Wartime

Bio

In the mid 90's, Stanislav Stanchev /a.k.a. Stumpy/ - guitars and vocals, Nikolai /a.k.a. Spyro/ - guitars and Angel /a.k.a. Geko/ - drums formed the band Wartime. The style they played was thrash metal. On October 31st , 1995 the band’s first song of was recorded: "Perfect World". The recording sessions took place in studio "City" in Sofia, during this sessions the bass lines were played by Stumpy. By the end of 1995, bassist Georgi /a.k.a. The Evil/ joined the band as permanent member; on January 15th 1996, the band recorded the song “On The Edge Of Time”, once again in the "City" studio in Sofia. After several changes in the name and lineup, Wartime was chosen as permanent name of the project. Two new songs (“Neverending” and “Divide Et Impera”) were recorded in "Cassandra" studio in the city of Levski on March 13th and 14th, 1997. At this point the band played many live gigs without neglecting the intense rehearsing. On December 29th 1997, Wartime recorded the song "Addiction" once again using the "Cassandra Studio". During the first months of 1998 the band broke up and the project was put on hold until 1999. During the diaspora, Stumpy gathered some talented musicians and played on different festivals (Svoge Open Air, Ljulin Stock, KirkOff Rock) the new lineup begun touring the country under the name Zero Tolerance. In 1999 the band returned to its original name and the new lineup of the formation gave expression of their ideas by releasing the "Entrapment" demo, recorded in "Studio X" in Sofia in 2000. This event marks the official revival of Wartime. After these several years of re-adjustments, the band had already established quite a diverse style of its own, which was described in numerous occasions as thrash-power-death with progressive elements. In the following years the band changes its lineup, trying different talanted musicians and participating in different metal festivals, TV shows (Fraktura) and playing in clubs. During this period, the only original member and leader of Wartime: Stumpy, refines his style and techniques and in March of 2006 the band records what is to be the second demo of Wartime, which includes two new songs: “The Drifter” and “Preordained Game”. In the summer of 2007, Stumpy and the current drummer of Wartime: Velizar Bolchev (ex-Vile, ex-Regress) turned the rehersal room of Wartime to a soundrecording studio and called it “Warzone”. In July 2008 the warboys started recording their first album in the “Warzone” studio. The project title of the album was called "Against Destiny" and the lineup of the band was: Stumpy – guitar and vocal, Velizar - drums, Lyubo /aka Chewbacca/ from Virus- guitar and Stefan /aka-Techo/ - bass. The material was composed of 9 songs - 6 old reworked killers and 3 completely new songs called: “Bequest”, “Awareness” and the instrumental “7 years” - a song dedicated to the long fight and persistence of the band-. The album was produced by Stumpy and Wartime. After the recording, the material was mixed and masterred by Mr. Alex Azzali- an italian sound magician who is known for his work with artists such as Ancient, Steve Di Giorgio, Blaze Bailey, Last Hope, Korozy, Mortuari Drape, Katarakt, Mellowtoy and many more. The album received critical acclaim and was reviewed by number of Bulgarian and foreign websites and radiostations. The style of the band was described as Thrash combined elements of Death and Progressive metal. The class of the musicians was proved in undisputable manner with the complex and luxurious vortex of sounds, solos and riffs present in the album. At this point the band started a long tour in Bulgaria performing in a number of cities around the country. Together with that the band released a special eddition of the album which was deemed to be one of the most refined editions both sound and appearance like ever published by a Bulgarian thrash metal band. In 2010 the band has suffered more changes in the lineup and is currently presented by Stumpy (guitars and vocals), Ivan (vocals), Antonio /ex-Progression/ (bass) and Velizar (drums). Wartime is currently preparing for their second album, which will include some more progressive notes combined with Death and Thrash metal sounds. The band is experimenting with melodic vocals (Ivan) and heavy growling vocals (Stumpy), thick riffs mixed with bass and guitar solos in their strive to achieve mature and original style, which will allow them to continue successfully their metal journey.