Phantom
Lord
Phantom Lord is a stable
value for the Greek heavy/power metal scene over the last years and they
continue offering us excellent and quality albums such as their latest
effort titled "Imperial Fall", which is musically great and with thought
provoking lyrics. So, if you like this kind of music, you should check
them out with no second thought!
1. HELLO, FIRST OF ALL I HAVE TO ADMIT THAT
YOUR NEW ALBUM ALONG WITH YOUR DEBUT ARE MY FAVORITE ONES. HOWEVER 3 YEARS
HAVE PASSED SINCE YOUR PREVIOUS RELEASE. WHICH WERE THE REASONS THAT CAUSED
THIS DELAY?
We really don’t consider one and a half year
being a “lot of time” since our previous release, because that is the real
time between our 2 releases. You see, “Imperial Fall” took a lot of pre-production
so the result could justify our efforts and we think it really did.
2. OK, ON YOUR NEW ALBUM YOU INTRODUCE US 2 NEW
MEMBERS. CAN YOU GIVE US SOME INFO ABOUT THEM? HAVE THEY PLAYED IN OTHER
GROUPS BEFORE PHANTOM LORD? HAVE THEY CONTRIBUTED IN A WAY TO THE NEW COMPOSITIONS?
Yes, we have Manos behind the drum kit, and
the thing is that is not as “new” as he seems to be. We had Manos on our
gig supporting Iron Maiden. No, he shares our common musical dream and
he plays really good too. As for the keyboard part we always had session
players but now we are in discussion with a standard player to become a
permanent member.
3. “THE CIRCLE OF THE WASTED” ALBUM, IN MY OPINION,
WAS A PURE NEOCLASSICAL METAL RELEASE, HOWEVER ON “IMPERIAL FALL” YOU TRY
TO KEEP A BALANCE BETWEEN THE SOUND OF YOUR FIRST TWO ALBUMS AND NEOCLASSICAL
METAL. AM I RIGHT? DID YOU DO THAT ON PURPOSE?
We think our recent approach on “Imperial
Fall” reacts in more modern way than our past releases. We don’t accept
the term “neoclassical” really for it’s bounding our music. Each record
we make reflects on a better self acknowledgement thus it is a better release.
4. LET’S TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE TITLE OF
THE NEW ALBUM, “IMPERIAL FALL” WHICH I FIND VERY SYMBOLIC. WHAT DO YOU
EXACTLY WANT TO SAY WITH THAT?
In a few words, “Imperial Fall”, is the main
pictures the title gives. Man is made out of imperial noble nature thus
manufactured to produce something good but you see there is a certain fall,
everything of evil nature combined with the previous image inside one kind,
man.
5. LET’S TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE LYRICS. ACTUALLY
YOU CAN DO ALL THE TALKING ?… IN A FEW WORDS TELL US WHICH THE STORY OF
EACH SONG IS…
I already told you about “Imperial Fall”,
now “Double Cage” talks about a murderer who in his own head doesn’t know
if he is the victim or not. Generally all of our songs talk about the human
condition. “Break Of Dawn” for instance has to do with a desperate man
torn in agony who watches silently the first rays of light and maybe hopes
for something better.
6. I PERSONALLY WANT TO STAND ON THE SONG “TIMELINE”,
WHICH, IN MY OPINION, IS THE MOST COMPLETE SONG YOU HAVE EVER COMPOSED.
IS IT BASED ON THE MOVIE AND THE BOOK OF MICHAEL CHRICHTON THAT HAS THE
SAME TITLE?
It is not completely irrelevant if I may say,
we think as a linear projection, time and all its products. It is really
hard for the common man to picture time in a more than two dimensional
ways. This is what we line out in “Timeline” maybe a deeper “cut” upon
the sense of time.
7. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF TIME TRAVELS? WHICH SPECIFIC
PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT IN THE PAST AND WHY?
Well I’d really want to think at some point
it might happen. I’ve never really thought which particular period, but
let’s say 70’s or 80’s I think back then things were purer, clearer.
8. I KNOW THAT FOR THE MUSICIANS IT’S HARD TO
CHOOSE WHICH SONG THEY LOVE MORE FROM THOSE THEY HAVE COMPOSED. IMAGINE
THOUGH THAT YOUR LABEL WANTS TO RELEASE A SINGLE. WHICH SONGS OF YOUR ALBUM
WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO PUT AND WHY (NAME 4)?
Most definitely “Stellar Forge”, it combines
sheer power, melody, some really cool female backing vocals. And we may
say that it represents the spirit of the record on its whole.
9. A QUESTION THAT I BELIEVE YOU LISTEN VERY OFTEN
LATELY. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO CONTINUE YOUR CAREER ON SLEASZY RIDER AND
NOT ON BLACK LOTUS WHICH IS A MORE EXPERIENCED LABEL? ARE YOU SATISFIED
WITH YOUR NEW LABEL?
Having a new record we thought it was about
time we changed our label too. There wasn’t any particular problem with
the Black Lotus people but having met the people of Sleaszy Rider, they
struck us with the same feeling of innovation we have on “Imperial Fall”
so we stuck with them.
10. THE BIGGEST PROBLEM FOR THE GREEK BANDS IS
TO CONVINCE THE GREEK FANS TO SUPPORT THEM. HOW SUCCESSFUL DO YOU BELIEVE
THAT YOU ARE ON THIS MATTER?
Greek fans are in a pretty difficult position
we’d say, you see they have thousands of releases on their feet, little
amounts of money and Greek bands on the power/heavy stream that don’t take
themselves seriously enough. It’s pretty tough but I think we manage to
pass over that with good music, good productions and generally good attitude
towards our craft.
11. HOW DID THE PRESS RECEIVE YOUR NEW RELEASE
TILL NOW? WHICH WAS THE WORST REVIEW THAT YOU HAVE READ? DO YOU THINK THAT
EVEN A BAD REVIEW CAN HELP YOU IMPROVE OR IS IT OF NO IMPORTANCE TO YOU?
We have had some pretty good reviews over
“Imperial Fall” till now like the recent ‘Metal Hammer” issue, a bad review
can not really turn us down. We take it under serious consideration checking
out if it has any real substance. You see we give to the people only the
best of what we produce after a pretty thorough examination of our stuff.
12. WHAT ABOUT LIVE SHOWS? DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS
TO PLAY LIVE TO PROMOTE YOUR NEW ALBUM?
We already played most of “Imperial Fall”
supporting DOMINE on their latest show, here in Greece, and of course we
are open to any suggestion that may come up, any interesting big promoter
may address us to our e-mail.
13. SINCE WE TALK ABOUT LIVE SHOWS, YOU HAVE PLAYED
LIVE IN FRONT OF MANY PEOPLE (IRON MAIDEN LIVE) AND IN SMALL CLUBS. WHICH
PLACE DO YOU THINK FITS BETTER TO YOU AS ARTISTS AND AS A BAND?
The place doesn’t really matter as long as
the sound equipment and sound is efficient. 20.000 or 200 may equally give
us back the amount of energy we first produce on stage.
14. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME REPLYING! CLOSE THE
INTERVIEW AS YOU WANT AND LEAVE A MESSAGE TO THE READERS OF BEHIND THE
VEIL WEBZINE…
We thank you for having us on your webzine.
We hope our latest album speaks to lot of you people. We made it and put
all our hearts in it.
THE PHANTOM STILL HAUNTS YOU…
Basilis-Yiannis
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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