Black Abyss

4 years have passed from their debut and with the support of black dressed angels, BLACK ABYSS stRike back and are ready to start their metal rebellion. So friends of sincere heavy/power metal check out this group, I am sure that you  will have plenty of good time. 
1. HELLO GUYS, 4 YEARS AFTER YOUR DEBUT ALBUM “LAND OF DARKNESS” YOU STRIKE BACK WITH ANOTHER VERY GOOD HEAVY POWER METAL RELEASE. SO WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT “ANGELS WEAR BLACK” AND WHICH ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS?
  • Well, as with every “new” record, you like it more than the old one. That’s quite normal ;-) A lot of time has passed and to our mind the songwriting on “Angels wear Black” is far better than on “Land of Darkness”. And we are very happy that a cool label like Massacre Records released the record. But we don’t expect anything. We’re just trying to give our best on every record and at every show. But we’re very happy that Massacre gave us the opportunity to go on tour with EXCITER and STEEL ATTACK. That was a dream come true! 
2.  ALMOST 4 YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE YOUR DEBUT ALBUM AND I WAS THINKING THAT YOU HAVE QUITTED. SO WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG TO RELEASE YOUR SECOND ALBUM? HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO SIGN WITH MASSACRE?
  • During the recordings of “Angels wear Black” our old label went bankropt and we had to interupt the recordings. After a while we decided to finish “Angels wear Black” on our own, even though it was quite expensive. Because of that break we lost a lot of time. Then we had to find a new label and some Line Up changes took place. That made us lose time again and so on. We sent the finished recordings to a lot of Metal Labels and Massacre made us the best offer. So we signed with Massacre.
3. OK THE TITLE OF YOUR ALBUM IS KIND OF ENIGMATIC AND I WANT TO ASK YOU WHY DO YOU THINK THAT ANGELS WEAR BLACK? HAVE YOU SEEN AN ANGEL WEARING BLACK? ? NOW SERIOUSLY WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SAY WITH THE TITLE?
  • The Album title is [obviously ;-)] taken from the song “When Angels wear Black”. This song is a hommage from our Guitarist Stefan to his (and my) favourite band IRON MAIDEN. If you read the lyrics and listen to the song you will find a lot references to MAIDEN: the fact that it is an epic, the melodie lines, the riffs and the lyrics.There is no other deeper meaning to the lyrics. When Armaggedon is at hand, the angels will wear black. And why not? 
4. SINCE WE TALK ABOUT YOUR NEW ALBUM AND THE PROMO I GOT DOESN’T INCLUDE THE LYRICS, CAN YOU TELL ME A FEW THINGS ABOUT THEM? WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR WRITING THEM AND WHICH IS THE THEMATOLOGY OF EACH SONG INCLUDED IN YOUR ALBUM?
  • Well, sadly I’m the wrong person to answer this question. Stefan wrote all the lyrics and could surely tell you a lot about them. I’d like to point out two songs and will explain what the lyrics mean to me, but in the end everybody is free to have his own interpretation. And I don’t know if Stefan wanted to express what I’m thinking about them. “Time” deals with this strange phenomenon called… guess what?… time! When we’re young it seems that we will live forever and we don’t care about time. But when you grow older the years seem to pass quicker and quicker and your life is running like sand through your hands. You’ll never have that feeling of infinity like in your childhood again. In the end, time is the most precious thing that we all have and so you should try to have a good time, all the time ;-) “Rebellion” is to my mind a classical “Resistance” song. Get your lazy ass up from in front of your fuckin’ television and don’t always believe what the media, politicians or other persons try to tell you! Be yourself and question the world around you. Don’t accept to be a mindless robot. Get up and raise your voice. Heavy Metal is also about being different than the mainstream. To my mind that includes to use your brain and not to accept “worked out” opinions from others. 
5. IN MY OPINION YOUR MUSIC BALANCES BETWEEN THE U.S. AND GERMAN POWER METAL SCHOOL. DO YOU AGREE? WHICH BANDS HAVE INFLUENCED YOU AND NAME 5 OF YOUR ALL TIME FAVORITE ALBUMS. 
  • Yes, a lot of people told us that the record sounds half german Power Metal half american Power Metal. But to be honest, nobody in the band was thinking about that during the songwriting period. Stefan comes up with riffs and if everybody thinks that it is cool, then we’ll use it. May it sound german, american or strange. Whatever. I don’t care about categories anymore, and nor does anybody else in the band. When I was younger I was mainly listening to american Power Metal Bands like Metal Church, Riot, Vicious Rumors, Sanctuary and Savatage. So maybe I still somehow prefer the American Style subconsciously. Puh! There are so many great records. And I like so many different styles. I could name my all time 50, but only 5 ;-) I will try, but I’m sure I will forget a lot… ;-)
  • Iron Maiden – Live after Death
  • Sanctuary – Into the Mirror Black
  • The Mars Volta – De-loused in the Comatorium
  • Tool – Aenima
  • Morbid Angel - Covenant
6. ALL THE TRACKS IN YOUR ALBUM ARE VERY GOOD, BUT MY FAVORITE ONE IS “REBELLION”. SO CAN YOU TELL ME WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE COMPOSITION IN YOUR ALBUM AND WHY? 
  • I got three favourite songs on the album: “Damnation” because it kicks ass live big time and is the perfect Opener for a show. "Shadows from the Past” because of the slow and heavy pace. It brings some change after the 3 fast songs at the beginning. And “Time” because I like the vocal arrangements a lot. 
7. A QUESTION I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO ASK YOU IS ABOUT THE SONG “BURNING BRIDGES” OF YOUR DEBUT ALBUM WHICH AS IT STARTS SOUNDS EXACTLY THE SAME LIKE CRIMSON GLORY’S “RED SHARKS”. DID YOU DO THAT ON PURPOSE OR WAS IT JUST A COINCIDENCE? DID YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH CRIMSON GLORY OR LAWYERS? 
  • That’s what I told the guys too, when I joined the band! ;-))) I joined the band long after “Land of Darkness” was released. It is nearly 1 to 1 the same riff. The funny thing is that except me, nobody in the band knew CRIMSON GLORY (Shame on them!!!). So they wrote the same riff without knowing about the “original”. They didn’t steal it and were quite surprised when I played “Red Sharks” to them.
8. HAVE YOU SCHEDULED ANY LIVE SHOWS? IF YES, DO YOU HAVE PLANS TO COME HERE IN GREECE?
  • I got some good friends in a greek band called … So we were already trying to get some gigs together in the past, but it didn’t work out. But we will give it a try again! And if any greek booker reads this: Please book us for a show or more in Greece!!! We’d love to play here!
9. SOME TIME HAS PASSED SINCE YOU’VE RELEASED YOUR ALBUM, SO HOW DID THE ZINES AND FANS RECEIVE YOUR NEW ALBUM? WHICH WAS THE MEANEST REVIEW YOU‘VE RECEIVED? HAVE ANY FANS FROM GREECE CONTACTED YOU?
  • The reactions from the webzines and fanzines were great. We were very happy about their reactions! But the reactions from the big magazines like Rock Hard and Metal Hammer were a little bit disappionting for us. The sad thing for us is that these two magazines have a lot of influence and it is very difficult to sell records without their support. But of course we won’t give up and maybe they will like the next record more. Who knows. The meanest review was in a german webzine called “Vampster”. In fact I don’t mind “bad” reviews because it is normal. Everybody got a different taste and I don’t like every band either. But that one was devastating and mainly because of the fact that the guy who wrote it plays in an unknown german Power Metal Band and was jaleous on our deal with Massacre. I know this guy and his band for a long time and even organized a gig for them in the past. It disappionted me that he stabbed us in the back like this, though we’re all just metalheads and should stick together. 
10. NOWADAYS ALMOST ALL AROUND THE WORLD THE OLIVER STONE’S MOVIE “ALEXANDER” IS PLAYED ON THE CINEMAS. I DON’T KNOW IF YOU HAVE SEEN IT, BUT HERE IN GREECE  MANY PEOPLE SEEM TO BE ANNOYED BECAUSE THERE ARE RUMORS THAT THE MOVIE SHOWS ALEXANDER AS A BAD PERSONALITY. HOW DO YOU COMMENT ALL THESE? HOW DID THE PEOPLE OF GERMANY REACT?
  • Unfortunately I haven’t seen the film now, so I can’t comment on it. I heard about these rumors in the media, but I don’t know how the german audience reacted on the film. As I was interested a lot in history when I was younger and learned latin at school, Alexander was always a fascinating caracter for me. And because of the Maiden Song of course ;-) It would be disappointing for me, too, to see his legend destroyed. But in the end neither you, the guys who made the film, nor me knew Alexander personally. So it is difficult to judge him anyway. On the other hand nobody can deny the fact that he was a most outstandig historical person. So what is a Hollywood movie, that will be forgotten in ten years, compared to a person like Alexander that will be know as long as humanity exists? To my mind people just shouldn’t bother about a film. There are enough problems anyway. 
11.DO YOU THINK THAT ART MUST BE FREE EVEN IF IT IS PROVOCATIVE? CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF ARTISTS BEFORE CREATING SOMETHING HAVE TO ASK THE PEOPLE IF THEIR WORK WILL OFFEND THEM OR NOT?
  • Of course! To my mind art has become more and more important, since the media mainly belong to these global operating companies. Censorship is a crime to my mind. I admire bands like Rage Against The Machine, System of a Down, Ministry or A Perfect Circle that have always pursued a distinct political line and shown the way certain governments or companys or whatever maniplulate the public opinion and try destroy democracy and free art! The day that there will be no free art anymore, I see no more hope for humanity.
12. I KNOW IT IS A LITTLE BIT SOON FOR ASKING, BUT ON THE OTHER HAND YOU HAVE BEEN INACTIVE FOR 4 YEARS. SO DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER COMPOSITIONS READY THAT YOU WILL INCLUDE IN YOUR UPCOMING ALBUM? WHEN SHOULD WE WAIT FOR IT TO BE RELEASED?
  • Well, we’d all love to go to the studio tomorrow. But it is more a business question and a question of money than our free will. The best thing for our band would be to release a new record in autumn. I’m sure it will not work out, though we will give our very best. Maybe next spring.All of us are collecting their ideas at the moment and we have a lot of rough songs and riffs, but no worked out songs at the moment. All the business shit slowed down the songwriting process. I hope that the next record will be heavier and, like you said, more “american style” in the vein of Nevermore and Vicious Rumors. But in fact it is too early to say something. Let’s see what happens. We will be as surprised as you guys ;-)
13. IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO COOPERATE WITH FAMOUS MUSICIANS WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
  • Again there are so many I would love to work with. First of all of course Steve Harris, Dave Murray and Bruce Dickinson. They have always been my heroes and I’d love to see how they work in the studio or in the rehearsing room. Ronny James Dio (his voice is still sooo amazing), Steve Morse (maybe the best guitarist I’ve ever seen live), Maynard Keenan (what a great voice and what an intelligent man), Trey Azagthoth (Trey would have to show me his secret Cthulhu scales), Zakk Wylde (that man just rocks! I love the way he uses overtones), Jeff Martin (his melodie lines for The Tea Party just break my heart) and Dimebag Darell (RIP!!! He was the riff god of our times! And will forever be!) would be other great musicians I’d like to work with, but that will only happen in my dreams… ?
14. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE INTERVIEW! YOU CAN SAY HERE WHATEVER YOU WANT AND ALSO MAKE A WISH FOR THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS AND THE NEW YEAR…
  • Thank you very much for the cool questions and sorry for the late reply. To all your readers and you of course, a peaceful, healthy and metal thrashing mad new year! Don’t forget to support your local underground scene! You will find a lot of great bands right in your little (or big) village/town/city. Thank you for supporting Black Abyss, to you by doing the interview, to your readers by reading it. Please check out our new record! We’ve put a lot of heartblood into it.UP THE IRONS!
Nikos "William_Kidd" Parastatidis
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