AGATHODAIMON - Sathonys

\r\nAGATHODAIMONs dark metal avantgarde is displaying a huge variety\r\nof styles combined to a new musical cavalcade. Poetic lyrics,\r\nmisantrophic, yet darkly romantic and conterintuitive melancholic,\r\nsourrounded by devastating riffs, rooting in black- and deathmetal,\r\ndecorated with modern keyboard elements, carrying earwick melodies and\r\natmosphere.
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\r\nLifted up from the cradle in 1995, the band since then always strived\r\nfor progression and evolution, beginning with the early works, their\r\ncult demos "Carpe Noctem" and "Near Dark", their milestone-debut\r\n"Blacken The Angel" that pressed forward more than expected and\r\ncontinued with the progressive "Higher Art Of Rebellion"-album, which\r\nwidely crossed the borders of black metal. "Chapter III" then displayed\r\nthe quintessence of their history and also the turning point for\r\n"Serpent’s Embrace". Their latest opus showed a band that is operating\r\non a high musical level, far away from following any trends or\r\nrestrictions of genres.\r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: First of all welcome to Metalzone. This is your 5th studio album. Tell us a few things about it (the recordings, the production etc).
\r\nSathonys: Well, we recorded at the Kohlekeller, where we also produced CHAPTER III and SERPENT’S EMBRACE. We do feel very comfortable there, and the work with engineer Kohle is always very productive. But it was a long way until we finally recorded the album PHOENIX. As you probably know, our last album was released more than four years ago, and this was mostly due to several line-up changes. So it took us a while until the chemistry inside the band reached the state that we felt us ready to release another record. We also did a lengthy pre-production and therefore were well prepared when we entered the studio.
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\r\nMetalzone: How about the lyrics, is there some concept behind them?
\r\nWell, not really. It’s not a concept album, but some songs are loosely inspired by the phoenix saga, like “Heliopolis”. But as usual, there’s a wide variety in music and lyrics. One of the reasons for this is that it’s not only one person that provides lyrics, but many- our new vocalist Ashtrael did contribute some, there’s also stuff of our ex-vocalist Vlad, and even guitarist Jan and keyboarder Felix wrote lyrics.
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\r\nMetalzone: Talk to us about the band. Who writes the music and the lyrics?
\r\nSathonys: Well, I partly answered this already- same goes for music, every member is part of the songwriting team. We’ve always been a democratic unit, this ensures a wide range of sounds and variety, and makes it more interesting. Of course it’s a comfortable thing if there’s a steady role setting concerning music and lyric writing, but we feel that our working method works well.
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\r\nMetalzone: What inspires you to write?
\r\nSathonys: That depends- inspiration can’t be sought, only found. To me, I need to be quite unstressed and in a certain mood, otherwise I can’t be creative. A rare situation, I can tell you. Concerning the others; well I suppose our new guitarist Jan for example has a more rational approach and also a solid theoretical background as he’s studying music to become guitar teacher. But I need to ask him first what sets him in the right mood, hehe.
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\r\nMetalzone: Your music has been described as “dark metal”. Does that term cover you?
\r\nSathonys: I’d say, yes. Simply because this term isn’t as narrow as “Black” or “Death” Metal. And it’s not so easy to find comparisons, hehe. You know, journalists always tend to put you into a certain genre or compare you directly to a band. Sometimes that makes sense, because the reader gets a better understanding how a band sounds. But I’m sometimes tired of strange comparisons to bands such as Cradle Of Filth, Children Of Bodom etc., because that only fits partially, if at all, hehe.
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\r\nMetalzone: The new album of yours sounds quite different from the previous ones. You have added more clean vocals and melodies. So, how did you decide to take that step?
\r\nSathonys: Haha, that’s one of the most frequent questions throughout our history- actually, we changed our sound from album to album, because that’s also part of our philosophy. We don’t want to release a copy of an already existing album, but also want to expand our musical horizon and work without too many stylistic borders. Concerning the bigger amount of clean vocals, that’s partly because of our new vocalist Ashtrael, he’s also doing clean vocals. And the amount of melody is increased because Jan provided some killer guitar solos, plus his compositions are quite melodic in general, as his background is rather melodic metal.
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\r\nMetalzone: Could it be in order to make your style more catchy?
\r\nSathonys: Not really- we often used a typical verse/chorus-scheme to have a clearer song scheme as basic structure, but “catchy” is something that we don’t pay attention to. We’re doing the wrong style of music to be catchy, hehe. Our music isn’t played on radio, nor on TV- therefore there’s no need to be catchy or “commercial”, whatever you want to call it. But of course we don’t say “no” to nice melodies- we’re not playing grindcore.
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\r\nMetalzone: It’s your first album with Massacre Records. So, how are things going in your collaboration so far?
\r\nSathonys: Good! Actually the deal was made in quite a hurry, so a few things are rushed as we wanted to get the album out, but the cooperation so far was really great. They’re doing a good job, and we’re looking forward to doing the next album with good preparation in advance with them!
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\r\nMetalzone: What are the next plans of the band?
\r\nSathonys: Rehearsing, and trying to get some more gigs in the near future, hehe.
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\r\nMetalzone: Are there any plans for a tour?
\r\nSathonys: Yes, we try to do a little tour in summer/autumn. But we can’t announce any detailed dates yet- you’ll find all announced gigs on our myspace-website.
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\r\nMetalzone: Thank you very much for the interview. The last words belong to you.
\r\nSathonys: Thanks for the interview! We’d like to invite all fans of good music to check out some songs on our myspace-page, hehe. The address is www.myspace.com/agathodaimon.
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\r\nInterview: Nicoleta Saradou
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