History & Biography This hard rock, pop rock and heavy rock act was formed in Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria, by several students in 1986. The transliteration for ‘x’ in the Bulgarian alphabet is ‘h’ and pronounced like the ‘ch’ sound, rendering the band’s name ‘Ahat’ or ‘Achat.’ The members were Zvezdomir Keremidchiev - vocals, Bojidar Glavev and Antoan Hadat - guitars, Ivaylo Petrov - bass, Yuri Kotzev - drums and keyboardist Antoni Georgiev. Denis Rizov took over the bass the year after. The line-up was responsible for the debut album, entitled The March, in 1989. The band visited North Korea as part of a youth delegation. A local imprint called Unison R.T.M. issued a compilation of record and demo material in 1994. The band had gone on hiatus in 1992 thus the title for 1998’s Седем години след… (’Seven Years Later’), live record, which was taped when the act opened for Deep Purple. The band returned with Made In USA, which was recorded in that country, with a resilient line-up except Bojidar Glavev who had found Jesus. Made In USA was also a full-length video release in 2003. Golden Rock Tour 2004 was recorded in 2004. The year became 2016 and the band reformed after four years (without Denis Rizov), yet still did not have new music. Instead, the boys went the self-cover version route and released 1986-2013.
Joe Lynn Turner used Bulgarian act Axat for a six-date tour of the country using the Rock & Roll Forever monicker in 2023. The man performed songs by Deep Purple and Rainbow. Turner himself had fronted the band on stage previously.
Harbour Island Records was Rizov’s imprint.
Reviews
Interviews
|
