The Foundation

The foundation of Zangryus grew from an idea from Ash in the mid 1990s to create music as an eastern sibling duo within a metal band. This involved Smana (vocals) as the front-person and Ash as the guitarist for live shows, with a bassist and drummer providing the rhythm section.

All the music and lyrics have always been written exclusively by Ash, and all the music on the recordings has been played by Ash, with vocals being shared between Ash and Smana. Nick and Damien have joined the live line-up since 2007 and have proven their playing ability beyond measure over the last few years.

History

Awakening

In the beginning, there was the word..... a solitary command, echoed screaming in the empty vaults of my mind... a concept obsessed with a sense of solitude, yet filled with eastern promise... the concept of shred....

Writing

Around 1996/97 I started writing a collection of pieces inspired by eastern scales and called it Blood of Angels, which provided the perfect platform for Smana's debut on vocals. Subsequently came City of Souls around 1999-2001, elaborating on some of the themes of Blood of Angels. After a couple of years break, I started writing the prog/eastern metal duality of Eastern Horizons and Savage Mountain in 2003 which allowed me to fulfil the long standing dream of writing a concept album, after which came Freedom in 2005. After Freedom and the time spent on the road in 2004-2006 we took a break until the 2007. At the start of 2007 I began writing the a new project, The Ninth Circle. As the Ninth Circle comes to fruition, with an expected December 2010 release, work has already begun on the next album, titled Hypernovae, which will be a more experimental fusion type of album, mixing the pace of Freedom with the technical difficulty of The Ninth Circle.

Future

The future holds a few new writing challenges, where I will embrace the pillars of progression with an iron grasp, and revisit the arenas of concept albums.

Ash