Cruise

Cruise (Kruiz, ) is a heavy metal band from the former Soviet Union. Started in 1980 as a government-controlled soft rock and pop act, the band enjoyed great success all across the USSR before the revocation of their license to perform/record in 1984 as part of the state's brief crackdown on the Western culture. In 1985, founding member and guitarist Valery Gaina reformed the band with a completely different lineup that featured him on lead vocals. This was followed by a major shift in the overall sound and image; from pop rock to heavy metal. In 1987, the band officially released their debut album "Kruiz-1" as a metal band, selling one million of legal copies. Outside Russia, they are best known for their video, In Flames, which was played many times in the mid-1980s, on the Canadian metal show, The Power Hour. Having released their debut English language album in 1988, Kruiz toured extensively in Russia, Europe, and North America before breaking up in 1990. In 1992, all founding members, excluding Gaina, reformed a non-metal version of the band. Gaina, in turn, organized a one-off reunion of the band's metal lineup in 2016. History Kruiz was formed in 1978, originally playing soft and hard rock songs with Russian lyrics. The original lineup consisted of Alexander Monin (vocals), Valery Gaina (guitars), Alexander Kirnitsky (1956–2008) (bass), Sergey Sarychev (keyboards), and Vsevolod Korolyuk (drums). In 1980, they released their first album called The Top, which was really a collection of demos. In 1981, they released their first official album, Крутится Волчoк (transcription: Krutitsya Volchok, translation: The Top Keeps Turning), featuring Alexander Kirnitsky on bass, and additional keyboards by Matvey Anitchkin. This was followed by another album Послушай Человек (Poslusshay Chelovek, translation: Listen, Man). In 1983, the lineup changed to Monin (vocals), Gaina (guitars), Grigory Bezugly (guitars), Oleg Kuzmichov (bass), Vladimir Kapustin (keyboards), and Nikolai Tchunusov (drums). This lineup released the album Путешествие на Воздушном (Puteshestvye na Vozdushnom, translation: Balloon Journey). Shortly after the release of this album, the band, unfortunately, drew the ire of the Communist government and were ordered to disband. The band released one final album P.S. Продолжение Слeдует (P.S. Prodolzhenye Sleduet, translation: P.S. To be Continued) in 1983, before stopping all activities.