photo by Kostis Emmanouilidis
(On December 1st Agonia Records released a great new album by the renowned Hellenic Black Metal band Varathron, and in the time leading up to that release Comrade Aleks had an excellent discussion with Varathron‘s drummer Haris, which we are pleased to publish today.)
Varathron (translated from Greek as “extremely deep gorge”) is one of the three pillars of the Greek black metal scene along with Necromantia and Rotting Christ. Now, 35 years after the band’s foundation, only one member remains from the original lineup – Stefan Necroabyssious (vocals), but his colleagues Achilleas K. (guitar), Haris (drums), and Sotiris (guitars) joined Varathron almost two decades ago; and Stratos Kountouras (bass) has been in the group since 2012.
This is a strong, well-coordinated team of musicians, each of whom not only puts his soul into the black craft of Varathron, but also performs with other bands, giving free rein to different creative ideas. Their discography is replete with smaller releases, so the new full-length work The Crimson Temple is only their seventh in this line.
This album is a good example of infernal creativity and devilish devotion to the ideals of black metal, both in music and in lyrics, and our interview with Haris confirms this.
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Hail Varathron! Who’s online today? How do preparations for The Crimson Temple’s release go?
Hey! Thanks for reaching out. Haris here! It’s a busy period, as we are in the very final stages before The Crimson Temple is released. We are publishing more and more information regarding the album as we are getting closer to the release date (1.12.2023). I think it’s the first time we are so organized with the promotion of an album. A short video from the recordings has been available for a few months now, while we recently released the “Hegemony of Chaos” song on all streaming platforms. We also presented the amazing cover artwork of the album, while a dedicated website (http://thecrimsontemple.com/) is now available, where anyone interested can buy the album or merch. We have even shot a video for a track, that will soon be released as well. On top of that, we are rehearsing for the next shows (Germany, Portugal, Greece, etc.) in which we will surely include material from the new album.
Haris, the band reached its 35th anniversary in 2023. Do you plan to celebrate it with some gala show or will there be just a special TV-program on Hellenic national TV?
I’m not sure what kind of show you mean. We don’t usually do any fancy stuff and Hellenic TV is definitely not into this kind of music. The only celebration we did up to now is that we played the His Majesty at the Swamp album in its entirety during our Latin America tour in 2019 to celebrate 30 years since formation. This is imprinted in the Glorification Under the Latin Moon live album.
TV-program was a joke. At least I tried. However, how do you measure the band’s popularity in Greece? And what’s the situation with representing metal music in official medias? It’s clear that the situation with Behemoth’s pop-status in Poland is exceptional, but do you see something like this in your country?
I guess that the band’s popularity is being measured by the people who come to see our shows, the number of those who buy the records, those who hear the songs from all these streaming platforms, and of course by the level of respect we receive at any place we visit.
Now, focusing on Greece, Black Metal is certainly not a music for the masses. It’s not as popular as it is in Scandinavian countries. There is only 1 metal TV-show in a rather mainstream TV channel, which played for example the “Crypts in the Mist” videoclip. But we certainly didn’t become mainstream because of that. Even though, I guess that the sold-out shows are the best feedback we can have. I don’t see that something similar like Behemoth in Poland could ever happen in Greece.
Glorification Under the Latin Moon is the first and only Varathron live album. Why is it the only one?
Indeed, it took us a lot of years, but at least the results speak for themselves. It’s a 100% percent live album, and when I hear it, I re-live every moment of the show. I have memories from the whole concert, which is amazing at least for me. Anyways, we have released some live songs in The Confessional of the Black Penitents EP, and there is also the bootleg from the early days Live at the Swamp, but you are right this is the first official live record. And I think it represent the best era of the band, with the current line-up, the chemistry we have, our lust for live shows and the amazing Brazilian crowd. But don’t us expect to release another live album soon 🙂
Well, actually, I’ve found that there are only five dates in your gig schedule. Don’t you have enough fun now performing live rituals with Varathron?
Actually, we have tremendous fun performing live with VARATHRON! There is no better feeling than in performing live and getting the energy from the crowd. The live shows’ booking requests are intense, though we have to be selective with our choices on where to play, as we need to plan accordingly the rest of the activities each one of us has, mainly with respect to our daily jobs. We are in discussions with many promoters from all over the world, working on the details. I believe that we will soon release more dates.
The Crimson Temple is on its way to Varathron’s congregation and the album’s artwork performed by Paolo Girardi is damn cruel and infernal. What did you aim to channel through these images? Did you discuss with Paolo what you wanted to see on the album’s cover?
The person responsible behind the cover’s sick idea is Stefan. He usually has all these crazy, apocalyptic ideas and “pictures” in his mind that he tries to transfer to the artist. Stefan’s inspiration comes from books, movies, paintings, myths and places he visits. For this album, we chose Paolo, and the result speaks for itself. The cover artwork is amazing, with hundreds of details awaiting to be discovered by the hardcore fans. The feedback we have received up to now is beyond our expectations.
Stratos (bass guitar) contributed also significantly in the preparation of the cover, as he took over the communication with Paolo, trying to fine-tune all details of the cover. He also took care of the whole artistic aspect of the various formats we will be releasing, such as CDs, vinyl records, tape, and special edition boxes.
I suppose that I know the answer, but what do you value in artworks like this? You know – it’s a kind… festival of violence, and it doesn’t look like a holy war against a stupid church or whatever some bands choose to talk about in justifying their works. So what do these images mean for you personally?
First, what I like most, is the artistic side of the cover, the colors, the technique, etc. As for the message itself, I think we always like to concentrate on the dark side, horror, occultism and fantasy. To me, it’s just a great artwork that I can stare at for hours, being amazed by all the details, and that can take me to another dimension with my fantasy.
The exclusive edition of The Crimson Temple contains a deck of tarot cards. Why did you choose this bonus as an option? Do you use tarot yourself and find it efficient?
We wanted to prepare something really unique for these special edition box sets. The tarot cards fit perfectly the mystical and occult nature of our music. Each tarot card has a dedicated painting, related to each one of the album’s songs. Personally, I don’t use tarot cards, but as a collector myself I think it’s a killer concept for the boxes.
But there are 22 main cards in the system, and there are ten songs in the album… However, it’s not a problem. I just finished reading Martin Popoff’s book dedicated to Mercyful Fate’s discography. It isn’t something I would strongly recommend, but there are a lot of interesting facts. And the question of “right” understanding of satanism was raised there far more than once. What’s your position regarding this problem? And which bands formed your ideology, if we can say so?
With 22 if you mean the major Arcana, no I can say that this is not related to cartomancy. We have used only the concept of cards not the deck. Well, Stratos was behind the whole concept of the cards, but I think that it has to do more with representing the artwork in another form rather than a typical booklet. He wanted to find a pattern to connect even more the artwork with the tracks. And the idea came after we saw how Paolo’s artwork was coming out, which then led us in using one tarot card for each song.
Regarding the ideology, I will now speak for myself and not for everyone in the band. Myself, I’m an atheist. I believe that religion is the biggest problem on earth today. No matter which one specific it is. I’m a free man and I don’t like to see things only through two perspectives. I’m not biased, I don’t think in black and white. Even satanism can be a religion.
As a free person, I like to understand the different perspectives people think. And I’m getting angry when I see that religion takes over the personality of people. This can happen both in satanists and catholics/orthodox. So, maybe I’m not the right person in the band to answer the topic about satanism. Stefan should answer this question as he has dug deeper into the occult/satanic concept, exploring and reading about this space.
As for our inspirations, Mercyful Fate / Black Sabbath / Bathory / Venom / Celtic Frost are those who helped formulize our ideology.
There are five years between The Crimson Temple and Patriarchs of Evil. How much of Patriarchs will we find in The Crimson Temple? Did you feel that you found the right formula, which could be only slightly improved, a perfect algorithm to channel your message?
To be honest, we don’t work with formulas, we never did. We feel like a family in the band, we enjoy playing together, we have great chemistry, and we just write the music we like, being at the same time very picky if it fits to VARATHRON or not. This is the only formula we have.
Patriarchs of Evil is a great record we enjoyed a lot and it was very positively welcomed by the fans. The Crimson Temple is certainly an evolution of Patriarchs of Evil but in my opinion it’s a bit more aggressive. It contains from up-tempo to low-tempo/doom songs, aggressive to epic atmospheres and musical inspirations from black metal, to heavy metal and traditional/ethnic music. All these elements have always been present in our music. Honestly, I believe that the fans of our music will find all the VARATHRON elements and trademarks in the new songs. And the album is a great blend of musical ideas from all band members.
Do you have traditional instruments in these songs? Or do you imitate ethnic music with a standard set of instruments?
Yes we are using some traditional instruments, even from the Crowsreign record. But there are also some imitations. As for the various choirs you can hear, for example in the “Constellation of the Archons” song, those are real. I always like the Byzantine music, even though I’m an atheist, as I said before. It has a lot of mysticism elements.
It’s your second album recorded with the same lineup and with Achilleas Kalantzis as producer again. How smooth was this recording session? I wonder if any problems may appear in such circumstances.
Just a small correction: this is the third studio album with the same lineup, for Untrodden Corridors of Hades, Patriarchs of Evil and The Crimson Temple. We’ve been together with this lineup for about 12 years. And you’re right, it’s the second studio album in which Achilleas has the duty of the producer as well.
The recording sessions for The Crimson Temple went extremely smooth. We recorded the drums in the summer of 2022, directly after returning from a show in Halden, Norway. The recordings of the rest of the instruments and vocals followed, without any problems. Then, Achilleas started the mixing and mastering process. The album could have been released earlier but there were too many things to organize with the pressing factories, promo and visuals.
Anyway, I guess that the chemistry within the band, the common musical vision, the musicianship level and our energy and devotion to our music showed off, allowing us to have, in my opinion, the smoothest recording sessions we ever had.
The first song that was chosen to represent the new album is “Hegemony of Chaos”, and it’s progressive, violent, epic. Was it a symbolic gesture to channel the entire album’s essence through this song? Is that what it’s all about? The reign of chaos?
Indeed, “Hegemony of Chaos” is a good example of what one can expect in terms of music from the new album. It contains many – though, not all – of our music’s elements. It’s a quite long song, which makes it rather unsuitable for a single, but we wanted to introduce this album with this song anyway. I can assure you though that the rest songs of the album are of the same level or even better!
Haris, I remember that Stefan talked about Untrodden Corridors of Hades, that it’s a hymn to prime evil or something like that. Which forms of prime evil do you praise in The Crimson Temple?
It’s the same form, this doesn’t change. But I think Stefan should answer this question as he is, as always, responsible for all the lyrics. There are always ancient demonical entities and mythical references lurking in our music. Take for example the “Hecatoncheiras” in the cover art sacrificing the innocent souls of children being carried by witches.
On the one hand, the world, especially a civilized one, turns out to be an even more “civilized” or tolerant place. On the other hand, the world goes mad and fanatics of different kinds spread religious madness on every corner fighting with extremities of intolerance and driving the world to their own extremities. Was Varathron involved in the conflicts because of the band’s spiritual aspect and image recently?
Indeed, the world is in a really bad situation these days due to the unexplainable stupidity of mankind. In the last years, and you can see also what is happening today in Ukraine and Palestine, many things have gone pretty wrong. Anyway, in a world that is desperately seeking to separate people in the name of money, politics, power and religion, our “survival weapon” has always been our art. We have not been involved in any remarkable conflicts so far and we try to mind our own business as long as other people do the same.
No problems with Christian activists at all?
No, we never had any huge problems. And it’s not only Christians. There are many other religions, which might be even more hardcore. What comes to my mind only is when we played a couple of years ago in Malaysia, where we had to play secretly, and in Singapore where the government forced us not to play 1-2 songs due to some lyrics.
There have been 18 musicians in Varathron in total. Were there situations when the band’s members left Varathron because of ideological reasons?
No, to my knowledge, none of the previous members left due to ideological reasons, but mainly due to personal reasons.
All the band’s members also take part in other bands and projects. How do you find enough resources to share your inspiration and energy between different bands?
Music is our passion, and if I’m not wrong, the extended VARATHRON “family” counts more than 5 bands, with various members collaborating in different projects (e.g., Aenaon, Katavasia, No Hand Path, Locrian Stigma, Zaratus, etc.). As said before, we are very picky with the music that ends up in VARATHRON. Any musical ideas not fitting there, end up in the other projects we all have.
And it is interesting to mention that music-wise, all other projects we have are quite different from the VARATHRON style. I guess that this extended VARATHRON “family” is a sign that our creativity is well alive. However, VARATHRON is for all of us the ultimate priority.
Rotting Christ has its own biography, Necromantia has its own biography now too, when will you present Varathron’s biography as well?
Well, I can only say that it’s coming! We’ve all been personally involved in writing and reciting tales and facts from our history. But, as you might guess, it takes time to assemble all this information from different persons-sources. We don’t have any strict deadline, but we put pressure on ourselves to finish it asap. And I can tell you that we are very close, and it’s going to be very interesting and quite extensive book.
Great news! It’s a narrow question for a big theme, but how do you see the main features of Hellenic black metal? How do you see the roots of this phenomenon? Even if we take three core Hellenic bands, each of you follow your own path, and sometimes it led further from black metal.
The Hellenic black metal sound is really unique. I sometimes feel that the term “black metal” does not make justice in describing our sound, as it might mislead someone thinking that we sound similar to the Scandinavian sound. The Hellenic black metal sound relies a lot on melodies, its foundation is the heavy/trash metal sound, while it is enriched with occult & mystical ethnic/oriental atmosphere. Also, it’s groovier without losing any of its aggression. The HBM is a unique blend. The three pillars of the Hellenic sound have their unique characteristics, each one of them going in different directions, however I believe that the ingredients I mentioned just before, are evident in all of us.
Do you see any limits to Varathron’s further development? Where is the line which you won’t cross in order to keep the band’s identity?
In terms of music, there are absolutely no borders. But I don’t know if you will ever hear something radically different from us, as this is who we are. But to get more generic, this is the kind of music we like and write, we do have our influences and our personalities, and also keep in mind that we are not young people anymore. We know who we are and what we want. So, the whole package is very mature and has a certain identity. Thus, don’t expect any huge change in us. You won’t see us play gothic or pop, or change our personalities to become mainstream.
There aren’t visible competitions behind the different black metal scenes or branches nowadays, but the Norwegian scene had the upper hand from the start. It looks like Greek bands had to work harder to get recognition. Do you feel that you reached your maximum? Do you have some ambitions for the band’s future?
The Norwegian scene draw a lot of attention with all the early ’90s incidents. I’m not saying that the music was not great, but definitely the interest grew due to other factors as well. Also, keep in mind that Norway is a much richer country than Greece, which supports the musicians and artists at a completely different level, financial and culturally wise. It’s not easy to make a living out of extreme music in Greece. So, it was easier for Norwegian or Scandinavian bands to tour.
Labels also seemed to prefer Scandinavian bands, and there was a rumor in the late ’90s or early ’00s, that if a band is from Scandinavia, it is a good band. Which is to a certain degree correct, as those guys were very talented. But on the other hand, you had masterpieces jumping out of Greece, of the same or even higher quality, that unfortunately didn’t receive the same publicity.
But leaving all that behind, and without wanting to whine about trivial things, I believe that the Hellenic scene is treated with huge respect, and we can witness that from the reaction we receive from all around the world.
How do you think why Italy didn’t grow its own black metal scene? Both countries have very close cultural backgrounds but we know about Italian Progressive Rock or Italian Dark Sound, but not Italian Black Metal. Did you communicate with Italian black metal bands back in the ’90s?
Very interesting question and honestly, I don’t know the answer. You have some great bands, like Mortuary Drape, Opera IX, Necrodeath, Graveworm, but I have a feeling that the country is more into the heavy/power metal sound. Even when we played in Italy, the audience was not that big. With Mortuary Drape, we played together in Athens some years ago. Nice guys and old friends!
Varathron’s split with Necromantia (1992), always was a kind of mark of inner collaboration within the scene, and then you took part in the split Duality of the Unholy Existence with Rotting Christ (2019). It was cool to see such bonds between the three main Hellenic black metal bands. But what about the other bands? Do you see the local black metal scene as a real circle, or is it rather a number of bands occasionally playing together?
We are good friends with those great bands you mentioned. Every time we meet, we have a great time. But no, there are certainly more bands, less renowned but of amazing talent and it’s up to the listener to discover them. I’m not sure if we can speak of a circle. You know, our base is Ioannina, a small town 4-5 hours away from Athens. We always felt that we were acting completely on our own, we never felt that we belonged to a circle as we were somehow isolated from the happenings of the capital Athens. And to be honest, we like that. This allows our music, our relationships with other bands, and our lust for metal music to be even more pure.
Thank you for the great interview, Haris. Your patience is much appreciated. Well, did we skip some important questions? What would you like to add at the end of the interview?
Thank you for your support and for taking time to pose your questions. We are thrilled to bring out The Crimson Temple. We have a strong belief in this album, we created it out of pure joy and passion. We hope that all maniacs around the globe will embrace it. Those who like the Hellenic black metal sound will not be disappointed. Hopefully we’ll see you somewhere on the road!
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