Editing Zaraza

{{Short description|Canadian funeral doom band}}
{{for|the town|Zaraza, Guárico}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox musical artist  <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject Musicians -->
| name            = Zaraza
| image           = 
| caption         = 
| image_size      = 
| background      = group_or_band
| alias           = 
| origin          = [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]], Canada
| genre           = [[Industrial metal]]<br>[[Death-doom]]<br>[[Avant-garde metal]]
| years_active    = {{start date|1993}}–{{end date|2006}}<br>{{start date|2015}}–present
| label           = Total Zero
| associated_acts = 
| website         = 
| current_members = Jacek (The DoomHammer)<br />Grzegorz Haus ov Doom
| past_members    = 
}}

'''Zaraza''' (from [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Serbian language|Serbian]] "[[Plague (disease)|plague]]") is a Canadian [[Experimental rock|experimental]]/[[Industrial metal|industrial]] [[funeral doom]] band from [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]], Canada.

==Biography==
Formed in early 1993, Zaraza was born out of a meeting between newly arrived [[Poland|Polish]] immigrant Jacek (The DoomHammer) Furmankiewicz and local Montreal industrial/[[Noise music|noise]] artist Brian Meagher performing as Brian Damage (who would later adopt the Slavic name Grzegorz Haus ov Doom), with the object of fully integrating the extremes of [[Doom metal|doom]]/[[death metal]] with [[Industrial music|industrial]].<ref>{{cite web
  | title = Interview with Jacek
  | work = Tracks of Creation: Dark Future
  | url = http://disemia.com/creation/issue_2_3/dark/zaraza.html
  | access-date = 2008-12-08}}</ref> At the beginning it was intended to be a [[grindcore]]-oriented project, but they soon decided on a more doomy edge, combined with a bombastic symphonic industrial feel.

Due to the largely [[Sampler (musical instrument)|sampler]]-oriented nature of Zaraza's music, the band very rarely performed live. Its best-known live show was during a special edition of the Montreal industrial show ''Late Night Atrocity Exhibition''. That night, in order to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the first concert of [[Laibach (band)|Laibach]], whose early albums (from the 1980s) the band highly revered, Zaraza performed four covers: "Vier Personen," "Leben Tod," "Krvava Gruda Plodna Zemlja," and "Nova Akropola."

=== Initial period (1993-2005) ===
After releasing their first demo, ''Life Is Death Postponed'', in 1995, received positively in the underground,<ref>{{cite web  | title = Life is Death Postponed demo reviews  | work = Zaraza website  | url = http://zaraza.ca/reviews.php?id=2  | access-date = 2009-05-04  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060712141212/http://zaraza.ca/reviews.php?id=2  | archive-date = 2006-07-12  | url-status = dead  }}</ref> Zaraza released its debut CD, ''Slavic Blasphemy'', through the Ottawa-based Musicus Phycus label.<ref>{{cite web  | title = Zaraza interview
  | work = Eternal Frost Webzine  | url = http://home.earthlink.net/~goden666/eternalfrost/issue2/zaraint.htm  | access-date = 2009-05-04 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20020821064009/http://home.earthlink.net/~goden666/eternalfrost/issue2/zaraint.htm |archive-date = 2002-08-21}}</ref> It was released in 1997 and gathered a large number of positive reviews,<ref>{{cite web  | title = Slavic Blasphemy reviews  | work = Zaraza website  | url = http://zaraza.ca/reviews.php?id=3  | access-date = 2009-05-04  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060712141127/http://zaraza.ca/reviews.php?id=3  | archive-date = 2006-07-12  | url-status = dead  }}</ref> and was listed as one of the Top 10 albums of 1998 by Gino Filicetti of [[Chronicles of Chaos (webzine)|Chronicles of Chaos]] webzine.<ref>{{cite web  | title = CoC Writers Choose their Top 10 albums of 1998  | work = [[Chronicles of Chaos (webzine)|Chronicles of Chaos]]  | url = http://web.textfiles.com/ezines/COC/coc036.txt  | access-date = 2009-05-04}}</ref>

In 1999 the band recorded their second CD, ''No Paradise To Lose'', which was supposed to include a bonus EP with three [[Laibach (band)|Laibach]] covers. However, lack of satisfaction with the final sound quality of the mixing process led to a postponement of the album. All the original recordings were discarded and the resulting self-disgust resulted in the band going on hiatus till early 2002.<ref>{{cite web|title=Interview with Jacek |work=Doom-Metal.com |url=http://www.doom-metal.com/interview.php?id=10 |access-date=2009-05-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016160004/http://doom-metal.com/interview.php?id=10 |archive-date=October 16, 2007 }}</ref> The same year the band performed its one and only "true" live show by opening up for [[Knurl]] and [[Merzbow]] in Ottawa, Canada.

In 2002, Zaraza restarted its activities and tackled again the task of re-recording and remixing the entire ''No Paradise To Lose'' album from scratch. In November 2003, ''No Paradise To Lose'' was finally released, containing 50 minutes of experimental industrial doom death metal, to critical acclaim.<ref>{{cite web  | title = No Paradise to Lose reviews  | work = Zaraza website  | url = http://zaraza.ca/reviews.php?id=4  | access-date = 2009-05-04  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060712141212/http://zaraza.ca/reviews.php?id=4  | archive-date = 2006-07-12  | url-status = dead  }}</ref> The first 50 copies of the album sold also included a four-track single of Laibach covers, "Montrealska Akropola [Tribute to Laibach]".

The band disbanded in July 2006 and released all their albums via the [[Internet Archive]].

=== Reforming (2015–present) ===
In 2015, the band re-united and decided to work on a new album. The third album ''Spasms of Rebirth'', was released on March 4, 2017 via the band's [[Bandcamp]] site. The album received a 9/10 rating in a doom-metal.com review.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.doom-metal.com/reviews.php?album=3144|title=Zaraza : Spasms Of Rebirth : Review|website=Doom-metal.com|access-date=10 October 2020}}</ref>

==Members==
* Jacek (The DoomHammer) – [[Singing|lead vocals]], [[drum machine]], [[Sampler (musical instrument)|samplers]], [[keyboard instrument|keyboards]]
* Brian Damage (aka Grzegorz Haus ov Doom) – operatic vocals, samplers, keyboards

==Discography==
* ''Life is Death Postponed'' (Demo, 1995)
* ''Slavic Blasphemy'' (CD, 1997)
* ''No Paradise to Lose'' (CD, Total Zero Records, 2003)
* ''Montrealska Akropola – A Tribute to Laibach'' (Single, Total Zero Records, 2003)
* ''Life Is Death Postponed'' (2004, [[CD-R]] reissue with bonus tracks)
* ''Spasms of Rebirth'' (Digital & [[CD-R]], 2017)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://archive.org/details/Zaraza_Slavic_Blasphemy "Slavic Blasphemy"] CD available for download in [[FLAC]], [[Ogg Vorbis]] and [[MP3]] formats
* [https://archive.org/details/jamendo-071098 "No Paradise to Lose"] CD available for download in [[FLAC]], [[Ogg Vorbis]] and [[MP3]] formats
* [[Bandcamp]] [https://zaraza.bandcamp.com/ site]
* [[YouTube]] [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChT430I0xKKNqwDfO1g39fQ channel]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaraza}}
[[Category:Musical groups established in 1993]]
[[Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2006]]
[[Category:Musical groups from Montreal]]
[[Category:Canadian doom metal musical groups]]
[[Category:Canadian musical duos]]