Wolfcry
I have always been amazed
by bands that no matter how many difficulties have been confronted with
throughout the years of their existence, they keep on fighting and serving
the music they love. Well, Wolfcry is one of those persistent bands and
furthermore they are one of the best and high class Greek metal bands you
can find out there. Recently they released one more gem in the classic
heavy metal genre, so my advice to all of you is to read the following
interview, get a copy of "Warfair" and start banging! Support them, they
surely deserve it!!!!
1. HELLO! HOW ARE YOU? 2 YEARS HAVE PASSED
SINCE THE RELEASE OF “NIGHTBREED” AND I STILL LISTEN TO IT. SO, WHY DID
IT TAKE YOU SO LONG TO RELEASE A NEW ALBUM? WHAT DO YOU FEEL ABOUT “NIGHTBREED”,
NOW THAT 2 YEARS HAVE PASSED?
Unfortunately our common free time is very
short. We can gather all together only one day every week and this creates
many problems to the whole procedure of the band’s working in all levels.
Just imagine that if someone of us for any reason can’t come to a rehearsal
for two times this means automatically almost half a month without working
all together! So you can easily understand why it took us so long. Until
now all our albums have been released with a two years period between each
other. I hope that the fourth one will come out sooner, but I can’t promise
it because unfortunately this is a kind of problem that can’t be solved
easily at the moment. As for “Nightbreed” I still love it and listen
to it just as “Power Within and “Warfair”. I feel like I will always like
every work of the band, no matter how much time would pass from its release.
First of all I am a big fan of metal music and also one of the biggest
ones of our band, just as every member of a band has to be. So I listen
to our works like as I’d be listening to any other band. I see all the
good parts and the bad ones in our works but this is how it has to be.
If you reach to a point where you don’t see any weakness in your work it
is time to see what’s going wrong with it. How can you improve something
that sounds perfect? This is how “Nightbreed” sounds to me right now. I
still enjoy every second of it but of course I find some things that I’d
like to change, something that also will happen in a while in “Wafair”
too. I think that this the healthy way if viewing your work after a while.
2. OK, WITH THE NEW ALBUM YOU HAVE ALSO INTRODUCED
US 2 NEW MEMBERS IN THE BAND. CAN YOU TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT THEM?
DID THEY PLAY IN OTHER METAL BANDS IN THE PAST?
We were looking for a second guitarist and
a keyboard player for a long time but we hadn’t found anyone that would
fit with the band because first of all we wanted to find members that wouldn’t
disturb the balance, because until now we have managed to create a very
strong company. We were very lucky to meet both John and Nick because
they are two excellent musicians but also they are great guys that became
at once friends with everyone in the band. We can, for example, hang out
for a beer and have very nice time without even mentioning the band or
something about it. This is a very nice situation because most of the problems
for the bands begin from the inside. As for if they have played in
other bands in the past, Nick participated in a band that that was playing
live in bars with many covers of famous songs, and John is also member
of HYBRID.
3. DID THESE NEW MEMBERS OF THE BAND CONTRIBUTE
IN ANY WAY IN THE COMPOSITIONS OF YOUR NEW ALBUM AND HOW?
Although John and Nick came to the band when
the 80-85% of the material was ready, they put many things and ideas to
the final sound. I believe that in our next work their help and ideas will
be much more because they sure have many abilities.
4. CAN YOU TELL US WHICH ARE THE SIMILARITIES
AND THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN “NIGHTBREED” AND “WARFAIR”? WHY DID YOU ADD
SOME SYMPHONIC/PROGRESSIVE ELEMENTS TO YOUR SOUND? ARE YOU AFRAID THAT
YOU MIGHT DISAPPOINT YOUR OLD FANS?
The similarity is that it is a WOLFCRY album
with our sound in it. It may sound a little different but when you listen
to it you can immediately say that it belongs to us. After all there is
no point in just playing the same way again and again. The biggest difference
is the use of more keyboards on main themes and melodies and not only at
the backgrounds as they used to be. It is something that we didn’t do on
purpose but it just came up to us during the song writing, so we accepted
it as a normal improvement. I don’t think that it will cause any disappointment
because it is not something a whole lot different. It is our older sound
but it seems to be in a way more “full” and mature.
5. “WARFAIR” IS A VERY VIOLENT WORD... WHY DID
YOU USE IT? WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SUGGEST? DON’T YOU THINK THAT YOUR MUSIC
IS MORE MELODIC THIS TIME IN ORDER TO NAME IT WARFAIR?
The title of our album is a mixture of the
words “War” and “Fair”. We have heard lately many conversations about war
and how fair it is, or how many people die for or without a reason. I always
believed that every war is in the same time fair and unfair, it only depends
on which point of view you want to see. If two people fight and the one’s
war is fair automatically this becomes unfair for the opposite side. So
I made one word with these two meanings to show that there cannot be the
one without the other. I think that it is a title that fits to our music
because although we are quite melodic we, in the same time, are aggressive
and strong. I think it was a nice name for a power metal release in our
time. After all in a time of violence it is more useful to find some sound
of melodies.
6. SINCE YOUR LYRICS ARE ALWAYS INTERESTING, I
WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT KIND OF THEMES TOUCHED YOU THIS TIME. CAN YOU GIVE
US IN A FEW WORDS THE LYRICAL THEME OF EACH SONG YOU INCLUDED IN YOUR NEW
ALBUM?
“Here We Are” written by Costas and it is
a song that talks about us, and the fact that even though we face many
difficulties we will never give up, but we will always try to do what we
like in music and in life. “Hesitant Gathering” is also written by Costas
and it is a horror story about someone who sees strange things and confuses
reality with dreams. “Honored Expedition” is written by me and talks about
Alexander The Great. “The Mirror Mask” is written by Costas and it is inspired
by the French movie Vidocq. “Semper Casta” is written by Simos and it is
a very personal song, so I will not tell you many things about these lyrics
as long as this is something that only Simos can do. “On The Edge” is written
by me and talks about someone who decides to change his life against everything
that has happened to him until then, no matter what the cost would be,
something like a personal revolution. “Fatal Conflict” is written by Costas
and talks about revelation. “The Pledge” is written by Costas and talks
about a man who makes a pledge to see again his beloved one for just one
time before the end and asks the help of the gods for it. “6 Must Die”
is written by me and it is inspired by the cult horror movie of the 80’s
“The Fog”.
7. IN THE “NIGHTBREED” ALBUM YOU HAD AS A GUEST
MUSICIAN THE GUITARIST OF DARK NOVA ELIAS KOSKORIS. WHAT ABOUT, YOUR NEW
RELEASE? DID YOU HAVE ANY NEW GUEST MUSICIANS?
No, on this album everything is arranged by
us, except of course for the female vocals which were performed again by
Vivi Kitsou as also in the “Nightbreed” album, and a female narration in
French that was made by Katerina Hartzoulaki.
8. I AM TIRED OF ASKING THIS QUESTION, BUT SINCE
I LIKE WOLFCRY A LOT I CAN’T RESIST ASKING IT. WILL YOU DO ANY LIVE SHOWS?
WILL YOU VISIT THESSALONIKI? I THINK THAT NOW THAT YOU HAVE A FULL LINE-UP
THERE ARE MORE GOOD CHANCES TO DO LIVE SHOWS, DON’T YOU THINK?
Sure there are more chances and this is one
of the very first reasons when we decided to add two new members in the
band, but on the other hand the problems are still there. We still can’t
find much common free time to work all together, because of our every day
jobs so it is hard for us to make any plans. Be sure that we are the very
first ones who’d like to give a live performance and we are working on
this way, but it is something that we can’t promise at the moment. The
only promise that I can give is that we’ll keep on trying to solve this
problem…
9. WILL YOU SHOOT ANY VIDEO-CLIP FOR YOUR NEW
ALBUM? IMAGINE THAT YOU HAVE A LOT OF MONEY TO DO A BIG BUDGET VIDEO-CLIP,
WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO VISUALIZE AND WHY? HOW DO YOU IMAGINE
IT?
We were thinking about a video clip, but when
we thought it seriously we saw that there is no true meaning in creating
it. I mean that the TV shows are very few not only in our country but around
the whole world and in there you get a few chances to be played more than
one time, because of all these new clips that comes out every month from
the big record labels. As I mentioned above our common free time is very
rare, so it would take useful time from us in order to create it and it
would be for just an air play or two especially in our country. Maybe in
the future if we find more free time we’ll do something although it would
be more for us and not for the TV itself. If I had a big budget I would
like to make a video clip with lot of fan in the older times, something
like a metal Monty Pythons’ show. I’m tired from all these “rough looking”
videos from “hard metal maniacs” that never smile and try to be as tough
as they can be. For me music is joy and this is the way that I’d like to
show it in a video clip of my band.
10. YOU ARE FOR MANY YEARS METALHEADS. SO, CAN
YOU TELL US, WHICH IS THAT ELEMENT IN THIS MUSIC THAT, MAKES YOU LOVE IT
‘TIL NOW? I AM ASKING THAT CAUSE IN GREECE MANY PEOPLE THINK OF HEAVY METAL
AS A “CHILDHOOD DISEASE”…,
Unfortunately for the most fans it is a “childhood
disease”. If you see how many people listen to this music in their youth,
and how many of them continue to follow it when they get older you’ll see
that they are really few. I’m not sure why this happens, maybe it
is because when you are young you want to look like a strong, tough guy
and if you are not you try to prove it through your music and your dressing
code. Afterwards you change your life style so if the love for the music
was not deep you’ll lose it. As for the rest, few ones, who decide to walk
side by side with this music all the way, I believe that the basic idea
that make them do it, is the fact that this kind of music is the one that
you are not just listen to, but also you live with. Most of the music styles
are just melodies that cross your ears, metal is a situation were you are
getting inside the music in the same time when the music itself gets into
you. A perfect combination of music, lyrics, atmosphere and feelings in
high musical level, which if you touch once you can’t easily forget. After
all this is the nature of music: the transportation of feelings through
sound and melodies, and you can’t find them anywhere else better than in
metal music. I’m telling that because I don’t listen only to metal, but
every kind of music, and in my music library you will find CDs and records
from many different music styles. If something sounds good to my ears I
listen to it, doesn’t matter from which style it comes, but although I
have music from almost every music style I find that the 80-85% comes from
metal and this is something that I think proves everything, well for me
at least.
11. ANDREA, I KNOW THAT YOU READ BOOKS. CAN YOU
TELL ME IF YOU READ ANY LATELY YOU LIKED A LOT AND WHY? HAVE YOU SEEN ALSO
ANY MOVIES THAT YOU LIKED A LOT?
The last months I read Robin Hobb’s “The Liveship
Traders”. It is an amazing story but also a huge one. It is separated
in three books that each one has two tomes, which means that the whole
work has six books with about 500 pages each! It is a great company for
everyone who loves fantastic fiction. Before this I had read R.A. Salvatore’s
latest work of forgotten realms “The Hunter’s Blades trilogy”. Excellent
as always! As for movies I watch almost one every night, so there
are really many that I liked. I will, mention a few of those that I liked
and they are the ones that come first into my mind at the moment and they
are: “Batman Begins”, “Land Of The Dead”, “The Merchant Of Venice” and
“Star Wars III”. I just can’t wait for “King Kong” and “Underworld Evolution”
that will come this winter to the theaters!
12. THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR
NEW ALBUM! LEAVE A MESSAGE TO THE READERS OF BEHIND THE VEIL WEBZINE AND
CLOSE THE INTERVIEW AS YOU LIKE…
First of I’d like to thank you for your help
and support through all these years. I wish you all the best for the future.
To the fans I’d like to say to look in the underground music scene, because
there are many small “treasures” in there behind the walls of professional
music industry, which really deserve your support. And don’t forget:
-The Metal Fire Will
Always Burn!!!-
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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