InterviewAgathodaimon

10/09/2002

AGATHODAIMON: Interview with Sathonys

by dalia "gryphon-spirit" di giacomo

24/08/2002 - Abtsgmünd (D) at SUMMER BREEZE OPEN AIR-

Sathonys and Dalia - pic taken by Stefan

PERFECTION CAN'T BE REACHED

Dalia: What about the lineup of Agathodaimon? One of the band members left the band...

Sathonys: Yes, since some weeks we are working with 4 people all in all, that's Akaias vocals and guitar, me on guitar, Mathias on drums and, and Marco on the bassguitar. Since some weeks our Rumanian vocalist Vlad left the band ,because he wanted to move to the United States and form there a new band to make songs more in the commercial direction , something like Rob Zombee or Manson. He lost the interest in extrem music, and it was getting clear during the last months that he will left the band. The last album we did all by ourselves, and he wasn't involved in the song writing..... but we don't have a problem with that at all.....

Dalia: What are your first impressions about the Summer Breeze of this year and what are the expectations you have from the audience?

Sathonys: Well, i've visited the Summer Breeze for the first time last year and i was very impressed by the mixture of the bands and the amount of people here, because big Festivals like Wacken in my opinion they are overcrowded, i don't like that large amount of peple there, but Summer Breeze i mean , this year it is very big, but i think it's still a little more familiar here.... a certain privat atmosphere. The stages this year are very good. At first we were told that we would playing on a tent stage, but then more and more bands popped up and bigger bands came to the bill and so at least all ended with a quiet big second stage. We are quiet happy to play there, i don't know if i can say something about the crowd later on, but i think it will be fun for us to play, because when i saw the Fans, even in the morning they where very entusiastic, and i think when we play at a quarter to five i think there will be enough people to make the gig enjoyable and of course we will do our best to satisfy the crowd.

Dalia: Are you satisfied with your last album Chapter 3 and how many songs of the new album will you present during your show today

Sathonys: We are still not sure, but i think we will present some of them ... probably Past Shadows, An Angel's Funeral and The Ending of our Yesterday. And yes, we are very satisfied with the last album, because we had for the first time a good production,and some time to work on the songs. We didn't rush into the studio and try to change something at the songs or the lyrics, we had already finished the whole working process when we went to the studio, and so we were more relaxed as with the album before, Higher Art Of Rebellion was improvised under certain aspects, and naturally we also like the songs included in our last album.

Dalia:At the moment you are working already for your next album which will be released next year, can you tell us more about it?

Sathonys: At least there aren't many songs which are really finished. We have many ideas and many half finished songs so to say, and it will be in the same direction like Chapter 3, some kind of mixture between every album, but i'm sure there will also be some experimental part this time again. We thought a lot about in which direction the new album should go, if more agressive or more melodic, but i think we keep that mixture. Our guitarist and vocalist Akaias takes care of the more old fashioned songs and i try to bring some more melodic stuff, but in any case, we do our best.

Dalia: Inded your Black, if we can label it that way, is very good: listening and agreeable usually with melodic passages too, and with many tempo changings. What do you think why your fans like your music?

Sathonys: That's a very taff question to ask any band.I think that our fans aren't some die hard Dark Throne or Mahyem fans, i think they don't prefer the traditional Skandinavian Black Metal style, i would say they are more open minded to other influences and not focused just to one style. I mean that's the same with us, we like many different styles and i guess its the same with our fans. We just try to do our style and our fans respect this attitude.

Dalia: That takes me to the next question, is there some kind of solidarity among the Black Metal bands or are you rival each other?

Sathonys: Hmmm..., it's a taff question again. I would say specially in Black Metal there is a big of rivalry between bands, you know, there is always this true and not true discussion, you do not really Black Metal or you do a fake Black Metal, i mean,we never tried to be 100% Black Metal, Black Metal is our roots concerning songwriting, but we had always one foot outside of this genre, and bands or metal fans say 'we dont like what you are doing, because a Black Metal band should do this or should do that'. As i'm writing articles for some magazines since two years, i'm in touch with many bands of this genre, and some times it is quiet ridiculous to see that there are many bands who plays more or less exactly the same style, having a kind of war going on between them, that's just rediculous i would say

Dalia: Let's change the argument and speak again about your projects. You will work for a cover version of the song Sad But True from Metallica and it will be used in a Nuclear Blast compilation

Sathonys: They just asked us if we would like to take part in it, and they have already asked when they were doing the Iron Maiden tribute, and Iron Maiden was one of my all time favorite band, and i thought 'ahh... there is no way to make a cover which less or more looks up to the original, and Metallica, specially the Black Album, has good songs and Sad But True is my favorite song from that album. So we had a really hardtime discussion whether we should do it or not, but probably we try to do a slidely different version we not try a 100% copy of the song, we try to put our own elements to the song and so we try to not doing a cover version but mix their elements and our elements at least u can't do that song better, at least not with our production..

Dalia: ..i'm very curious to hear it....

Sathonys: ... me too, we didn't record it yet, but we will soon

Dalia: What do you think about Backward masking?

Sathonys: I think it was a funny invention of the sound engeneers many years ago, but i mean nowadays in the age of CD's it's not very funny anymore , because you cant turn them backward, i always thought that it's a gimnik, and it's not satanic if there is a backward message on your album and it won't lead anyone to the devil or something like that. The Iron Maiden album Piece of Mind... i was always curious what Nico Mcbrain sings there, and he sings something like 'ah this fine T-bone steak' its just crap sometimes. We didn't have a backward masking really, just on the second album in the first song there is something, but it is just a sound gimnik, for the album, nothing more.

Dalia: I must say that i find your website intresting, moderated in particular by you, and one can find there many intresting things, from mythology considerations to suggestions for new bands, and galeries with pics from other band taken live. This is not usual.....

Sathonys: Yeah, i think we try to do things a little different. I have many hobbys and one of it is, that i like to take photos from other bands on stage, and i did many over the years and so i thought it would be quiet nice for the people they come to our website, i mean, nobody is a fan of just one band, everybody has certain faves and this could be interesting for the people. I also thought, it could be nice something that is beyond discography, biography, lyrics and stuff like that, we just liked to bring some more stuff to the website

Dalia: It is terrible interesting, a very interesting thing is that you explain something about the name Agathodaimon, what does it mean? related to good spirit in greek, related to Seth...... and Seth should be a good spirit.... (laughing)

Sathonys: I mean, that's the dual listen of the name, you know, when i tried to explain the origin of this name i didn't just wrote by myself, i also took other sources, but Agathodaimon is mentioned if you would translate it it would mean something like good spirit and as we are more or less a darker band i would say this would not be a perfect translation, but as stated there it was from a time when Homere was still referring to gods as demons, there was no real seperation between evil and good and there for.... i mean , it's a little funny thing , because there are many cross connections to the name, i think i wrote that i was writing for a Blaze magazine many years ago when we formed the band and Blaze was named by an album from Dark Throne Blaze in the northern sky and the chanting at the beginning of this album was also something like Agathodaimon. But as stated on the website we refer more or less to the riddle of Agathodaimon, which , to make it short it isn't simple for us to strike perfection, in both, life and music, we just can try to become better knowing that perfection can't be reached, at least in musical, i mean in musical aspects there is no perfect song, .. you just can try to do a near perfect song, because tastes are different and that's a good thing anyway.

Dalia: As last question i will propose you my usual last question of Gryphonmetal, the Game of the Tower. There is a very high tower, and on this tower there are four entities (or persons), and not as i usual ask , three bands, and you can save just one of them and push the other three down from the tower. For you on the tower are God, Lucifer, the angel St. Michel and Vlad Drac

Sathonys: That's a taff question, because as i don't believe neither in God as in Satan, and St. Michel also doesn't exist for me. The only person who ever lived of them was Vlad Drac i obviously have to save him, because i think the other beeings don't exist, an that's why its obvious for me to save Vlad Dracula.

Dalia: Thank you so much Sathonys!