1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Elegos were formed in April 2014 by Admetos (all instruments) and Mantitheos (vocals and lyrics) in Thessaloniki, Greece. Soon after the formation we were put on-hold due to military duties of Mantitheos, as well as Admetos’ moving to Crete. However throughout that time we composed a lot of music, a part of which took flesh in our first demo release. We play black metal, with some epic and folk elements, while our lyrics talk about ancient battles, war and heroism.
2.Recently you have released a demo, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?
In December 2014 we self-released our first demo entitled “To Those Lying in the Fields of Glory”, consisting of two tracks. We believe that our music sounds as pure black metal, with epic features, while the sound is mainly raw because we home-recorded the songs and did the mixing and mastering by ourselves. We want to make a more professional sound on our next release, something that will be closer to how we want to sound, however still raw and grim for sure. In general, we always try to compose music that most importantly sounds good to us as black metal fans.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
The lyrical themes of our music are about ancient battles, fallen warriors and acts of heroism. Lyrics play an important role in our music, and we always try to elicit an epic feeling from both our music and our lyrics.
4.I know that the band name means ancient Greek mournful songs, how do you feel your songs compare to the ancient days of Greece?
Well, to begin with our music as you can imagine has nothing to do with ancient Greek music. However, we try to hymn those long gone days through our songs and elicit a feeling that might travel the listener to ancient Greek era and in specific to ancient battlefields, where acts of honor and valor were written in history.
5.This the paganism of your homeland's past also play a role in your music?
We believe that our history reflects every part of our existence, defines who we are. The strong belief of our ancestors was one of the most important parts of their daily life, alongside with philosophy, science and arts. All these elements influence our way of life and this is something that we try to express through our music.
6.Currently there are only 2 members in the band, are you planning on expanding the line up in the future or do you chose to remain a duo?
The project began as a 2 member band due to the experimental nature of our first steps. We are now in discussions with some musicians to follow us on live performances, and who knows, if both us and them are happy with the collaboration we would never say no to fresh blood in the band.
7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
We are very happy to announce that our next work will be released under the sign of Frostinghell Prod, a new Greek label that really gives flesh and blood for the Underground Hellenic Black Metal.
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black metal?
The feedback is very encouraging. When we first decided to release the demo we were thinking that if we make a bunch of people listen to our music and feel like shaking their heads in the rhythm we would have achieved our goal. Now, we feel a lot of support from outside the country, but mainly Greek metallers have been very supportive and we would like to thank everybody for their interest in our music.
9.When can we expect a full length album and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We already have material for an EP or a full length album and we believe that in the following months we will enter the studio to start recording. In the meantime we are under discussions for some live performances in the near future, which we are looking more than forward to take place. Musically the album will be in the style of the demo, but we feel that it will sound more epic.
10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Well, of course we are huge fans of the Hellenic Black Metal style, where bands such as Kawir, Rotting Christ, Varathron among others have definitely influenced, or more precisely inspired us with their music. We also have been inspired by the British Black Metal wave, with bands like Winterfylleth, Wodensthrone predominating our tastes, and the Slavonic bands, such as Drudkh, Hate Forest and Nokturnal Mortum.
11.What are some of your non musical interests?
We really like to study history, both ancient and modern. Admetos is also a nature photographer while Mantitheos enjoys to spend his free time playing tabletop war games. And of course we both appreciate a bottle (or more) of high quality beer.
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
First of all we would like to thank you for the interview. To the friends of the OccultBlackMetalZine we would like to say Stay True, Stay Heavy and Support the Underground!
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