Angelos,Kostas,Stavros,Fotis,Giannis
Sorrows Path
When someone tries hard in life, no matter the barrier he has to pass and stand still, the efforts must receive a reward. After many years of silence, SORROWS PATH returned with a blow-minding record that pleasantly surprised the doom Metal community, inside and outside the Greek borders, with climax their participation in 'Malta Doom Metal Festival' on last November. Read below what SORROWS PATH gained from that experience and what there are their future plans. And as they used to say: 'Doom Rules Eternally'!
By Maria Voutiriadou
•
December 19, 2010
Congratulations on the new album, guys! So, despite your 17 years of existence and since "The Rough Path of Nihilism" is your debut album, please take some time to introduce SORROWS PATH to METAL TEMPLE readers. How did everything start?
Thank you very much! Our best greetings to all of you! SORROWS PATH was formed in November of 1993, being firstly inspired by doom Metal bands like MEMENTO MORI, SOLITUDE AETURNUS and CANDLEMASS. They released two demos in 1995 and 1996 entitled "Sorrows Path" and "promo '96" that made them known in the Greek underground as a band with truly personal and unique sound and influences. There's a really long story of misfortune and bad luck about our band. One of the two founders died by a serious brain disease and the other was almost paralyzed a few years later because of an after effect of a previous motorcycle accident. The result was that the band was inactive for the years 1998-2005, but when things got better about the injured founder the band decided to release their previous demos in a compilation named "Resurrection", that was released by Greek Eat Metal Records back in 2006. After that, SORROWS PATH was back in full action. We have performed many gigs all over Greece since our birth and our rebirth as well, either supporting well known Metal bands like SOLITUDE AETURNUS, MEMORY GARDEN, ISOLE, EREB ALTOR, FORSAKEN, PAGAN ALTAR, SCANNER, CRYSTAL VIPER, WOTAN and BROCAS HELM, or sharing the stage with some of the most popular Greek bands. On the 29th October our new album "The Rough Path of Nihilism" was out by German Rock It Up Records. It contains 12 brand new Metal songs!
How did you decide to sign with the German label, Rock It up Records?
Rock it Up Records was cooperating with our previous label, the Greek Eat Metal Records, since 3 years, in order to distribute the compilation of our demos, that is to say, the "Resurrection" album! Having earned some propositions from record labels worldwide about the release of "The Rough Path of Nihilism", we just decided that this upcoming German label was the ideal choice for us! Franko Sturm, the boss of the label, showed real interest and care about our band and what is more, he is a very reliable person.
When did the writing process of "The Rough Path of Nihilism" start and which are your main influences when you began to write the songs?
Well, all the songs were written in different periods of time. You see, the band was inactive for many years, so there was much music stuff already composed. Maybe, there is still enough music stored for 4 or maybe even 5 new SORROWS PATH albums! We are a really productive band, but there were all these tragic incidents about the band, these great obstacles that came in our way…
All the members of SORROWS PATH listen to doom and heavy Metal bands in general a lot, but we also listen to many other kinds of music like ethnic, progressive rock, jazz e.t.c… Now the years have passed and of course we don't forget our mentors MEMENTO MORI, SOLITUDE AETURNUS, CANDLEMASS, but on the other side we ought to be mature and offer the audience something new, that is our dream. So, we don't believe that there are specific influences about our new album!
Listening to the album for the first time, I noticed some Eastern melodies and lots of power doom Metal tunes; how did you manage to mix these sounds with the traditional doom Metal ones?
It's all a matter of soul and fire! You have to be open-minded about music… just choose what suits to you more and don't be prejudiced! We adore the doom Metal feeling but we don't like that to be typical and predictable, we really want open borders to everything… to reach the total freedom of expression in any aspect of life and art!
In this album the vocals sound way better than in the previous "Resurrection" best of. Which were the ways of improvement? Was it just the sound production?
Look, we really have to consider the fact that the singer recorded the "Resurrection" demos back to 1994-1996 and the vocals on the new album were recorded in 2009! Of course, the sound production is better by far, but the singer Angelos Ioannidis was a teenager on the demo recordings and now is an adult with advanced knowledge of music and life in general. Maybe, some people never getting more mature, but we hope this is not happening in our case…
How did you decide to choose Seth for doing the artwork? Did you send him any music or lyrics to direct him into the concept of the album? Where you in any way involved in the creation of the artwork?
Seth Siro Anton is probably the best Metal artist in Greece about artwork and of course one of the best in world degree! We gave him total freedom because this way, he could express himself freely. He is a very clever and talented person instead, so he could understand the most about SORROWS PATH philosophy, when we sent him the lyrics of the new album. We are enthused and completely satisfied about the idea and the final result of artwork and photography!
Taking into account the current economical crisis in Europe and especially in Greece, how easy is for a new band to make the first steps in the Metal market?
Things getting worse if we consider the economical crisis but there is a really morbid truth about music and the new bands! Big labels trust more the old bands to gain some money and the only way for the new bands to promote their stuff is through internet. But all these money robots have to know just one thing: Passion for music cannot be destroyed and killed because this is created spontaneously by the human mind, soul, spirit and heart…
Expanding the previous question, do you think that hailing from Greece adds additional difficulty points in your effort? And if you don't mind answering this question, how the Greek metalheads are treating you, since I know they are tough on the native bands?
We believe that Greek metalheads are prejudiced against native bands and we can't blame them in many cases… Things have certainly changed compared to yesterday but the morbid truth remains! The Greeks are still not as professional as they ought to be! See, for example, the seriousness and modesty of the people in North Europe and you'll understand exactly what we are talking about…On the other hand, many Greek Metal bands don't support each other much, they feel jealous andbeing compared to other musicians into a vain contradiction. They are fools, if they could only understand that the success of a Greek band would really help all the others…
Nowadays the bands are using internet for publicity reasons; are the Greek webzines helping you to establish your name in the Metal scene?
Of course, the Greek webzines helping us very much since our reactivation in 2005! Some of them, like METAL TEMPLE, are bigger, some are smaller but what counts most is that there are many people that give their time, money e.t.c. to help the bands! Well done guys! Congratulations and thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts!
How easy is for a Greek band to book a gig in Greece? I mean there are constant complains about the venues, the sound quality, the ticket prices and the weak attendance. What do you think can be done to see some improvement here?
There is a half truth to that! As we have already mentioned, Greeks are not much professional but we are all a part of that…We must stop complaining and just try to change this fact! The first thing we've got to do? Just to love and help each other but this is really difficult for Greek people…
How was your experience being in the billing of 'Malta Doom Metal Festival'? And what did the band gain, from your point of view, from this experience?
The first thing that we gained was jealousy and hate from some people in Greece…Haha, that was just a joke reflecting the Greek Metal reality! This was a great experience, there in Malta and in Germany (where our release party took place) we found out that there are some really polite and helpful people that have only Metal music in their minds…They were very professional and that will help us very much when we will use some things we've learned in the near future! But the real most useful element was KINDNESS!
What do you prefer, to support a band that is close to your sound or a strange one so as to gain a crowd with your performance?
That doesn't really matter…We are available to support or be supported by any band or single artist or whatever! The only thing that matters is if they will respect the other bands, the audience and their own selves!
Are there any plans for a European tour?
Yes, we are planning some mini European and Greek tours but we all have our daily jobs, families and stuff like that, you know…We have to be very careful scheduling things; we need to step slowly so that there would not be difficult and unpleasant situations about the band. The only certain thing is that SORROWS PATH came back to stay!
If you were to choose one summer European festival, what would it be and why?
Hmm…we would like to play whenever there are Metal hearts that could feel our vibes… We don't want to refer to some special big festivals. There are many and we all know which they really are!
What is next step for SORROWS PATH? Shall we wait another 10+ years for the next album?
(laughs) As we've already mentioned there is composed music stuff enough for many new albums. Only God knows if we will finally release our new album; we have learned about fate games very much. You see, the one of our two founders died and the other was almost paralyzed! Please make a wish to Him or whatever can be regarded as holy power to take care of SORROWS PATH at last!
I wish you the best for the future and hopefully it won't take much time for your next album to reach METAL TEMPLE. See you in the road, the last words are yours.
Thank you very much for the interest and care about the band, Maria! We have to thank all the readers of METAL TEMPLE for spending some time about this interview! All of you never forget! Doom rules eternally…
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