• I was hearing many rumors (good rumors) for this band and for their debut album, for quite a long time. Luckily, I had the chance to meet them in person and have a word with them and listen to their debut cd "Immortal Stories" as well. They are not just a rising force for the Greek metal scene, but for the whole metal scene in general. Don't miss them!

• We exist nearly a year and a half now and we are a four piece band. The band members are: Panagiotis Roumeliotis (guitars), Alexis Mantirakis (drums), Lois Liotakis (bass) and Sakis Koutsaftis (vocals and guitars). The band was formed basically by me. I used to play together with our drummer since we were younger so that's how the whole thing started.

2.HOW DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR MONICKER. WHO SELECTED IT AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

• The name was selected by our guitarist Panagiotis. He found it from the J.R.R. Tolkien "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy, cause he is a huge Blind Guradian and J.R.R. Tolkien fan. Elwing as far as I know was a bird with a female face that had the ability to make the immortals mortal beings and the vice versa.

3.NOW TELL ME A FEW THINGS ABOUT YOUR ALBUM. WHERE DID YOU RECORD IT, HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU, ETC...

• The album was recorded in Nemesis studios in Kavala (Crossover recorded their cd there as well). It costed us a lot of money, but for the amount of hours that we spent recording and playing in there, it wasn't that expensive after all. It took us nearly a year to finish the whole album. We were composing a song then we went in the studio, rehearsed it and recorded it, then we composed another song and that's how the story went...

4.YOU BELONG TO THE DYNAMIC OF CULT RECORDS, WHO RELEASES ONLY UNDERGROUND AND RARE STUFF. HOW COME THEY DECIDED TO RELEASE A NEW ALBUM FOR THE FIRST TIME?

• Basically, when we were recording the songs we have never thought of releasing a cd. We played just for ourselves and for our own pleasure, we didn't want to release an album or a demo. We were recording the songs for us, so we would be the only to listen to them. However, after we recorded quite many songs (the whole cd contains 11 songs and it has 55 minutes total running time), we said "why don't we send it to the labels?". The first label we saw was Cult Metal Classics, so I called them up and they told me "Ok send us your cd if you like but 99% we won't release it cause we only do re-releases". When they got the cd and listened to it, they called me back and said "Ok, we changed our minds, we will release it!".

5.SO...OK THEN YOU ANSWERED TO MY NEXT QUESTION AS WELL, WHICH WAS...IF IT'S TRUE THAT YOU FOUND A CONTRACT WITHOUT HAVING ANY DEMOS BEFORE, CAUSE I HEARD SOME PRETTY BAD THINGS AND GOSSIP FROM SOME BANDS THAT SAID THAT YOU HAD A STRONG TOOTH HELPING YOU.

• What?!!?!?!?! Who??? Us?!?!!? Yes! We had the prime minister of Greece! hahahaha

6.YOUR COVER ARTWORK WASMADE BY KEN KELLY. DID HE DRAW IT FOR YOU OR DID IT HAVE IT ALREADY AND YOU PAID HIM THE MONEY FOR THE RIGHTS TO USE IT?

• No, he didn't draw it for us. He already had it in his gallery and we paid for the rights to use it. We decided all together to use a Ken Kelly's drawing. We had some paintings in mind and then after a conversation we had, we decided to take this one.

• Cause we wanted to have this great result!

7.HOW'S THE METAL SCENE IN KAVALA? YOU HAVE QUITE MANY POWER METAL BANDS.

• We have Hatred, we have Windfall...I will sing in the new Windfall cd...

• Yes, you are right. If I am not mistaken, Metal Hammer gave them 6/10. It wasn't a bad release. They had some very good ideas in there, but I think that the band didn't work as they should. Now, they've changed their style very much. They are closer now to bands like Iced Earth and Annihilator. They added more rhythm.

8.I HAVE ONLY HEARD A SONG OF YOURS THAT APPEARED IN THE ROCK ON COMPILATION.I AM TALKING FOR THE SONG "THOR" OF COURSE, WHICH I HAVE TO SAY REMINDED ME A LOT OF BLIND GUARDIAN FROM THE "NIGHTFALL IN MIDDLE EARTH PERIOD". WHICH OTHER BANDS ARE LISTED AMONG YOUR INFLUENCES?

• Other bands...Hmmm..I think that our album is mainly based on the old Blind Guardian sound, Running Wild and Manowar. Many guys told us that we sound like old Blind Guardian.

9.I THINK THAT YOU PLAYED A LIVE SHOW A WHILE AGO, SO ARE THERE ANY PLANS FOR SOME MORE LIVE SHOWS HERE IN GREECE?

• We had a word with Battleroar when we visited Athens and we want to make two live appearances together, one in Athens and the other one in Thessaloniki around Christmas or new years eve. We will get in touch with the guys and see if something like that is possible. If we can do it, it'll be great. We are also waiting right now, this is an unofficial new and it's not 100% certain yet, but we have an offer to be the only support group to Jack Starr (the old Virgin Steele guitarist) in Athens, but we don't know when he will come.

10.I WILL NAME SOME BANDS AND I WANT YOU TO TELL ME A FEW WORDS FOR EACH ONE OF THEM. OK?

BLIND GUARDIAN:

• 9/10 (i GIVE IT TO YOU AS A GRADE).

• Hmmm....6/10 now. If you asked me some years ago I'd tell you 9/10.

• 8/10

• Yes! It was quite good!

• 9.5/10 or noooo 11/10!!!

11.IF YOU COULD TIME TRAVEL WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO AND WHICH PLACES WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT?

• Time travel? Hmmm...I think I'd go back in 1981-1982 to be able to see all Metallica's live shows.

12.OK, I GUESS THIS ONE IS A SILLY QUESTION, BUT DO YOU PREFER J.R.R. TOLKIEN OR HOWARD?

• This is an easy question! We all in the band prefer J.R.R. Tolkien more!

13.WHICH SENTIMENT DO YOU THINK IS MORE OBVIOUS IN YOUR MUSIC?

• Hmmm...I think that the songs create an epic sentiment. Heroism or something like that!

14.OK!THANK YOU! WE FINISHED. IS THERE ANYTHING MORE YOU'D LIKE TO SAY OR ADD?

• Well, I found the questions pretty much weird and unusual...You didn't ask me about the new album...

• Yes, we are planning to get in the studio on Christmas, almost all the material is ready, I don't know how many songs it will contain, but we'll try to record as many as possible. It won't be a concept, it will contain varius stories of epic thematology and we are also thinking of adding a few progressive elements...I think that's it for now.
• Thanks!