INTERVIEW WITH A LEGEND

VICE HUMAN

VICE HUMAN ARE REALY A LEGEND HERE IN GREECE. BACK IN THE 80]S THEY WERE THE FIRTS METAL BAND THAT WAS RELEASED AN OFFICIAL ALBUM! NOW AFTER SO MANY YEARS THEY ARE BCK IN ACTION ANF THEY ARE DETERMINED TO CONQUER WITH THEIR MUSIC THE REST OF THE WORLD AND NOT ONLY GREECE...

1. HELLO! YOU’VE RELEASED RECENTLY A VERY GOOD ALBUM. TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT IT (WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COMPOSITIONS, HOW LONG IT TOOK YOU TO RECORD IT, WHO WAS THE PRODUCER, ETC.).

The album was recorded between September until the end of December of 2002. It was produced by me and Kostas Manopoulos (bass player) at 911 Studio, which is owned by me ! All compositions are mine, I write all music and lyrics !

2. VICE HUMAN IS ONE OF THE FIRST GREEK METAL BANDS AND IS LOGICAL THAT MANY NEW METALLERS MIGHT NOT KNOW YOU. SO, CAN YOU PRESENT US THE BAND’S HISTORY IN A FEW WORDS?

Vice Human was formed back in 1982. On the bass there was always Kostas Manopoulos and the first drummer was Nikos Geraris who also participated in the first album which was recorded in 1984. In 1985 we recorded our second album with the title “Metal Attack”. After these records we were building our studio and playing live. Due to various problems we weren’t recording any new material but we were playing live often with other great bands, like Vavel, Thanatos Inc., Flames, Rust, Spitfire etc. Now we are back with our new album “Set me free” and we’ll see about the future !

3. BACK IN THE 80S YOU’VE RELEASED 2 ALBUMS. CAN YOU POINT OUT THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES AMONG THOSE ALBUMS AND YOUR LATEST RELEASE? IS IT POSSIBLE TO EVER RE-RELEASE THOSE ALBUMS?

There are differences in the production and in the playing of the songs. The style and the feeling remains the same. Also the new songs are a little faster and more heavy but you can easily tell that the atmosphere remains the same like in the 80’s !! Both albums have been recently released on one CD by Unisound Records and were available with the recent issue of Iron magazine !!

4. CAN YOU TELL US WHICH DIFFERENCES YOU FIND BETWEEN CONTEMPORARY METAL AND 80’S METAL? DO YOU THINK THAT PERHAPS NOWADAYS METAL HAS LOST ITS ENTHUSIASM AND INNOCENCE?

Things are a little strange nowadays, most people play extreme metal like black and stuff and those into traditional heavy metal play more “light” music. We can’t say that enthusiasm is lost since new bands come every day, but metal is divided in various forms and everybody plays and experiments with various styles outside metal making traditional metal bands being very few. We won’t change our music, we were raised with the 80’s feeling and we’ll stay like this forever !

5. DO YOU THINK THAT YOUR NEW ALBUM CAN “MOVE” YOUR OLDER FANS AND ATTRACT NEW LISTENERS? WHAT WOULD YOU ANSWER TO PEOPLE THAT MIGHT ACCUSE YOU THAT YOU ARE STUCK IN THE 80S AND DON’T ADD MODERN ELEMENTS IN YOUR SOUND?

If our older fans (if there are still any left into metal !!) listen to it, they will definitely buy it. The newer fans that are into classic heavy metal should check it out and I am sure they will like it a lot. Since now the response is great anyway ! If by the term “modern elements” you mean synthesizers or power metal harmonies, we’ll never use them, nor making our sound lighter like many old bands who still play today. We’ll just improve our productions as much as we can to make our sound clearer. About those who might accuse us for something like that, they just don’t know what is true heavy metal, all the rest is just words !!

6. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE IN YOUR MUSIC THAT MAKES YOU RECOGNIZABLE IN COMPARISON WITH OTHER BANDS OF THE SAME BRANCH? WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A FAN TO CONVINCE HIM BUY YOUR ALBUM INSTEAD OF SOMETHING ELSE?

The music we are playing has a lot of energy combined, melodic harmonies with epic elements and hard rock techniques on guitar. Maybe other records from foreign bigger bands have better productions and promotion, but we have a better and real feeling !!

7. HOW IMPORTANT ARE LYRICS FOR YOU AND WHERE ARE YOUR LYRICS REFERRING TO? COULD WE SAY THAT SOME OF THE LYRICS TALK ABOUT YOUR LIVES?

Lyrics are very important in every band because with them, you built the songs, so they must fit the music. We mostly deal with “rock” matters, like “Born for rock” , they don’t really talk about our lives, but in general about the various situations that happen all over the world like the song “Living the world”.

8. WHICH ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE? WILL YOU MAKE ANY LIVE APPEARANCES? IS THERE A CHANCE TO SEE YOU IN THESSALONIKI?

The last time we played in Thessaloniki was in 1988 with Vavel and Thanatos. If somebody invites us to play, we’ll definitely love to come again ! We played live at An Club here in Athens in April and we had good success, a lot of metal fans came to see us and were very enthousiastic !! You can check a review and photos of that event at our labels site at www.geocities.com/supremusicreations/vicehumanlive.htm ! We are always happy to play live everywhere we are invited ! By the end of this year, we’ll probably have a new CD out !

9. IF YOUR MUSIC WAS AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD IT BE? IF IT WAS A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?

For this one, you’d better ask those who listened to our album about what emotions it gave them !!! If it was painting, it would show something wild, maybe a battle or crusade from the past !!

10. IF YOU COULD BE A HISTORICAL PERSON FOR A DAY, WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE AND WHICH PERIOD OF HIS LIFE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE?

Nobody, I like being myself ! I don’t envy anyone that much so that I’d wish I was like him ! Me, myself and metal !!

11. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE THAT WHAT YOU REALLY WANTED WAS TO INVOLVE WITH MUSIC AND WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD DO IF YOU WEREN’T ABLE TO EXPRESS YOURSELF THIS WAY? IS THERE A SPECIFIC MUSICIAN THAT “INSPIRED” YOU?

I had started playing music when I as 8 years old. I started growing hair since that age and wanted to play rock music, different from what was popular in Greece. When I started playing British pop was popular in Greece and bands like Rolling Stones and Kinks. I am not inspired by any specific musician, but from the whole hard rock history !

12. WHICH IS THE WORST NIGHTMARE AND WHICH IS THE BEST DREAM YOU’VE EVER SEEN?

My best dream when I was in bed with three young women, haha !!! Generally I don’t see nightmares, so I don’t remember a good one to say here !

THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK YOU ANYTHING AND YOU’D LIKE TO MENTION?

Thank you very much for the interview ! Expect better records and more heavy material by Vice Human in the future and invite all true metallheads everywhere to check our album ! Stay Metal !

NIKOS "William_Kidd" PARASTATIDIS

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