The idea for this project came about in 2005. Musician, songwriter, and composer Derek Cvengros wanted to create his own sound without blending in with the numerous mainstream bands heard on the radio everyday. Being a born metal head, Derek wanted to incorporate his metal influences but also add something to it that he could call his own. Being influenced by bands like Nightwish, Therion, and Metallica, Derek’s idea was to make a metal band and add a symphony type sound with a female vocalist to top it off. To Derek this just wasn’t enough, it was lacking originality. After playing his first twelve-string guitar in the summer of 2005, Derek decided to incorporate it into his project as well. Not even a week later, Derek purchased his first twelve-string and has been writing music ever since.
For two exhausting years Derek wrote and composed his debut album. During this time he met Alexandria Clark, by chance, through a friend at a coffee house. When Derek learned Alex was attending University of Michigan as an opera major and an avid fan of heavy metal, he quickly befriended her. Derek and Alex stayed in touch and after a few months, Alex joined the project filling the lead vocals position in June of 2006.
For over a year after they met, Archaic Revival continued to work on their first album, hoping that an end would soon be in site. And finally, in October of 2007 the album was put into production. Right away, Derek and Alex started looking for musicians to fill their open spots to play live. Almost instantly they found drummer Brian McGuckin through an online add. Brian came from a strong metal background and had played with many bands prior to Archaic Revival, one of which being Coven. This project was exactly what Brian was looking for and Brian was exactly what Archaic Revival was looking for. Brian quickly joined the band.
On November 30th, 2007 Archaic Revival released their debut album, Pagan Evolution, with an album release party. A few months passed and the search for a keyboardist and bassist continued. Finally, Archaic Revival met classically trained pianist, Kevin Naeve. Kevin may have been classically trained, but he had a soft spot in his heart for metal. In January of 2008, the band quickly grabbed him up and made him a member of the band. Near the end of March they found bassist Chris Allumi (Loomi). Loomi came from a long musical background. He was the former guitarist for the Motor City Burgers, a band which played in metro Detroit for nearly 7 years.
In June of 2008 Alexandria made the decision to leave Archaic Revival to pursue her career in opera. AR started looking for another classically trained singer to fill the position of lead vocals. By chance, they met singer and violinist Stefanie Stauffer. Stefanie just happened to be moving back to Michigan after a long stint in California for research work and fit the lead vocalist role perfectly. She has been studying classical and opera since grade school.
In August of 2008, drummer Brian McGuckin announced his departure from Archaic Revival. His departure was due to family related issues including the upcoming birth of his third child. Unfortunately, this left very little time for Archaic Revival and Brian had no other choice but to step down. Immediately, AR started looking for another drummer. They auditioned many drummers but none seemed to work out until they received a call from 19-year-old drummer, Joey Celski. Joey had been playing drums for only 4 years, but it looked like he'd been playing for a lifetime. Joey blew everyone away at his audition and AR quickly picked him up.
Just before the end of 2008, Stefanie was asked to step down from her position as vocalist of Archaic Revival. Unfortunately, they were moving in a direction that they did not think Stefanie would be able to lead them in. After nearly three months of searching for a new vocalist, Archaic Revival found classically trained soprano vocalist Lorelei. She came into AR with over 13 years of experience at various institutions and was a student of Curt Peters at the time. AR knew she was a perfect fit to lead the band.
Since then, Archaic Revival has continued to play all around Michigan and sell albums worldwide.