Rotting Christ – Sakis Tolis

Rotting Christ are not a band that mess around. The band I like to refer to as the ‘Greek Gods of Metal’ quite literally made my year when they announced that they’d be coming down to India for the country’s biggest metal festival, Bangalore Open Air. Having seen these guys earlier this year in Australia (and it being the best gig I’ve ever been to), needless to say I was beyond stoked. Apart from the fact that they deliver some of the most brilliant extreme metal I’ve heard, they’re a band with a purpose and I love their persona. That being said, it was a dream come true for me when I had the opportunity to speak with the legendary founder and frontman of the band, Sakis Tolis, on behalf of Metal Obsession.

Going all blank for a second, I somehow managed to muster up the first question and ask how the band was doing and what they were up to.“Hello, how are you doing? It is my honour to talk to you! I feel that Rotting Christ – after 27 years – we are currently passing our busiest time in history. It seems like we have been touring for more than one year, going all over the world, and, of course, you can understand how difficult this is but on the other hand we feel we are passing the best period of our time as a band because we are meeting new people, seeing new followers join our cult, new people coming in to the band and following everything we’ve done over the last 25 years, so let’s say that we are good!”

Jumping straight into it, I told him how exciting it was to have Rotting Christ come to India for the very first time especially considering how I had seen them earlier in the year in Australia; Sakis shared his thoughts on the same. “Yes, expectations. Its the first time and always the first time is a little bit risky because we don’t know what we are going to face or see in India or what is going to happen. But in my experience, more or less, you’ll see the same thing; because metalheads are the same everywhere. They look the same, they react the same, they love the same music! Indian metalheads will be exactly the same and I feel it will be like that so we’re really, very much looking forward to coming to your land! And may I ask, do you live in India or Australia? And do you live in Bangalore? At this point I was giggling like an idiot at how sweet this man is! I told him the whole I moved back to India story and that I’m coming to Bangalore to see them, and he says, ‘Thank you very much in advance, Prarthana.  I look forward to meeting you! My honour!” Blank moment #2

Ever since I heard the masterpiece that is ‘Non Serviam’ a few years ago, the name of the band appealed to me a great deal. It is without a doubt a controversial name, yet their lyrics have nothing to do with religion. “Back in the 80’s we wanted to destroy everything! We were rebels, we wanted to oppose the conservative society in Greece – the fundamentalistic grounds on which Greek society is based. People are very religious here, and we wanted to say, “Okay, we are going to play black metal. You will face us!” You know, Prat, as the years are passing by, you will start to face problems; you also learn how to handle it but still we feel that this name represents the band because we are against any kind of religion: we think that organized religions are ‘rotting’ so that’s why the name, and we know that the name is definitely offensive to some people but we keep on doing this. This is metal and metal should not follow a stream. If someone doesn’t like it, we respect his opinion; we have no problem with his belief. We have a problem with organized religion.”

Impressed by my analysis of their lyrical themes he gave me further insight on the ideologies that the band and he himself has. “Exactly! Like I said, we do not support the idea of organized religion. Instead, we are always seeking values and ideas from ancient cultures. We come from a country which is rich in history and so personally I am very interested in looking for ideologies and philosophies from all these ancient cultures, history, and religions and that is where we get all our ideas from. This is where we take some inspiration. For instance, in the future I have some plans to write from rich Indian history because I follow it to a great extent. Now, I don’t know how it’s going to fit with metal music but we have written something in Romanian, something in Mayan, something in Incas language (which is a dead language). So we would like very much to do something with the Indian culture. We give importance to ancient cultures because we must not forget our history or where we come from.”

‘Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy’ out now via Season of Mist

Rotting Christ are known for their multi-lingual lyrics such as Transylvanian (Romanian), Latin, and of course, Greek, to name a few, and I couldn’t help but ask whether this was a challenging task when writing an album. Yet again, Sakis’ answer left me picking my jaw off the floor and also trying to suppress a few giggles. “It is a nightmare! Because I’m the composer. But you know I don’t like easy things in my life! For me it’s very easy to pick up a guitar and growl, ‘Satan, fat goat’, and stuff like that but that’s not how it is for me. I’m a different person now – much more mature – and I look to make things difficult in order to compose something that makes sense to those who listen to it. It may sound complicated but this is what I do!”

How does Rotting Christ stand up from other extreme metal bands you may wonder?
“For me I don’t like to follow streams. I try to make the band a little bit special or different. We use languages, unique melodies, and things that other bands don’t do. If we are to survive nowadays when there are so many good musicians, we need to be very different. But, you know, they miss something: the atmosphere. This is something we grow up with and also we don’t forget the era, the culture that we come from. We think differently and hence we sound different from other bands.”

The sheer ingenuity of Rotting Christ’s latest album ‘Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy’ which is my personal favourite after ‘Non Servium’ and ‘Aealo’ made me curious as to the writing process of a Rotting Christ album. “First of all I stop doing shows and I stay at home for one year maybe, read a lot trying to escape from everyday life. No distractions. Then I try and create a scenario in my mind, grab my guitar and start to play some stuff – experiment with different riffs and sounds . Then I start to write the lyrics once I have the music, and when it’s ready I share with the other guys. What many may think is a simple process is not simple at all. This is the most difficult thing for me because I have to think about the ideas of where to take it from, fitting the right music, etc.”

Typical fangirl me had to ask if there is a new album in the works. I have pretty good news for all you fans. “Hell yeah! I’ve been working hard for one year on it. Like I said, it is difficult because we go around the world and I feel uncomfortable because of too many shows: I am not able to work on the material, sit and compose new stuff. But as long as this is over, maybe next year I will come up with some more ideas, something that you will like and that will touch your soul.” *swoon*

25 years of nothing but pure, extreme metal. What does Sakis think has kept the band going so far? “My craziness. In my mind, I feel a little bit crazy with what I’m doing and I’m sure many people may have quit years ago but I keep on doing this. I keep on fighting because I feel I am a metal warrior! I never quit, I never go back. I always fight for something I feel is most precious in my life and this is metal.” Respect, man.

Along with their much awaited Indian show, they are also going to melt faces for the very first time in Sri Lanka, being, I think, the first European metal band to play on the island! “We are absolutely excited! We are going to be in India, and Sri Lanka is very close. I had a few friends there and asked if they would like to see Rotting Christ there and it worked out! We can’t do something spectacular (disagree here) but we can do something Rotting Christ style! We come from a different era, a different country, so I said, ‘let’s do this!’ Let’s unleash hell and hope more bands follow us after this. You mustn’t forget that this band has played all around the world in every strange and weird territory. We are metalheads who don’t care about the money, or any problems that come along with touring. We keep doing what we do and we love to be in touch with the people, the fans!”
I requested a final message from Sakis to all the Rotting Christ fans and metalheads before we welcome the Greek titans to our country. “You will see some furious ancient Greek warriors fighting on stage and together to feel the true spirit of metal India is something special to play. Because of the rich history, I feel you are something special. Hopefully we have no problems but we will keep on doing the show. We are very happy to be coming there finally after 25 years and I hope to meet you, Prarthana!

Are you kidding me? I will stand on stilts and chant in Greek if I have to get Sakis’ attention!

Sakis Tolis is hands down, one of my all time favourite vocalists, frontmen, musicians and people. And it was like I said, a dream come true to be able to speak with him ahead of the mighty Rotting Christ’s arrival in The Motherland.

Stay tuned to Metal Obsession for live updates from Bangalore Open Air! Only 2 days to go, get your tickets here!

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