Korova

Korova came together in Innsbruck in 1990 when Christof Niederweiser launched the project, supplying vocals, guitars, and keyboards, and soon ranked the ensemble among Austria’s most daring and stylistically wide-ranging black metal acts. The name itself stemmed from Russian phrasing that simply means “the cow.” Years of songwriting and rehearsal later, Niederweiser brought aboard George Razerberger as second guitarist, Michael Kroll on bass, and Moritz Neuner on drums, allowing the quartet to track its first album, A Kiss in the Charnel Fields, which Napalm Records released in 1995.

Four additional years passed before Niederweiser and Neuner reemerged with Dead Like an Angel, now joined by Martina Hornbacher on vocals, Herwig Huber on guitar, Florian Oberlechner on bass, and Susanne Eckbauer on keyboards. That album elevated the band’s profile through its striking blend of death, black, gothic, and progressive metal, executed with an unmistakable taste for grandiose theatrics. Yet the same record also marked the end of the group when Niederweiser and Neuner inexplicably broke ranks to found a seemingly unnecessary, but clearly self-explanatory new project called Korovakill.