"Y-axis"
"Y-axis"
The band was formed on April 17th of 2008 (Kyiv, Ukraine), when the last member of the group joined in and the bands first rehearsal took place. At the time the line-up was: Max Rozkrut (rhythm guitar; vocals); Andrey Liuty (drums); Mike Rubanov (lead guitar); Alexey Khoptyar (bass). Everyone had a desire to play Metallica songs, and since the band didn`t have it`s own material – that`s what they did. The first gig ever took place on a graduation party of Mike`s friend Anton Taranenko (who later became a bass player for the band) in a high school, which he graduated from. Alexey couldn`t make it to the gig, so Anton filled in as a bassist for one night. The bands debut turned out great, so they started to think about some new places to play at. At first there were no plans on becoming a Metallica cover band, so the name «Y-axis» has nothing to do with Metallica or any of their songs. The name itself was proposed by Max after weeks of thinking and searching. Being sick and tired of it he simply picked up an English – Russian dictionary and opened it on a rare letter– «Y». The only word that sounded right was this one.
A debut on a club stage took place in July in one of Kyiv`s underground clubs. That gig turned out pretty well too and besides Metallica songs, guys already had three of their own (none of these songs were included into the bands debut album, except for «Blame the wall»). In a short period of time the band performed in lots of others underground clubs with covers and their own material, including the biggest one – Bingo club. Y-axis was gaining popularity in Kyiv`s underground world and shortly was recognized as one of the best bands playing Metallica cover songs.
In the summer of 2009 Alexey Khoptyar left the band because of the tension between him and the other band members. There was enough material to start recording a debut album by that time, but being unsatisfied with it, the decision was made to rewrite all of the songs, except for one, that was mentioned earlier. Shortly a new bass player was found, who was a longtime friend of the band and gave up playing guitar for the spot. His name was Dmitry Kolvah. Throughout 2009 Y-axis took part in the tribute party’s of «Bingo cover show», performing Metallica, Pantera and Nirvana cover songs, which led to them being invited to a final show on January of 2010 with eighteen of the best bands that performed there during the year. Also the band performed in some other Ukrainian towns and by the end of 2009 played a «Y-axis plays Metallica» show in Kyiv`s Skyhall club, which had a great success.
In spring of 2010 Dmitry Kolvah was forced to leave the band and Anton Taranenko took his spot. By the end of May Mike decides to leave too, and a new guitar player named Alexander Arkhipenko was recruited. But a few months later after a sit-down talk it appeared that Mike has a desire to come back, and being not quite satisfied with Alexander`s work, Max, Andrey and Anton invited Mike back to the band. Y-axis continues to gain popularity in Ukraine as a Metallica cover band, but guys were still focused on writing their own songs. By the end of the year all of the songs were finished and the band was ready to jump into the studio to record their debut album.
The recording took four months and the presentation of the first Y-axis album called «S.houting O.ut L.oud» was held on May 3, 2011. The reception was good, but guys were expecting a little bit more than that, so they decided to take a little break and rethink their priorities. After a few months of figuring out and searching for a new way of working, the decision was made to start doing something that they were doing best, and that`s playing Metallica cover songs.
On October 14, 15 and 16 Y-axis played three shows in a row in three different Ukrainian towns – Kharkiv, Kyiv and Lviv. The tour was dedicated to Metallica`s 30th Anniversary and had an amazing success, which made people refer to the band as the best Metallica cover band in Ukraine.
Current line-up:
Max Rozkrut (rhythm guitar; vocals);
Andrey Liuty (drums);
Sergey Sershen (lead guitar);
Taras Karpenko (bass).
