The group "Znich" was founded in Minsk in spring 1996. Initially, its membership was not stable and had settled only by autumn 1996:

Ales Tabolich - vocal,

Alexander Belenky - keys,

Alexey Targonsky - guitar,

Victoria Sytchevich - bass,

Alexander Gorokh - drums

In September 1996 the musicians started their work on the debut program. First concert took place in club "Raduga" ("Rainbow") in February 13, 1997. In May 1997 the new material was recorded at Prockl Enterprise studio and was named "Yazichnick Ya" ("I Am The Pagan"). At that time, the music of the group represented a beautiful mixture of doom and death dominated by keys and pagan"s lyrics. Due to rich concert activities and interesting original music Znich received the support of both fans and critics and became one of the first "heavy" commands of Belarus with lyrics in the native language.

During next two years (1996-1997) the team played dozens of concerts in Belarusian cities: Mogilev, Gomel, Lida, Minsk and took part in several festivals: Extremum"97, Rock-Kupalle" 97, Free Dances, Basowistcha"97 in Poland.

In the end of 1997 the drummer left the group to play in DRUM EXTASY. His place took Denis Galitsky, who played in HOSPICE. But a bit later, because of ideological disagreements between Tabolich and Belenky, the group disbanded: Victoria joined FEEDBACK, Targonsky and Belenky tried their own projects?

Finally, Ales made a decision to find other people, - and soon new ZNICH united the following members:

Ales Tabolich - vocal,

Alexander Kamluk - guitar (ex-Divina Enema),

Paul Zaruchewsky - bass (ex-Hospice),

Denis Galitsky - percussions (ex-Hospice).

Musicians began their work on the new program that included aggressive remakes of old hits. A short time later, four songs were ready, so ZNICH could resume its concert activity with "Real Underground" in June 6, 1998. New people inhaled new life in Ales"s ideas, pagan texts began to resound on the background of heavy Belarusian tunes. But the search for a new keyboard player still had no success? Shortly thereafter, having found Veronica Shklianik, ZNICH reinforced its folk spirit and manner of singing and acquired new possibilities for polyphony in their further creative work.

During 1998 ZNICH was intensively enriching its repertoire, polishing it at multiple concerts: Rock-Kupalle"98, DUB"inUSHKA"98, NuCLEARfree Land, Baltic Thunder, Orsha"s Battle Anniversary"98, Free Dances (Molodechno, Lida); and festivals in Brest, Mogilev, Minsk... By the end of 1998 the group stepped in a studio to record its demo.

Some time later, due to a number of reasons, the musicians had to change the studio having lost much time and efforts in vain. Therefore, the new project "Dukh Ziamli" ("The Spirit of The Ground") came out only in April 1999. At the same time, the old debut album "Yazychnick Ya" ("I Am The Pagan") was released at last. To promote the sales ZNICH organized a wide concert tour, both across Belarus and abroad. During this tour the group participated in the annual festival "Basowistcha X", where ZNICH won the sponsor"s award and public choice award. Unfortunately, the team decided to dismiss both the guitarist and vocalist just after the tour, and the rest of the summer was spent in search for adequate substitutes. In September a new guitarist Sergei Malinin (HELL) joined the group, and a month later - vocalist Natalia Volynets. The new program could not but be influenced by the newcomers: the guitarist brought more "heaviness", the vocalist enriched the folk manner. At that time ZNICH united the following members:

Ales Tabolich - vocal

Natalia Volynets - vocal

Sergei Malinin - guitar

Pavel Zaruchewsky - bass

Denis Galitsky - percussions.

In spring 2000 the group recorded two new significant songs and released its single "Adchuvanni Viasny" ("Feelings of The Spring") with remake of the old hit "Chorny Znich" ("The Black Znich"), which appeared in the first Belarusian collection of heavy music "HARD LIFE HEAVY MUSIC" and in the Lithuanian collection ATLANTIDA Vol.9. The next prominent event was the release of the video-clip for the song "Shto Za Usio Tlustseishaie" ("What Is The Thickest"), followed by another festival BASOWISTCHA 2000 and then, by one more event. The event, which left an indelible mark on the history of ZNICH. Intoxicated with success and fame, the musicians got into the scrape, it became a favourite topic of the most musical editions of Poland and Belarus, and remained such even long thereafter? Everyone tried hard "to give up for lost", having forgot about the common truth: "Znich is an unquenchable fire, alive fire. Now it blazes, and now it smolders?". Such seeming lull gave the musicians enough time to understand their inner world, common goals and find new ways for their achievement. But another blow hit ZNICH?

Due to some silly circumstances the concert manager left the group, which was a disaster. The musicians took time-out and only two years after the release of the single, the old half-finished materials at last took shape of a fool-size album. But again, the recording of that album was postponed because the guitarist left the group. And another change - Alexander Savenok, guitar. Though much time was spent to reconstruct the guitar parts, the newcomer introduced new melodic shades and brought fresh ideas. Unfortunately, the group didn"t want to accept his suggestions, and even Ales, who considered them reasonable, understood that it contradicted the ZNICH concept? And therefore, STOD appeared, which gathered famous musicians, including the ex-guitarist of ZNICH, Alexander Kamliuk.

That time, Ales went to BASOWISTCHA 2002 in Poland with STOD. People thought, that ZNICH had been reformed again beyond recognition. And namely that wrong belief pushed the ZNICH musicians to resolutely go further. Again a new guitarist, a sessional one. Again lost of time. Again a new studio. Alexander Krapivnitsky from the Minsk team SUFFERER perfectly met his challenge and completely recorded all the guitar tracks. In Autumn 2002 the piper appeared in ZNICH, Konstantin Trombitsky. He felt the atmosphere at once, was open for new experiments and became a part of the team. Hard times were over- ZNICH started blazing again?.

Winter-spring 2003 was the final recording stage: mixing and mastering in the OUT OF RECORDS studio. ZNICH signed a contract with Belarusian Music Alternative (BMA) for the release of a new CD album, its presentation in Minsk and promotion tour across Belarus. In spring 2003 the Belarusian extreme collection "HARD LIFE HEAVY MUSIC II" with a new hit "Ne Siachy, Moi Tatulka" ("Don"t Flog Me, Dad") from the long-awaited album appeared and was followed by participation in the CD presentation concert. Under the patronage of BMA, it was decided to postpone the album presentation till autumn, a prefect opportunity for the musicians to polish it. And September 6, 2003 the first 50 copies of the hot album came into the Belarusian market. Now the sound of ZNICH music is filled with original instruments and its enigmatic intro brings the listeners deep in the archaic atmosphere. The multimedia disc gives wide possibilities to find the lyrics of new songs, watch the updated version of the video clip and a documentary film, where the musicians share their impressions, estimate the achieved results and confide the future plans.

September 7, 2003 in the REACTOR club the presentation took place, and ZNICH, supported by a folk group, finally managed to carry to the audience the idea of "Renaissance" that had nourished its members for long years. The success of ZNICH was broadcasted on TV
www.archaic-magazine.com
In 2006 Znich released an album "Krizhi - abiaregi".
Now Znich working on a new album with the working title "Zmrok"

Source : http://www.myspace.com/znich