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BACK
ROTTING
CHRIST - Putrefaction Continues Unabated
By Adrian 'The Energizer' Bromley
It
is hard sometimes to understand the metamorphosis a band undergoes
over the years. Some bands change so much that they break away from
the sound, style and objectives that they held when they first started
creating music. The creative process is still flowing, just in another
new direction, and that creates an alienation of sorts with fans
that have been with the band since the beginning.
Greece's
black metal act Rotting Christ have gone though changes over the
years, breaking out of their cult-black metal stylings of their
early years into an expressive, darkened vortex of creativity; an
evil entity in the music business the drew fans in with each release.
And as the years went on, the band honed in on their skills; polishing
up their sound, yet still staying dark and raw for the most part.
Change was good, but the band seemed destined for a collision course
with their creative process: were they expanding too far? Was the
sound of Rotting Christ changing too much, distancing itself from
the raw, ravaging ways of the early years for solid production and
melodic passages? Things needed to be sorted out you could say…
Onto
2002 and Rotting Christ have dished out a true gem of creative expression
-- Genesis. The album, a wonderful realm of darkened ways and expressive
passages, is easily one of the best records the band has released
in the past five years. Familiar, yet thought provoking. Honest,
yet unstable. In other words, the right record Rotting Christ needed
to assemble and release.
Ringleader/singer/guitarist
Sakis (the band is rounded out guitarist Kostas, bassist Andreas,
keyboardist George and drummer Themis) talks to UNRESTRAINED! about
the band's growth, the perils of the music business and just what
is in a name. Read on…
UNRESTRAINED!:
Tell me about the ideas that went into Genesis. What was one of
main ideas you wanted to carry out with the new recording? Did you
achieve all that you wanted or were some ideas left out?
Sakis:
Having spent too much time in pre-production, I guess that we
covered quite a bit of ground with this record and the way it was
assembled. We did everything we had planned, well, as much as we
could to get the music right. I think we managed to do quite a good
job. Let's just say that we fulfilled our goal as a band with this
album.
U!: When you played back the album for the first time, what
was your reaction? What kind of reaction are you experiencing from
fans and critics with the new release?
S: When I played back the album for the first time I was
really impressed and relieved. I was really excited what we had
done, but that is normal 'cause after every musician who finalizes
his work on an album thinks for the first hour that maybe this is
the best-recorded material ever. Anyway, after the first listen
I calmed down a bit and right now I am just satisfied that the album
came out the way we had wanted it to. Concerning the reactions now
to Genesis, I do expect a better reaction than our previous album.
But as always, it is up to the fans/critics to decide.
U!: After more than a decade of Rotting Christ, how do you
stay focused and creative with the band? It must be hard with each
album to, sort of, re-invent oneself with each new album.
S: That is a question that really puzzles me when I start
to compose songs for every new album. You know that as a band we
have a strategy to appear with a new face with each album and to
not be stuck in the same musical direction. So being the main musical
composer in the band I study and learn a lot about music and new
musical programs in order to improve my capabilities to extend my
imagination. After all that is done, I finally have different influences
in order to adapt them to Rotting Christ's sound. So as you can
guess, it is a really hard situation when we start up writing new
songs. We have been doing this for more than a decade now and with
each album we demand a lot and want to improve as much as we can
as a band.
U!: This album seems a lot more brutal than the past few
albums (at least to my ears) -- why do you think that trait is prominent?
S: I think it has to do with us following our instinct and
never doing things that people would expect from us. We created
this album to sound more brutal than ever because we simply feel
the need to be more brutal than ever. We are listening to more brutal
stuff these days and we wanted to be true with ourselves and bring
those feelings to the new Rotting Christ album.
U!: What songs on the new album do you think is a strong
take on where the band is in 2002? I love "Nightmare"
and "Dying."
S: Loving "Nightmare" and "Dying" I can
guess that you are more into the melodic part of the band. For me,
those songs are like songs that could be taken from our A Dead Poem
or Sleep of the Angels albums. I categorize those albums as melodic
heavy metal. Concerning now my opinion on my favourite tracks, and
having composed all the music on this album I guess you can understand
that is too hard to choose one song, but if you pressured me I would
have to say "In Domine Sathana" 'cause it is one of our
most experimental songs ever.
U!: What was the significance of the album title Genesis?
S:
With the album title Genesis we wanted to express the birth of a
new era that opposes all high-principled areas that oppose our moral
values nowadays. So with this title, we praise the rebirth of evil
with its existential meaning, which means that we praise human beings'
hidden passions and sins.
U!: During the recording process do you ever go back and
listen to older albums to see what you have done or do you avoid
past releases and just work with what comes from the music and creativity?
Can you compare this album with any of the past releases, perhaps
Triarchy of the Lost Lovers seeing as it was recorded at the same
studio?
S: No. We never do that because something like this (the
music) couldn't work on releasing something true that comes from
the depths of our soul if we were to go back and copy ideas. Of
course we always try to keep the established Rotting Christ melodies
that we always have on each album, but if we were to stick with
ideas from past releases and rehash those, then we wouldn't be able
to attain the desirable evolution we seek as a band. So I don't
think that this album sounds like any previous album of ours, even
if it was recorded in the same studio as we did with Triarchy of
the Lost Lovers.
U!: Years ago when the label was pushing forward with bands
and releases, Rotting Christ was a strong release for Century Media,
but now Century Media has so many band on their roster -- do you
ever feel the band will be neglected?
S: Yes…well, who knows? Maybe. But we have to live with
that and not complain as that is part of being in the musical business.
U!: I asked you this several years ago in an interview regarding
the band name and you had mentioned to me problems arising from
it with police storming the Century Media HQ to retrieve documents,
etc. Do you still face problems like this as the years go on? Do
you regret choosing the band name?
S: We are always facing problems with our name -- that's
normal my friend. Our conservative insecure religious societies
can't deal with a band's name that might wake them from the lethargy
they are in. So as long as humans feel insecure we will face problems
as a band with this name. So still being revolutionary as people,
we plan to keep this name. We play black metal and we should not
give in to any so-called "white" orders.
U!:
Do you get tired of the music scene and escape from time to time,
or is a 24 commitment? If you do try to escape it, what do you do?
Hobbies? Travel?
S: Unfortunately my free time over the years has become shorter
and shorter with all the attention I put into the band, but when
I "escape" I prefer to read a book (especially sci-fi
stories) or go to gym. But I can't do it for long because I am a
music addict and need to get back to making music.
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