country: Russia
formed in: 1981
style: melodic metal / rock

LEGION is one of such bands, which always stays in the first league on Russian heavy metal stage. Every their album attracts a lot of interest of metal audience and metal mass media, they are very demanded in many cities to play live and the secret of their success is very simple! Since the very beginning the band has been easily recognized by the unique vocals of Alexey Bulgakov, very strong, high and clear with good professional technics (no wonder that Alexey was among the candidates to replace Valeri Kipelov in Aria), by great, easy listening and catching melodies and by serious but very accessible lyrics (in Russian) about good, evil, love, hate and belief.

Founded in 1981, LEGION initially included four musicians, led by a charismatic vocalist Alexey Bulgakov. All the young musicians wanted to play new heavy powerful music. They recorded their first album “Bitva” which was self-released on audiotape. After some line up changes they started to play heavier and faster music with sophisticated vocal parts. In 1986 the band recorded its 2nd cassette album “Apocalipsis” which was warmly welcomed by young and underground audience all over USSR. Many tracks from this record became real hits of the band and such songs as Listopad, Armageddon, SOS and Champion are played by LEGION live till nowadays. The second half of 80’s was a real golden era for Soviet metal scene. After “perestroika” had started, rock and metal music went beyond underground limits and the bands got the opportunity to release their albums officially, to give concerts, to play big festivals, to appear in mass media. Thus, in 1986-89 Legion was touring around USSR, playing big stadium shows. Despite of this success, the band split up because a few musicians decided to create their new band to play music, which would be heavier. The original members – the vocalist Alexey Bulgakov and the bassist Oleg Tsarev tried to find equal replacement for them but in 1990 the band was stopped.

After 3 years Bulgakov decided to take Legion back on track. Together with new line-up he recorded the new album «Knights of Cross» with English lyrics published by Russian department of Polygram Rec. The album was rather experimental, mixing the elements of different styles including thrash, progressive, jazz and even rap.

The next step was done in 1997 when Bulgakov and his colleague Alexey Tchernishov re-recorded some old Legion’s hits. Released in 1997, «The best of 1980-87» album got a very good response and the decision to come back seriously appeared in a very natural way. As a result, at the end of 1997 the new studio album “Dai Mne Imya” was recorded and the band returned to high live activities. Since then, the band has been regularly releasing new studio albums and has playing live actively, staying at the vanguard of traditional Russian heavy metal scene.