WITCHCRAFT
Dark Power Rising From Russia’s Alternative Metal Underground
By Bill Samaras
Witchcraft have been delivering and building something special in Russia’s metal underground scene.. Witchcraft is a group whose music fuses atmosphere, aggression, and haunting emotional depth into something uniquely their own.
Built from the shadows of Russia’s underground metal community, Witchcraft has steadily gained attention from listeners around the world. Their sound combines crushing guitar riffs, cinematic arrangements, and an intensity that gives their music a powerful sense of drama. The members of Witchcraft shared a belief in the creation of their music that is more than just music, but mood, atmosphere and energy with a dark gothic influence.
You can appeciate the fact that Witchcraft started from the ground up totally DIY and forged ahead with their force of music and visual asthetics they blended into a powerful force that grew their roots and blossomed into the band they have become. Their songs a not just songs but tell stories.
Their music explores themes of struggle, identity, resilience, and inner darkness—subjects that resonate strongly with listeners navigating an uncertain world.
For many fans, Witchcraft’s music feels less like entertainment and more like a shared emotional experience.
The band formed in 2005 and have progressed over 20 years in the Russian music scene. The band is led by vocalist and story writer Lyudmila Shorokhova (Angel); Misha on guitar, Max on drums,Ander on Keyboards, and Boris on bass.
Speaking of how the band formed, Lyudmila said, “It all actually happened back in 2004, when I moved from Siberia to Moscow. I wanted to form my own rock band, but I had no idea how. Moreover, good internet was simply unheard of in my country back then, so I looked for like-minded people on forums that guaranteed up-to-the-minute internet at internet cafes where people played online games.
Much time has passed since then, and our lineup has changed several times, but we’re still on our way.”
Lyudmila wrote down some names and liked the name Witchcraft for her dark and hard metal music.
“It’s very simple: I wrote down a few names I thought might be interesting on a piece of paper, one of them was Witchcraft, and started searching for bands like that online. At the time, nothing had been heard of the Swedish band Witchcraft; they’d just formed and weren’t making any noise. I decided the name was available. I wanted to do something beautiful and dark, while some of the other band members wanted to play progressive metal. Since we’re playing beautiful and dark stuff now, I ultimately won.”
“Everyone listened to music on cassettes and, a little later, on CD players; music was available from record stores, and streaming services didn’t exist at all. Back then, young people in Russia were heavily into American bands, and to a lesser extent, European ones, and we were constantly having bands touring in Moscow. I witnessed the heyday of gothic culture in Russia, which was from 2005 to 2007, and then everything went into decline.”
Lyudmila described her main focus on music. “I’ve always believed that the most important thing in music is melody. You should remember it and hum it, you should want to sing along with the performer. And the darkness adds to the atmosphere; our songs are very metaphorical, talking about love, loneliness, revenge, fear, and self-discovery. I’ll say this: a lot of what’s sung about in songs is relatable to everyone. Each of us has felt this pain inside, been betrayed by someone, been lonely, had our hearts broken. Everyone has at least once in their life felt darkness fill their heart, hated someone, or searched for a kindred spirit in a crowd. That’s what our songs are about. Man as an element, man as the universe. For me, music is a universal language, spoken by everyone in the world. I can convey a message through music, and someone on the other side of the world can understand me. For me, Witchcraft songs are personal experiences that I clothe in metaphors. But you can understand me if you think in the same terms. For me, music isn’t politics; it’s a small world in which you can hide.”
As for writing their music, Lyudmila has taken to push the music and ideas with the band following her lead. “It used to be a collective effort, but then I came to the conclusion that I’m the main driving force behind this spaceship. Of course, the musicians like what we do, and they can contribute their ideas in some ways—for example, our violinist often writes lyrical compositions that we ultimately use—but the main vision still comes from me, it just happened that way. I was the founder of this group, and I’m its only original member. Yes, it’s not quite democratic, but I’m surrounded by people who share my ideas.”
“We pay a lot of attention to the visual component; the band has a recognizable style that many, even European bands, have begun to copy. We also shoot a lot of videos to convey the visual atmosphere of our music, and even if you don’t understand the language, the video should tell a visual story. Thank you, we want everyone to be a part of this celebration, so that our viewers understand that they are a part of this, and not just random people, many of our listeners support us, donate money for recording or filming videos, for us our fans are our family!”
Speaking of the Russian music scene, she said, “There are many interesting, distinctive bands in Russia, many bands that are indistinguishable from the usual European ones. The level of Russian bands is high, their creativity is also extremely high, considering that all this is done out of pure enthusiasm. There is still no money in the Russian underground, nor is there any media, labels, or radio. There are only streaming and the internet. I think it’s time to pay attention to these courageous musicians. We’ve also passed a bunch of stupid laws in our country that make life difficult for all the dark-style groups. But that’s a long story! think we’ll stick to our chosen path, but we’re not averse to experimentation. So I hope you enjoy our new album, STORM. Listen to our music, add it to yours, and share it. Music knows no bounds!”
If you are seeking something different and dark with a special metal edge, Witchcraft are a band to not only listen to but visually experience. Their new album Storm is proof of the band’s quality of music and well worth your listen!