One of the best known metal acts from Baltic States, Neglected Fields rose out of the ashes of local bands in fall of 1995, with the initial line-up Sergey "Destruction" (vocals, guitars), Herman (guitars), Sergey (bass), Karlis (drums). The new band traveled to neighbouring country Estonia, where in Townhall Studio in Tallinn the first demo "Sansara" was recorded in spring of 1996, containing four tracks of intense technical death metal with a strong influence from Death, Cynic, Atheist and Carcass, and adding beautiful soprano co-leads from session vocalist Rasa. Thanks to successful promotional campaign, "Sansara" received multiple rave reviews in European metal press (Demo of the Month in Aardschock (The Netherlands), Extreme (Germany), Eternity (Germany), Vampiria (Italy)). Soon offers to release the debut CD started to pour in, while the band enjoyed successful gigs all around the Baltic States, including in Death Comes 6 festival in Vilnius, supporting Therion in front of 1500 fans.
The debut album "Synthinity" was recorded in August 1997 in legendary Finish Tico-Tico Studio, and released in June of 1998 in Europe and America by Eldethorn records, a subdivison of British Neat Metal records, and licenced for release in Japan by Pony Conyon. It should be mentioned that it was the first ever CD release by a Latvian metal band. It received favourable reviews - 80/100 in Aardschock, 8/10 in Greek Metal Hammer, 74/100 in Burrn - even though the band wasn't entirely satisfied with the promo campaign. Soon after the release it was decided to part ways with Rasa, who now lends her talant in a local dragonblack metal unit Heresiarh.
Soon after the CD saw the daylight, Neglected Fields started to gig extensively in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, opening for Cannibal Corpse and Dark Funeral in their hometown in front of 1100 fans, and also did a mini tour in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria.
New ideas were born, and soon Neglected Fields became a five-piece by adding a keyboard player George, the only musician in the band with classic musical education. The new line-up recorded a self-titled promo demo with three tracks (Solar, Bass solo, The Human Abstract), thanks to which the band was signed to Italian Scarlet Records (Neat Metal Records having gone out of business by then). Another legendary studio, this time Abyss, was chosen to record the eagerly awaited follow-up CD. "Mephisto Lettonica" was recorded with a help of Tommy Tagtgren (brother of Pete Tagtgren, Hypocrisy and Pain mastermind, and the owner of Abyss) and released through Scarlet Records in September of 2000.
"Mephisto Lettonica", with a reference to both some dark character and their native country in the title, exceeded many expectations, also due to touches of black metal (courtesy of George's swirling keyboard licks) and was critically acclaimed (12/15 in Legacy, 9/10 in Metal Heart, 7/10 in Rock Hard, 4/4 in GrindZone, 5/6 in Metal Hammer Italy, 5/6 in Scream, 6/6 in Spark (Czech republic), 10/12 in Thrash 'Em All (Poland), 9/10 in M (Belarus). Interviews with the band appeared in more than 20 leading metal editions all around the Europe.
Lately the band has appeared in Brutal Assault 7 festival in Czech republic, alongside with Incantation, Tiamat, Callenish Circle, Ancient Rites, as well as opened for Dimmu Borgir, Destruction, Impaled Nazarene and gigging in Czech, German, Polish and Belarus clubs.
Sadly, in November 2002, the long-time member Herman decided to pursue other musical directions. The band quickly recruited new guitarist Janis (no, it's not a female name!), who continues his stint with other local acts Sanctimony and Brute Chant. The inside sources claim the new tunes will continue the direction of "Mephisto...", while exploring some new territories - Sergey "Destruction" has promised the band will never abandon their dark technical death roots.
Source: http://www.neglectedfields.lv
