Chapter II. Mother Goose Rhymes (2002-2003 A.D.)

ow it is my turn to use the keyboard and maybe my brain. Although the first chapter of Wolfsangel story is called Genesis, it will not be followed by Exodus. Actually we do not plan to leave St. Petersburg, at least before New Year. It may be called Kama Sutra, but it is still for us to finish our first album and find a label. “12 Heraclis” (as there were 12 live shows by Wolfsangel) sounds too large since not every appearence of the band was heroic. So let me call it Nursery Rhymes since Wolfsangel is still a baby (please take note of that the name differs from the title of one of Genesis’s early albums).

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon,
The little dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

o once upon a time the men mentioned in Genesis (our Genesis!) had started their work. The gig brought us delight of the audience. The second one brought us experience of playing a lengthy 15-minute song (I mean our epic Wolfsangel). Exactly it was quite daring for a new folk metal act. The third one gave us friends - a melodic death band Seducer’s Embrace from Moscow. Meanwhile we were already seven since hired the second guitarist Kirill Baturin, so our sound became more heavy. Everything was good and fine, but it was stranger and stranger that no misadventure happens. So they happened in time.

Doctor Foster went to Gloucester
In a shower of rain.
He stepped in a puddle
Right up to his middle,
And never went there again.

ndeed a band that wants to reach something must play in different places. Our band did not, so we began to seek for another club to play at. So one fine day we found ourself in Pyatnitsa (Friday) club. The day was Kalevala day, February 28. The sound was strange a bit, but we decided that it is by chance. We were partially right, since there was a thing that was by chance - nevertheless we had acceptable sound this time. Our next (and undoubtedly last) visit to the club revealed this secret. So we need to state that Friday club is not for the rock shows. As for celebrating the Kalevala days, we think it might become a tradition, but we need a good place to celebrate at.

For want of the horse,
The rider was lost.
For want of the rider,
The battle was lost.

aybe you want to know that while improving our old songs and writing new ones we were invited to support Cradle of Filth at their gig in St. Petersburg. We were almost ready to agree, but some technical details forced us to change our mind. Let me note that it was not our first encounter with international show business. Some weeks before we failed to play with Immortal, who have just died (of course as a band).

Then Jack went courting,
A lady so gay,
As fair as the lily,
As sweet as the May

eanwhile the winter was over, the snow melted, and sky above our heads cleared. In May we played at Red Club with Cat Harsis (according to announce in one of the shops) and Nomans Land. Let me not describe that in details, since it was only a training for the event of the year (not only for us but for the whole metal scene of St. Petersburg). So let us pass to the first international metal fest Russian Roulette (thanks to Big Brother Entertainment, who had arranged it). It was the first appearance of Wolfsangel at a big stage, and the first significant metal fest in the city. However you may read reports from the fest at various sites (it does not matter that I said something about “details”, let journalists to do their work). One thing I must say that the fest should become a tradition…

hen it was one more gig and a long vacation. Then we opened another season with James of Seducer’s Embrace as a guest vocalist. Dirty sound, faulty devices, hellish heat, but outstanding support by the audience. In fact, it was a punk show by Wolfsangel, even more so we used cucumbers, bones, sickle and vodka as the stage props. After this show we understood that more rest is badly needed, and rested untill Halloween, October 31. At time we have recorded the most of instruments for our first album and encountered another problem.

Old King Cole was a merry old soul,
And a merry old soul was he.
He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl,
And he called for his fiddlers three.

t took time to call a fiddler. Eveyone we called missed the first meeting or the second one at least. No one of them had even played a song with us. So we began to think why we don’t need a fiddler, but in vain. One of these days he found us himself. It turned out that our fiddler lives in Helsinki and bears a proud Finnish name Nikolai Kirsanov. You can hear his remarcable solos in “Widdershins”, our first album. Hope we will also play live together someday.

There was a man in our town,
And he was wondrous wise,
He jumped into a bramble bush,
And scratched out both his eyes;
But when he saw his eyes were out,
With all his might and main,
He jumped into another bush,
And scratched ‘em in again.

his year chronics will not be complete if not to mention that by some reasons we have parted with our guitarist Kirill Baturin (good luck with your new band!) and found the substitute Stas Matveev (ex-Morrah) in few days. The new guitarist cought what to play immediately so you might have seen him at our December gigs at Red Club (December 3, together with TYR and Nomans Land and December, 14 The Morrah birthday).

o it is left to draw a summary of the year. Wolfsangel have played live 12 times and have almost recorded the album. There are no problems with staff. Almost 4000 unique hosts have visited our site. Rather good for beginning.

With best regards, sincerely yours,

Andrew, 24-XII-2003

All the songs cited are from Mother Goose Rhymes