Interview with Serpent Lord (GR)

Tell us about your latest release: the main concept; what fans should expect; what were/are your goals with it:

Despite the fact that it’s not a concept album, we have some subjects that are related to each other. We talk a lot about magic, religion, occultism through some stories taken from mythology or mainly the Testament. Not the common stories you may have in your mind. You probably won’t understand which are these stories, unless you have read some books and pay attention to the lyrics. Also, we try to connect these stories with our thoughts and our philosophy about death, religion, God, war, even love at some points. But we do it with a way so as to put you in a situation of thinking and connecting these lyrics with your own imagination. You can translate these lyrics as you wish. This is the magic of the art, actually. The artist has something in mind and writes about that, but the listener can connect with that as they wish.

So, the fans should expect an occult heavy metal album. Not like the usual occult bands we see nowadays. We are still a heavy metal band with a lot of progressive elements, thrash/death hints, doom and black metal atmospheres, even some power metal passages. I believe that both the heavy metal fans and the extreme metal fans would find elements of their favorite genre.

Our goal is very simple, but very difficult at the same time. We want to entertain the listeners, make them headbang, make them travel across the dark and evil places of this world and make them seek a few things about God, religion and everything related on our lyrics. To search about the stories we are writing and come back with their own conclusions and thoughts. As we use to say, Serpent Lord (GR) is not just a band. It’s the path to meet, greet and embrace your occult side, your evil thoughts. The path to please your lust, your thirst for triumph, glory and power through The Ritual. Serpent Lord (GR) is your worst dream, your best nightmare. Or your desired reality.

Did you have a specific sound in mind when you formed the band, or did that grow and evolve as you played together?

We actually did. Of course we didn’t know exactly which our sound would be in the future, but we had something in mind. We are all fans of the great In Solitude, so we knew that our music will be influenced by them. But we also love Death, Iced Earth, Candlemass, Ghost, Judas Priest and other bands, so I think we created something that it isn’t a copy of In Solitude. Both George and Konstantinos, who write the music, have their own influences and they put their own identity into their music. We are fans of the classic heavy metal music but we also listen a lot of death metal, black metal, pagan metal, thrash metal, even bands like Paradise Lost, Trivium or avant-garde things. Even classic music, jazz or pop, actually. If you read some of the reviews, you’ll see that every reviewer mentions a different band as our main influence. And this is great, because it seems that we managed to put our influences in a way, along with our one identity and that’s why we are not a copy of any band out there.

How does your writing process normally work out?

Konstantinos and George are mainly write the music and the lyrics. On our debut album, “Towards the Damned”, they have written all the songs and lyrics, except from the “Sacrilegium” and “Blood Offering”, where George Savvage (our previous singer/rhythm guitarist) has written the songs with the contribution of Konstantinos and George (Terzitanos) both on music and the lyrics. We usually write some riffs or even songs and present it to each other. Then, we do some changes if it’s necessary, we add some ideas, we continue the riff or re-write it. When the riffs are ready, then Konstantinos writes the bass line and we are thinking about the drums, how we would like them to be. Of course there are times that George writes the bass lines and Konstantinos the riffs or maybe the whole song. Then, George writes some lead parts and solos and we write the vocal lines. When we believe that the song is ready, we present it to our drummer, we try to guide him and we let him write the drums, while we write the lyrics. Sometimes we have the lyrics ready and then we adjust them on the song.

This is how we have worked on the debut album and how we are still working on our new songs. But we have to say that Marios has understood the concept and the way of our writing and he has started to contribute to the writing process with a song and some very good ideas. It’s a great blessing to have 3 members with writing skills, having the same interests and vision.

What are your ambitions and how far do you want to push your band?

Our goal is to push it as far as it goes and we are doing everything we can so as to achieve it. We want to travel the world with the band, to tour everywhere, but we know this means we have to work harder and harder every day and night. We need to study even more on our instruments, to rehearse even more, to listen to a lot of music and to promote the band everywhere. We know that it’s not easy, but we don’t care. The only thing we want is to push it as far as it goes. So, the next goal is to tour on the Balkan States.

What are your influences/musical references and the impact those same influences had in your sound?

As we said, we have many influences. Not only heavy metal bands, but also death metal bands, black metal, thrash metal, power metal, even latin music, pop, jazz, funk and Greek traditional music. Of course there are some bands that have main influence, like In Solitude, Death, Candlemass, Ghost, Judas Priest, Rotting Christ etc, but we are fans of the music itself. We don’t like to reject a band or an artist only because of the tag someone or himself put into his music. Even pop music has a lot of artists and bands that are very good. Michael Jackson is a pop artist, but he is amazing. We are metalheads, of course, but we are not blind or deaf. When something is good we will listen to it and it will have something to teach us. So, everything we listen has an impact on our music. I think that this happens to everyone who writes music. We believe that when you write music and you only listen to 3, 5, 10, 15 bands, then you won’t be able to be as creative as you want to be. Maybe for an album, or two, but sometime you will need to change something because everyone wants to evolve.

What’s next for you?

We are releasing our new music video on December 22nd through our record label Alcyone Records. It’s the last song of our debut album “Towards the Damned” and it’s called “Seed of Divine” and we promise you that it is going to shock you. Once again we cooperated with Bob Katsionis, who is also known for his guitar and key duties on Firewind, Outloud and his solo project and he did a brilliant job.

Also, we have an upcoming headline live show in our hometown, Thessaloniki, on 18th of January 2019, which is going to be announced within the next days.

Thank you very much for your time and space. We really appreciate everyone’s support.
Do you want to join our unholy clergy? Then order your copy of our debut album and get ready to be baptized to the eerie sound of the Serpent.

“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned”.

Mark 16:16

Are you ready to be damned?