DESCRIPTION:
Back in mid-90s some things happened that pointed the severe need for change in Bulgaria's stagnant, misery-grabbed society - the government was forced to cede power in 1997 and the Bulgarian metal scene experienced a revival.
The new government undertook reforms that stabilized the market and as a result it became easier to purchase high-quality musical equipment and instruments. Naturally, this catalyzed the development of a whole new wave of bands and musicians. The first wave had been in the late 80s and the early 90s, when the
iron grip of communism had begun to loosen and this unleashed a surge of pent-up rage and hidden talent. Some of the representatives of the heavy part of this first wave were Amadeus, Kassandra, Past Redemption, Kriza, Scapegoat.

Hyperborea are among the Bulgarian metal bands which started their activity in mid-late 90s and were alive for the years ahead – like Korozy, Desolate, Samhain, Brainstorm, Enthrallment.They were not a band up till mid-97; rather a bunch of metalheads who went to parties, listened to Sepultura, Death, Obituary and Pestilence and drank their heads off. They so wanted to be like these bands. Gradually, it became clear that their vocalist, Kiril Kirilov, was just as good as the vocalists of their favourite bands. The first guitarist of the band, Krum Doinov, and his friend, Iliya Dimitrov, decided to try to
make something of it, and with the help of Niki Paskalev, who was, and still is, a great guitarist, they started to take guitar lessons. Things started to take shape in the early spring of 1998, when they, along with Plamen Petkov (bass) and Ivaylo Baev (drums) made their first gigs before a crazy, death metal-thirsty audience. Hyperborea played something like Florida-style death metal with huge thrash influence and traces of the Scandinavian scene – roughly, what all the members listened to. Things started to unfold very quickly. Iliya was replaced by Jordan Kunchev and in 1999 Ivo was replaced . Hyperborea started making concert after concert in Sofia, Plovdiv, Primorsko, Haskovo, Svoge, Shumen, Blagoevgrad, as well as in Romania. The band became popular because they played their favourite music in an honest manner, without trying to please anybody but themselves. In a very early stage, at some concert the death-metallers grabbed the audience’s prize. In this period they recorded a demo called “Catharsis”, containing 8 songs. In 2002 Alex was replaced by Zhivko Kyosev. With him Hyperborea recorded their debut album “Architecture of mind” (BM) which earned spectacular reviews from the Bulgarian metal media like Pro-Rock Magazine, which gave it a 9/10 score and qualified the band as “the future of heavy music in Bulgaria”.
In 2003 Plamen was replaced by Vladimir Ivanov and in 2004 Krum was replaced by Andrey Andronov. In the following years Hyperborea put all their effort in the second album “Cryogenic Somnia” (Counter Attack Productions) which was released in 2007. It was placed as the best Bulgarian metal album of the year by the readers
of Pro-Rock Magazine. Foreign media described it as a more complex work saying that: “…The works characterize considerable changeability and they contain the many motifs… Listening the whole - my associating hit to Florida’s DEATH…”, or: “…Their songs have sometimes confusingly complex rhythmic patterns but always sound sensibly”, or: “The offered material is more varied than the recordings of some well established US bands”.
In early 2011 Vladimir left and was replaced by Dinko Dimov, a very experienced and talented bassist.