Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 04:43 PM by Nikos Nakos
The Greek scene has been progressing the last few years both in quality and quantity and that is a fact. If one has eyes, one sees. One of the many bands that made it out and keep walking steadily forward is Endless Recovery from Athens. Concerning their recent Greek tour, I got the chance and exchanged some words with the group. So here it is…
Cheers guys and welcome to Metal Invader! How are you keeping up these days? Did you get any rest since you came back from the tour?
Cheers to you, too and thanks a lot for your interest in us. These days after a short break from the mini-tour we’re back at rehearsing and preparing our next moves…
You visited many cities in just a few days. Where have you been to and what taste did this tour leave in your mouth? Did you experience any problems?
The mini-tour took place between 3-9 of July at Thessaloniki, Serres, Trikala and Athens. Our impressions from the tour can be classified only as 100% positive. We truly lived a tremendous experience and the fact that almost everything went as planned made the whole even better… As far as the possible problems you mentioned it was expected to exist especially when it comes to a DIY underground Speed/ Thrash Metal band tour. The main problem was the cancelation of our gig in Kastoria, only 2 days before it was going to take place where the club was fully responsible. However, in general because of our strong will and all the friends/factors that helped us we went through it with undisputed success.
Please share a story from the tour that you’ll remember for a long time!
That’s a trick question, haha! If I put out our trash, we won’t be able to find a place to hide. Our car’s situation for sure. We were in Serres in a steaming hot afternoon with the pavement all covered from a gas leak. While we were waiting for the Roadside Assistance, we tried to prevent every pedestrian from dropping a cigarette on the floor… Another one is a night out at Rising Bar in Trikala or at Bookit Bar in Serres that both where full of metal stories……
Let’s open our plan and proceed on the record you just put out there. There’s been quite some time since “Revel In Demise” was released. What kind of feedback did you receive form the press and audience? Are you satisfied with the course the album took?
The feedback was something more than encouraging from the first day it was out. There were plenty of good reviews and a satisfying number of sales going all the way up day by day. From there one we’ll do the best we can for the record to have this course.
Expanding the question above I’d like to ask you how do you see the course of the album from afar now that it has grown in you? Is there anything that you’d like to be done differently?
It’s one of the few cases that while listening to it more carefully we’re fully satisfied with the result. For sure there are a few details that would probably be done differently like some vocal parts or some touches on the songwriting part, but that’s a common fact for musicians in general. As I said before, though, we believe that the result is exactly what we wanted.
It’s been clear that the record went pretty well both in Greece and the rest of the world. Many bands (Ranger for instance) mentioned your name. How do you feel about it? Does it make you nervous (in a way that you have more “responsibilities” from now on since your audience has expanded so much)?
On the contrary, it motivates as to keep going. It’s probably our biggest goal to expand our audience to the maximum… That was also the “moto” of our mini-tour: “HIGH SPEED METAL TO THE MASSES”. It speaks for itself, right? As far as the mentioning of our name from abroad bands, it’s really an honor, especially when it comes from bands like Ranger who we admire and like really much and we’re in friendly terms. Dimi if you read this, we’re expecting the second album!
There are several differences between “Revel in Demise” and “Thrash Rider”. There are changes on songwriting terms, some vocal parts, the general attitude, etc. Did it happen spontaneously, as personal and team evolving or was a goal from the start to change your recipe a bit?
The differences between the two records lean on the massive improvement of the band in terms of songwriting and the self-improvement of each one’s musical abilities in the 2 years that interceded. From there on, nothing that anyone will hear in Endless Recovery in general and in “Revel in Demise” of course is done in a pretentious way. It’s all about the natural evolution of the band’s sound. Concerning the attitude, we’re what we are. Nothing more, nothing less…
Where all that inspiration comes from, either on lyrical or musical level?
Our main source of inspiration is our musical influences, like: The German Thrash scene, early Slayer, Exodus, Canadian Speed Metal, gods of Metal like Maiden and Priest and the classic and extreme metal sound of the 80’s in general. As far as the lyrical content goes, we’re fascinated by horror movies or cult film figures in general, heavy metal dedication and some occult themes.
How difficult is it for a band to have one of its members living abroad? Michalis for example was for a long time in England. Did the long distance create and barriers or it was bridged via internet?
It sure isn’t the easiest thing for a band, but if you manage a good plan and design and combine it with Michalis’ huge will and sacrifices, you’ll see that we do things exactly as we want so far… Like he was always here!
In Greece there’s this common fact for bands to criticize one another in a bad way, a thing so meaningless and without substance for a variety of reasons in my opinion. Endless Recovery has spoken their minds on the subject many times. In what way does it affect our scene and how can it be dealt with in your opinion?
This matter kills slowly the Greek scene for years. It creates meaningless fights and it holds it back. It has probably got to do with Greeks’ awful mindset… Things are simple. If you don’t like it, don’t listen to it… That simple… Furthermore, we all know that any publicity is good publicity. From there one this whole charade can be solved only with team effort, especially from the bands’ side. Metal is here to unite us, not to divide us. From all that has been said above musicians of right/far right beliefs, “diva”-like attitudes, etc. are exempted and have no place in the music we love.
What do you think of the Greek scene in general? What are the pros and cons?
On the positive side you definitely see a great increase in the number of both great lives and great bands that pop up almost all the time now. There’s really much progress both on the musical and performing part. As far as the negative side goes, it should be mentioned that people don’t care so much about the existence of new bands… They prefer to watch for the 942842842th time an Iron Maiden tribute band (just a random example) or the same 2-3 bands over and over again when there are so many new and local bands…
What’s the next step for Endless Recovery? What should we expect and when?
At this time our top priority is to play as many gigs as possible. We have already booked some for the immediate future even though we can’t go into more details. We also have a new release on the works for which we’ll announce more details soon!
That’s all for now, thanks a lot for your time! I wish all the best for you and your band! You can finish the interview as you please!
Thanks a lot and we reciprocate all the wishes. We love the work you’re doing at Metal Invader….
HIGH SPEED METAL TO THE MASSES!
Contact, booking: endlessrecovery@gmail.com
https://endlessrecovery.bandcamp.com/
(photo credits by Charis Bagioki)
