for both the musicians and fans old and new. Dmitry leaves the band due to changing priorities and is replaced by Ondrey Žadný and later Tomáš Magnusek on the bass guitar. In the same year, Welicoruss went on their longest tour with German melodic black metal band Wolves Den in Europe, covering 20 cities in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Austria, and, later with the Austrian post-black metallers Harakiri for the Sky on a week-long tour in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.
In 2018 Welicoruss would tour even more, with the band now playing several concerts every week, becoming even stronger in the European scene, and appearing at local festivals such as Horner Fest (Germany), Hammerfest (Italy), Schlichtenfest, Metal United Festival, and Wolfszeit Festival in Germany. Between concerts, the members worked on new songs and in the spring of 2018, they would present them for the first time in the Czech Republic, completely surprising fans with an even harsher sound and predominantly English lyrics. At this time, the band also makes their bold foray into the Balkans, performing in Serbia, Romania, and Hungary. In the second part of the year, Welicoruss went on a ten-day Polish tour with the Vikings Valkenrag and later plays a mini-tour in Cyprus (concerts in Necosia and Larnaca), which was a great success.
Siberian Heathen Horde album
By the end of 2018, intensive work on the new album was underway, not only by Alexey as usual, but also with new musicians – Gojko Maric (guitar, piano, drums and orchestral parts) and Ilya Tabachnik, who thoroughly worked out all drum parts for the new album and takes an active part in writing songs, making it even more progressive and at the same time direct. Almost all of the lyrics were written by Alexey, with lyrics being further refined with deep philosophical concepts. As the musicians themselves would say – a very aggressive and challenging album, and one they take great pride in.
At the beginning of 2019, Welicoruss went to Faust Studio (Prague) and during January recorded all drum, guitar, and bass parts. For the band, it was a completely new experience, which allowed them to find their sound after much consideration, which was helped by Alexey Stetsyuk, who did the mixing and mastering of the album in his studio (Belarus). This time, Alexey was not the only one to record vocals (which on this album you can hear a wide range of different styles) but was also accompanied by Ilya Tabachnik, who performed many clean backing vocals, as well as special guest Robert Carson from the Swiss band Xaon. Gojko departs from the band for personal reasons and is replaced by Tomáš Šršeň (Innersphere, Mean Messiah) as a session guitarist.
As of November 30, 2019, the band has signed a contract with German label El Puerto Records for the release of the album Siberian Heathen Horde, which will include nine new songs. The album’s release is currently scheduled for March 27, 2020.
On March 14, 2023, the guitarist "Filip Rabenseifner" joins the band, replacing the guest guitarist Tomáš Sršeň. Filip soon became a full-fledged member of the band.
In the course of 2023, she completed the work on the upcoming new album Deadmans manifest and in the second half of the year began recording this new album in The Barn studio. The new album should be released in 2024.
