Nikolo Kotzev

Virtuoso guitarist Nikolo Kotzev is originally from Bulgaria, but lives since 1989 in the town of Mariehamn, Finland. At the age of five, he started taking violin lessons. Nikolo became interested in rock music in his teens, and soon he started playing the guitar. He joined his first rock band at the age of fifteen. He gained lots of pratical knowledge as a session guitarist in recording studios close to the location of his studies at the academy. Nikolo also toured Europe and especially Scandinavia playing in a top forty band before relocating to Finland. There he joined the Swedish rock band Baltimoore led by singer Björn Lodin. They recorded two albums together before splitting up due to personal and musical differences. After that Nikolo decided to start working on a solo project, which later became the highly acclaimed Brazen Abbot. So far three Brazen Abbot albums have been released, "Live and Learn" in 1995, "Eye of the Storm" in 1996 and "Bad Religion" in 1997, featuring such renowned musicians as Joe Lynn Turner, Glenn Hughes, Göran Edman and Thomas Vikström. Not only did Nikolo play the guitar on and produce the albums, but he also wrote the music and played violin solos on a few of the songs. Nikolo Kotzev has also produced and mixed albums for other bands, such as Molly Hatchet and Rose Tattoo.
After the release of "Bad Religion", Nikolo started working on the rock opera "Nostradamus", writing the music and producing, mixing and engineering, and he also plays the guitar as well as a few violin solos on the double album. After the release of Nostradamus, Nikolo started working an new Brazen Abbot album, called "Guilty as Sin", which was released in 2003.


Discography:
Baltimoore - Double Density (1992)
Baltimoore - Thought for Food (1994)
Brazen Abbot - Live and Learn (1995)
Brazen Abbot - Eye of the Storm (1996)
Brazen Abbot - Bad Religion (1997)
Brazen Abbot - Guilty as Sin (2003)