Guitarist Yan Leviathan, who had been in several local bands over the years, but never anything remotely serious, formed Avian in November of 2002 after being inspired by Progpower USA III in Atlanta, Ga. The two-day festival featured performances by Gamma Ray, Blind Guardian, Edguy, and a number of other fantastic bands, most of which were making their U.S. debuts.
Feeling extremely inspired, on the flight back home, Yan decided to concentrate all of his attention and efforts to creating a band that combined all of the best elements of the great European metal bands and the classic U.S. metal bands.
The name Avian was chosen by Yan from his favourite novel; The Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke. In the series, the Avian is a bird like creature with great intelligence and compassion.
The debut cd, From The Depths of Time, is a concept album dealing with the end of days and a warning to mankind that there are guardians out there watching us: From The Depths of Time they're rising, fearing none they march ahead, through the past and into forever, they're the ones approaching with the storm.Musically Avian is a nice blend of old school heavy metal (think Iron Maiden!) and the power metal / true metal of nowadays (such as Hammerfall, Edguy and the likes plus the classic US metal bands like Savatage and Megadeth). Strong songwriting, great guitar / keyboard parts and brilliant vocals are displayed on the 13 tracks (14 in Japan). With "From The Depths Of Time" now available world wide, the heavy metal scene for sure hasn't stopped bringing great bands to the world of music - Avian being one of the very best.
