Welcome to Metal Invader guys. Before we start we would like of you a mini bio for our readers that don’t know you?
Hello to you too! The band started in March 2009. Since then we’ve changed once our line-up and released 3 albums, 2 EPs and one single. We play a metal alloy grafted with elements from various branches of the genre with emphasis on doom and heavy.
When someone hears the name Speedblow, comes to mind a heavier act, perhaps even a thrash one, as opposed to the stoner / doom you play. What was the inspiration for the band’s name?
That stoner element existed in our first two main releases, we believe it has now disappeared from our music and that more elements from these two genres that you’ve mentioned found place in it. The name did not have any specific inspiration tell you the truth. There was this thought of an object that is developing speed at some point explodes. For some reason we felt that the “aftermath” of this phase described our music quite well.
Your first album, ‘Fields Of Doom’, already counts 8 years of life. From the begining to this day, would you say that Speedblow took the direction you wanted, to meet your expectations?
In general, we succeeded what we wanted. We are generally in favor of evolution, so we are not trying to play the same pattern. We certainly believe that our music has its own recognizable character which is ultimately preserved, and that is definitely something we wanted and still want. All of our expectations have certainly not been satisfied and some may never be satisfied at all, but that is life. We are happy with what we have and the way we have chosen it to be and this gives us a push to continue and to try for something more.
Your style flirts with stoner / doom paths, while at the same time lyrically you are relatively far from the genre. We don’t hear often epic metal lyrics in bands of this kind, which can only work as a good thing because it is different. Where do you draw inspiration for your lyrics?
First of all thank you for the vote of confidence! As we mentioned before, we do not consider our music stoner. Many doom bands have an epic verse. Inspiration is drawn from fantasy, Scandinavian mythology and life in general. We usually write metaphorically. We describe a situation we experience or something that concerns us but we will filter it through imagination and mythology. We believe that we give a little more “color” to our lyrics and to what we want to say.
What are the bands that influenced Speedblow’s course?
Our greatest influences when we started were bands like High On Fire, Doomriders, The Sword, Corrosion Of Conformity, Crowbar and Pentagram. Of course there were many others.
I must ask how you see the Greek scene as a whole. Stoner as we all know has received mainstream recognition in recent years in our country due to Nightstalker, Planet Of Zeus etc. Why is that?
The Greek scene gallops up and grows constantly. If this country had a slightly different culture and mentality as well as a better infrastructure and support for the arts, our scene would easily be among the best internationally. Not that it is not, but certainly does not enjoy the recognition it deserves. The mainstream stoner recognition is probably due to the fact that stoner is easier in the ear for the wide audience than other genres.
What are the domestic bands that you think need a wider recognition?
There are many different for each of us. Indicatively, and of course this does not mean that others are not worth it, some of them are Black Hat Bones, Serenity Broken, Poem, Half Gramme Of Soma, The Big Nose Attack, Sun Of Nothing, Nochnoy Dozor, Need, DreamLongDead, Tardive Dyskinesia, Bus The Unknown Secretary, Skull & Dawn, Supersoul, Wish Upon A Star, Bent By Sorrow, Potergeist, Superpuma and Yellow Devil Sauce.
You have appeared on the side of some veterans of the genre, such as Year Of The Goat and Clutch. What experiences did you gather from these performances?
Only positive ones. Especially our appearance with Clutch in 2010 was one of our best experiences as a band.
You’re going to perform on March 23rd together with DreamLongDead at An Club in Athens. What do you expect from this live and what expectations should the audience have from you? What are we going to see?
We hope that is going to be a great and memorable evening for all those who are going to come for both bands. Unfortunately, due to the increased obligations we all have in our personal lives, it is not feasible to play live as often as we would like. In this case, however, this will work positively and the fans can expect a live full of energy. What anyone can receive in all our live shows is a good metal show and our singer leaves his soul on the stage.
So, that is all! The rest is yet to see at AN!!! The epilogue is yours.
Thank you very much for your interview and your interest and we hope to see you at the show. Listen to music, not labels!