Angelknight
Angelknight is a Greek
band coming from Larissa and having to overcome many obstacles in order
to be able to spread their music across the world. Luckily their inspiration
and circumstances help them to make their dreams come true little by little.
So, read what Grigoris told us about the band...
1. HELLO! THIS IS A TYPICAL QUESTION, BUT
SINCE ANGELKNIGHT IS A NEW BAND, CAN YOU GIVE US A BRIEF HISTORY INFO ABOUT
YOU AND PRESENT THE CURRENT LINE UP?
1997 : Demo tape “The Light”, contains
4 songs.
1999 : Demo cd “The Angels Are Back” (10 tracks).
2001 : Participation in the Manowar
tribute CD “The Religion Of Steel”, where we covered the song “Thor”.
2003 : Promo cd containing 5 tracks addressed
to labels only.
2004 : Participation with the song “Saviour
of Our World” in the compilation release “Greece Attacks – The Next Assault”.
2005: EP “Rage Of Angels” (5 songs).
Line up:
Grigoriadis Grigoris: vocals
Bagios Aleksis: guitars
Karampasis Zacharias: guitars
Koutsomarkos Stefanos: bass guitar
Tsekouras Iraklis: drums
Drosou Kiki: keyboards
The band’s story starts back in 1995, when
we only played live shows without having released a work of our own. In
1997 we release the self financed demo “The Light”, which has received
good reviews from both the Greek and foreign magazines. It sold 250 copies.
In 1999 we release the self financed demo CD “The Angels Are Back”,
which despite the bad criticism it received from a big Greek magazine,
it managed to get promosing and good reviews from aborad. The sales exceeded
the 650 copies and led the band to a headline show in the Festival of Larissa,
where bands from all over Greece played in front of 300 people. In 2004
ANGELKNIGHT participate with the sonf “Saviour Of Our World” in the compilation
CD “Greece Attacks-The next Assault” compiled by Sound&Vision
Distribution Label. In the beginning of 2005 we released the EP “Rage
OF Angels” , which has earned the support of the European press and has
exceeded the 1000 sales in less than 7 months! Nowadays the band prepares
songs for its first full length album and plays live shows all over Greece.
2. HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO USE ANGELKNIGHT AS A
BAND NAME? CAN WE SAY THAT YOU ARE, IN A WAY, A WHITE METAL BAND?
In a way we could accept the term white metal
cause we refer through our lyrics to God, Angels and other cosmic beings
but that’s all to it . We are not the Christian gospel – like metal bands
(i.e Stryper) .We prefer to name our music as Darkpower metal, since
we can kind of envision through God’s eyes that He is disgusted of humanity
and as a punishment He sends His Angels, to bring destruction and balance
following the laws of entropy. The leader of this punishing angelic force
is named Angelknight. And in a way that’s how we got our name.
3. YOU HAVE RELEASED ONE DEMO. CAN YOU TELL ME
HOW AND IN WHICH WAYS DID THIS PROCEDURE OF RECORDING THE DEMO HELP YOU?
CAN YOU SAY THAT THE RELEASE OF THE DEMO HAS HELPED YOU TO IMPROVE AS MUSICIANS?
According to our biography this is not our
first release…so we forgive you for this, cause you just found out about
us. The cd – Rage Of Angels is a self – financed production, so it is easy
to say that there are a lot of mistakes. But that is what the purpose of
mistakes is, to learn from them and be better in the future. First of all
, I do not consider my self as a musician and I don’t believe that any
other member of us do so! Since my knowledge of music theory is minimal.
In spite of this I do write all the songs! Sounds weird but I believe
that is the miracle of creation :P Improvement comes from constant practice
and in our new material we do sound improved and better than before.
4. NOW THAT SOME TIME HAS PASSED FROM THE RELEASE
OF YOUR DEMO, WHICH DO YOU THINK ARE ITS WEAK POINTS THAT YOU’D LIKE TO
IMPROVE IN YOUR NEW RELEASES?
We focused on a more professional type of
work this time. Therefore minimizing the chance of errors on both music
and production.
5. BY THE WAY, ARE THERE ANY NEW ELEMENTS THAT
YOU WILL ADD TO YOUR MUSIC IN YOUR UPCOMING RELEASES?
The only element that you will find in our
new release is … Fire.The Fire that gushes from our souls and drives our
music.
6. LET’S TALK ABOUT THE LYRICS… WHO IS RESPONSIBLE
FOR THEM AND FOR WHAT KIND OF THEMES DO YOU LIKE TO TALK ABOUT? DO YOU
USE ANY CERTAIN SOURCES OF INSPIRATION?
Inspiration comes from everywhere! I could
say in a way that inspiration comes from above! I’m inspired from images,
sounds, feelings… well as I said everything. I’m the one writing the lyrics
and my favorite discussion topics are metaphysics, par physics issues.
In general the flawed ways of our modern life.
7. CAN YOU TELL US IN A FEW WORDS, WHICH THE THEME
OF EACH SONG THAT YOU HAVE INCLUDED IN YOUR DEMO IS?
Alright … the first song is a “Portal” introducing
you to our world. So close your eyes, listen to the music and enter…
When you open the Portal … you find yourself in the “Rage Of Angels “battlefield
…. Well … the title speaks for itself. Third comes “Now It’s Your Call”
that speaks for the one last chance given to Man to make things right or
perish. It is Man’s call to make a new start for the world. Fourth
one, is our big hit … “Saviour Of Our World “ that entered the compilation
Greece Attacks – The Next Assault. It speaks of the treason of man towards
the One and His forthcoming revenge, coming through us. Last song is the
“Time For Truth” that refers to the upcoming judgment day, where Man will
come forth be judged and either punished or saved. I think punished sounds
better .
8. IN THE LAST EMAIL YOU SENT ME YOU SAID TO ME
THAT YOU ARE PREPARING YOUR DEBUT FULL LENGTH ALBUM. CAN YOU TELL US SOME
MORE THINGS ABOUT IT? FOR EXAMPLE THE TITLE, WHEN WILL IT BE READY AND
ARE YOU GOING TO RELEASE IT UNDER A LABEL? WIILL YOU INCLUDE ANY OF THE
DEMO SONGS IN YOUR NEW ALBUM?
First things first. Yes some of the songs
will be re-recorded for the new release and we will give them a more experienced
touch. We haven’t decided on the album’s title yet. It will depend on the
songs that will enter the first official album. I hope in the future, you
will be able to listen to one of the new songs so you will have a much
better opinion about our effort. We are very close coming in terms
of agreement with a Greek label that supports many upcoming metal bands.
9. YOU ARE FROM LARISSA, A TOWN THAT IS QUIET
FAR FROM THE CAPITAL OF GREECE. SO WHICH IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM THAT
A METAL BAND FROM A SMALL GREEK TOWN HAS TO BE CONFRONTED WITH, IF IT WANTS
TO BECOME KNOWN?
As you said, distance is a major problem.
We need to try twice as hard to get in touch with all those who support
metal scene (radio, magazines, labels, e.t.c).
10. DID YOU SEND THE DEMO TO ANY MAGAZINES? WHAT
KIND OF REVIEWS DID YOU RECEIVE? DID YOU ALSO SEND YOUR DEMO TO MAGAZINES
ABROAD?
Yes we have send the CD “Rage Of Angels” on
both Greek and foreign magazines. We are quiet pleased with the reviews,
for the fact that they helped us promote our music and for arranging some
shows .
11. DID YOU HAVE ANY CONTACTS FROM FANS OUTSIDE
GREECE?
We have received fan-mail from people coming
from Poland, US, Canada, Japan and we’ve been also invited to play live
in Bulgaria, Turkey, FYROM, Serbia, Romania and we are discussing to participate
in a summer festival in South Italy. Of course this means a lot of expenses
for us but we will try to make it true… cause this is the meaning of playing
this God gifted music…to play live…to live the show…the sweat .. the headbanging…the
whole excitement.
12. YOU HAVE PARTICIPATED IN THE GREECE ATTACKS
COMPILATION. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SUCH KIND OF EFFORTS? DID THIS PARTICIPATION
OF YOURS IN THE COMPILATION HELP YOU BECOME MORE FAMOUS OR AT LEAST REACH
A WIDER AUDIENCE?
We are proud of participating in this collection
and of being in a way chosen to represent our country through it. It has
helped us on getting known abroad and get in talk with magazines from abroad.
13. RECENTLY YOU HAVE PLAYED IN THESSALONIKI SUPPORTING
FIREWIND. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THAT SHOW? IS THERE ANY CHANCE TO COME
AGAIN AND PLAY HERE?
We were supposed to support Firewind playing
in Larissa, not Thessaloniki, but we weren’t allowed to do so! Cause a
motherfucking piece of shit, the club’s owner has a personal problem with
us cause we didn’t want to practice in his (so called) studio (and pay
him of course) but in our own studio. So he did not let us play causing
a lot of trouble to the managers that were arranging this gig threading
them that if we were to play he wouldn’t give the place for the gig… a
complete asshole. I hope he dies soon so I get a chance to piss on his
grave. I hereby call upon All the other metal bands not to play in his
shitty house… Now to get back on track, we played twice in Thessaloniki
during last March. The first one was at Mylos club where we opened act
for Kinetic and Sarissa. Two bands we highly respect and appreciate. That
was our first live performance in your city and we were a bit nervous dealing
with sound problems all the time. The second show took place at the fantastic
stage of Rock Bottom were we played with three more bands. It was fucking
awesome and I think that the audience liked it as much as we did. We are
now discussing for two more shows but still haven’t decided about the exact
dates. We really had a great time in Thessaloniki and the experience of
the whole show was the best (of all) for us…so we are definitely gonna
return. Thessalonikians as an audience have their way to embrace a band
they like… so we thank them and we promise in the next show to give our
110% for them… I hope to be able to talk in person with you this time ?
14. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME TO REPLY
THESE QUESTIONS! THE LAST LINES BELONG TO YOU. LEAVE A MESSAGE TO THE READERS
OF BEHIND THE VEIL WEBZINE…
“Be proud of what you are and what you stand
for”. From our heart , thank you! METAL FOREVER – FOREVER METAL
Nick "William_Kidd"
Parastatidis
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