Interview: Sakis Tolis (ROTTING CHRIST) - 2010

Hello may I speak with Nickos

Hello its Nickos here!

Nickos?….is that Greek name

Yes it is!

Do you speak Greek?

Not so well

Do we have to do the interview in Greek?

No, English is fine if that is not problem for you

No off course !...So how happened that you live in Bulgaria

Well my father and my grand parents are from Greece .. but I live here

Oh .. I see

Ok Sakis where are you at the moment

Im In Athens right now and im currently doing an interview session for our new album

The new album is called AEALO if I’m not spelling it wrong

Yes.

So I suppose you’ve answered this a hundred times but what actually means the word AEALO

AEALO means…. I’ts αλώση in Greek.. Its name based on ancient Greek and it means fallen, destruction, catastrophe.

I red actually that represent the mind. Feelings and thoughts of a soldier during a battle

Exactly!!!

Does that mean that the whole album is based on war thematic?

You see.. I its based on the feelings of a warrior during a battle. All the strange feelings that can have someone when fighting. Like anger, fear, grief and etc. This was all I wanted to pass with AEALO. I wanted to put the listener in the middle of a battle and feel like he is playing a role in the battle.  So when you stop listening it you feel a relief and escape from the thrill that only war can create.

Yes but my question actually was if AEALO is conceptual album?

Yes it is… Sure is conceptual This is the reason why its hard for people to find a single favorite song. The whole album is like one song. This concerns the lyrics and the music.The whole labum in my opinion is a Epic Metal Album

Epic Metal?  How actually you describe the style of Rotting Christ now. Because I’ve heard a lot of people say that Rotting Christ is a Folk metal band

Well… Not exactly folk metal… Idont like this kind of folk metal bands that play happy songs like La-la-la (?!?) Rotting Christ its still metal band.. Dark and Occult metal band

But now occult is not inspired by Satan and stuff as it was in the past.  For us its from ancient greek history. There are a lot of dark occult things that fit perfect in the whole atmosphere of Rotting Christ. We play dark music with folk elements but we are not folk metal band. Its inspired by the greek history but its not the main thing in our music.

So, you use a lot of Greek, and other Balkan folk elements. A lot of the lyrics are in greek. And I have a lot of friends who are calling me and asking for translation…Sometimes I find some things difficult to translate. For example Dub-sag-ta-ke

Ha-ha-ha well my friend this is the only song that is not in greek. Actually is a curse to some gods in a dead language. Not existing anymore but has its roots back in Assyria

Well.. so I had no chance for translating that!

We are multinational band. I mean Multilanguage band. We have lyrics in Latin, German, Greek, English, Assyrian. We try to have a multinational feeling in our music.

Ok. Reviewing the music on the album. Now it sounds really complex and multilayered. How are you going to perform all those choirs and instruments on stage? You are starting your tour in April if I’m not mistaking

 Yes its in April because we are still working on the music. It’s very hard… Some of the choirs will be recorded and played as a playback. It is “Mission impossible” for us to bring the choir Pliades and bagpipes. It’s really hard you know. So will try to do the proper songs

 Ok going back to Theogonia now. Wen I heard the track Nemecic wich was also full with folklore motives I thought “It will be really cool if the bend do a whole album like that..”  And you did it. But how actually you came with this idea and make an album like AEALO

 I don’t know It comes by instinct. Well maybe because im the only composer of the band I always do the things by instinct

 And you are sure that the people will like it?

 I’m not doing music by order, I never said “OK I will write this song because its going to sell”.. those things stink. I think it goes like this: The more I grow up , the more I go to my roots. Maybe my Greek DNA wakes up and that influences me. I think that the Greek part of my soul has woke up during the past 4-5 years. This is why I do metal music influenced by Hellenic history. You know .. I’ve never said to myself  “OK I will do an album  inspired by Greek history” This is really risky in mi opinion. I don’t know how people are going to react. For them Greece is only…Vacations, Tzatziki (Τζατζίκι), Souvlaki (Σουβλάκι) and all this stuff. So I took the risk and I’m very proud and very honored that people worldwide are seeking for more information about Ancient Greece generally.

 Yes, looking back through all Rotting Christ albums , the band has passed a long way and do you think that AEALO is that maximum that the band can give

 … Ahh don’t tell me that Nicko. That is my nightmare ! If I ever woke up and I realize that I have nothing to say maybe I will commit suicide or quit with the band. Maybe with AEALO we reached the peak of the band. But the same thing I thought for the album Theogonia. When we released Theogonia I thought that it might be impossible to take any step further.. But now when AEALO is out I see that….……………..

 There is still long way ahead?

 YES! But I think in the next 2 or 3 years I will take a look at myself in order to see if I have something new to say and if I can take any step forward. If I will I will be very glad.

 You will do it!

 If  not , I will be very sad because I’m not active anymore. And that will be vary bad for me because composing music is very important part of my life.

 I know that composing is really important for you and I’ve red somewhere that in AEALO you did amazing and something that you dreamed for. I talking for the final track of the album “Orders from the Dead” which is cover of the original Diamanda Galas track

 Yes. When I first listened to this song I just thought in the back of my mind that it will be a great honor for me if can do a cover of this song. And when it came to the time to make the final track of the album I said to myself. ”OK its time to make a cover!” And so I wrote the music but when it came to the time to find a singer was something like Mission Impossible to find someone to replace Diamanda Galas. So I took the risk and I wrote an e mail to Diamanda Galas herself and I was very surprised when I received the answer telling me that se really liked the pre production of the song and she agrees this cover to be on our album. It was big chance and big opportunity for me to write music for Diamanda Galas herself And in the end I’m really satisfied that she found the song very good, and for me this song was always one of the most soulful songs in music history

Yes I must admit that when I first listened to the whole album and the final track just blew me away. If I’m not mistaking it’s for the Greek Genocide and the aftermath form the First World War

Yees! This is the reason why only the Greeks can understand the actual meaning of this song

 Yeah, it took me 3 or 4 hours before I was Able ....to play the album again….

 Exactly, exactly my friend!

 You know during the whole album you are thinking for war and battles and in the end you are crushed by the aftermath and the reality. It is really powerful track

 Yes exactly, yes its unbelievable

 Its my favorite song track. A perfect closure for this album

 Yes, I agree with you my friend.

 Ok let’s now take a look at the artwork of the album. Most of your previous artworks were done by Seth from Septic Flesh

 Yes, but now Jérôme from Season of a Mist done it.

 But why did you change the artist?

 Well because we are a band that always changes things. We changed Photographers, artists Designers, producers studios and we are refreshing our sound and we had to refresh the image of the band. So I called Jérôme because he is very deep into greek history.

 Yes that can be seen from the artwork, its realy perfect!

 Yes, yes that is my opinion When I explained him my ideas he came up with this and I said to him ok that perfect go on with it… I was perfectly satisfied .. In my opinion th is the best artwork we ever had.

 That’s My opinion too!. But do you still have problems with the name of the band

 We always had, we always have and we will continue to have. Which mean that many people find our name offensive. But we will keep this name because I think that Rotting Christ I s a rebel band and always resists any conservative ideas. And even if the name doesn’t represent our band music like it used to be back in the early 90s it started to represent our ideas as a band an we will keep this name.

 So you never had thoughts for changing it?

 We had some ideas in the middle 90s when we released our album Sleep Of The Angels. In my opinion if you want to reach a higher level with such a name …because Rotting Christ .. you know

 Yeah !

 But we will never betray our roots, we will never betray our ideas and we will keep this name and continue to spread our dark ideas in the music industry.

 Is that the reason why you started to introduce yourself with your original names… In the beginning you were Necromayhem.

 Yeah Yeah we wanted to be more straight to our fans. We are normal people, people like you. We are fans of metal music. So we didn’t want to hide behind some pseudo names.

 You’ve been to Bulgaria several times

 Yes!

 Did you enjoy it?

 Every single time. And believe me we consider Bulgaria as a very friendly place. And when we play there is like playing home. We are neighbors and we have so many things to share.

 You have a lot of friends here

 Yes we have.. As I told you its like home. I mean Bulgaria is veri nice country, the people are really great and they have a lot of similarities spit Greeks so when we are there we feel this Balkan atmosphere and we really enjoy playing there

 I can assure you that if you come with the AEALO album it will be acceptet very well because its music is really close to us

 Yes, yes I have the same feeling because a lot of magazines from Bulgaria showed a lot of interest for the band. And I feel really great really look forward to perform there.

 Oh we will be waiting! So unfortunately we have to end the interview… Can you say few words for your fans and friends here?

 Hey Bulgaria ! Brothers and sisters.. keep the horns rising. We look forward to perform in your land. Until then Horns Up!

 Thank you Sakis for this interview.. it’s been…

 Hey my friend where do you live in Bulgaria … in Sofia?

 Yes in Sofia.

 We will play there in September or maybe even in the summer I don know. But when we do just be there OK?

 Yes you can count on that. I was planning to go somewhere else to see you but it will be great to see you here

 Yes of course we will pass from Bulgaria. We are planning a Balkan tour se we will definitely play there.

 OK. So see you then

 Thank you  my friend for the interest see you soon and take care