Legion is a soviet and russian Heavy metal band, a pioneer of hard rock music on soviet scene. The band was formed by vocalist and composer Alexey Bulgakov in 1981 and featured Alexey Tsvetkov (guitar), Alexey Chernyshov (guitar), Oleg Tsareov (bass) and Sergey Komarov (drums). The band self-released two tape albums: "Bitva" (Battle) and "Apocalypse", and toured over USSR. Legion, being a semi-underground act, survived through governmental campaigns against independent artists, but suffered financial problems in Perestroyka era. Original lineup dibanded in 1990.

Three years later, Bulgakov restored Legion with a completely new lineup. Now there were Yuri Kriukov (guitar), Stas Kozlov (bass) and Konstantin Fedotov (drums). This lineup has recorded the first Legion album in english: Knights of the Cross. Next year Bulgakov participated in Ария as a sessional vocalist, when this band was on the edge of split.

Soon the lineup was changed: Chernyshov returned, Dmitri Krivenkov (drums, now Эпидемия) and Vecheslav Molchanov (guitar) joined Legion. After the release of Day Mne Imya (Give Me a Name) Molchanov was replaced by Andrey Golovanov (now both play in Кипелов), and Krivenkov left for Epidemia, leaving his place to Sergey Eranov. This was the lineup to record concept Mayatnik Vremeon (Libra of Time), dedicated to russian warriors of different time periods. With this, Legion moved towards christian metal in their lyrics.

Stihiya Ognia (Element of Fire) LP followed, revealing some power metal influence. Soon after this, Bulgakov personally recorded vocals for Sergey Terentyev's Артерия debut album. The last Legion album, as for now, is Mify Drevnosti (Ancienth Myths), released in 2007. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.