NEWS
WE ARE BACK !!!
August 2008 We performed live for the first time in 5+ years! Photos to come. We're back to rehearsals.
January 2005 "Simple Things" - exclusive live version available for download. Performed in July 2000 (the "accoustic" set).
June 2004 "Living in a Daymare" released by "SOYUZ" music concern. "In Mourning" re-rekeased on CD. Order HERE.
April 2004 "Living in a Daymare" is finally to be released in May by "SOYUZ" music concern.
January 2003 There are plans to release a single "So Loud" before the upcoming album "Living in a Daymare" soon. MELISSA played in Obninsk on January 5th, 2003, you can find photos from the gig in the "Photo" section. We played with guest musicians Ilia Toshinsky and Sergei Lomakin a couple of songs.
The most important news is that MELISSA band-members, who also play in "Bering Strait" country band have been nominated for GRAMMY 2003 for the best country instrumental!!! Our congratulations go for Sergey Olkhovsky, Alexander Arzamastsev, Sergey Passov and Ilia Toshinsky! Hope the guys can make it, watch the Ceremony on February 23rd!
September 2002 New album is almost ready. You can download the tracks here. We are planning to release it around January 2003.
August 2002 MELISSA will be finishing the recording of the new, third album with the working title "Living in a Daymare" in August-September. We spent the whole July in the studio, gave only one concert in a local club (dedicated to the 10th anniversary of MELISSA!). Some titles off the new album are: So Loud, Two weeks a Day, Trepanation (written in 1994!), Inside, Yes, Crack, Simple Things, Kill for me and some other titles yet not decided upon. There will be two instrumentals (as usual) on the album.
July 2002 MELISSA is back to life again - the rest of our bandmembers are back from the US and we will be in the studio in July to record our new third album, yet untitled. No live performances are planned for July.
June 2002 Great news!!! MELISSA is to be signed to SOYUZ records again! And this time it will be a world-wide distribution. Remastered version of "In Mourning" album on CDs will be in the shops in July-August. More news to come soon. You can also order online our "In Peace..?" album here.
April 2002 New interview by Nikolai to "Heavy Metal Universe", French webzine, added to the "Words" section.
February 2002 Review of "In Peace..?" album by "Heavy Metal Universe", French zine, added to the "Words" section. New pictures added to the "Photo" section.
January 2002 MELISSA stops its activities for a few months due to the departure of main part of band members to the US. The nearest plans are to re-release "In Mourning" album (c) 1995 SOYUZ/MetalAgen on CD. The new label is being negotiated with SOYUZ/SPV (SPV is a major distributor in Europe of rock and metal music).
The release of the third album is delayed again.
MELISSA played with Ivan Vasiliev (trumpet) from DDT band in St.Petersburg on December 27th. Pavel Droban, original drummer, and Sergei Bondarenko (keyboards) helped the band during Obninsk performances.
MELISSA
will play another concert before the band memebers leave for US again:
- Obninsk, OK club,
January 9th. Ilia Toshinsky - guitar, "Bering
Strait" - will
perform on two songs with MELISSA.
December 2001 Alexander Arzamastsev (drums, vocals), Sergey Olkhovsky (bass) and Sergey Passov (violin) are back from US and are working with Nikolai Touzov (guitar, vocals) and our new band member Alexander Stepanov (guitars) on the upcoming performances and new songs.
Live
dates:
- Obninsk,
OK club, December 21st and 22nd, starting at 6pm and 7pm respectively.
- St.Petersburg,
Polygon club,
December 27th (Banzai festival, doors 6pm).
October 2001
Four new tracks off the new album (demo versions) added to the music section in mp3 64kbps format. Two band members expected to return from USA in December. Hopefully, several gigs will be booked in Obninsk-Moscow-St.Petersburg and studio work will be continued on the new album.
April 2001
Main news is that we have this new homepage. You can now listen to all tracks of two released at the moment albums - "In Mourning" (1995) and "In Peace..?" (1998). Go to music section.
Soon you will be able to use Melissa section on mp3.com (possibly faster download for American-Australian etc. visitors).
Currently the band is inactive due to temporary departure of two band members - Alex and Sergey - to the US. They are involved in a country music (!) project called "Bering Strait".
Work on the third album is stopped for the moment for the reasons mentioned above. We will probably put some samples from the upcoming untitled album and/or demo tracks for this album online soon though.
For those who are for the first time on Melissa homepage we recommend to check out some samples and read what Melissa is.
In December 2000ã. Melissa played in St.Petersburg with its usual line-up (N, P, S, A) at "Polygon" club on a 2 days "Banzay" fest ("Satarial", "Amatori" and others).
Since November 2000 Melissa was joined by a new musician - Sergey Pasov, violin. Melissa gave two local gigs with him. The violin brought a new edge to the band's sound (no relation in regard to My Dying Bride whom we totally respect and even had fortune to meet personally with in 1995). Future collaboration is possible.
In June 2000ã. Melissa played in a local club. The gig was unusual, since Sergey O. was in the States at the moment so the play set was decided to be of an 'unplugged' genre. Alex A. played acoustic guitar and sang, Sergey Bondarenko played bass and keyboards (Sergey did keyboard parts on "In Peace..?" album), Roman Tchinnikov played drums (he played with Melissa already before); Vladimir Tchutchelov - percussion. Nick and Pavel - guitars. The unplugged part was not evidently not sufficient for the fans who demanded Melissa old metal hits so there were few old songs off "In Peace..?" and the forthcoming album as well.