Rotting Christ – “Yet I don’t believe that metal is fit for mainstream, it should be underground!”

One of the few bands I know from Greece is Rotting Christ, a band that has been active since the end of the eighties (first album, ‘Passage to Arcturo’ in 1991). After the underground classics ‘Thy Mighty Contract’and ‘Non Serviam’  the band went into new musical directions, something which the fans from the very beginning did not always like as much. Even their logo was changed in 1997 at the release of ‘A Dead Poem’…

Well, this year Rotting Christ came back with an album that was louder than ever before, and the old, evil logo. Reason enough for VM to interview this band, and during the interview it proved that both Sakis and I are from the same metal generation, with more things that we have in common, such as our love for Exodus’ album ‘Bonded by Blood’. We even have a scoop about the next coming Rotting Christ album! Sakis speaks, enjoy!

Hi Sakis!
Hi, this is Sakis calling from Greece, I saw your website you know; it was really good…
And did you also read our review on your album?
Yes, thanks
Well, if you had not liked it, you would probably not have called me. Well, to kick of the questions to the band… According to the bio from the record company it is brought like Rotting Christ has returned to their roots; do you agree on that one?
Well, ehm, not in the way that we have completely gone back to our old style of music. I mean; a decade has passed since then… So in a way, yes. We have always tried to live to our roots, we’ll never forget our roots. Yet I believe it is more like that than just musically referring back to ‘Thy Mighty Contract’ or so, we do try not to copy ourselves. So in that way we are fresh.
The reason I ask you this because labels sometimes come up with those kind of things. Of course it is their job to come up with a good looking story, yet…
Well of course, labels can write whatever they want, so…
I thought it was more about going back to an earlier used studio, the old logo rehabilitated and the song titles, yet when I listen to the vocals for instance, I can hear a huge difference, a real evolution so to say… It is miles away from the level at that ‘Thy Mighty Contract’…
Oh absolutely, you grow up, you know… We learned a lot more about how to use the instruments, how to compose, to record. So yes, I believe that we are miles away from the situation of ‘Thy Mighty Contract’. You are absolutely right about that. It is all about ability you know.
Well, I learned about Rotting Christ only later, so I do not have that early fan feeling (some kind of nostalgia), and I really feel that ‘Genesis’ is the best I’ve heard so far from Rotting Christ, by far.
That’s okay, haha

So, personally, I believe that you have released an excellent album with ‘Genesis’, which is one of the finest in the kind of extreme metal releases that has been released lately (with Susperia). The best acts from this new extreme metal, like you and Susperia, and within soon Forlorn, all have Black Metal roots; what is that ‘thing’ you believe that is taken from Black Metal which gives these band the edge over others?
Ehmmm… Well, we were born, or baptized, as a Black Metal band. We came up late eighties, early nineties in the so called second wave of Black Metal. I believe we have always captured and held some of that dark atmosphere. I mean, we do not sound like all those Norwegian bands. We come from the South of Europe, where the mentality is different than in Northern Europe.
We didn’t want to create something like the Scandinavian bands. Don’t get me wrong, I love their music. You have to create something different, something that comes from deep inside yourself. We have a dark atmosphere from ourself, which we tried to maintain within our music….

Is that perhaps a sort of typical Greek style/atmosphere? I mean, when you look at Deviser (album ‘Running Sore’) for instance… Apart from the cover of both albums, I feel that there are also similarities in sound…
Sakis says already ‘yep’ when I am referring to the similarity in the album covers…
Well, I listened to the latest Deviser and there is a bit of a Greek style in it, yet… Also with bands from for instance Italy and Spain you will find this southern European feeling, different than the ‘Northern’ Black Metal atmosphere. I think that is good; play something different…

In an interview with Metal Eagle you state about the experiments on the last album that “You felt that the band has experimented enough all those years, that it can’t go any further and become mainstream.”. Now that is an interesting statement!
First of all, what do you mean by mainstream. Which mainstream and what is it about mainstream that you don’t like?
Hmmm.. Well, sometimes as a band you come at a stage where this mainstream looks interesting… And I don’t want to hide the fact that even Rotting Christ has tried to do so as well. We wanted the band to be more known, wider accepted and so on. Yet after one or two years you find out, or at least we did, that sometimes that does not work. It is fake, yet as a band you have the right to experiment. Well, at least we know that now, we have learned. Yet I don’t believe that metal is fit for mainstream, it should be underground!
Rotting Christ is too much a band, we are not that suited for the modern day music business…
In other words; fuck the charts, we are metal?
Yes, in a way. I mean, take for instance NU-metal; that is no metal in my opinion (Neithan: Completely agree on that one ). It has nothing to do with metal. That is mainstream….

The album is now out since a bit more than a month; any reactions from people/fans that you didn’t expect and which ones (reactions)?
How do you mean?
Say reactions from the so-called cult fans; you know, the people that will stick to the old albums (until ‘Non Serviam’) and so on…
Well, yeah. From several ‘old’ fans, so to say, we get very positive reactions on ‘Genesis’, more than we had hoped before. That feels kinda good…We did not expect them to be that positive. Speaking about that subject; of course you will always get bad reviews, yet we did not expect such good reviews, worldwide, especially as well from these cult fans.
There are always people that write a bad review just because they want to, yet you can not prevent that from happening. I get a great deal of positive reactions, also from those cult fans.

Of course, not so much from people who are thirty years old or so. People really accept us. And that is nice, as we really put ourselves into this one. It is not a fake album; this is really us, Rotting Christ.

Yet for me personally that feels great. It has been a tough year working on it, putting everything in it. You know, writing the songs, the lyrics, working on it from 9 a.m . in the morning with my guitar and my PC composing and recording it all.  I really put myself into this album.’
Your soul so to speak
Yes, my soul, that is the word, exactly…

So what about those review; do you really do something with them or are you just going your own way?
Of course I am going my own way. First of all I  am done with those bad reviews, because many were just bad on purpose. I can do nothing with that. In the earlier day I could feel down sometimes, like ‘Oh no, why???’, yet after all these years you will grow into it…. I don’t mind the nature of a review anymore. Sometimes I even like to read a bad review. Not the ones that are written that way on purpose, yet those serious bad reviews make me think about doing things better and better. Yet they don’t get me down in any way like in the past…

Well, I now know that you have read the VM review; what is your comment?
Well, I like your review, especially in the way that I can see that you have listened to the album very carefully, not like others reviewers that often listen to an album only once or twice and then just write a review. I mean, how can people really say whether they like or hate an album when they have hardly listened it? Take for instance the fact that they could be in a bad mood at the time of listening the album; that will have it’s consequences on the review. Your review is fair, and it shows that for you the entire album does not have to sound the same, so I have to send you my greetings for the support for our new album…
Okay, thank you very much, yet, don’t thank me; that is my job/task, you made the album!

Then we speak some more about the album, and I confess that especially the second and ninth song  (‘Lex Talionis’ and ‘Ad Noctis’ are favourites, as these songs are so damn evil…
Going on about the album… After ‘Khronos’ (the father of the Greek ancient gods) you have again chosen for a Greek title, Genesis, which stands for a new beginning, a birth. What is the Greek word for Rebirth and why have you not chosen that one? I mean, is the Phoenix a Greece story originally, for instance? When again looking at the article in Metal Eagle, that would have been perhaps a more appropriate title, also regarding your visions about a needed rebirth of the Greek metal scene… Is that word too difficult?
That is a very good one! We have already used Latin and German lyrics, yet most of all we wanted to use this title as it is the birth; the birth of a new era. That also has to do with the lyrics we do on this album, which are more worked out this time. They have to do with moral values, updates to ‘our’ values, the so-called modern values. And so a birth of evil came up very much as the title for this new album.
We want to express your hidden desires, your hidden part of your soul.

Another thing; Greek titles; can we ever expect a sort of Pagan Greek album from Rotting Christ; by that I mean an album which is full of the ancient Greek stories, about the evil that the gods did… Could be a very interesting subject…
No, not so much. Maybe we might be fed up with it, coming out of Greece ourselves. Yet we want to belong to the international (Black) Metal community, not so much emphasize that we are from Greece. For me we are people of this world, not from Greece, France or whatever. We want to write about things that touch the soul, whether you’d be from the north pole or the south pole…
Well, the reason I ask that as from Scandinavia, many dark metal bands do involve their folkloristic influences…take for instance the Viking metal bands. And right now I am also working on a Basque band called Numen. People might think Metal fans are stupid, yet I like it when bands put something from their own culture into the music.
Well, I don’t think so about ancient Greece you know. First of all, the ancients weren’t that proud on all their wars. And what about the roots of democracy/democratia. I believe if I was to write about that, it would be kind of boring to me. To me metal is one whole; it should not be separated into –typical- things like Scandinavian bands, Greek bands, South European… and so on. That would not work for us.
So I guess the answer is “No”…

You’ve recorded it all in May and June of this year under the direction of Andy Classen. What is it about Andy that makes him so special as a metal producer in general and as producer of Genesis especially?
Well, first of all I like the way he works with ProTools. In my opinion working with ProTools is the best way to have a really nice production. Also Andy is a very cool guy. He lives somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Germany. So there is enough time to record your album and not to hang around, okay? His work and his studio and the area are really better for the band, so that makes the band very concentrated on what you are doing.

The recordings were done in June, why was the album released only at the end of august; artistic reasons or commercial?
That was a choice of the label, to release it end of August or the beginning of September… Not so much because of the festivals, it is just a better time to buy and therefore release then in mid summer.

What is/are your favorite tracks?
I really can’t say, as I have no real favourites. It all depends on my personal mood of that moment… There is no One favourite. If I am in a kind of cool/cold mood, I prefer something like ‘Lex Talionis’, and in another mood it would be ‘Under The Name of Legion’. And if I want to hear something satanic, I like to hear ‘In Domine Sathana’ for example. And I composed all of the music, so for me it is really hard to point out a favorite.
You’ve said that with the lyrics you want to express the dark side that is hidden inside everyone; I think you have managed very well to get a dark atmosphere into the vocal parts on the album; was that easy or did you go through great difficulties to get that atmosphere?
It was very difficult! I just told you that I spent more than a year on writing this one. And you have to take things in account when you start working on it every day from 9 in the morning. For example, when I am working at home I try not to be happy. The reason for that is that I am too fast satisfied with things when I’m happy, I could not come up with an album sounding like this one. It is all about instincts so to say.
Going on about those vocals, and especially the female vocals: do you regard them as vocals or as an instrument of atmosphere?
Well, those aren’t real female vocals, yet all samples I put into my computer. I programmed them myself.
That is an answer…

Apart from Rotting Christ Sakis is also busy on Thou Art Lord, together with Magus from Necromantia; can we consider Thou Art Lord as a true band, or is and will it always be a project?
No, that one is much more of a project. I don’t have enough time to work on more. Yet speaking about it. We have just finished the pre production, and in a few weeks time we’ll enter to studio to record a new album, which will be released very soon.
Is Gothmog from Mortify still in it?
No, not anymore… Ehm, Neithan, by the way, how old are you?
I am 35 years old…
I am thirty too, well, 31 now… So you are also an old metal fan?
Yes, I am an old headbanger, haha. I grew up on the ole British Heavy Metal. Somehow I stayed metal after I became thirty. I think it is too much in my blood…
Exactly…. I too believe that metal is a way of life. Not in the crazy stuff people think it is or should be. True metal people stay metal. You know, when some people start their career, or start having kids, things change in their attitude, also about metal.
Well, I intend to stay metal… Even when my girlfriend don’t likes metal..
Mine too!’
Well, I’ve learned her one, or better said, two things. One is that NU-metal is no metal, she hates it as well (haha), and the other one is that Ozzy is God! She even accepts that in my car there is some kind of photograph of Ozzy in a ‘remember me, drive carefully’ frame, in stead of a picture of herself, haha! Ozzy is my absolute idol.
Haha, me too… I would die without never seen Ozzy Osbourne. Beautiful about that Ozzy thing
Yet on the other hand; I don’t like people judging for others what is and what isn’t Metal; I will see it when I come across it…
Exactly…
Back on Thou Art Lord… When can we expect the release, the end of this year?
Yeah, that one will be very soon; I believe December, end of November

On the site I can see six gigs coming up; two in Poland (on which on October 7th the material for a DVD will be recorded) and 4 in Greece (between October 19th and November 3rd)… Why have you chosen for Krakow?
First of all, that number has grown. Six in Poland and six in Greece, and we are working on 10 shows in Greece. And then we will tour Europe as usually, and hopefully we will also play in Holland. I love to play in Tilburg, there is a great venue there.
We come to speak about that venue, and then I mention that end of this year I will certainly go to No Mercy, with my absolute favourites Exodus playing there, and other great bands too, and the subject goes to my alltime favorite album, ‘Bonded by Blood’…
They come here too. I have seen them once, at Dynamo for some five years ago, with Paul Baloff. I will see them here. ‘Bonded By Blood’ is maybe the best album ever!’
I love you!
Haha… Well, I was, when I first listened to it, fifteen years old or something, and I absolutely loved that album.
There have been faster bands, harder bands, yet no one as aggressive as that one; the hammer in the face.
Exactly!
And sometimes taking back the paste makes the aggressive and fast parts sound stronger, more impressive..
Exactly, certainly…
Yet about Rotting Christ again; do you plan a headliner tour?
If possible, yes! And we would also very much like to play in South America, as the people over there are really crazy about us. The tour in Europe will probably be somewhere around January 2003.
What may the people expect live, apart from that the band taking its best shot!
Of course we will give at our best! I guess people may expect something different live-style.

Back to the recording of the live DVD; why in Poland and not in Greece?
Because someone we know there has all the needed equipment. It takes a lot of money, all that technical equipment. So that guy from Poland came up with a proposal that was was very positive… And we’ll be going there in a couple of days…
After 9 albums without a best of or greatest hits live album it is about time for something special like a DVD; what can we expect? A greatest hits live album or some obscure tracks from the very dark past in remixes/new versions? In other words; can we expect something special to celebrate 15 years of Rotting Christ or so?
Well, we were formed in 1987, yet we only started with albums in 1991.  Yet I agree that we have to release some special, something like a DVD.
I just had an idea, you know, you (VM) are the first I am telling this, to do something special with the music. Like recording some of the old cult albums as a sort of orchestral tracks; Songs with a different orchestration so to speak, yet not in the way like Metallica did…  This might be the next project of the band.
So we can expect an album of remixes?
Yeah, but in a different way. It is something that just came to my mind.

In the article in Metal Eagle you say something about the attitude of many bands (towards criticism for example); is that the only reason why the Greek scene is not that big internationally seen? I mean, having an own opinion often brings an own identity and sound, which in the end should pay off?
No no no no….Important thing is that it is very hard and expensive to play all over the country. It is not like for instance Germany or so… Those transport costs are an obstacle because of the fact that Greece has many islands. So it means that often you have to buy plain tickets to get somewhere. The scene is not too big, and it is far away from the centre of the European scene… There are many good bands here, and the scene is getting better and better.
Another thing is the military compulsory service; all of a sudden, the band has to stop because someone has to join the army for two years. That will hold a band down.

Well, and of course you learn a lot abroad. I remember when we first got to Germany t record an album. We were feeling like we knew it all, like we were gods or something. And then we saw what techniques were being used and so on, the things there were to be learned… It made us feel quite humble again…
Like mortals again?
Yeah, like mortals again, haha.

Anything you regret in 15 years of Rotting Christ?
Some labels we signed to, yet I don’t want to call names. Some live shows that were not too good to/for us, yet you learn a lot form these things. It is exactly like you say, hardship is the best teacher.
Yet any tips from an experienced person like you to new, beginning bands? Apart from ‘Stay away from NU-metal’, haha!
Well, first of all, NU-metal is NO metal….It has nothing to do with metal, as I told you before. Metal will mean something when it comes from inside, not in the dressing of the band… I believe that that scene will go away in a couple of years, like grunge and glam… There is no creativeness in it. Yet label it extreme metal and there will be always 16 years olds that will listen to it. Although I believe that that is more the case in the USA. And I don’t like no strategies in our music, like it is with such bands that are made/pushed by their label…
Like Helstar once wrote an an album, ‘A Distant Thunder’ I believe, yet I am not sure about that album: all glam and no jam
Haha, exactly!
Dream Evil once said to me: take a lawyer!
Now, that lawyer is another one! It is a perfect thing. I see it myself, when Greek bands come to me and say “Sakis, what is it about my contract?”. So I agree with that one, the first thing to do is to take a lawyer! It has to be fair with what you are and what you are doing… Be careful when to enter the music business, as when you are not careful, in the end you always will loose… You have to be concentrated on your band, so a lawyer is a very good idea to deal with those other, business things…
And another thing; don’t risk a job because you want to be a musician, make sure you’ll learn a job/trade or something…’

Anything you wish to add?
Something I always do: ‘Keep the dark half alive!’ And I hope that you have no troubles with my accent, haha
Well, I have it on tape, so that kind of helps.
What about photos?
Well, I plan to steal ‘m from your site.. Speaking about the pictures… The things with chains, the light and so on, it reminds me a lot of cult movie ‘Hellraiser’…
Yes, I think you can compare that one to our music. We are so to speak the audio equivalent of that movie!. I like the whole atmosphere in that movie too
It is done very stylish, not in a cheap way…
Thank you. No, we really tried our best
Well Sakis, thank you very much for your time and efforts!
It is always nice to know people that they are working up there to keep metal and underground alive, and that have metal in their blood. Like you at 35 years old, still very much into metal. If we happen to pass in Holland, hopefully that will be, I hope to share a beer with you, okay?
I will remember that!
Just be there, right