Refuser: Heavy Metal is a mindset

Greeks' love for metal is well known. They have shitloads of awesome bands (Firewind, Stray Gods, Battleroar, Enerald Sun, Suicidal Angels, Rotting Christ, War Dance, Sarissa — that's just a few ones from the top of my head), plenty of labels, Up the Hammers festival and so on. So I wasn't surprised when I bumped into another heavy metal outfit from Greece — Refuser. The thing that did surprise me was the quality of their debut effort. It is a well-written and diverse record for all fans of Warlord, Virgin Steele (I mean their classic albums, not the latest ones), Manowar and Queensryche. Of course I couldn't overpass this album and got in touch with the band to discuss eerything related to their impressive debut!  

What was the purpose of creating Refuser? Did you have certain concept about the sound and the musical direction of the band from the very beginning?

The band was formed in Patras by the three of us (then students) to jam and just play music together. Along the way came the bonding, the first heavy metal compositions and the common orientation of the sound and the band in general.

What is the idea with the name Refuser? What do you refuse in music? 

To tell the truth, at first it just came to us as a word and we thought it sounded good. Along the way, we understood that this word also goes hand in hand with the general mentality of heavy metal music, which is not just one of the thousands of types of music that exist. It's a mindset, it's something that makes you stand out, that makes you see things differently, to be able to have your own identity, to be somebody and not just an observer of life, to be able to have your destiny in your hands and not to be influenced by negative elements around you, which are increasing due to the difficult times in which we live. Dissensions, depression, misery, no desire for development and meaningful life, robotization of the world, specific norms that society follows simply to survive, remaining stagnant and doomed so to speak. We could say that these are some of the things we refuse to be a part of.

The band was founded in 2015 — almost 10 years ago. Could you give us an overview of what happened to Refuser during these years? Were there some years of hiatus, when you didn’t rehearse or work on the songs?

In the first 2 years the band was active in concerts and several rehearsals. Then the members were separated in different parts of Greece and abroad, which made it difficult for us to communicate musically. But we were able to record our material and slowly finish our first full length work, which finally came out.

As far as I understand, the band members are now spread across Greece. Doesn’t this hold the band back? Is it important for you to stick together? 

Unfortunately, this is a difficult situation, as we are indeed scattered in Greece but also abroad, so we are quite limited in what we can do as a band. The bottom line is that we have the appetite, the desire to continue together and create new material, which is what keeps us alive.

Konstantinos Karakitsos

What kind of input has each member of Refuser in the band? Who write songs, who handle business, who organize shows etc.? 

It just happens that the biggest part of the music and lyrics of the album were written by Konstantinos Karakitsos, but without that being any line we follow. Any idea that comes from anyone is filtered and if it sticks to what is in the works, then it goes in without a second thought. It would be criminal and unhealthy not to follow this logic.

Let’s talk about the songs off the album. Which ones came out first and which ones were written last? 

The first piece that was written was Pompeii, but it hardly resembled its present form, which is the last to be created. Other of our first songs were “The Blasphemer”, “Jason” and “Refuser”. Some of the most recent ones were “Devil’s Embrace”, “In the Night” and “Restless”.

“Devil’s Embrace” is one of my faves on the album. It is so creepy! What is the story behind this song?

 

"Devil’s Embrace" is indeed one of the darkest tracks on the record. It talks more or less about man's journey through the dark aspects of life, dealing with his biggest dilemmas such as his faith, and everyone's effort to reach the light of the tunnel, all of this presented of course in a more theatrical way during the song.

By the way, did you use real organ in the inro of “Devil’s Embrace”?

No, we don’t have that luxury hahaha! It’s just synth!

“In the Night”, in my opinion, has some Dokken vibes. Would you agree with that? 

Yes! It’s something we noticed too! And a little bit of Queensryche we would dare to say.

“The Blasphemer” brings us to the Middle-East. What story or event inspired you to write this song? 

Exactly. This piece focuses on the hunt for a blasphemer in the Middle East of earlier times, but also on the mental division he himself experiences for his actions, not being able finally to bear it.

Tasos Kladas

My absolute fave off the album is “Jason”. Let’s use this song as an example of your songwriting process. How did you work on this track? What was the first — the music or the idea of making a song about Argonauts? How long did you work on this song?  

Jason's thematology is the well-known Greek myth about the homonymous hero, the argonauts, the golden fleece, etc. It has a slightly more European old school heavy power style of the “Running Wild” type, combined with various musical shifts and grooves, and it is also for us one of the favorite tracks of the album.

In “Pompeii” you tell a story of a father and a son who escaped before the city was destroyed. Is it based on some real story, or is it just your fiction? 

It’s about a story which is fictional and written in an ancient Greek text, which we were taught in school. It tells of a son, who takes his father on his back to save him from the eruption of Vesuvius, unlike all the others who left the old and the weak all alone and ran away. The story ends with the two men being the only ones who are in a magical way not surrounded by fire and having survived.

I love the vintage sound of the album. How did you managed to achieve it? Did you use some plug-ins, emulators etc.? 

Of course, we used specific plug-ins and gear that gave us the sound we wanted.

The cover artwork is simple but has a lot of details in the same time. Was it your idea to make it like that? Or was it up to Manos Sifakis who did the cover? 

The general idea of what the cover will contain was ours, but all those touches you mention, which were what made it so good, are 100% Manos' work!

Are there something on the album that you are not 100% satisfied with? 

Certainly, the production could be much better, as we do not have the best possible equipment and know-how and we did everything ourselves. There is definitely room for improvement also in the composition of our tracks and we surely have potential for more interesting results that we can get out in the future!

Kostas, earlier this year you released an album with War Dance. What were the differences in recording of both albums for you? Wasn’t there a conflict of interests between the bands, so to say? 

There was absolutely no conflict, the recordings were made completely independently, there was plenty of time for both and the interest was huge for both jobs, without one overshadowing the other.

Have you learned something from War Dance which you also use in Refuser? 

I would say that despite the obvious differences in the sound and playing of the two bands, there are some very small details in some parts of the record, which reveal some elements that I “stole” from Tasos Pananoudakis, who I consider a unique composer who has helped me importantly much and I thank him from the bottom of my heart for that.

In War Dance you are just a guitarist, while in Refuser you play guitar, keyboards and sing. What role fits you better? 

I'm not a person who looks so much at the roles he has in each music group. I don’t care if I’m going to play one instrument or fifteen, if I’m going to sing or not. I like being in bands that write quality music and doing my bit, big or small, to make that happen.

Stergios Hatzidiamantis

There are plenty of underground labels who would be happy to release your album. So why Sleaszy Rider? 

We sent our material to different record labels and putting it all down in the end, we came to the conclusion that it was the best option for the band to go ahead with this one. A very important role was played by Tolis and his background with Sleaszy Rider, who from the first moment showed his very good mood for cooperation and how approachable he is as a person, plus the fact that he is a fellow countryman in a way with Kostas, something we didn't know before we talked with him and it certainly played a role!

Are you satisfied with current status of Refuser, or would you like to get a deal with a bigger label, to play bigger venues and festivals? And what is also important, are you ready to invest more time (and money) in the band? 

We are very happy with our cooperation and the result with Sleaszy Rider and we have no intention at this stage to look for something bigger. As for the amount of time and dedication we have to write new stuff, that’s something endless in our band.

There are so many young bands who play old school metal. What do you think about this ongoing new wave of traditional heavy metal? What bands of this wave do you like? 

It's really interesting, this new wave of traditional heavy metal that keeps growing over the years. Amazing bands from different countries of the world are constantly popping up. The point is to do this while keeping your own character and without completely and blindly copying old norms, ending up playing meaningless and overplayed material. We like many of these bands, we would be doing an injustice to many who would be forgotten if we started naming all these bands one by one!

I understand, it is too early to tell, but what about your next album? Any ideas about how it will be sound etc.?  

It's really a bit early to answer something like that, we'll put down our ideas, try different sounds, experiment and we're sure something more mature and even more exciting will emerge.

Thank you for the interview! Feel free to leave a message to your fans and readers of the blog! 

We thank you for giving us the opportunity to open up and say a few words about us, we hope you liked our album and the people who will listen to it will like it too, and the best is yet to come!

Visit Refuser's Facebook page.