Septicflesh

Interview date

25 Octobre 2011

Interviewer

Orion

I N T E R V I E W

Interview Christos Antoniou (face to face)


Hello Christos. Nice to meet you and thank you for this interview for our french website, AuxPortesDuMetal. So, first of all, how is this tour with Amon Amarth going? It seems to be a big success with some sold out dates, like tonight in Rennes.

I think that this is the best tour we have ever done. We have done some tours with big bands like Cradle of Filth and Satyricon in US and in Europe and Behemoth again in US, with Children of Bodom but this is the most successfull. The majority of the shows till now is nearly sold out . Some of them are sold out and we play in a crowd about one thousand people, minimum. It’s a great opportunity for us to promote the new album in Germany where we are not so strong. Germany is one of the biggest market for Metal and it is one of the best opportunity for us to perform in a new market.

Once again, Sotiris (clean vocals, guitars) is not touring with you. Why is he so rarely on stage with you?

Sotiris works in a bank. It’s not possible for him to follow us. We are very sorry about it, you know, we’d love to have Sotiris here for the performance because we started the band with him but unfortunately, he is not able to follow us. He might do some special performances as vocalist in Athens and Salonica the next two shows after this tour but only that, at the moment.

One last question about this tour in France. Do you know why there is no date in Paris?

Because I think Amon Amarth played in Bataclan, last may.

So, another question about France. Your first albums were edited by Holy Records, a french label. Now, you are edited by Season of Mist, another french label. It is a choice to work with french labels?

We build a very good relationship with french labels and french fans and Michael (Berberian), the owner of Season of Mist, is a fan of Septicflesh. He made an offer for us, a very good offer for the "Communion" album when we founded again the band and I think we did the best choice. Season Of Mist has supported us in all these tours, has made a great packaging and a book for "The Great Mass" and we will continue with Season Of Mist. Holy Records is a smaller company, you know, that wasn’t so popular outside France but I don’t want to be… how can i say… i don’t regret this choice we did at that moment because they did a lot… but not outside France.

Holy Records also edited some other greek bands like Nightfall, Inactive Messiah…

Yes, Exhumation, On thorns I lay... It seems that greek scene has good link with France. There is also Rotting Christ in Season Of Mist.

Your music is very symphonic. I’d like to see one day Septicflesh play live with a real orchestra. Do you think it is possible for Septicflesh, like Therion, Rage, Epica or Metallica, to play live with a real orchestra, one day? Have you got plans for that?

Yes, we have some offers in Greece to make a performance with a live orchestra but, to tell you the truth, it is really hard because we need a lot of rehearsals with the orchestra. This is more complicated than things we’ve already made. I don’t know if it’s easy to become a reality, this project, but I would like, it will be a dream for us.

And for us too…

But we shall see, it’s too early to mention it.

Your discography is important now, with seven studio albums but not an official live album or a live DVD. Have you got plans to realize a DVD or a live album ?

At the moment no, you know, because we are concentrated to promote the new album and we have to do as many tours as we can. We will have another tour in US in march with a big name but i can’t say anything now. We are really concentrated on this task. Also Season Of Mist has proposed to make a DVD live but again, now, it’s better to promote The Great Mass.

What is your favorite Septicflesh album and why ?

I think it’s "The Great Mass". I know it sounds cliché when an artist releases an album, he always say that but for us, it’s the most mature work we have ever done. The orchestra, for us, now represents a new era of Septicflesh because the symphonical elements, it’s vital for us. The orchestra is not an arrangement or simple background music. For us it’s placed as a major composition and we built everything on the template of the orchestra. All of us believe that this album has everything also from our previous albums. Even from "Mystic places", from "DNA", songs like "Therianthropy" or "Rising" have a lot of elements from "DNA" and, of course, the biggest influence comes from "Communion". This stands as our best work. Many people said that "The Great Mass" was the best album for us, the press, the fans… I think we’ve got 5 « albums of the month » with "The Great Mass".

Lately, there's been a trend among metal bands which consists in playing a full album on stage. Is there one album you’d like to play entirely live ?

Hmmm… it’s difficult for us because we don’t have Sotiris. If we played songs from "Communion", "The Great Mass" or even "DNA", "Ophidian Wheel", we wouldn’t have the voice live. Even with "Anubis"... we are OK with the orchestra on playback because there is no other solution to do it. But with playback on Sotiris vocals, we are not so happy about it. But there is no other solution. That’s the reason we play only one song with Sotiris voice. For "The Great Mass" vocals, we have mixed Seth’s voice lower. I don’t think it will fit us to play a full album.

Chris, you write all orchestral parts. What are your classical influences ?

My main influences are Igor Stravinsky, Paderewski, a polish composer, Xenakis, a Franco-Greek composer and I have many influences from film composers like Eliott Goldenthal, Danny Elfman, John Williams, etc…

Do you remember what is the first metal record you’ve ever bought ?

(laughs) No, I think I don’t remember. I think it was Iron Maiden or Metallica. Maybe… "Somewhere in Time". I think this one or "Justice for all" but I’m not quite sure.

What records are you listening to these days ?

At the moment, nothing. I don’t have time to listen to music but before that, I was listening to a lot of african music because when I go back to Greece, I have to record a new Chaostar album and I have to work with some ethnic elements for this album and in order to do that, I was studying and listening to ethnic music.

Your country is undergoing a serious economic crisis. How do you feel about it ? How does it affect some international bands such as yours?

You know what, I don’t think the crisis plays a role for the bands because we are in a bad geographical position regarding metal, we are not in the center of Europe and this doesn’t depend if there is a clash or not. For the answer to « what affects my band ».

Now, of course, Greece is in critical situation now but it’s all our fault. In Greece, they say it’s european fault, it’s everybody’s fault except ours. But we never paid taxes, we have always been doing things from behind in this nation. Now it’s the right moment to be in a good path. We can learn from this lesson. Of course, I don’t talk about Germany or France, they made the right things for us because they gave us money but we pay a lot of interests. We have to learn from this lesson. We have to be more europeans in order not to have an Europe of two sides : the south is "the criminals" and the center, west and east the good nations.

Regarding metal, it doesn’t affect anything because we are in a very bad geographical position for tour, etc… and bands like Septicflesh, Rotting Christ, we have to do double or triple effort comparing with swedish bands for example. That’s the reason why we don’t have so many bands, there are few bands that have done something outside Greece…

Now, if you are agree, can you just find a few words (or just one) to define the following albums of your discography:

OK.

Mystic Places of Dawn :

The beginning.

Esoptron :

I was not in this album but I heard Sotiris say : romanticism of melody.

Ophidian Wheel :

(silence) difficult… It sounds as our new period with entrance of Natalie (Rassoulis) on female vocals.

A Fallen temple :

Fallen temple is not a full album. Everybody says it’s a full album but it’s a mini album. For me it’s "Ophidian Wheel" number two.

Revolution DNA :

Experimentation.

Sumerian Daemons :

Back to the roots.

Communion :

The new era for Septicflesh.

The Great Mass :

For me, a masterpiece.

Finally, What would you like to say to your french fans ?

I would like to thank all our french fans that have really supported us. I would say more than the greek fans. We are always happy to perform in front of french crowd. I think, as I said for french labels, the greek bands and the french fans have a good relationship together and this relation will continue for much more in the future.

OK, thank you for answering.

Thank you.


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