The history of KATEDRA, one of the long-living Lithuanian Heavy Metal bands nowadays, started in early 1986. The five members act, consisting of Povilas Meškėla (vocals), Ričardas Laginauskas and Romas Rainys (both guitar players), Algis Radavičius (bass) and Marius Giedrys (drums) started with heavy metal that was in some kind of rise then. KATEDRA had a lot of live shows both in local events and abroad from the very beginning. The band performed in such well-known festivals as “Lituanica’88 and ‘89“ (Vilnius), „Rock Panorama“ (Moscow), „Rock Summer“ and „Rock Winter“ (Tallinn), „Liepajas Dzintars’88 and ‘89“ (Latvia), „Sopot“ (Poland), „Ilosaari Pop“ (Finland). The debut vinyl “Mors Ultima Ratio” was recorded at that period. Despite the fact that the product saw the daylight only at the end of 1990, the interest of metalheads was huge – all in all the vinyl was sold during two weeks. The band was not only noticed abroad but also received recognition and acceptance here. “Metal Hammer” (1989, issue 11) proclaimed: “that is pure thrash metal act, strong both musically and technically. In fact the formation is superior in comparison with 90 percent of similar Western acts. So it is evident how far the music in Lithuania made headway”. Edgar Klusener continued: “KATEDRA are the only matadors in Lithuania and maybe stand among the hottest European thrash metal bands”. The peak of the band’s activity was reached when guys participated in the famous “Baltic Sea Music Fest“ (Sweden) in 1991. The organizer Par Werkelin admired: “KATEDRA is a really strong heavy metal act and it is one of those to perform better than sounding in records”. Unfortunately, the festival appeared to be the last for original line-up as Romas and Povilas left KATEDRA soon after. Anyway the second vinyl titled “Natus in Articulo Mortis” was released next year and was praised by reviewers worldwide. In this material are many thrash metal. The band took part in a number of festivals again and a few tracks from the album reached tops in local radio charts as well as were hailed by fans. The band was also appreciated by Lithuanian government in 1994, as it was chosen to represent the country in Lithuanian Culture Days in Leipzig together with some other performers. However, that meant also the break in the band’s activity for as long as 5 years. KATEDRA was reborn only in 1999 performing in “Metalinis Uostas” festival in Lithuanian seaport Klaipeda. To compensate the period of silence, the band participated in the famous festival “Death Comes”, a number of small performances in clubs, played in TV and “Bike Show” 2002 in Vilnius. Soon the keyboardist Naglis Patamsis was confirmed as the fourth full-time member of KATEDRA. At the moment the band “discovered” the acoustic sounding and started to experiment with it. The band then appeared in modern and one of the best known local metal festivals “Ferrum Frost” on 25th January, 2003 as well as in “Rock Nights” in Plateliai in August of the same year. Moreover, the band appeared in German scary movie “Rats 2”. KATEDRA also performed in “Mountain Rock” festival in Kaunas that autumn though the original drummer Marius left the band just after. Domas Dedinas replaced him starting from the next year. The band has already presented a very successful show titled “Metallica Party” and is also planning to continue with that, including the part of “Bike Show” in Latvia. The Easter was celebrated in 26 March 2005 with the acoustic live show joined by a string duet. Consequently, the modern music of KATEDRA links and combines several different styles, although the band still remains true and trust in heavy metal music they started and long lived with. The year 2006 was again full of shows and hard work for the band. Finnally, the third album of KATEDRA and the first album in CD format called symbolically "III" was recorded and introduced during the annual festival "Roko Naktys" in August. The band has celebrated its 20th anniversary in December 2006. Ending the 2006, band changed its bass player. Now with KATEDRA plays Gediminas Jurgaitis, instead of original band player Algimantas Radavičius. Previously Gediminas had played with band “Hersh Tu”. In 2007, autumn, band line-up had changed one more time. This time with band plays new drummer Salvijus Žeimys. In the end of 2008 Katedra released their fourth studio album "Ugnikalnis“. Album was recorded in 2008, 13th - 17th of July at "Studio Phoenix“, Latvia by Gints Lundbergs. All lyrics and music composed by Ričardas Laginauskas and recorded with Gediminas Jurgaitis on bass and Salvijus Žeimys on drums. In the end of 2010, the band line-up changed once again. Bass guitar player Gediminas Jurgaitis left band, in his place now - Rimantas Budriūnas. Discography: "Mors Ultima Ratio" (1989) "Natus In Articulo Mortis" (1992) "III" (2006) "Ugnikalnis" (2008) The current line-up: Ričardas Laginauskas - guitar, vocals; Rimantas Budriūnas - bass guitar; Salvijus Žeimys - drums, percussion. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.