What’s a Greek urn? About €30 an hour. That joke works better when you say it out load. Anyway, another Greek act for you today, the mighty metal Desert Near The End…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Greetings everyone! We are from Athens, Greece!
How did you meet?
Well, Akis and me go way back to high school in the year 1998. We met during a school trip back then! We were among the few metal heads in our school and somewhere between listening to Iron Maiden and Obituary on our cassette player (and annoying everyone else!) We found that we had lot in common and the rest is history!
How long have you been playing as a band?
We have been playing together since then! Being parts of that band. Then, when everyone else decided to take another path in music or even quit, we chose to move on and create our own band. A path that led us to where we are right now.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
We went with different band names from time to time until we found this ‘Desert near the End’. If I can say this, the band’s name found us…we needed to live the past behind and make a fresh start. At the time we had just finished a demo and the outcome was not exactly what we had in mind… Akis had wrote a song called ‘Desert near the End’, we came to realize that this ‘name’ could best describe the starting point of our new effort… because it was somewhat different from our previous efforts, not exactly better but more “us” in a way! It also carries a deeper meaning, it symbolizes hope which is the last thing that stays behind in a place so vast and barren (desert) that seems endless, like Pandora’s box.
What are your influences?
We are children of the 90’s metal! We grew up with bands like Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, Rotting Christ, etc. So this was the sound that we had in mind at first…but we listen to a lot of music to this day. So, if I am to name our influences I would say that it’s the sound of our youth combined with the more aggressive sounds of today.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
I do not know if there’s something unique about us…well, one could say that we hold true to our roots but never neglect the present. We always want to be melodic but in an extreme aggressive way! We are always metal fans and this carries through our music!
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Our first three albums were a concept story, a trilogy! So, the lyrics were dedicated to this concept. It was about a man who wakes up with no memory on an abandoned shore, set to find his ‘true sun’. A sun that guides and not only blinds. In our last album, Of Fire and Stars, we tried to break free from concept stories and wanted to write about things that fueled our imagination for years, such as books, TV shows, legends of the old times, etc. But somehow we managed to create another concept album since we realized that Of Fire and Stars have been feeding human imagination since the dawn of time! Because through the ages men looked at the stars, those actual fires in the skies, and everyone found something different: Gods, devils, angels, heaven or hell, aliens or ancient humans, our past and our future.. And all these found their way in our lives through religion, science and art. So, through them, stars left their mark in our history and in many ways their fire became a beacon for our future.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We have played a lot of live shows in Greece and abroad! We have been given the chance to share the stage with great people and outstanding artists such as Primordial, Wolfheart, Metal Church, Flotsam and Jetsam, the Agonist, Blynd and so many more!
In our live shows one can surely feel the intense energy of a metal show, we are loud and we connect to the audience with metal tunes as our only vehicle.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Well, sometimes I enjoy go down the stage and join the pit with my brothers of metal!
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
We are kids of the 90’s, so bring us some big ass amps with enough fire power and we’ll get the job done! The guys in the string session like to use Ibanez guitars and basses!
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We would have promoting our latest album Of Fire and Stars now, but this Corona-Virus outbreak has frozen pretty much everything at this point!
What are your plans for 2020?
Finish our new album and play as many gigs as possible!
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
Well, that’s easy! We would love to open for one of our favorite bands…Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Kreator….this list could be extremely long! LoL
The other part of this question is quite difficult to answer…there are a lot of great bands out there! The Greek metal scene flourishes day by day! We love to share the stage with bands like us…who love to play loud and make a mess in the pit!