is a

folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...

band from

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. They were formed in 2001 as a collaboration between the

pagan metal Pagan metal is a genre of heavy metal music which fuses extreme metal with " the pre-Christian traditions of a specific culture or region" through thematic concept, rustic melodies, unusual instruments or archaic languages, Wiederhorn 2009, p. 6 ...

group Ugnėlakis and the

pagan folk Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by Early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In ...

group

Kūlgrinda (plural ; from the Samogitian 'stone' and 'pavement', itself from 'to rake, pull together') is a hidden, usually winding, underwater stony road or ford across swamps, swampy areas, lakes, or along rivers, used as a defense in the lands of ...

. This was reflected in the title of their debut album in 2002, ''Ugnėlakis su Kūlgrinda''. On 19 December 2023, the band was announced among the competing artists of '' Eurovizija.LT'', the Lithuanian national final for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2024 The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Tattoo (Loreen song), Tattoo" by Loreen. Organised by the European Br ...

, with the song "Gaudė vėjai". They came second in the second semi-final on 20 January 2024, qualifying for the final.

Style

The lyrics for the band's songs are usually taken from the

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

Lithuanian people Lithuanians () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...

and are sung in their original

Lithuanian language Lithuanian (, ) is an East Baltic languages, East Baltic language belonging to the Baltic languages, Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the language of Lithuanians and the official language of Lithuania as well as one of t ...

. Žalvarinis' music frequently features singing technique of traditional Lithuanian

sutartinė Lithuanian folk songs (in Lithuanian: ) are often noted for not only their mythological content but also their relating historical events. Lithuanian folk music includes romantic songs, wedding songs, as well as work songs and archaic war s ...

(a form of

glee Glee may refer to: * Glee (music), a type of English choral music * ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy * ''Glee'' (Bran Van 3000 album) * ''Glee'' (Logan Lynn album) * Gle ...

), usually sung by the band's three female singers – examples of

can be heard in their tracks ''Ailiom susėdom'', ''Dijūta'' or ''Ožys''. Authentic pronunciation as well as ancient words and their forms in folk songs are also usually preserved by the band. As a legacy of Kūlgrinda, the band also features several folk-songs of

Old Prussians Old Prussians, Baltic Prussians or simply Prussians were a Balts, Baltic people that inhabited the Prussia (region), region of Prussia, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula Lagoon to the west and the Curonian Lagoon ...

. Žalvarinis's sound, on the other hand, while still influenced by traditional Lithuanian folk music, is more modern – generally speaking, it is a mix of traditional heavy metal and

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

. The first album of the band was metal-influenced, however the sound becomes more progressive in later albums. The song ''Aš kanapį sėjau'' (''I Sowed a

Hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a plant in the botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial and consumable use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest ...

''), taken from the 2005 album ''Žalio vario'' was featured on ''Transformations in Lithuanian Song'' – a 2006 compilation CD that covered the development of Lithuanian

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

over many years. It was published by the Lithuanian-American journal ''

Lituanus ''Lituanus'' is an English language quarterly journal dedicated to Lithuanian and Baltic languages, linguistics, political science, arts, history, literature, and related topics. It is published by the non-profit Lituanus Foundation, Inc., and ha ...

''.

Members

Current members

*Robertas Semeniukas - vocals, electric, acoustic and slide guitars, keyboards, music director *Sigita Jonynaitė - vocals *Viltė Ambrazaitytė - vocals *Rytis Vasiliauskas - bass guitar *Martynas Lukoševičius - drums

Former members

*Domas Žostautas - bass guitar *Sergej Makidon - drums *Jonas Lengvinas - drums *Tadas Žukauskas - bass guitar *Ineta Meduneckytė-Tamošiūnienė – vocals *Laurita Peleniūtė – vocals *Paulius Jaskūnas – bass guitar *Simonas Gudelis – drums *Aurimas Lemežis – bass guitar *Marius Būda – electric guitar *Ramūnas Pocius – vocals, pipes *Eglė Pakšytė – vocals *Dariush Loznikoff – bass *Demonas – bass *Arūnas Lukaševičius – bass *Ilja Molodcov – drums *Aidas Buivydas – guitar

Discography

*''Ugnėlakis su Kūlgrinda'' (2002, Bomba records) *''Žalio vario'' (2005, Prior music) translates as '' adeof Green Copper'', green copper being an archaic name for brass *''Folk n' Rock'' (2008, Monako Productions) *''Gyvas'' (2014, RS Records) *''Teka'' (2016, RS Records) *''Einam Tolyn'' (2018, RS Records) *''The Best of Žalvarinis'' (2019, RS Records) *''Švęskime Laisvę!'' (2019, RS Records) *''Demo & Remix 2008-2015'' (2020, RS Records) *''Cantabile'' (2022, RS Records) *''Live at Kilkim Žaibu Festival XX'' (2023, RS Records)

References

External links

Official homepage
*https://www.facebook.com/ZalvarinisBand/ *https://www.youtube.com/user/zalvarinisofficial *https://www.instagram.com/zalvarinis_official/ *https://zalvarinis.bandcamp.com *https://soundcloud.com/zalvarinis_music
Žalvarinis on MyspaceEncyclopaedia Metallum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zalvarinis Lithuanian folk metal musical groups Lithuanian heavy metal musical groups Musical groups established in 2001 Modern pagan musical groups Modern paganism in Lithuania Baltic modern paganism