Hedon
Cries
Listen to stories
of grief, dive into an appalling and yet tangible part of the human mind
and soul. We all have a story of grief to narrate or even relate to with
one already expressed... What Hedon Cries are here offering us is a way
out, means to communicate our sorrow, an outlet that will lead us to the
emancipation or at least to the acceptance of our path in life... The road
lies open...
1. Hello there! Please tell us what happened
to Hedon Cries from the release of your debut album up until now…
Hello. It’s been a while since we last talked.
Actually not much happened since the release of “Hate Into Grief”. We were
unfortunate enough to face a lot of difficulties during all this time,
difficulties that forced the band not to be as active as we would like.
The highlight of this period was undoubtedly the gig we played in Athens
supporting Saturnus. It was a great honour for us to open for such a band
and also a great experience. But the truth is that we didn’t play live
as much as we would like because of the difficulties I mentioned above.
We had some problems with our vocalist, he lost his interest in the band,
so we parted ways with him back in 2005. And as you can understand that
was a major setback for the band.
2. It’s been 5 years since the release of your
debut album. What took you so long? Have there been any important changes?
The release of our second album comes after
almost 5 years apart from the line up changes several things went wrong.
The album was recorded in November of 2004 but we didn’t start the mix
until late 2005. It took us about 3 months to finish with the mix and the
mastering, and when we finished with all that we had to wait for another
whole year for the artwork to be finished. As for the changes in the band
we have a new member, Sakis on keyboards who is a great guy and a great
musician too. Besides that we also found a new vocalist quite recently
and we are rehearsing with him right now so that he can learn our material.
3. Which are the main similarities and differences
between “Hate Into Grief” and “Affliction’s Fiction”?
The main characteristics that are common on
both our albums are, in my opinion, the constant presence of the melodic
parts and the emotions of grief that are being expressed through both the
music and the lyrics. These are also the main elements of Hedon Cries’
music, which I don’t think will ever be absent from any of our albums.
As far as it concerns the differences between the 2 albums, they are quite
a few. Let’s start from the production first. We recorded using different
amps from the first album. The tuning has also changed on the second album
so that the material would sound massive. The duration of the material
is longer (the first album is 40 min long while the second one is 70 min).
In general, I believe that the material on “Affliction’s Fiction” is better
than the one on the first album, closer to what we want to achieve as a
band.
4. Your music has always had a strong doom
metal element, only now this element has prevailed over everything else.
Why is that?
I don’t think that the doom metal element
prevails over everything else on the album. Maybe it’s the fact that it
is more imposing that’s why it seems more intense. In my opinion the songs
on the new album are faster than the songs on the first one. There are
of course slow parts on almost all the songs but in general they are faster,
more in the vein of Swedish death metal. I would say that our songs are
a mix of those 2 elements, the doom metal element and the Swedish death
metal element.
5. What kind of feedback have you received
till now for your sophomore studio work?
Quite positive, I can say. Everyone that has
listened to “Affliction’s Fiction” seems to like it. I haven’t received
any negative reviews or comments until now.
6. Let’s suppose that you were asked to present
your music to the people that aren’t aware of you. What would you say trying
to be as objective as possible?
I would say that Hedon Cries’ music is atmospheric
death metal, specifically a mix of new wave of Swedish death metal and
doom death metal.
7. Which are the strongest and which the weakest
point of your music?
I believe that our strongest point is our
music itself. And our weakest point the fact that we do not rehearse as
much as I would like. But hopefully this is going to be settled soon.
8. Are you content with the final result or
is there anything you’d like to change or improve?
Yes, I am very satisfied with the final result.
I believe that we did the best we could despite the problems we faced during
the process. But I’m sure we can do better than that.
9. Are there any elements you’d like to add
or experiment with in the future?
It would be really interesting if we could
experiment with more atmospheric and chaotic sounds in our music, now that
we have a regular member on keyboards. There are several ideas that we
are going to try on our newer stuff. The more we are getting involved with
music, the more we learn.
10. Which are the topics your lyrics deal with?
Is there a connection, obvious or not, amongst the songs?
The lyrics express emotions of grief mostly.
And no, there isn’t any connection between the songs; every one of them
is presented as a different story.
11. The artwork and the booklet of the CD are
honestly amongst the best I’ve ever seen. Whose idea was it?
Thank you for your kind words. It was my idea
and Andreas Soderlund of mtGrave did indeed an excellent job. We are all
very satisfied with his work.
12. The album’s title “Affliction’s Fiction”
is kind of weird… What do you want to suggest with it? What does it mean?
It is a kind of novel about grief, affliction’s
fiction means novel of grief. An old book which describes the most intense
sorrowful emotions.
13. What kind of emotions do you want to create
to your listeners with your music?
It is obvious that are music is quite pessimistic.
We write music about things that make us sad and angry. We want to communicate
these emotions to our listeners, to make them feel that they are the protagonists
of our stories. To make them enter to a world that is not appealing. Because
the emotions that are expressed through our music and lyrics are not appealing.
And this constant alternation of emotions to be so strong and offer our
listeners a valuable and unique experience.
14. Have you got any plans for live shows?
Of course we do, we are planning some live
shows right now. And most probably we’ll start from Athens in the coming
weeks. But nothing is confirmed yet.
15. How easy is it for a Greek band to be able
to make the breakthrough and become famous both here and abroad?
It is very difficult. You don’t only have
to be good at what you’re doing. It is a combination of a lot of factors.
And you certainly need to invest a lot of money and effort if you want
to make it. Effort is not a problem but money certainly is.
16. Which are your goals with Hedon Cries?
To manage to create feelings, to create feelings
and images through our music. For me, that would be our biggest accomplishment.
17. Thank you! Any last comments or messages
to our readers?
I hope that everyone who listens to “Affliction’s
Fiction”, including you, will like it. Thanks for the interview and for
the support. Hope to see you all soon at a Hedon Cries’ show.
Christine Parastatidou
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