Hail brothers this is Eugenio Giordano of www.truemetal.it from Italy, I've just listened to your new album called "Odysseia" and found it really powerful, so we can start this interview by introducing the band to our readers, I'm a great fan of Reflection and followed the band since the debut album "The fire still burns" so can you tell me something about the origin of Reflection and how did you develop the actual line-up? Hello my friend and thank you for your great words about the band. We started back in 1991 me (Chris/vocals), Stathis (guitars) and John (bass). With the addition of Stathis' brother, George (drums) and Kostis Anastasopoulos (keyboards) after some years, we continue to perform hot, heavy Epic Metal. The new album in fond of epic true metal, what was the approach you followed during the composition of the songs? What does link so deeply your band to classic metal tradition? And what is the definition you prefer to describe the attitude of "Odysseia" to our readers? I think this is the best album you recorded so far... First of all I do not agree with the term true metal. I believe that there is not true or false Heavy Metal but Heavy Metal or something else. Heavy Metal was based on some principles back in the 70s and 80s. Either you follow them or you don't. If you do not follow them you can not say that you are a Heavy Metal band. I do not say that if someone does not play Heavy Metal that means that he does not play good music. I believe that there is good music and bad music. But if you ask me ? most of the bands that say that they are Metal, they are not. Maybe they are good but definitely not Metal. As long as Odyssey, we started working on this project back in 1995. Stathis and me read Homer's Odyssey many times in order to understand the deepest meanings of this Epic. We studied many books concerning the Heroes, the Legends, the Gods and Monsters of the play and slowly but continuously we progressed from the first lyrics and melodies to what you now see. We had to record some albums in between (The Fire Still Burns/1999, The Realms Of The Night/2001 mini Cd, and The Fire Still Burns-2001 Edition/2001) because we wanted Odyssey to be perfect. And I believe that we managed to have a great result comparing to our budget. The album is Epic Metal and that was what we wanted from the beginning. As long as the other part of your question. We are linked to classical metal tradition because we grew up in the 80s where all the great bands dominated the music world. We grew up with Scorpions, the mighty Warlord, Malmsteen, Magnum, Warlock/Doro, Accept, Manowar, Twisted Sister, Candlemass and of course lately with Solitude Aeturnus, Memento Mori, Ten and others. They are the bands we listened and we still listen thus its easy for us to follow the road that those bands prepared. I found an important improvement of song writing from your first album, now your songs appear to be very powerful but complex and technical, was this development something planned during the composition of the new album or is this something natural you simply achieved with grown experience? I agree that the new songs are more mature. Do not forget that the songs written for The Fire Still Burns were composed 10 years ago!!! We grew up, became more mature and the result came by it's own. I believe that even though every album is more mature than the previous one, the spirit remains the same. The songs still sound Reflection. We are still play Epic Metal and that's never going to change. Our influences still remain the same. Warlord, Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus and Memento Mori! The songs may be more complex in the core but they are not progressive. Your sound is filled with guitars and true vocal lines, Reflection are a sincere band and all the songs you composed for the new album seem to possess an incredible live attitude, do you share my opinion? Do you think that "Odysseia" is a strongly live oriented platter? What are your feeling playing the songs? I have to admit that we are mainly a live band! Playing live is what Heavy Metal is about. Only there you can show what you really are. I know many bands that they are "very good? on studio (with all these fx's and stuff) and when they try to play live they are crap. Odyssey is has some songs that they are truly made for concerts!!! Giants, The Sorceress, Slaughter in the island of the sun, and others! Unfortunately in our days most of the metal bands do not posses the live spirit of the legends of our music (Scorpions, Accept, Twisted Sister, Wasp, Saxon etc). Your singer Chris Kappas has a very strong voice, he is one of the main skills of your sound, do you share my opinion? What is your idea of the actual trend of power metal singers who appears to be very technical but dramatically cold? What is the real dimension of metal singing and have you achieved this dimension so far? Thanks for your good words. I agree with your opinions. Most of the new singers sign so high tones that they lose their feeling and identity. I like more old-fashioned singers. Those who can been identified in between 1000 singers. Those who sing with their soul. My favourites are Joe Lynn Turner, Jeff Scot Soto, Tony Martin and Graham Bonnet. For me those are real singers. I also admire Robert Lowe (Solitude Aeturnus) and Messiah Marcolin because they do not sing but chant. Nowadays most of the singers think that they are in a contest that he who sings higher will get the price!!! The lyrics of the album refers to the most important poem of history, you are from Greece and I think that the Odyssey is something really hollowed for your people, what does concern between this ancient poem and your band? Are there ideals and concepts you consider important even if centuries far from us? We believe that Odyssey is one of the greatest Epics ever (not to say the greatest) because some of the concepts and ideals contained in those pages are diachronically. That is why even though so many centuries have passed many people are still inspired by this Epic. Secret Port Records seems to rely on you very much, what is you personal relationship with your label? I know they produce many Greek bands and I'd like to know if you know personally other bands of your label's rooster? After this, can you tell me what about your idea of the supporting of the new album? We are personal friends with Teo from Secret Port Records. We rely on him and he relies on us. We are very happy with him because he believes in the band. It is very good to have someone who invests his money in our music. We try to support the album together. Teo will do whatever he thinks will help the album and we will try to play live in every place we can. As long as the other bands we are very good friends with Dream Weaver who released their new album (which is killer, and was produced by Stathis our guitarist on Reflection sound studios in Pireas!!!) some months ago. I know Greece is a florid land for true metal, I think there is huge possibility for bands to play live and this introduce my question to know something about your live planes, are there chances to see reflection playing live at summer festival in Germany now a day? Is there something planned about a tour? Have you ever played in Italy? Do not be sure about it. Greece has 200 really dedicated fans that follow all bands... but that's all. The magazines do not support the Greek bands, except those who are in big labels and some of their friends, and we only rely on foreign magazines and fanzines. For our live plans now, we would like to play everywhere. The only problem is that there is nobody interested to make all the arrangements! What should we do... pick up our guitars and come? To give you an example, in Greece we make several calls to people from other cities and all of them were very interested in bringing us to their city. Nobody called after that!!! Therefore what can we do ? call every day and make ourselves look like fools? We are in the business for more than 13 years, we have a respectable discography behind us and we have a pride! If someone is really interested in arranging a concert somewhere, we are here! What about your internet relationship? Have you an official web site to support, have our readers the chance to listen to some musical file from your albums to taste the talent of your band? Do you think internet is a good supporting system for a young band like yours? I believe that Internet is a very good way to promote your band. We have a site in www.reflection.gr and we try to communicate with metal fans every where in the world. Your label products are not delivered in Italy, can you tell me something to explain our readers how to buy your albums? Are there planning to deal with any European label to support your music world wide? The easiest way to buy our records is to communicate with Teo from Secret Port Recors. Now tell me something about the future plans of Reflection, are you working at new songs? Are you planning a tour? What will happen in the next future of your band? We will start to work in our next album very soon. We have some ideas and, if everything is going to be alright, we will have a huge surprise!!! But I do not want to say anything more. That's it for me, this space you may use to refer directly to our readers, I thank you for your time spent in answering my questions, hear next. Thank you very much for this interview. Keep on the great work because only such movements help our music. Eugenio
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