So, as I mentioned before, I had started learning to play electric guitar since 1990, trying to play a kind of power metal myself because of my influences which were the legendary Running Wild, Helloween, Manowar, Sanctuary as well as many of the classic heavy metal bands that I had been listening to since 1987 such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Wasp and many others, thanks to the abundance of radio stations of the time that “initiated” all the “budding” metalhead kids, like I was then, and it seemed to us that we were listening to the most magical music in the world. Which was 100% true, because it was the era of the great flowering of this particular genre. So let me emphasize this point. that I was completely self-taught (I had tried to take electric guitar lessons at a conservatory, but due to the unruly nature of my incompatible and rebellious character, within the first two or three lessons, I realized that I was not going to follow this particular learning method). So the best thing I had to do in order to learn to play, and since I had what they call a “musical ear” due to my parents (father a pianist and mother a singer), was to put on cassettes with the songs I liked and to play them slowly in parallel with the guitar, note by note, until I learned to play them in their entirety. The only thing left to do afterwards to improve was to play for many hours, which I did with great pleasure.
I had found what I liked even more than listening to metal, playing metal.
However, since I am referring to the year I started learning guitar (1990), an album was released that same year that really changed my way of thinking and inspired me to evolve in my playing, leading me at the same time to a more extreme sound. The album that “sold” me so much that I desperately wanted to play harder metal myself is the first and self-titled album by the great Iced Earth. Although I had been listening to Metallica, Megadeth, Testament, Anthrax, the Bay Area Thrash metal scene in general, but also of course Slayer, etc., etc., through this Iced Earth album, new paths were literally opened up for me on the guitar. In general, 1990 was a landmark year in terms of releases in the extreme metal sound. While classic heavy metal was going through a period of decline mainly due to the great commercialization that occurred towards the end of the 80s, extreme metal was at its best. Thrash, death and black, which had already taken their first steps as subgenres of metal music, since the mid-80s, were at their peak and the very remarkable records that were released, succeeded each other in a kind of creative orgasm on the part of metal artists, of the wide spectrum of extreme sound, to the point that until 1995, you didn’t know what record to choose to buy with your limited pocket money as a teenager, because most of the records were really diamonds. Personally, I also really liked the early Teutonic Thrash bands like Sodom, Destruction and Kreator, whose first records were also very reminiscent of black metal. So to get back to how I started to “harden” my guitar playing because of Iced Earth and to use a lot of palm muting and tri-tones, at some point, through a lot of practice, I reached a point where I was able to play their first album in its entirety, and for this reason, I feel the need to say a big thank you to this great band for the great evolutionary boost it gave me, changing my style from heavy – power metal to speed – thrash.
So we had formed around 1992-93 if I remember correctly with a friend from the neighborhood who also played guitar and liked Iced Earth, a band to play our favorite music, a blend of power-speed-thrash metal. We didn’t have a permanent drummer, we just found a hard-working friend who was available and we booked two-hour rehearsals in a studio a few times a month, to let out our innermost feelings.
At some point, because at that time the internet didn’t exist yet and things were generally more human, which means that we went out without fear, we went to shops, to squares and we knew a lot of kids who shared the same love for metal, wanting to express ourselves further by playing too, or at least trying, on one of our outings I met the person who was going to create the band that would be my first more professional effort in the Greek underground, that is, the Greek metal scene. Nikos played drums and already had a death metal band with another guitarist, but he agreed to come and play in some of our rehearsals in our thrash – speed – power group, because he generally liked playing with bands from the Greek scene. The rest is more or less known to fans of the Greek underground and I will briefly mention my subsequent career, without going into too many details. In 1994, Nikos and I created the underground Death Metal band “Sickness” with me as guitarist, singer and composer and Nikos as drummer and lyricist mainly, because I have also written lyrics for a few Sickness songs, but most of them are his.
Then, Giannis, bassist for the legendary Sadistic Noise, in which Nikos also played drums, joined our ranks and accepted to join Sickness, taking on the position of bassist.
With Sickness, the whole phase lasted about 7 years from 1994 to early 2001 and having released two Demos: Primordial Brutality 1995, Enthroned 1998 and Promo 99 in 1999. Then I left, causing the temporary disbandment of Sickness in 2001 to now chart my own path in music.
More information about the subsequent course of Sickness up to the present day, you can learn from the encyclopedia Metallum – Metal Archives. Closing this paragraph of the memories of my musical retrospective, I wish my two former collaborators who are renowned musicians with great experience and many collaborations in the Greek underground to always be in good health, happiness and creativity in every aspect of their lives.