Septicflesh – Greece Like You've Never Heard

Interview With: Sotiris Vayenas (Guitar)

Septicflesh, or by it's former name, Septic Flesh, is – along with Rotting Christ – one of the originators of the Greek extreme metal scene. During the early 90's, probably the best of times for that scene, very few Israeli metalheads did not own at least some work by these two bands, unlike today – when despite of the geographical nearness of our countries, musically we're very far indeed.

All along it's career, the band has retained it's uniqueness and originality and added melody to the mix, without foregoing the aggressiveness. Now, with a new album out, I caught up with the band's guitarist and co-creator, Sotiris Vayenas, for an interview that starts with the Greek metal scene's glory days – when it crashed every possible Taverna and people listened to Septicflesh while eating Souvlaki, dancing Sirtaki and broke plates – to current days. Yassou.

Sotiris my friend, how are you today?

Fine! Our new album is finally out and this brings me a lot of enthusiasm considering the fact that there have been so many years between Sumerian Daemons and Communion

First of all, congratulations on your new album, but before we'll get into that, with your permission I would like to start from a few steps back to the very beginning of Septicflesh. If my memory serves me right it was the year 1990, how was the band formed?

Seth and Chris are actually brothers, so as they were both into death metal they started playing together. The core of the band was formed with my arrival. As it was the rule then, we recorded a demo tape called Forgotten Path, to present our material to the audience, mags and labels. There were the years that tape trading was at its peak. At first people were looking suspiciously at our material as Greece then was famous for a lot of thing but not for its metal bands. However we managed to attract a lot of attention, making a good start.

The early nineties were known to be a very prosperous era in the underground metal scene of Greece, it seems that Greek bands of that time contained something different yet indescribable from other bands at the time, what do you think made the Greek bands sound so unique?

It is definitely strange but when we begun our first steps in the metal scene it was the time that a lot of other Greek bands started also taking their first steps. Bands like Rotting Christ, Varathron, Necromantia, Horrified, Nightfall and so on. And all this bands had a strong musical personality so people outside Greece started taking the scene seriously. Was it a chance that all of the most known Greek bands now are hailing from that period? I don’t know. However I can tell you that the competition between us to create something more unique and powerful played an important factor to what you call the Greek sound.

In the year 1991 you released your first official release, the mini album "Temple of the lost race", while it was purely death metal, it contained the very special "essence" which follows the band till this day, what were your influences at the time?

Morbid Angel, Death, Iron Maiden, Destruction, Bathory and many more. Concerning "Temple of the lost race" it represents our first steps to more mature songwriting and our everlasting attempt to incorporate new ideas to the music. Someone that follows the band from its early days would confirm that we were never narrow minded musicians. We love to experiment with our sound.

The year is 1994 and the debut album "Mystic places of dawn" is released containing a unique combination of an uncompromising death metal and atmospheric melodic parts, back at the day this seemed like an almost impossible combination, how did this unique sound start?

You are right. Back then it was unconceivable for a death metal band to have melodic and atmospheric parts. We are simply stubborn people playing whatever we like, without considering what is considered as normal and what is not. We listen to a lot of different kinds of music and that help’s us keep our mind open. Mainly we are interested to create authentic and strong emotional songs. There are specific emotions that we feel attracted to and probably our audience has the same attraction for them.

One year later, the "Esoptron" album is released. This is the band's only album in which Christos, the guitarist, didn't record with you, why wasn't he in the recording of this album?

Because at the time he was accepted on the university of classical music in England. So he was living permanently in England having little time to dedicate to the band. So I took all the creative responsibility at this specific album.

The year is 1997 and the album "Ophidian Wheel" is released, a female vocalist by the name Natalie Rassoulis is added to the line up and the music got more theatrical and technical. What role did Christos's return from the UK after finishing a degree in music play in the new influences on the band's new sound?

Ophidian Wheel represent’s the beginning of a new era on Septicflesh. The return of Chris meant also experimentation on the field of neoclassical music. So we needed a female singer with operatic background to enhance this. Natalie was a friend and we all new about her great capabilities. So she was a natural choice. Her appearance was so strong to the songs that the fans of Septicflesh fell in love and consider her even after all those years a very important part of Septicflesh’s history.

In 1998 the album "A Fallen Temple" is released, containing a few new songs, a few re-recorded songs from the "Temple of the Lost Race" MLP, why did you decided to re-record the tracks from the MLP?

Because a lot of people were searching for this mini Lp and we thought that the songs deserved to be presented to the whole of our audience. A fallen Temple is a special release. However the final result is so strong that a lot of people consider it as a normal full length album. This album has also one of the most favorite songs, that also was shot for a video clip, The Eldest Cosmonaut.

For me it always seemed like the "Underworld" trilogy in a way marked the beginning of Chaostar, do you agree, And what can you tell us about Chaostar?

I agree. Indeed Underworld presents the essence that later obtained an identity of its own called Chaostar. Chaostar is the musical project of Chris Antoniou destined to give to the audience a full neoclassical, soundtrack like trip without interruptions from metal elements.

The album "A Fallen Temple" had a sense of an ending, like a closure of a chapter in the band's life, do you feel that "A Fallen Temple" marked some sort of a new way for the band, an end of an era and the beginning of a new one?

Exactly. That was the point of that album. To present our rare past and a taste from the future to come. It was some kind of a statement. We respect our past but we also need to move on and open new musical horizons.

It's 1999 and "Revolution DNA" is released, this is probably your most controversial album, very innovative yet somewhat lighter i.e. softer growls and the more extensive use of clean vocals yet the basic elements of Septicflesh were still there, what made you go to that musical direction and what was the fans' reaction?

They were surprised as they were waiting for something more death metal oriented. Actually, the reactions were divided. There were those that loved it, (and still consider it our best album) and there were those that were negative as they thought that we wanted to sale more albums and gone softer. The fact is that we always do as we feel like, having no restrictions based on musical genres when we compose songs.

Each album we create, represents our emotions and inspiration at the time. Revolution Dna presented the more melodic face of the band and so it felt natural to have more clean vocals than brutal. However, it has also some of the darkest songs we ever composed as Chaostar and Nephilim Sons. Personally, I love and I am proud about this album and I don’t regret a bit for its creation.

Three years have passed and "Sumerian Daemons" was released, an album that pretty much took all your fans by surprise, not only it was a return to the older sound but it was faster and more brutal than ever, what made you return to the older sound?

Maybe we are schizophrenic. We have a lot of different moods that strive to get out. After we explored our melodic bright side in Revolution Dna we felt the need to explore our darkness. So Sumerian Daemons is a beast and a loud answer to those that thought that we were going soft with the passing of time.

In late 2003 the band split up. What caused you to make this decision?

A lot of different stuff that was going on at the time. First of all our label then was facing legal and economic problems that had consequences to its bands. We felt that although we had a very strong release in our hands with fantastic reviews and a supporting audience this situation was dragging us down. After all those years of intense effort we felt disappointed to have so much shit in our way. Also the members begun thinking about their own lives and how the kept behind other priorities besides Septicflesh. In addition there were different incompatible musical paths that the members needed to explore for themselves. So splitting up Septicflesh was considered the most appropriate thing to do, then.

In the four years in which the band was split up, in which other projects the band members were involved?

The main projects are Devilworks with Seth as the main brain behind it, Chaostar the project of Chris and Aenaos my own project.

In the summer of 2007 "Like a Burning Phoenix rising from the ashes" the band was reunited in a wonderful comeback show in which I was lucky enough to attend and to record a new album a few months later, what made you reunite the band and did you keep writing material for Septicflesh while it was split up?

I kept writing material for my self, as I enjoy and basically need creating music and lyrics. I never considered the possibility of a reunion of Septicflesh as the other members were doing fine with their personal occupations. However it seems that we all had still a deep need to be together again under the same musical vehicle. We felt that we could sacrifice some time from our personal affairs and resurrect Septicflesh.

Gratefully our audience was always there and always encouraged this move. Of course we had a lot of discussions concerning the musical direction and all the important things that should be cleared out from the beginning in order to rest assured that resurrecting Septicflesh was the right thing to do. I thing that Communion speaks for it self.

And now finally after discussing the band past, it's time to move to the present and future of the band, what can you tell us about the new album?

Communion is the darkest, most barbaric and at the same time, most avant-garde release of Septicflesh. This time you used a full choir and a full orchestra in order to represent our neoclassical side more efficiently. We enriched our sound while we kept the basic identity of the band alive. So there are present also the classic pale guitar melodies that, are trademark of Septicflesh. In addition we gave some more space to my melodic vocals also that create a very interesting antithesis with the growling vocals of Seth. The production is heavy as a hammer yet you can hear everything clearly. The song are more direct and will lead right from the beginning the listener to our demonic world.

"Sumerian Daemons" contained along with it's brutality also classic parts like orchestras and choirs, can we expect the same elements also in "Communion"?

There is no comparison between the few classical musicians that helped us in Sumerian Daemons with the full strength of classical weapons that we used in Communion. Now the result is very close to a soundtrack. Chris (our second guitarist and also responsible for the classical arrangements) has evolved a lot during the time that passed from the release of Sumerian Daemons. Communion just obliterates everything we have done in that field in the past.

What stands behind the name "Communion"?

Communication with a non-human intelligence. This kind of interaction with unknown forces is reported during all the recorded history of mankind and it is still reported. However, different individuals view this kind of experience differently in accordance to their belief system. However as someone could simply put it, there is no smoke without a fire.

"Communion" like the two albums which were recorded before was recorded in the Swedish "Fredman" studios by Fredrik Nordstrom, what can you tell us about working with Fredrik?

It is never boring. Now was the third time we used his studios. So we felt very comfortable as home. Fredrik is a master of metal sound and also capable to keep the needed balance between our metal and our classical side. He has done a fantastic work.

Do you get to listen to some new releases? Which new albums have impressed you lately?

The latest album I heard and liked a lot is Obzen from Meshuggah. Really heavy riffing and a very personal sound.

It seems that although Greece is very close to Israel Geographically, most metalheads here don't really know a lot about the Greek metal scene. Which bands are considered to be at the top of the Greek metal scene? Which new Greek bands seem promising?

Well, we, Rotting Christ and Necromantia are some of the older and most famous active Greek bands around. Now from the newer bands, Firewind and Inactive Messiah are attracting a lot of attention.

What are the future plans for Septicflesh except touring? Any plans to release a DVD?

No for the time being but it is not something totally out of plan. First we will concentrate on the tour that it is getting longer and wider as a lot of proposals are at hand.

Sotiris, thanks a lot for taking the time to do this interview, any last words to the Israeli metalheads?

You are welcome to explore our mystical realm of Communion. Keep the dark flame burning.

** Thanks to Golan Shai for the help with the interview.