Progression is a term that stands in total contrast to the Greek black metal scene when you don't focus on the huge name like Rotting Christ. Ironically they do something totally different from what bands like Funeral Storm do on their albums. So "Cthonic Invocations"  (review here) turned out to be something that might origin back in 1992 when the Greek black metal scene was still in its infancy, unpolished and raw. I had a nice chat with Wampyrion (git./ bass) about the band and the Greek scene in general. But enough intro, check the album out, enjoy the interview and support the band!

Michael

Hails Wampyrion, how are you doing?

Fine, pretty good, actually there's just an issue here with some dust from Egypt and it's like in Dune outside. But apart from that I was actually working on some new stuff over here, recording some new ideas already.

Your second album "Chthonic Invocations" was released in May – what can you tell us about the album so far and what would you say is the major difference to "Arcane Mysteries"?

Well, I think that it's a lot more aggressive, a lot more dark but then again it's like the same album again. Nothing changed, the ideas were the same, even exactly the same guitar and bass sound. So it's pretty much almost the same, but it's a little bit less clean.

Having heard it already a couple of times I have to say that you go far back into the history of Hellenic black metal. Naturally there are some similarities to Varathron but with a song like 'The Covenant Of The Old' or 'Mistress Of The Night' I also feel myself being 15 again listening to "Thy Mighty Contract" in 1993.

That's a strange story. I don't think I can compose anything else. I mean, it just comes naturally, mostly because that are the albums like "Walpurgisnacht", "His Majesty At The Swamp" or "Thy Mighty Contract" or "Passage To Arcturo" and that kind of style I like. I also love "Non Serviam" but I don't think that we have influences from this album that much. That's the stuff I've been listening to since I was 13 and I am 36 now. It just comes up and if I try to record some black metal in Norwegian style, I just can't.

Looking at the Greek scene, there are many fantastic bands that play a kind of similar style which hasn't changed much in the last 30 years. Is the Greek scene somehow cursed to be regressive and not progressive by any means?

The problem is that you see Greek metal bands here and there and suddenly everybody knows the country not only for vacation but also for black metal (laughs). That's the thing, at least for black metal. It was like in during the 00s up until 2010 that we completely lost our identity. Everyone was trying to play a little bit like Norwegian or Swedish black metal and that's the only era nobody ever wrote anything about the Greek scene. I was playing totally raw black metal with Funeral Storm and one day I said "fuck it, I start playing the old school Greek black metal". For me, that's the original sound; it's the signature sound like when you listen to Finnish black metal, you know it's Finish instantly. That's what happened and to be completely honest, I don't think we have to evolve. I mean, the sound is more modern these days but I tried to make it sound a lot more old school but the rest of the members didn't let me do it (laughs).

Lyrically there are also a lot of references to the past with tracks using words like "old", "dead", "the beyond" so I guess that the past is always connected with your works?

Well, by remembering our past we honor our future in a way. Everything from the past has a romantic essence in some sort and there are also ideas behind it like the stories we do from the Greek folk stories because we like to travel as band members, not as the band. We love to take pictures and we all like to travel to places with some specific history, strange stories and stuff like that.

Is there a concept behind the songs or even the album?

Yeah, absolutely. It's not like a concept album in general like a story but every song is about death in general. 'The Epitaph Of The Dead', when you listen to the album, you probably find out that it sounds like Necromantia. That was my persona tribute to Baron Blood, so it also has to do with death and that's the same reason why the song starts with a music box and a note to Devil's King. 'Funeral Pyres' is a story about where the people came out on a specific Easter day just to see their beloved ones in the church. 'The Void' is about a personal incident that happened during Covid. Of course it's a little bit more Lovecraftian but eventually when Cthulhu comes everybody will die, so I guess it's part of that death experience (laughs). The thing is that I was talking to Arcania and told her that the next album should be about death, there was no Covid back then. It is as if someone heard me  - some God or the universe, don't know how to say it – and suddenly death was all around us and we were in the actual mode to do it.

As a black metal band you use many occult symbols – is there a certain religious or philosophical view you have in the band?

Actually besides the inverted cross that we use for Funeral Storm which is pretty much the "f"-letter and it just comes out as the inverted cross. The symbols are not just Satanic imagery just because we're black metal. All of them have a specific Lovecraftian meaning. The star behind the cross that we use, it's the symbol of Dagon. The front cover pentagram right in front of the necromancer is about necromancy. It's an ancient image and it's said it is used to summon Shub-Niggurath and we will be revealing some more news where we use the seal to summon Nyarlotep.

I mean this all is more or less fantasy and a lot of imaginary connected to it and not a real philosophical thing….

Not really. Actually I happened to start running a cult lately which is not just "come join us, we're the evil guys". It's also based on math, chemistry and the endless possibility of the parallel universes and stuff like that. It's a cult that uses the Great Ones, either the Outer Gods and you as specific archetypes to feed ourselves and make us become better until we perish.

So it is more metaphysical.

You can say it's a cult in the actual way.

The intro sounds like a part of a macabre operetta and you have this masked priest you used for the first album already. Is this your 'Phantom Of The Opera', Funeral Storm's "Eddie" or "Rattlehead"?

That's a funny question because we were talking about that as band members yesterday (laughs). We said that we don't want to have him as Eddie. We used him from the first album and actually we didn't even order the front cover. I just saw it and said "I need that!". For the second one I called Stefan Necroabyssious and said "dude, it's time to start talking about the front cover" and he asked "what do you want?". I said "the necromancer!". So he went "let's do this and that detail over there" so everything you see are the ideas from Stefan except the necromancer. Also another hint that it is a full-length album is that if you watch carefully on the down right corner, there is something like a cave with zombies. That's the cave where the necromancer was on the first album. So now he is outside and the zombies are waiting for him in the cave.

In our last interview you said that you draw inspiration from many old bands, be it the godfathers of black metal or also the British and German legends. Are there also some new bands that have impressed you lately?

For sure I can say that everybody in the band is a huge fan of Attic. We love Attic! I checked the new album and was like wow! So I immediately called Stefan and told him that they got a new album out. And not so lately I found out about Heosphoros from Argentina. They're playing like Greek black metal. Wolfera The Jackal is also good and the name is their obvious inspiration, I think they're from Ecuador and Abisma from Chile do exceptional good Greek black metal.

On the 10th May you had the album presentation in Athens; I know that Stefan was on tour with Varathron this March but I hope that this isn't an obstruction to present the new album in Europe live?

No, not really. Do you know how The Magus keeps saying that he's against live shows? I'm exactly like him in general. There were some exception I really wanted to play live like one day they asked us if we wanted to play with Mortuary Drape for their tour "All The Witches Dance". I kept saying that the only exception to perform live with Funeral Storm would be with Mortuary Drape but back then we couldn't find a drummer in time so that went out of the window. Stefan lives like six hours by car from Athens so it's not easy to rehearse and perform and of course his job, my job and he's got Varathron…I can't keep him busy for too long (laughs).

The final words are yours!

We are already working on the new album because the previous one "Chthonic Invocations" was already recorded during Covid. I can't wait to officially start working on the new album; I have so many ideas on my mind, I think it's going to explode. I want to thank you for this opportunity and maybe one day we can do a show and have some beers or we just skip the show and get to the beers right away (laughs).