AZURE EMOTE is the musical brainchild of Artist / Vocalist Mike Hrubovcak, who is best known for his album cover illustrations (visualdarkness.com), and later as the vocalist and touring frontman for the Death Metal bands Monstrosity, Vile, Abraxas and others. AZURE EMOTE was first conceived in 2003 after the breakup of the band Divine Rapture which Mike was in for many years and co-founded along with his brother and musical prodigy jj Hrubovcak (now with Hate Eternal). After playing straight forward Death & Black Metal since 1992, Mike set out to create a project where he could express his own vision with total freedom and without the genre limitations that were often present within his previous projects. Being a fan of the Avant-Garde himself and inspired by the courage and creativity of bands such as Laibach, Ulver, The Kovenant, Bethlehem, Arcturus, SYL, The Project Hate MCMXCIX, Nocturnus, Dead Can Dance, ...And Oceans, Samael and many others, AZURE EMOTE incorporates electronic elements into the mix, but always with the focus on the darker, more negative sides of expression and a firm rooting in Death/Black/Doom Metal. AZURE EMOTE is composed and created by an artist but brought to life by the help of supporting musicians and quest contributors. The man that translates Hrubovcak's compositions on guitar and essentially brings the skeleton of AZURE EMOTE to life is formidable guitar shredder Ryan Moll (Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Total Fucking Destruction, Solace in The Shadows, Evil Divine, Divine Rapture) who has been with AZURE EMOTE since it's inception. Other musicians are recruited according to the needs of each song. In 2007 AZURE EMOTE released "Chronicles Of An Aging Mammal" on Czech based Epidemie Records which releases a wide variety of Experimental, Ambient, Black Metal, Funeral Doom, and Avant-Garde Metal. Some of the other musicians who contributed their talents on "Chronicles..." were drummer Patrick Battaglia (Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Solace in The Shadows) who performed the majority of the drum attacks on "Chronicles..", guitar solo, guest drums on two songs, and wooden flute by JJ Hrubovcak (Hate Eternal, Divine Rapture,Vile, I.C.E, Mourning), female vocals by Laurie Ann Haus (Todesbonden, Autumn Tears, ScyFi Channel, HBO) and many others. "Chronicles Of An Aging Mammal" quickly became an underground cult favorite among the fans of Avant-Garde Death Metal and received much praise on zines, blogs and forums worldwide. Relapse Records at the time quoted AZURE EMOTE as "One of the most interesting underground music projects to emerge in quite some time. Musically, visually and stylistically different than anything out there right now. Experimental metal/industrial/noise/avant-garde freak out that really gnashes at every sense you have." Over the next 5 years AZURE EMOTE was put into hiatus, as Mike focused his time primarily on recording and touring extensively for the Death Metal bands Monstrosity and Vile and also the formation of the Thrash Death Metal band Abraxas with Makoto Mizoguchi (Pyrexia, Internal Suffering, ex-Hate Eternal). The desire for personal creativity and musical freedom once again surged and in the Summer of 2011 Azure Emote was awoken from it's sleep and geared up, writing new material for a second full length release. The new album was completed in October 2012 and is an epic album of 14 songs / over 1 hour of blasting misanthropic craziness. "The Gravity of Impermanence" is the title of the new record and features contributions from members of Fear Factory, Death, Tristania, Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Visions of Atlantis, Hate Eternal, Yakuza and many others. The new AZURE EMOTE embodies a whole new evolved sound, with violins, saxaphone, harmonica and other surprise elements added into the mix. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.