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Kaiaphas

Biography

Lord Kaiaphas (currently known as Zhyin) was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. When he was six years old, he went to live in Washington D.C., U.S.A., where he grew up. Most of his family members were musically inclined. His grandmother, on his father’s side, was a very famous soprano opera singer during her youth. It was not surprising that Zhyin would develop a strong passion for music. Throughout his teenage and adolescent years, Zhyin played drums and sang for numerous rock and Metal bands, recorded several demo tapes, and played dozens of gigs.

1995-1998

Zhyin began his professional music career when he joined the Norwegian black metal band Ancient in 1995. The band’s leader, Aphazel, was impressed by the work Zhyin had made with his prior American black metal bands -Grand Belial's Key and Thokk, so, therefore, Zhyin (then known as Lord Vlad Luciferian) became the obvious choice to replace Ancient’s previous member, Grimm. At this time, Zhyin changed his name to Lord Kaiaphas and began performing solely as a vocalist/frontman. Drumming duties then became strictly for studio recordings. Thus, a drummer was always hired for live shows.

During his time with Ancient, he recorded two full-length albums for the well-known American metal label, Metal Blade records. These albums were The Cainian Chronicle (96) and Mad Grandiose Bloodfiends (97). Zhyin also appeared in three music videos from Ancient, “Lilith’s Embrace”, “ Willothewisp”, and “Um Sonho Psycodelico”. In 97 the band went on a European tour with Bal Sagoth (U.K.) and Dark Funeral (Sweden) Later that year, the label Mordgrimm records (U.K) released the “Of rape and vampirism” cd from Zhyin’s former project,Thokk. The material from this cd came from their “ A trance for the ever-toiling witch” demo which was recorded in 1995.In 98, he went on Ancient mini tour in America as well as another extensive European tour alongside Belphegor (Austria) and Behemoth (Poland). Shortly after this tour, Zhyin left Ancient.

1998-2001

In the fall of 1998, Zhyin moved to New Orleans, where he later formed a tribal gothic rock psychedelic rock band, called Oroboros

, with his friend, Nicholas Syracuse. They recorded 2 demos and played several shows in New Orleans. Oroboros also played at the Burning Man festival in 99 and 2001. In this band, Zhyin played the drums, doumbek, djembe, and did some Tuvan/Mongolian style throat-singing. Their live shows consisted of tribal body paint and firedancing/breathing.Some of their tracks were later included in the soundtrack of the Canadian independent film, Monolithia. The band broke up in 2001.

Back in 1996, Zhyin discovered psychedelic goa trance, and, through the years, his passion for electronic music grew immensely. By 1999 he had become a trance dj. Unfortunately, New Orleans was not a trance town. Therefore in 2002, Zhyin moved to Brazil, where the trance scene was growing rapidly, in hopes of achieving a successful career as a dj and producer. By this time he had already started learning the art of audio engineering and began producing electronic music of his own.

2001-2007

Minimal Criminal

In 2003, Zhyin started a minimal/progressive psy-trance project called Minimal Criminal with Bruno Echoes. Their sound often has a dark atmosphere and almost all of their tracks have a little story or concept behind them. Their tracks also generally contain bizarre and obscure samples taken from films or other sources which further enhance the ideas behind the music.

In 2005, Minimal Criminal had their debut released track "Reefer and Barbeque", a collaboration with established Swedish artist Krumelur, on the "Intelligent Manipulation" compilation cd This track was released through Zenon records (Australia), a label owned by Tim Larner from the well-known project, Sensient. Later that year, Cosmic Conspiracy records (New Zealand) released the tracks "Eulenschrei" and "Disco Shit live rmx" on a compilation cd called "Contact Lens" In 2006, CCR released another track, "Zulu Pazuzu" on the "The Lurker" compilation cd. Minimal Criminal has played in several parties and festivals throughout Brazil. Zhyin has also dj'd in many parties across the U.S. as well as in countries such as Denmark, Czech republic, and Israel.

KAIAPHAS

In 2003, Zhyin created a project of dark ebm/futurepop/electro called KAIAPHAS, with his friend, Victor Salles, and female singer, T.A.T.I. In the beginning of 2006, the line up had changed. Zhyin invited guitarist - Lienhard, and new singer - Lady Omega, from Russia, into the band.

A year before meeting Zhyin, Lady Omega had sung on one of the songs from Ancient’s “Night Visit” cd, released in 2004. Coincidently, Zhyin had also made a guest appearance on that same album in the track, ”Rape the Children of Abel”. He also performed as a special guest in a couple of Ancient’s gigs in Greece in the European summer of 2003. While in Greece, Zhyin recorded some guest vocals on a few tracks from the Greek black metal band,Crossover, which ended up in their 2004 cd, ”Dogma”

KAIAPHAS has performed a good handful of gigs in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Curitiba. On May 13th 2006, KAIAPHAS played their best gig at the annual Thorns Gothic Rave festival in São Paulo, alongside gothic rock legends, Clan of Xymox. That same year, KAIAPHAS was featured in the November issue of the Orkus magazine (Germany), and their track, “Always Invisible” was included in the Orkus Compilation 24 cd , which came with the magazine. A promo cd was put together that year strictly for radio stations, magazines, and djs. The band is currently working on material for their debut album,planned for release sometime in 2007.

Thokkian Vortex

In 2006, Zhyin started his black metal solo project, Thokkian Vortex. This project was something he had dreamed about for many years but was never able to do previously because he did not have the ability to play a stringed instrument and had very little knowledge of studio and computer music production. The music from this project is influenced by the early works from Scandinavian black metal bands such as Darkthrone, Emperor, Dark Funeral, Limbonic Art, etc. There are also elements of classical/orchestral and dark ambient music. A split cd with the Hungarian band Aetheritus Obscuritas as well as a full length album should be available in 2007.

Zhyin

Also in 2006, Zhyin started another solo project called simply - Zhyin.This is the project where he can express himself through electronic dance music genres such as electro, tech-trance, and minimal techno. The track ”True Type Format” was released on the Freeze magazine "Night Vision" compilation cd in 2007.