• Hail Nick! I must say that we created our band because we wanted to express ourselves through music, and we had a very specific idea about what we wanted to create! A straight heavy metal with few power metal elements, served along with some epic influences! We have a common attitude about what we want SACRED BLOOD to be, so I guess that’s why we sound tight!

• We got together for the first time as a band in 2003, and all of us have participated in some metal projects for some time. So we were thirsty for playing metal once more! We started as a cover band in the beginning, and we scheduled a show in the Valhalla metal club in Komotini. After the show, we all felt great, so we decided to continue as full time band. The only members that remain from then are me and Gregory ( founding members), and our solo guitarist George. The current line up is 

• John ( Iason) : vocals
• Argiris ( Polideykis) : guitars and keyboards
• George ( Talos ) solo guitars
• Gregory ( Faethon): Bass

• And as drum player, we have teamed for the time being with the well known session drum player George Karahalios ( Snowblind, ex Spitfire. Ktl..). We are audiotiong a couple of drummers right now, so if you think you are the man, and you live in Athens, drop as a line! The most important things till now? I think that one of the most important moments was when we met John, our current singer ( ex Airged L’amh), and of course all of our three live appearances..We must also pay honour to Chrisafis Tantanozis who helped us a great deal in our first steps as a band. He’s great! Chris filakia!! 

• Well, about a year ago, in April 2004, I received a call from a guy that told me he was John Georgopoylos, the ex singer of Airged L’amh and founder of a new born greek music label. He told me that he had listened to our demo, and that he wanted us to cooperate with the label. We arranged a meeting, and soon we found out that the cooperation was not meant to stay only in band-label cooperation.. We offered him the place of the singer, as we found our selves being something like soulmates! Now, we cannot imagine SACRED BLOOD without him. John is a full time member of SACRED BLOOD, and a true brother! As for our previous singer, he was a great guy too! He got married though, and now he has two beautiful children! His name is Nikos, and he is a good friend of ours until now..We split up in friendly way, because we were moving to Athens, and he moved to Trikala, to live with his wife and children to start a business of his own..Every now and then we see each other in Komotini, and we drink beers together! Unfortunately he is not singing in any other group, but in the future he may do a couple of guest vocals in us, just to remember the past.

• Fortunately we did not have problems with the band from Spain, and that’s the reason we changed our name.This band from Spain plays aor/hard rock, I listened to them, and I must say they are quite good! We changed our name also because we wanted something that would give our trademark as a band. By SACRED BLOOD we mean ICHOR, the blood of our forefathers, which we all carry today as well.I see every Scandinavian band talking about their forefathers and their history, it’s time for someone to talk about Greek culture history and Gods! That does not mean this will be our exclusive field of lyrics, but a part of it for the time being!

• No, Morpheus exists with the same name, Godmachine is another band! About Morpheus..The guys now stay in Salonika, and I was one of the founding members along with Chris (guitars), and Sakis ( vocals ). We were friends from school with these guys, and they are very good friends of me.Unfortunately, I left from the band because of some music differences that came along at 2002. Now they follow a more dark path of black death with atmpospheric clues. Their demo is a killer! Check it out! As for Godmachine, yes it’s the band that you mention..I got together with Chris Bouroutzis after I left from Morpheus, and we united under the name Undertaker, and we did a few rehearsals..That was the time I had to leave Alexandroupolis and go to Komotini and I left Undertaker, which I later found out that Chris continued with another name! He is a great guy too!

• My friend, you could not be more accurate! Bands like the ones you mentioned are the ones that make me shiver! As for Hammerfall, only the first two albums.Generally we are influenced by bands such as GRAVE DIGGER, RUNNING WILD, ACCEPT, MANOWAR, BATHORY, I.MAIDEN, STORMWITCH, DOMINE and we try to make our music due to the feeling we have listening to these bands. Personally the American heavy metal scene is not my favorite one, but I like a few bands, as TWISTED TOWER DIRE.

• 5 of my favourite albums? That’s difficult..Well..

• 1) MANOWAR “ HAIL TO ENGLAND”
• 2) BATHORY “ BLOOD ON ICE”
• 3) GRAVE DIGGER “ KNIGHS OF THE CROSS”
• 4) RUNNING WILD “ THE RIVALRY”
• 5) ROTTING CHRIST “ TRIARCHY OF THE LOST LOVERS”

• The worst review we had was the 6.5/10 rating in Metalzone magazine, and we had equally praising reviews at your webzine, Warinc, the temple of metal, forever underground zine etc.. We made 1000 copies of the demo, and about 600 of them at least is sold or given..Fans from other countries contacted us when they listened our songs in some download lists, but that was not too big. I hope now with John, we can make a bigger effort in promoting ourselves! 

• As you know, John is the owner of BURNING STAR RECORDS, along with Michael Dalakos from THE TEMPLE OF METAL. For the time being we concentrate on the recordings which we have funded by ourselves. When we complete it, we will considerate all the offers available, and together we will decide which is best for the band. About the album now..It will be a concept one about the glorious battle of Thermopylae, and some background stuff about it. I think that we will be releasing it at autumn 2005, and musically it will be ready by summer. As soon as we have something ready, we will upload a song at our website, which is under construction right now.. Here are some info and tracklist:

• 1)Intro ( a 3 minute epic piano and keyboard arrangement, along with some narration from Jonh..one of my favourites!)
• 2) Land of the Brave ( a classic heavy/speed metal song about the city of Sparta and its customs)
• 3) Hordes of Evil ( a more dark riffed, mid tempo song about the Persian armies..)
• 4) Warrior’s song ( A power speed anthem, talking about the marching of the Spartan braves and their faith to Ares, the God of War)
• 5) Blades in the night ( A heavy/speed/power song talking about the attempt of 12 spartans to sneak into the Persian camp and kill Xerxes! What happened? You will know soon..)
• 6) The Oracle (  a small epic one minute song, about the prophecy that was given to the Spartans before the battle)
• 7) Farewell to heroes ( temporary title) ( an epic ballad, talking about the feelings of the Spartans leaving behind their beloved people, and the encouragement that the Athenian poet Tirtaios gave them..)
• 8) Sacred Blood ( the self titled track of the band,again with heavy/power/speed approach, talking about our origins, Ichor the blood of Gods and heroes, and bloody battle rage! )
• 9) King of Sparta ( a classic heavy/power ala 80’s song about King Leonidas, who preferred to sacrifice his live instead of Sparta being enslaved to the enemy)
• 10) Gates of Fire ( a ten minute epic song, with breaks, fast and slow riffs, heavy and epic approach, choruses, etc..talking about much stuff such as the last stand and the battle feelings, along with some historic stuff.)

• We thought it would be a good idea for a song or too, but this would take us back for sure.So, who knows? Maybe in the future.We will perform them live, that’s for sure!

10.ARGIRI, I THINK YOU TOLD ME THAT YOU ARE ALSO THE
FOUNDER OF THE OFFICIAL GREEK GRAVE DIGGER FAN CLUB. SO CAN YOU TELL US HOW DID YOU DECEIDE TO DO THAT AND WHAT DOES IT OFFER TO THE PEOPLE THAT WILL SUBSCRIBE. HOW MUCH THE SUBSCRIPTION COSTS? 

• When I found the fanclub 5 years ago, I had the subscription fee at 15 euros, with three fanzines each year..Now that I do not have much time, I don’t make the fanzine any more, but I don’t have a subscription fee either. I send newsletters  to the fans when there are some news about the band, and I provide them every now and then with promotional stuff of the band. Last year we had a party of the fanclub at Texas club, in Athens and we drunk beers all together! Through the fanzines I gave to the fans some guitar tabs from the Grave Digger songs I collected, as well as the lyrics from their first albums that are not in the booklets, and some bonus songs that were not released. Finally, I interview mr Boltendahl as often as I can about the band, and I inform the fans about it.

• For the time being Grave Digger are promoting their new album “The Last Supper” ,which by the way is great! They will visit Athens at 6 March in Rodon club. I have discussed something with Chris, it’s a bit of a surprise, but I can’t tell you anything until it’s confirmed!

12.SO HAVE YOU PLAYED ANY LIVE SHOWS WITH SACRED
BLOOD? WHICH LIVE APPEARENCE OF YOURS DO YOU REMEMBER THE MOST AND WHY? DO YOU HAVE PLANS TO TOUR IN THE FUTURE? IS THERE A CHANCE TO COME FROM THESSALONIKI?

• With SACRED BLOOD we have played 3 live shows. The show I remember most was the one we had 1.5 years ago in Valhalla metal club in Komotini, where we played for about 2 hours, and was our first official presentation of our demo cd. Some people there already knew our songs, and were banging and screaming with us! Great feeling, I can’t wait to play live! Damn the recordings.. Thessaloniki? Probably yes, we have some good friends there, we are arranging a mini tour in Greece, let’s see if we all can make it..

• Between Troy and Alexander I preferred Troy, because despite its historical mistakes, it does not affect in a negative way any of the Greek heroes..Well, Achilles seems a little bit arrogant, but we can forgive that I assume. The thing we cannot forgive is the fact that in the movie Alexander, the director implies that Alexander the Great had homosexual appetites! THAT’S UNFORGIVABLE! I went to see the movie because I wanted to form my personal opinion after having considered the facts, and I think the movie is a bunch of crap. The history tell us that when a local king of Asia offered a young boy “for Alexander’s appetites”, the Great one had him executed because as he said “ What evil have I done to you, most despised of all humans, to deserve such treatment? My taste is not to that direction and you know it..” History speaks for itself.. Now, I truly want to see a movie inspired from the book “GATES OF FIRE” , which is a novel about the Battle of Thermopylae. I also would like to see a movie about Elrick of Melnibone, the legendary anti-hero of Michael Moorcock..

• My friend Nick, I must thank you for your time, and keep your faith in the things that deserve it.Heavy metal, brotherhood and integrity, loyalty the ones who believe in you and honesty against all. Good luck with your webzine, and I hope we can talk to each other from a closer distance next time! To the readers of the webzine: Don’t believe what they keep telling you! Read for yourselves and find out! And donnot forget to visit BEHIND THE VEIL regurarly! It’s an honest effort and very well made also.. Take care!