Band Interview: Sotiris Anunnaki V of Septicflesh

Modern Primitive is the brand-new album from symphonic death metal architects, Septicflesh, their eleventh overall. It will be released on May 20th, 2022 via Nuclear Blast.

Ahead of the album release, we spoke to vocalist and guitarist, Sotiris Anunnaki V about the new album, how Septicflesh have remained so relevant as the years have gone by, living in the COVID-19 times, the importance of always moving forward and so much more.

What follows is a transcript of the interview but you can also listen to the full thing via Soundcloud, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. As well as via the below YouTube video.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. It’s massively appreciated on my end.

Thank you very much for the support.

No problem. We’re on the long and winding path to release of your brand-new album, Modern Primitive. It’s been nearly five years since the release of Codex Mega and the world has changed somewhat since then.

Dramatically.

Yeah, dramatically. What’s the difference in mentality around Septicflesh this time around?

Well, of course there is differences in the whole world. Mainly I can say that we have learnt to live in a new way, all of us, a way that is less human, less human contact, more being in our homes and communicating through technology. It’s the next step of evolution, unfortunately. And the situation has sped up this evolution, this kind of new world. And so, everybody is expected to adapt. As musicians, of course we were affected because when you are living in historic moments, historic times, there is a lot of info to be absorbed for all the aspects of art, lyrically and of course, musically. And so eventually everybody is affected. We as a band were affected with the situation and the new album I think reflects this point in time.

Do you think you’ve come through this period, as far as we are now, stronger than you were effectively before we entered it because of all those changes?

Yes, because it’s a matter of our mentality. Everything is about making decisions, how to handle things that were not handled before. So in this situation that we are facing right now, we had to make a lot of decisions. We had to be stronger to become stronger. And that was a mindset you can say because it depends. Some people may just say that things are getting worse and stuff like that. Other people can reflect about what is going bad and try to fix it and go on with their lives and try to make the best of what they have. Because actually we believe that everything is built upon now.

The moment, the moment is really precious and in under no circumstances, you don’t have to waste it. So you have to use it the best possible way because it’s the only sort of thing that you have. So this is what we actually did. We used whatever means. We had exposure at a specific time. We tried to avoid problems and rescheduled everything as it may fit well to produce what we wanted. We didn’t rush things because we never believe on rushing things. We just accepted the reality as it was.

And that’s why it took so long to make the new album, because it was recorded in phases, not straight away, but we used this delay, you can say, for our advantage. So we have a stronger result and we became stronger also.

That’s one of the most consistent things I hear from all bands and artists when talking about work that was created or worked on during the pandemic. That it gave more time that you previously may never have ever had available. With that in mind, and the benefits that you’ve spoken, is that something going forward that you would always wish to have or aim to have?

Well, it depends because it’s how you use time, right?

It depends because when you have all the time in the world, as they say, it’s also sometimes against the result because you are avoiding finalising things. And this is also a trap. So you have in your mind to say that at some point I have to finalise my thoughts because you are just going into madness and altering everything again and again. And so you lose track of the original idea that you had, especially in music creation. But of course, the opposite is not good. It’s a matter of how you use the time that you have not to only have a lot of time.

Is it as easy as you make it sound these days for you to put that full stop on your ideas and the creativity part of things?

It sounds easy because we passed through it when we were inside of it. It was hell because you can imagine that we had a lot of pressure to make something better than the previous album. We felt that it was our strongest release. Also this is our first album with nuclear blast, another big burden to make a really impressive start. All this pressure, of course, produced emotions. And then it’s how we use those emotions inside the music. So everything now, fell into place and everything went well. Now it sounds easy, but it wasn’t.

It’s great to be able to look back and go, okay, that was difficult then. But you’re at this stage, we are a little over a month away from the album release. So all that work is done. Now it’s this part of the work. It’s the press and it’s the interviews and it’s the promotion. Is that an aspect that you enjoy?

Yes. Because, specifically for this album that took so long to be finalised, it’s like a celebration. It’s the things that we wanted to share with you, with the media, with our fans, with everybody, our music, our lyrics, everything we postponed for so long. So now that we have the chance to provide everything, it’s a celebration for us. We celebrate the fact that we passed through this situation and here is what we created.

It’s nice just to enjoy the ride at this stage and get to that point when the full album can be heard by the fan base.

Exactly.

Do you see yourselves as being a pillar of consistency? And is that an important thing for your fan base? Regardless of, say, the state of things, whatever it might be, Septicflesh will always deliver.

That’s what we want to. We strive to do it. We are very harsh on ourselves. Each time when we’re creating something new, we feel that we are against ourselves. You can say we have to surpass what we have done. So it’s a process. And through all this process, we are consistent. We never stop until we feel that this is it. So we work again and again. Of course, it’s also a matter of inspiration, but we are lucky as everybody in the band contributes ideas and songs. So there is always someone in the band to be there and push the band.

Maybe, for instance, at some point I’m not so focused to create something. It’s natural, but when somebody else in the band takes the place and contributes, then he also pushes you and you surpass your initial states of uncertainty. Like a change. You can say when the chain reaction, when the reaction initiates, then gradually it builds up and you have energy. And then all this energy is put in the right direction and you have the results that you want.

Incredible. I love that. Particularly everyone pushing each other. Even at this stage of your career. It’s still an incredible achievement to be able to do that. But not only that, you talked about the pressure that was felt surrounding working on this album and following up the previous one. Such strong work. But what about the challenge, the challenge ultimately as an artist to keep pushing yourselves forward, to push the limits of your imagination. Was that any more difficult? Was that something you found you were very comfortable with this time?

I think that this time was the worst because of the whole uncertainty of things, because we have passed through many years of this strife, and it’s a continuous fight, and it’s different when you are new to the fight and different when you are a veteran.

Of course, also you learn to avoid blows that are fatal. But it’s not the point. The point is to create something really strong and interesting. So I think that now that we are more mature and we know how to get the direction that we want faster than when you’re at your starting point. And so, for instance, we have those two really powerful yet different elements, the symphonic and the metal element. When we started attempting to merge them to make a marriage between those two elements, we tried a lot of stuff that didn’t work at the beginning, okay. And gradually we went to the stuff that worked. And then we said, okay, this works. Now after all those years, we really have the feeling what will not work. So we skip the losing precious time with no outcome.

This is really helpful for us. Actually, I think that every musician, every artist, has to be focused on their emotions. There is logic, there is order, but it’s not about mathematics. So you have to be really focused on the emotions because what you want is to create emotions for everybody that will listen to the song.

Do you think you’ve done that here? Because personally I’ve heard the album and I think it’s a particularly creative high for Septicflesh. In particular, an example of your burgeoning imagination is something like the Salvation story. Can you tell us where that kind of idea grows from and how you’re able to then take that what is a very big idea and condense it as you do?

This is the main difficulty when you have many ideas and ideas that demand a lot of space. Ideas that want to be involved and you don’t have the specific space, because if we developed all ideas, then we would have nine albums, especially with the stories. There are a lot of different stories to be told.

So this is the main difficulty, how to trim down stuff in order to reach to something that is inside the limitations of an album and a song, of course, while not losing the essence of what you are creating, this is also a part that demands a lot of time, because, for instance, when I have a complete story in my mind, I have the whole story written down. So it’s not that I create ten paragraphs and that’s it. Sometimes it’s a whole sort of novel with words, what I call a pool of ideas. I write stuff and keep writing. And at the first phase, I don’t restrict myself at all. I just let lose my imagination and write dumb stuff. And then when I have all this in front of me, I have to find out from where to start and where to end.

But it is also a matter of combining the proper songs, because sometimes I create stories that aren’t fitting the songs. I feel that the specific story doesn’t fit to the song or to the atmosphere we create. Because I think it’s really important to have a combination of things. We will never create a grim song and have happy lyrics upon it.

For instance, when the songs start to take place, then I make the most important decisions about which story will be used and what songs are more efficient to provide this story.

So to answer your question about Salvation, indeed, Salvation. I divided the story into part one and part two. Also, we put those two songs together on the album. So you listen to the whole story from start to end. It’s also important not to lose the image in your mind. I had this basic inspiration about the character the Hierophant. I felt that the most important part of the story was his strive to achieve something that was really important for him. He was obsessed about reaching out to his God, to something above and be an actual Hierophant.

The whole concept was that, as he followed whatever the others told him to do, it was not working. It turned him upside down. It’s like love turning into hate, you can say. And this is the core of the story. Things that makes us obsessed and we do anything to achieve them, even if going against what initially we wanted to do.

It is an incredible store. I love that it’s spread across those two tracks as well and it is a continued example of something that I think Septicflesh has always done, which is when it comes to lyrical content, specifically, you like to make your fans think. There’s a lot of deeper meaning, messages and stories to be told. Was that still something you were very comfortable and excited and energetic to do on this new album?

Yeah, of course. It’s really important to create layers not only in the music but also with the lyrics because we consider this an art that combines different arts, not only music. There are some bands that don’t care a lot about the lyrics. We care about everything that is connected to our art and we feel that we ought to make something really interesting to ourselves first, of course, but also to our fans to have something with depth. And it is also about providing material that will not just entertain you for 5 seconds and that’s it.

You will return and each time you return you gain something more. Maybe you feel that you unlock some secrets at some points. I don’t find it a good idea to just tell everything and just give the food prepared ready because I want the listener to incorporate his own emotions and thoughts to the lyrics so that it feels more relatable.

I think that makes complete sense. Ultimately, whatever your perspective might be and how you’re telling said story, if someone can take something from it, particularly an emotional state. Surely that’s the best thing ever.

Yeah, because as I told you, music is about creating emotions at its core. Also, art in general. If you fail to create emotions, then you fail. That is okay, maybe you create something that people will shake their head too, but this is a more primitive kind of stuff.

As I said already, I’ve had a pleasure hearing the album a few times already, and I think it’s a masterpiece. I love it. I’m very excited to hear what the wider audience thinks. Especially about certain tracks, Self-Eater because of the second part of Salvation Story and the finale of A Dreadful Muse. What is a track from Modern Primitive that you’re most excited to share with the fans?

Difficult question because each track has something different to provide. Although there is a consistency in the music and in the atmosphere of the songs so you feel that you are listening to the same album, there are some different elements that differentiate the songs. For instance, Modern Primitives, that song has some really advanced heavy metal stuff. Not only the metal stuff and some intersections with twelve string guitars that really feel like a new element for Septicflesh. So songs like this or as you mentioned, the last song. I think that these songs I’m waiting to see the reactions because the other songs, they’re more common for Septicflesh. Okay, more or less we can understand what will happen. But with the more radical songs. It’s unlike whatever we have done in the past, combining orchestration and metal music into a really, really extreme song. So I’m really curious to see the reactions for these songs.

32 years of Septic Flesh, some intense shifts in the music industry you’ve been through. Seeing a lot of changes. How have you, Septicflesh, been able to adapt and thrive as these years have ticked on by?

Well, we faced change upon change. For instance, we face the change from LP, from Vinyl to CD. That was a really big change that affected the sales, everything, the way the market worked. We faced the change with the digital world and especially now after COVID, it’s 100% more important than it was in the past. So gradually we had to adapt everything to the evolution of the musical industry. You can say you have to adapt because if you don’t adapt, then you end up outside and it’s not something that you deserve. When you strive so hard and you put so much energy, so much passion into your work, you have to adapt and you have also to say to yourself that no matter the means of communicating your music, the important stuff is your music. I don’t care if you listen to it from the radio, from your PC, from whatever. Whatever means brings the music. It’s important because it’s a bridge that connects music with people.

On those wonderful last words we’ll call this time on this interview. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this again. I absolutely appreciate your time.

Thank you very much.

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