MYSTIC PROPHECY - R.D.Liapakis

"I assure you that, by the time "Across The Gates Of Hell" entered, I had completely changed my mind! What a song and it was just the introduction of what was about to come. A cd fulfilled with powerful songs, a heavy and extremely solid sound and compositions inspired enough to attract you, especially nowadays that good releases tend to disappear. What more to expect! Nothing? Wrong answer again!! The correct answer is a great vocalist with a voice that stands out of the Euro-Power high pitched stuff (not that he lacks of it)! Melodic at times, angry or screaming, he manages to gain the respect and I believe that this is his most mature performance, so far.” review Metalzone.gr for the latest Mystic Prophecy release FireAngel. This was the reason we wanted to interview the band’s mainman R.D. Liapakis but as it turned out we had many more …. Read what he had to say and you’ll see what we mean. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone.gr: Hello Dimitri, welcome in Metalzone.gr .
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: Hallo!
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: You are one of the most successful Greek bands internationally- do you feel this way?
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: This is something I can’t judge for myself. First of all I can’t say we’re a Greek band. Our base is here in Germany where we all live. Now some consider us to be a Greek band because of me but not everyone feels that way. If we were a Greek band we should be accepted differently. 
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: Nowadays you’re considered to be multinational, but I consider you to be a Greek band because of you.
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: Now that there are two guys in the band Greek- with Constantine of Descending we’re 50% Greek, 40% German and 10% Hungarian.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: And is that working for you guys?
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: Well you can judge for yourself by listening to the new album.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: So let’s talk about FireAngel.
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: On the first day of its release it got in the German charts in position 77. We also did that with the previous album but not in such a good position. This is proof that the band has a fan base who expects the release impatiently. \r\n

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\r\nTalking about Mystic Prophecy, well we started off 9 years ago. I got started with Martin and Gus (G) we released 3 albums on Nuclear Blast, then Gus left the band to focus on Firewind, and Dennis for whom I have no idea about his whereabouts. I didn’t give up, as it’s my band, it’s got a strong fan base, it does well commercially so I wouldn’t stop because two band members left. So I found Markus, and Martin Grimm we released Savage Souls which did twice the sales the previous albums had done and then Satanic Curses and that got us to Fire Angel when Martin Grimm and Martin Albrecht left. Martin got a third child so it’s very difficult to balance your family, your day job and the band. And when you want to compete with fully professional, good bands you have to give 100% and more to your band. Martin (Albrecht), who had been in the band since the beginning, has a job in which he has to work for 3 weeks in a row and then have one week off. This time schedule can’t compromise with the demands of the band. So I had to find replacements. Constantine who I got to know from doing the production in Descending and was in Nightrage seemed to be talented enough and so I asked him to be a part of the band and he accepted. Connie is Hungarian and he plays guitars in Evidence One, and our drummer Stefan Dittrich is in the band Saidian. The band has evolved over the years and I feel in a way it has gotten better. I can’t say we are a super band; this is something the band will judge for them. Reviews are very good; we are still looking for a review that says something bad and at the end of the year we’ll see if this album is did better in sales than the previous one. 
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\r\nMetalzone.gr : So, reviews so far have been great…
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: Amazingly good, up to a point that stresses me as to what I have to do next in order to surpass this release. But for now I got no stress, I am focused on this album, and we’ll see what happens in the future.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: We liked the album very much. Actually, John Litinakis who did the review wrote that even though you don’t sound like a typical European heavy metal band and you have elements of  American heavy and it sounds very fresh, you don’t expect what you listen.
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: I believe Mystic have always had a personal style. And yes we are a European band but we also have some thrashy riffs but also a melancholic mood if you listen closely. This is what makes our sound distinctive and not a band that sounds like this, this and that. I feel this is the advantage and disadvantage of the band because there are those who love you for what you do and those who hate you. But I can’t make music for everyone…
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: Since we covered the part about the music can you tell me a few things about the lyrics;
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: FireAngel is sort of a concept album. The songs are related in a way to each other. A FireAngel, is each and every one of us who is born on earth and walks this planet. Everyone destroys the planet in his own way. I write generally about war, politics, even though the titles are catchier, because after all we are making entertainment. If it were something typical it would raise no one’s interest. Every one of us is a Fire Angel in both a good and a bad way. We walk down the street, we threw away our trash, we drive cars whose fumes spoil the environment, and if you open the freezer I am sure at the back you’ll find products which have expired and at the same time there are people dying of hunger. To me this is the Apocalypse. It began the day man walked the earth. We don’t need the Angel Of The Apocalypse to destroy earth, we are doing his job every day.  
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: Compared to previous releases do you feel you have evolved in your sound- any influences?
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: I have never had influences. I admire many bands and singers for their work but I have never copied something. If I copy a great performer all I can be is a good copy. So it’s no point, the best thing to do is to create what’s inside you.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: Yes but what you listen – doesn’t it influence you;
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: Never, ever since I began I never considered changing my voice just because I like Glen Huges or Dio.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: What about a creative adaptation, listening to something and making it yours?
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: I have never worked in that way, I am influenced by music but never in a way to make me copy something. Of course Mystic didn’t change the course of metal. Nowadays there is nothing left to be pioneering about. Everything has been played. And come to think of it, our sound is the most diverse sound on the planet. It began from what we call rock, which turned into metal, then heavy metal, epic metal, progressive metal, black metal, death metal… emo core metal… If you say you play metal today you are being vague cause you have to specify what sort of metal while back in the day there was only one genre. But I don’t sit down trying to figure out what to copy from others. When we write with Markus, we write 10, 11 or 12 songs. We don’t write 25 songs and then pick the best. Whatever sounds good stays in the album, what’s not good gets trashed, and what we decide to keep, we work on extensively in order to make them sound exactly as we have want them.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: Tell us a few things about the production and mixing process of the album. The sound in the album is immense, massive and solid till there can be no more. 
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: Well in order to get this result of the production, you have to have a suitable song arrangement. It’s the songs that make the production possible. The song has to have the “guts” to give ground to the production to be established upon.
\r\nOver the last ten years I have been making the productions myself. We didn’t do something special. We recorded the album within 12 days, and it sound like that because the songs suit the production. Of course there has been progress in the sound. I record here in my studio and then I go to Sweden to mix with Fredrik. Because when I used to do the mixing here, I would spend a whole day mixing, then come home and listen to the album and the next day I would go and change one thing and the next day the same, and the same and the same and I ended up mixing for a whole month. Each time I listen to something I want to change something, so now I restrict myself by going to Sweden for 5 days and I have to finish the album within these 5 days.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: But doesn’t this leave you unsatisfied? Aren’t you left with the need to change something?
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: There is no musician who is completely satisfied with the result of his album. I bet no musician ever feels completely satisfied, unless it’s someone who is extremely vain. The type of guy you ask “is your latest release your best album? Yeap Of course… Well that’s b….. Others will judge whether your album is good or not. All you can say is I did what I felt best at that moment. For example you may think that the production is very good but I know that there are parts in FireAngel here and there that I would do different. When you have an album in front of you, it’s easy to judge it, but when you create it you think everything is perfect. When you listen back to it you trace your mistakes and learn from them. If I had created the perfect album there would be no need to release another one. 
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: What about live dates?
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: Well we’re doing the Metal Camp in Slovenia- which I consider to be one of the best fests in Europe, great location  and billing, 7 days, it’s like a vacation- then on October we’re going on tour but I can’t really say with which band yet. We are going to be attending next year’s Bang Your Head, Rock Hard, Sweden Rock, we are doing shows in Czech Republic, Cyprus in September…
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: What about Greece?
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: What about Greece (laughs)? Well Greece you have to have the right connections in order to make the stage, and we don’t. We want to come but it’s still very vague we may arrange a mini tour in a couple of cities in Greece but we don’t know yet. I always play Greece gladly even I perform in front of 10 people. We play music because it’s what we love to do.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: Your relations with the Greek metal scene are a little rough huh?
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: Well you know it’s quite a paradox to be outside of Greece like Marios Iliopoulos (NightRage) or Gus G and Firewind who can be recognized in Greece but not as much as they should. Greek fans don’t support Greek bands. In Switzerland Gotthard are National heroes, Nightwish became big firstly in their country and then internationally. In Greece that doesn’t happen. It’s so strange for both me and Gus to be considered talented musicians in Germany and to have reporters wonder in interviews why we are not equally accepted in our homeland. It’s a Greek thing.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: The differences between the Greek and German scene are big right?
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: Well, you know German fans are more open minded, more tolerant and the scene is much bigger in Germany. If you can’t make it in a market of 90.000.000 people of who 2.000.000 are metal heads you can’t make it anywhere.  We do well in Germany, but not in Greece. People don’t have enough money to buy 50 cds a week, for example. I am not disappointed; it just makes me wonder about my country. How can they support bands that have nothing to offer to the scene? Hype bands, which have been created out of nowhere using promotion and image makers.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: Well I call these nobodies.
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: Yeah but look at those nobodies how they get places… Take look at bands that come out from the US… Or do you think Trivium is something special? Whatever they do is a copy cat of old Metallica riffs. Four talented kids, who copy Metallica, have a label which promotes them as far as promotion can. And truth be said, television and magazines are brain catching. If you watch the same video all day you end up singing the song even if you don’t like it. Of course this can only last so long as once maybe twice. After that it’s obvious if you can take the next step or not. But this doesn’t concern the music industry. The industry wants to release a couple of albums with 2 to 3 million sales each. After that, there will come anew band.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: However on the long run this will kill the scene, won’t it?
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: Yeap. At the moment we still have the “dinosaurs” Priest, Maiden, Motorhead etc still around. If they stop who will follow? Can you name one single band that follows even 5% into Maiden’s steps? None! Why? Because there are good bands but they are being ignored and as long as they’re being ignored they will never get that extra step.
\r\nFor me these bands are the top League in music not acts like Marilyn Manson or In Flames who think they can follow. They can sell one twentieth of the sales Maiden are doing. They are second. Third scale are bands like Chimaira and Amon Amarth and on the forth scale are bands like us.
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\r\nIn 5 years time I think the metal scene will become underground like the way it was back in the 80s. Record labels are closing down – look what happened to SPV which had one of the best roasters around- albums don’t sell, downloading is over the top, there are over 200 releases each month how many can an average fan purchase? 
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\r\nIn five years time I think cds won’t be released anymore. Whatever get’s released will be released over the internet. Financially it’s not profitable for labels to release albums on cd. In the US you can see it starting, already. And sadly enough the quality of the sound is very pour. 
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\r\nOne more factor which contributes to the whole situation is magazines. Magazines which have to have, a particular attitude towards the releases of the labels that are also their paying customers and place ads in their magazine. It’s like the mafia. If you have a magazine, I’ll place 100.000 worth of ads but you’ll give me 10 covers throughout the year. Do you think Mystic Prophecy can make the cover even if we release the best album of the year? If I suggest to the Greek edition of Metal Hammer 10.000 in order to get the cover they will not accept. Because Mystic Prophecy are a small band and by giving us the front page they will not have as many sales as they would with a bigger band.
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\r\nUp till late 80s music was being sold because people loved it. People who owned record labels were people like you and me, fans who loved the music and their bands. After the 90s when they saw they can make money out of this people who love the music were replaced by managers. What’s good doesn’t’t matter, what sells is what matters.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: After the release of the latest editions of Metal Hammer and Rock Hard there has been much controversy about what you said in the Greek scene.
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: I have received many emails saying that the Greek scene is better that what I said. I wonder how can it be since all it’s got to show off are Rotting Christ, SepticFlesh, Firewind, Nightrage, us who have released our albums internationally. Bands that have had at least three releases in an international label.
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\r\nI didn’t intend to offend the work they do but the attitude of trying to get somewhere with rough unprofessional efforts next to perfect releases. Because if you want to release something internationally this is what you have to compete with perfectly finished albums. And this isn’t because of the studios in Greece but because the human resources don’t know how to handle bands and how to get what need to be given by a band. In the mid time prices in studios are exactly the same. Why not go abroad to record? Firewind , Rotting Christ, SepticFlesh aren’t dump for recording outside of Greece, they know they had to record abroad in order to evolve their sound and get their music into the best level possible. A production can be much better abroad than in Greece. Because abroad, professionals know best how to get from a metal band what need to be pointed out. In Greece, we can find good units but unfortunately no good teams. You see music is a team sport and if you can’t play well as a team you can get nowhere. 
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\r\nMoreover, over the last 8 years I have helped the Greek scene to a great extent- both in production and helping bands get into labels- therefore I feel I can express my opinion on the Greek scene. Do you want me to say names? Casus Beli, InnerWish, Emerald Sun, Crystal Tears… all these bands have signed record deals because of me, and I can’t express my opinion on the Greek scene? Do you know how many demos are mailed to my address each week? All from Greek bands saying more or less the same thing, “Mr Liapakis if you could please listen to our band and help us find a label…” I am not saying I can sign every band there is because not everyone is worth getting a record deal, but I can help those who I feel have something to offer.
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\r\nI have received many emails from band members of established bands telling me I am right on what I say. The only ones who were offended by what I said were the ones I meant.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: Closing what would you say to someone who is getting ready to listen to the fire angel?
\r\nR.D.Liapakis: To give a try to a band who has been around for the last 10 years and has a personal perspective towards heavy metal. Listen to it and if you like it buys it.
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\r\nHellena Mihailidou
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