Reflection has always been one of the leading forces of Greek Epic Metal. The band lately, has released the long awaited second album, Odyssey, which as you can understand, refers to the journey of Odysseas, back to Ithaca. We met the band, before a show back in April and discussed about the new record among others...

Your new CD is out, please tell us about it.

We had the idea about the concept of the album, 5 years ago, and actually some of the songs were written back then, although through all these years, new parts were added. The basic composing and recordings were the last 2 years, actually. We also did a lot of reading, of several different books about Odyssey, and we made a summary of the most important scenes of this journey... We focus more on the battles that took place, the titans, Cyclops, and all these great stories.

We actually spent a lot of hours in the studio, this was a really hard effort, many people took part or simply helped us, it was generally a tough one.
You also have to consider that our previous second guitar player left, due to musical differences, so we can say that this CD is also representative to us (Odyssey of Reflection haha).

We just hope our fans will like it, so it was worth of wait for them.

It's pretty obvious that the new album is more "full?, I mean more complete. I would like to know whether you think this is a lot better than the previous one, and it will give you a "new" start.

Definitely, we have matured a lot as musicians, so we consider this is a better album, without having changed our style a bit. We still think that The Fire Still Burns is a good album (especially if you consider the fact that it included songs written and recorded in 1995). And we most expect you to tell us if it's better or not. The only certain thing is that we will continue to play this kind of music...

As far as the production is concerned: it's definitely a better one than the previous album, although this time was harder to achieve this, with so many "extras?. Do you think you reached the highest level, or you believe that you could do an even better one?

There's always space for improvement, the fact is we are generally much satisfied. I hope that people will just think the amount of work we had to do, concerning production for this particular album.

What about the lyrics? Who wrote this and how much difficult was it to make a summary of the whole Odyssey in one CD?

It took really a lot of time to finish the lyrics, and a lot of changes ? That's why we are very happy with the CD booklet, because we needed a lot of space to include everything. There are enough details about the whole concept (not only the lyrics used are included), because we wanted everybody to read the whole story.

Do you think that there might will be a problem with people from abroad basically, to get bored maybe by the long intros used?

No I don't think so, I told you this CD is not only about music. We strongly believe in our concept, and we think that if we didn't use all these intros something would be missing! After all we mostly think, we must be satisfied with our work, and because we liked the idea a lot, we did it...

What existed, as a rumor for this CD, was a possible participation of Rob Lowe, from Solitude Aeturnus, in one of you songs! Was this a true rumor, and if yes why didn't it happen?

Yes, we had this idea, since we are major fans of Solitude Aeturnus! We sent an email to the band, but we never got a quick reply, the recordings were already late, so we didn't bother them again. We still love them of course, and we hope in the future that we will make this dream come true!

Are you satisfied with the amount of releases you have so far? I mean you started in 1991, do you think you should have more releases so far?

First of all you have to consider we live in Greece. For a 12 years band having 2 records, a 7'' single, and some demos, I think it's ok (always having in mind the Greek situation), but we plan on doing records more often in the future!!!

Which are your relations with the other Greek groups, are there any bands you feel extremely close to?

We are very close to Inner Wish, Dream Weaver and Marauder, but generally we are friends with all the bands. Most of all we see a real good scene lately with newer bands like Raging Storm, Battleroar, Lost Fate, Sacred Outcry, etc. The good thing is that the Greek bands are getting better and better by time.

With which bands would you like to share the same stage?

Definitely we would love to play someday with Warlord + Solitude Aeturnus! I know it's a dream but I would kill for a live show with bands.

Are there any new songs ready? I know its just days that the CD was released, but what should we wait from the new Reflection songs?

As you can understand, we don't have spent a lot of time, lately with new songs, 'cause we were already too busy with the recordings of the Odyssey. There are many ideas and spare parts, but I think it's too early to even talk about new songs. I guess the new songs will be heavier, maybe more in the classic Reflection sound.

So which are your plans for promoting your new album?

Most of all play live as often as possible, and then whatever comes... We are very please to have a record company that is taking care of us, we just wait and see... Also a chance to play with a bigger band from abroad, so more people can see us.

Thanks a lot and keep on playing Epic Metal!

Greg "Heavy Load"
Michael "Man Of War"