Interview to HELLMOAT (Greece)

1. Hello my friend, pleasure to have you on Rotten Pages ´zine. How are you doing today? Let us set the scene first. Where do we find you right now? Please describe your surroundings.

Nice to meet you, It is a pleasure for me writing to you , It is late night in urban Athens and I have a little time to chill before sleep after an exhausting day. I am typing on my laptop with lights off, on my tiny portable desk. It has replaced my previous home studio due to my recent moving into a smaller apartment. Anyway, I will pretend I became minimalist haha. Let’s dive into interview!

2. Hellmoat is said to be a personal experiment for you, as the entirely from your role as a sole member in the band. Can you tell us more about how this project started?

Two things played vital role in starting the Black Metal project “Hellmoat”. The first one is my passion and knowledge in playing music, especially the subgenres of Extreme Metal. The second one was my realization in 2022 that life goes by and I should do more stuff I really enjoy, like making the music that plays inside my head alive. And so it happened, I gathered some money, bought some necessary stuff for a home studio and  I recruited my 15 years of playing various instruments, mainly stringed ones. All this started for enjoying Extreme Metal and relative songwriting, and it is destined to go straight to there. Nothing more… nothing less…

3. Hellmoat has been active for over three years now. How has your sound evolved over the years, and what has kept you inspired to continue creating music?

My initial sound vision had to do with something more Ambient and Atmospheric adopting mainly a 2nd wave  of B.M. aesthetic. Track after track Ambient and Atmospheric features started to eclipse but not disappeared completely while the harsh Scandinavian texture was dominating as obviously proved in the Album “ Odes of Exilation”. I am honest with what I create that’s why I am not afraid to show something that changes . For example, the album I prepare now will keep some similar features but its gonna have a more Death metal and technical twist . There will be also some singles that are influenced by DSBM and  others B.M. subgenres. Things that keeps my inspired in making Black Metal music is existential dread, nihilism, depression , violence, chaos and injustice of this world.

4. Let´s make a review about your life as musician, Can you name some of the bands who you first really admired and helped shape your future in music?

It is a long path to here. As a kid I was always stunned by the sound of electric guitar, falling in love with every track it was played in. I started listening to bands like Scorpions, AC/DC Aerosmith in elementary school from CDs found exploring my family and relatives CD cases we had back in time. In high school and having access to internet my style started getting heavier and my love for metal bigger. I discovered classics like Metalica , Megadeth , Slayer and I remember learning my first metal tracks on guitar. A chaos followed , every metal related band was on my headphones… Slipknot played a vital role back in time in my practical guitar and bass skills as their songs where my favorite to play back then… and finally  Black Metal appeared to crown the Chaos. The atmosphere of Burzum, Rotting Christ, matched my pondering mentality and I really got engaged to this music. Metal music for me became mainly Black and it obtained a more serious and deep role. Last years my music taste has settled down to Black Metal and my main influences are Immortal, Necromantia, Graveland, Dimmu Borgir , Mayhem , Burzum and Batushka.

5. As an emerging band in the extreme metal scene, what are some challenges you've faced, and how have you overcome them to pave the way for your future?

Making music its much challenging by its self, especially when you do everything by your own. You may be a really creative person but you have to deal with technical and knowledge obstacles of music production and generally every part related form recording to promotion that would be distributed to many and specialized people are up to you. Of course a parallel life that runs with problems, limitations and obligations depriving you what you love the most… playing and making music. The only thing I overcomed from above is gaining technical experience and learning to surf my creativity waves better, everything else stills there against the creative process. That’s why projects’ future is never clear , It is a permanent struggle to a next small step.

6. Your first album, “Odes Of Exilation” deliver a raw, sophisticated, and atmospheric sound. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the album and how it felt to release your music to the world?

Album Odes of Exilation is dedicated to the necessary isolation of productivity, the one that gave me the gift of turning thoughts and emotions in an alive music composition, the isolation that in the end it brings a deeper communication. Each track has a story and meaning hiding, you can check the posts on youtube channel where everything is explained in detail. There are stories about Greed, Betrayal, self destructive tendencies, demystification and disappointment, death, question the meaning of life, and many more you can explore there. I highly recommend it for you to take some time listen and read. Releasing my music on public had no barriers or filter. I just wanted to drop something I made with passion just in case somebody enjoys it. When I was younger I wouldn’t feel alright with the part of being exposed and maybe that’s why it didn’t happened earlier all this music stuff. I do what I enjoy now and I suggest everyone do the same.

7. I can't really imagine the amount of work involved, but as a one-man project it's certainly huge. Is it worth it that you can implement your own ideas 100% without making compromises with other band members?

I work by myself mainly for Freedom and because composing music and lyrics is my biggest pleasure in this whole story. Freedom of Thematology, where and when to put efforts, decisions , schedule and generally everything. No compromises, just inspiration and work. This has its exhausting side too, you have to do literaly every single thing , but personaly all this process and different phases have an great impact on me and I really enjoy learning new stuff and skills or improving my already built ones. I sacrifice personal efforts and time but I gain freedom, experience and knowledge. This is what I need.

8. What are the challenges in finding new inspiration or breaking new ground in black metal?

Despite the fact Black Metal music has reached its max evolution capability long ago and most of the times audience is satisfied listening to a same oriented style, innovations in our scene are always present. For me doing new stuff is not a big challenge for two reasons. Firstly, my music approach is not that conventional and sometimes it could be not considered as 100% clear Black making it hybrid and ground breaking  by itself. Second, I believe that my special ability as musician and maybe in general as a person is being creative and good at improvisation . I love imagining, visualizing and mentally go on phases difficult to explain but common and known to feel. Trying to communicate this through writing music and lyrics is also a personal puzzle of pleasure .  I can write down production ideas, riffs and lyrics  for two and a half albums in 2 months but finish an album for release in 2 years . This obviously exposes my weakness at scheduling and technical qualities to work the process . The relieving part is that after one album I have gained experience and I think this time I am gonna work better and faster on my next album.

9. Let´s talk about studio work, were there any elements of the recording that proved particularly troublesome?

As I mentioned before my main struggle in studio is to fill the knowledge and experience gap in sound engineering, but there are big steps made already . Every step there has its own difficulty but I really like to explore and experiment the studio process. And to be honest till now it remains a home studio process with low budget hardware. A fun fact is that all tracks I released yet, their vocals are recorded in my car because I had troubles with my neighbors due to playing really really loud traditional blowing instruments. So , in order not to have fights again or surprise policemen visitors, I used to park my car in isolated places and record screams and vocals there with a mic, an audio interface and a laptop with 45 minutes battery lifespan. Now it has become a routine for me and an interesting story in conversation with other song writers.

10. What kind of feelings do you have at the moment when everything is done, the album is coming out, in general are you personally pleased with the way how the album turned out in terms of production and mixing?

I know that it was a pleasant result considering the condition under it was made but I am not 100% satisfied by mixing and mastering view. I have much more to learn and work better and I hope next album will be closer to professional sound. There are small but obvious differences in sound from track to track due to not stable methodology and some recording missteps but in general it managed to stand the way it is.

11. Away from the metal scene, musicians are very often associated with satanism. You are a black metal band - how close are you to religious themes?

My music is not religion related because I am not fully religion guided as a person. I sometimes use in my lyrics religion terms commonly used metaphoricaly by people, such as Hell , spirits, spells, evil etc but all of these  above are to express some human related situations the way it is done millenniums now, Just to achieve a more precise communication an expression way. I believe that most of things in religions are cut and sewn on human need and fear , thats why  I never go by the book in my spiritual explorations and I never fully reject something. I really keep things that are beneficial and ignore things that I find meaningless or harmful without following a specific rule ,but my own inner sense of justice and respect.

12. Since music is universal and brings so much to the table, what is your philosophy and intake about what music means to you?

Music means to me sharing common thoughts and emotions. An overall artifact where everyone can enjoy listening and discovering. The part I adore the most is that you can put a small brick in the whole construction and enrich the miracle. It is about creativity, expression and communication. I use to handwrite on letters in my CD copies the following phrase ‘’ Black Metal is a perpetual violent sound loop inside us that keep us standing unnaturally strong in whatever we fight”

13. What ways has been the best for you in order to promote the band? What do you do to reach as many interest as possible?

My biggest audience group is on Youtube and I use it as my main platform. I use to release there my tracks first and in a secondary time in music streaming platforms. Obviously it doesn’t sound like the most effective way to promote my music but it is the way I like it. I also tend to communicate much with my listeners via hand-written letters ,mails and respond to every comment because I really enjoy it ,and this interaction tends to make good connections and this is more than enough for me.

14. How do you feel the metal scene has evolved in Greece over recent years, particularly in black metal genre?

Greece has a great contribution to Black Metal music even by 80s and this fact is worldwide known . If you are a legit B.M. enjoyer , a good search and exploration of it is a must! I am very glad I see new stuff keeping the genre and the music lore of my country alive with new albums by older and new bands also. Hellenic Black Metal is here to stay , even with its traditional or with its innovative way. I believe it will be both!

15. Many thanks again for your valuable time and your effort! I wish you only the best! The last words to our readers are of course yours!

Thank you for being here. Good luck in whatever you have to deal with. Till next release…

https://hellmoat.bandcamp.com/