I think that BUTTERFLY TEMPLE was actually the first band on the Russian pagan metal scene. Themes like national patriotism, ancient Slavonic beliefs, memories of the exploits of our ancestors, appeared, of course, in the work of some groups formed before us. The value of BUTTERFLY TEMPLE for the Russian metal scene is not that the group started playing pagan metal for the first time, but that it started playing pagan metal organically, consistently and authentically. BUTTERFLY TEMPLE for me is the chance to play music from the heart of Russia. BUTTERFLY TEMPLE is a spirited and genuinely secret ethnic group, I know it for sure!
Nikolay Korshunov / Butterfly Temple interview, Terminus City, 2010
Russian pagan folk metal. BUTTERFLY TEMPLE released their fifth album Время Мары (The Times of Mara) on this day in 2005 through Irond Records.
Our history is certainly very important to us, and inspires us and our comrades on the stage. History is not just the story of what happened in the past. It is the story of how and where we are going and that leads us to some consequences. If we look deeper into the history of our country, we can understand what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong. Our ancestors did not know how a TV or a plane looks like, but they were not fools. Everyone who came to Russia with a sword, sooner or later went back, or stayed in our land forever. Our ancestors were great warriors, strong both physically and spiritually. And they received their spiritual strength from their inner world and from their beliefs about different sides of life. I think that most of us ought to think about why our native faith has survived ten centuries of Christianity, fostered by fire and sword.
Nikolay Korshunov / Butterfly Temple interview, Terminus City, 2010