ARIDA VORTEX is a Power Metal act dating back to a 1997 high school idea VORTEX manifested by guitarists Roman Gur'ev and Dima Sinyavsky. A fluid membership affected progress in the band's formative year but some stability was introduced when Roman brother Ivan supplanted Sinyavsky during 1998. By the April of that year the band cited a roster of the Gur'ev siblings along with Azerbaijani vocalist Rasim Babayev (a.k.a. 'Ray Alfred Absheron'), bassist Yevgeny Tikhonov ex-REICH drummer Oleg Bondarenko. This unit first performed live in June but videos from this gig convinced the band Babayev needed to be replaced. As VORTEX set about the search for a new frontman Tikhonov temporarily took over lead vocal duties.
The group lost its rhythm section in late 1998, according to the official biography Bondarenko borrowed money from the band coffers for some new drum pedals and never returned! Tikhonov meantime teamed up with KRUGER. Newly enrolled on bass would be Konstantin, a former associate of the group. However, during 1999 Denis Popov became new bass man and Anton Smolyanin joined as the new drummer. Smolyanin, having previous associations with famed lesbian Pop duo TATU is also active with CURR, NICH'YA and HORNED NECROCANNIBALE.
The band switched title to ARIDA VORTEX in November of 2001. Signing to the CD Maximum label the debut album 'Evil Sorcery' arrived in March of 2003. Further line up shuffles saw the introduction of guitarist Andrey Sedletsky, previously with THE ARROW, and former EXARCH bassist Nikolay Kuzmenko that October as ARIDA VORTEX set to work on a new album 'Flames Of Sunset'.
Source: http://www.rockdetector.com
