We have the pleasure to share our blog with Achelous the greek epic metal band. They were formed in 2011 they have recorded two full lps and various eps and singles and they possess a vibrant power on stage with atmospheric music style and powerful lyrics!
LoÖ: so you named your band after an ancient Greek River/God one of the largest in Greece even today Acheloos! Do you have any relationship with the great state of Aitoloakarnania (where I was born!) or why did you choose that name?
Achelous: Yeah, the name of the band comes from the ancient river God Achelous. Our bass player and founder of the band comes from Thessaly where Achelous river crosses its borders so it was a non-brainer for him to name his band after this river God.
Comment: there is a long dispute about the river between the regions of Thessaly and Aitoloakarnania but I wont get into it!
LoÖ: your first LP was named Macedon and says the tales of maybe the best military genius, leader and monarch (and even God!) of the whole history, Alexander the Great, what inspirations or experiences you had to make such a concept album?
Achelous: As a band we love to tell tales. That’s why we chose to serve this kind of music (Epic Metal). Our main lyrical influences are history, myths, legends, and fantasy literature therefore when we finished our first EP, we made a trip to the Vergina tombs. There it hit us, that we should make a concept album about Alexander’s campaign to the East. Actually, the first riffs and vocal lines were born as we were wandering in the museum. We had to make big research in order to finish the album, but I think that we got the result we wanted.
Comment: more than that!
LoÖ: the Macedon album says also the tale of Iskander as the legend in asia lived on after centuries beyond his demise. Legends never die they became myths and live on forever educating and entertaining later generations. Is this why we create so that our name will live on while our bodies are no more?
Achelous: Of course. Our actions will live even after the demise of our bodies. Alexander the Great was a unique and very strong personality. His military tactics and ideas in general were way ahead of his time.
Comment: great leader a legend!
LoÖ: your last album is named Icewind chronicles and is heavily inspired by Salvatore’s novels. So you are an rpg fan as well!
Achelous: Of course, we are RPG fans. I used to play Chaosium’s Elric, not to say the millions of hours I have spent on RPG pc games. Right now, I am doing a new run (probably the 100th!!!) on Black Isle’s Icewind Dale and after I complete it, I am thinking of doing another circle of the 3 Dragon Age games. We also love reading fantasy literature. I have spent countless hours reading Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance books.
Comment: I can’t believe when I learn about people that hear epic metal music or play rpgs but don’t do both for me they are interconnected along with epic fantasy literature!
LoÖ: so since you like fantasy novels and rpgs why didn’t you choose dragonlance chronicles, a much better literature work and far better fantasy setting! (in my opinion of course)
Achelous: I don’t believe that Dragonlance books are better than Forgotten Realms. I think that both worlds are amazing, and everything has to do with personal taste. Anyway, at the time we wanted to do a tribute to Icewind Dale trilogy, and we did it. I also have to inform you that since you enjoy Dragonlance so much, prepare yourself because the album we are recording right now and it will be released next year is a concept on Dragonalce books!
Comment: that’s too good to be true a Dragonlance epic metal album!!!
LoÖ: you have a third full album ready I hear so tell us about it, the inspirations, the expectations and the informations!!!
Achelous: The new album will be ready in the summer. We will deliver it to our label at the end of summer or early autumn in order to release it inside 2024. We have finished the drums and bass and we are recording the guitars right now. The recording process is happening at the Dark Waters Audio with our producer Stathis Pavlandis. As I told you above the concept of the new album takes place at the Dragonlance realms with stories of Raistlin, Caramon, Kitiara, Fistandantilus etc.
Comment: say no more! so it’s only a year to wait… and you will probably come to Agrinio to play your new album!
LoÖ: in general, what makes you write music and especially the best one (!) epic metal, what’s the drive, because obviously, it’s not money and fame!!!
Achelous: There are other music genres that will bring money and fame. Classic Heavy Metal is not one of them. We are fans of this kind of music for more than 30 years, we were raised on metal so it’s a no-brainer that we like performing this music. We all have our day jobs so it’s never about money and we are doing this in order to uplift and heal our souls.
Comment: I pity all those who don’t listen to epic metal and their souls are wounded never to heal…
LoÖ: last Saturday night in Agrinio we were banging heads and raising fists over loud music while the rest of the society was drinking, dancing in poser clubs or watching tv shows in their houses, does this mean that we (you) live in a parallel universe with the rest of society, and we merely coexist having too few or none in common with “them”?
Achelous: We believe that everybody is free to have fun the way they like. We like banging our heads some others like dancing. We are not here to judge other people’s entertainment. I know that sometimes it seems that we live in different universes but as long as we don’t bother each other it’s all great for me.
Comment: I expected a more brutal approach against posers!!!
LoÖ: what are your future plans as a band, how do you see “Achelous” in ten years and also in the near future how do you plan to promote your next album?
Achelous: Right now we are trying to promote Icewind Chronicles album. We are in talks with some promoters and also we are preparing a tour abroad. Our goal is to release our music and perform mostly abroad as many times as we can. Therefore in ten years, we see Achelous keep releasing good quality music and banging our heads on stage!
Comment: we will be there for you!
LoÖ: what’s your favourite book and writer and how if any have inspired your music and your life?
Achelous: My favourite book (s) is The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings. This is the book that pushed me deep into fantasy literature. I read it at an older age than I should have (I was 19 to 20 at the time – back in the early to mid-90s) because at the time it wasn’t so easy to discover new stuff. I was in the UK at the time and I was searching for some good books to read I stumbled upon an amazing edition with the 3 books together plus an extra 400 pages of bonus stuff and the rest is history. As long as my favourite writer, this one has to be R. A. Salvatore as Drizzt Do’Urden is my favourite character. Regarding the inspiration in our music … what else can it be said? We dedicated a whole album to the Icewind Dale trilogy and we are recording another one for Dragonlance!!!
Comment: I can’t find words to say anything more…
LoÖ: what other era of Greek history do you like will you make another concept album about it (I love concept albums)?
Achelous: Right now we do not have anything in the making about Greek history or mythology. We are in talks with the rest of the band about the fourth album and we have already some ideas about the concept of it but its not following that path. Anyway, sometime in the future we hope to return to a Greek history or mythology concept.
Comment: as long it’s made for the soul it can’t be bad, can it?
LoÖ: Greece has an unusually large epic metal family and far too many bands in the epic metal genre proportionally to our country’s size, why is that in your opinion are we more epic, more savage more warlike than the rest of the metal fans?
Achelous: I believe this has to do with the legends and the myths we inherited as a country. When you are raised with history so rich and deep it’s very easy to be heavily influenced by that. It’s very promising that our scene is getting the attention it deserves and there are many bands that release great albums out there. I hope that our bands will keep impressing the fans out there in order to strengthen more and more and be able to play in festivals abroad.
Comment: I believe the key to success is playing abroad, like Alexander’s father, king Philip, said “chose another country because this is too small for you!”
LoÖ: in your band coexist older (founder) and younger members. How difficult or easy it is to have a metal band in Greece and how life is for you with “Achelous” and your “day life”?
Achelous: The current configuration of the bands exists since Macedon album (with a small hiatus when Harris had some personal stuff to do). We are a good company of people since everyone has his job inside the band which is crystal clear. We also have our day jobs and families, but all our spare time goes to the band. I have to say that it’s not easy to have a classic metal band in Greece. The audience is getting older, and the bands are getting older but since we decided to serve this kind of music, we have to get over all obstacles and do whatever we can.
Comment: it begins to disturb me how fewer young people I see in the gigs except in the big ones where most people go out of curiosity and are not hardcore fans, I am not sure why younger people aren’t into metal anymore and how much longer can we continue going to gigs (I hope at least ten or more for me!)
LoÖ: finally I want to thank you for your (precious) time taking this interview for us the epic-all-things blog of Land of Öyr, you can add what I have forgotten to ask!
Achelous: Thank you so much for everything. We hope you had a great time in our gig at Agrinio city because we had a blast! See you all on stage and keep the flag of metal high!
Another enjoyable interview comes to end.
So please support the band buy its record, listen to its music, go to its gigs have fun and stay heavy!
As always I have no financial affiliation with the band I don’t make money if you buy anything from the links I do it only because I love epic metal!
Land of Oyr 