Many people in the underground extreme metal world today, especially those who lean left, are familiar with the projects of Ayloss from Athens, Greece. Bands like Spectral Lore and Mystras deliver high quality trips of atmospheric black metal with compelling, deep and thoughtful concepts, and the man has many other projects under his wings as well. Located in an ancient and historical city, and possessing an experimental and rebellious spirit, it was a pleasure delving into the musical and philosophical world of Ayloss.
Hey Ayloss! How are you feeling on this day of November 2021?
Hi. I'm feeling fine. Just finished doing house chores and about ready to start again mixing for a band of some friends.
You are currently based in Athens. Were you born there as well? What can you tell me of your childhood and environment growing up?
I was born in Athens, indeed. I lived a pretty much happy childhood in central Athens in a kind of industrial area. When I was like 10 my family moved into the suburbs which was theoretically a better environment, but not really because I got into fights all the time there and generally was an outsider kid. So childhood good time, teenage years not so much.
You have history in underground black metal, which can obviously be heard in your projects today. When were you exposed to this style of music?
About 15 years old. I wasn't even a metal fan when I discovered black metal and my metal journey started right away with it. At first I thought it was silly but the imagery of dark forests, corpsepaint, demonic warriors and the atmosphere of the recordings stayed in my head. I went and bought Metal Hammer magazines and started buying records from the most extreme bands that I could find, like Mayhem, Darkthrone, Arcturus, Satyricon.
In the past you have been working with other black metal bands of Athens. How are the underground music scenes of your styles of choice over there, and are you currently in contact with the local bands or artists?
I have minimal to none contact with the black metal scene in Athens since a lot of years now, as I've grown alienated with the main black metal scene in general. However I'm very acquainted with the international RABM scene lately and this is where most of my interest lies today. Locally, just a few friendly bands and people here and there and that's it. So I'm afraid I can't really answer the question.
Many of your projects are also influenced by and can be categorized as various styles of electronic music. Can you tell me about your history with the synthetic sounds?
I've had an interest in electronic music as early as I had an interest in metal (and of course the kind of metal that always interested me was the more drawn out and experimental one). The first band that I really got into was Tangerine Dream and soon I was into the dark ambient and industrial genres. A bit later I got a lot into classic ambient and artists like Robert Rich and Steve Roach. Nowadays I prefer more experimental and genre bending stuff, artists like Arca, Sophie, Oneohtrix Point Never.
Greece, and Athens especially, has seen a lot of turmoil and social unrest in the past decade, from political corruption to student revolts in the streets, and even the rise of fascists in the parliament. How would you describe the current social climate in your area, and where do you think things are heading?
It's bad and it's just getting worse. We're experiencing a rise in fascism not just in actual fascists who are roaming the streets attacking people, but also politically and culturally. The far right government of Mitsotakis is just incorporating more and more "ex"-fascists and far right policies, as the demise of Golden Dawn allowed them to bring the radicalized nationalist and increasingly racist and anti immigrant body of the population closer to them. The police is murdering poor non-white people and regularly beating up leftists in demonstrations or inside police stations, femicides are on the rise, thousands of immigrants live in horrible conditions in the camps and Greece is paying its dues to Fortress Europa by massively pushing back immigrants in boats while boats of black-clad cops (?) without insignia roam the oceans shooting boat's engines, putting people in rafts, even kidnapping, beating up and stealing from immigrants. It's crazy crimes-against-humanity, see-it-in-a-documentary years-after stuff. Oh, and there's a sudden rise of fascist attacks against leftists and immigrants too. That being said, there are worthwhile and passionate attempts of resistance from the solidarity and radical movements. I don't think there's any hope if they don't find outlet in some kind of revolutionary direction though.
The COVID-time climate is so bad that the larger part of the left is just waiting for something to happen, thinking the crooks at the government will simply step down, while the reality is that their policies are getting increasingly accepted by the public.
How is your daily life in general in Athens? Are you content in living there, or do you have plans of migrating perhaps at some point in your life?
Athens is quite an anxiety inducing place, there's always something happening and somewhere you need to go to. My life basically consists of trying to make ends meet so I can put more time into my music, spending time with my girlfriend, occasionally seeing a friend and so on. To be honest, I could definitely see myself moving into a place closer to nature and more peaceful in the future, but I'm not sure if I can totally do without the buzz of the city. Like every city person, we are addicted to it as much as it hurts us.
Speaking of your various projects, Ontrothon, Saga of the Ancient Glass is electronic music heavily inspired by the seventies fantasy and sci-fi vibes, as well as the computer game soundtracks of the eighties and nineties, at least to my ears. What can you tell me of the creation process of this project, as it is based on a role-playing game your friend has made?
Indeed it is based on a campaign my friend Mistdancer has been running since some years now. It's still not over, which is exciting because there are new chapters to be written/played and therefore albums to be made too. The creation process for the album is that I either made some songs specifically as a soundtrack to the places or events that took place in our campaign, or in the case of some tracks that had been already written, I gave them to Mistdancer so that he would decide a setting and a title for them.
Another one of your more recent projects is A Compendium of Curiosities, which I would say is
skillfully crafted neoclassical dungeon synth with heavy medieval, baroque and renaissance vibes. You have decided to donate part of the proceeds to charity, which is of course very honorable. What can you tell me of the conception of this project?
A Compendium of Curiosities is perhaps my "main" electronic project as of now, in that I will use every idea that doesn't fit elsewhere into this project. Which basically means that there isn't a specific style for ACoC but, as the name implies, it is a collection of various oddities. Indeed the focus has been mostly on creating medieval or renaissance influenced projects up to now, but I also have very different albums like "Heaven Feels Like Floating Around in a Golden City" which is probably my favorite one. So I have no idea that the future will bring for this project.
This year also saw a project called Under a Banner Black with Blood, which reminds me of the martial, industrial and neoclassical genres put through a dungeon synth filter. And while these genres and scenes are traditionally crowded with right wing philosophies, you have a refreshing
anti-authoritarian perspective to the styles, which is extremely welcome in my book. How do you view this project personally?
This project is a collaboration with Spider of Pnyx of True Cult Records and is indeed one of my most political ones. As with Mystras, the idea is to appropriate the tools of a genre that does not usually cater to our sensibilities and to create something new with it and address its audience confrontationally. The second album hasn't begun to be written yet, but the idea is to use even more industrial and martial elements.
Switching to your more metallic projects, Mystras has released two albums in the last two years, with a more obscure and gritty production suitable for atmospheric black metal with neoclassical and medieval elements, with also guests performing various instruments and vocals. The lyrics deal with class struggle in more ancient times, and certain historical events such as the sack of Rome and the crusades. How has this project been received so far, very well I would imagine?
Indeed the response to Mystras has been excellent and almost as good as my Spectral Lore albums. I would not use the term neoclassical for Mystras, as it runs kind of in the opposite direction of my aims for this project. It is more a project of neo-medieval music, in the sense that metal music influenced by medieval folk could be thought of in some way as continuing the tradition of this music that is centuries old. But again, as previously said, the main thing about it is that it's a black metal project aimed at taking the tools of the genre and directing them towards different goals.
Divine Element released the last album of epic and technical black death metal in 2017. This project shows more your awesome guitar playing skills, professional vocals and the great drumming of Hannes Grossman whom later has been playing in Triptykon? As the lyrics were based on a fantasy novel you have written, what can you tell me of your literary work?
Unfortunately the novel has stayed unfinished as I become more conscious of the literary tropes I've been using and wasn't any more satisfied with the material that had been written. I would definitely like to rewrite and get it finished at some point, but I can't tell for sure with many other plans being present as well. The band is also kind of frozen at this moment as singer Antonis (Alchemist) lives abroad and has a family which is currently taking all of his time. I'd love to continue Divine Element though, as it's been my first band and music project and I've also written some of my best material ever for this band. Hannes Grossman has played session drums for "Thaurachs of Borsu" but unfortunately we've lost contact with him after that. Hannes, send us an email if you're reading this, haha.
The much acclaimed Spectral Lore is your oldest currently active project, and could perhaps be considered as your main band? As the style of the band has similarities with Mystras, do the creation mechanisms of these two projects actually differ in any major way? The latest album features an awesome cover painting by the great Alessandro Sicioldr, how did that come about?
For sure Spectral Lore is my "main" project, although I'm not entirely sure what this means exactly right now. I wanted to focus on exploring different styles, so I decided to branch out doing several side-projects in the last years (ending up releasing many more albums as "not" Spectral Lore), but in the end the creation process or the goals aren't that much different behind every project and by now there's also significant overlap between them. I think every project grows organically and it's always the same person behind, so Mystras might be different to Spectral Lore in that there is a specific concept in terms of lyrical content and album structure, while Spectral Lore encompasses an assortment of styles centered around atmospheric black metal, but the music tools that each project uses are similar, so an idea might end up in either of them. At this time what defines Spectral Lore is that I'll release my most ambitious and all-encompassing works under that name. I wanted to use a painting of Sicioldr since some time now and when I found that particular one, it resonated in a strange way in relation to Ετερόφωτος' central ideas. I would definitely love to work together again with him.
What can you tell me of the actual recording and producing processes of your various projects? Do you have a home studio where you do most of the work? Have you had any training or education in musical theory or sound production, or is all your awesome music made by a self-taught man?
I do have a home studio indeed and one of my plans right now is expanding it and working with other bands/musicians as well, doing studio work like mixing or orchestrating. I'm lucky to have received music education in both music theory and production, although I'd say that the biggest part of my skills do comes from experimenting and self-taught techniques, I'm not a theory person at all.
You have been with the label I, Voidhanger with a couple of projects and for some years now, and it seems the collaboration is fruitful and working well?
Absolutely, I, Voidhanger is one of the greatest metal labels ever and a joy to work with. Luciano has always helped me immensely so I owe a lot to this label.
There is certainly a strong philosophy of revolt and dissidence present in your lyrics and themes of the projects. How would you describe your political and social ideologies? Have you received any negative criticism with any of your projects from the more conservative minded people in the underground music world due to your views, or mainly just positive and encouraging feedback from like-minded people?
Of course I have received some negative criticism, but not that much in the end. You will certainly get your fair share of negative comments, bad ratings and sometimes even worse stuff when you're an artist with an anti-fascist position in black metal, everybody is aware of that. But in the end the support of people who have gotten tired of staying silent in a subculture that has so many shitty attitudes is more than enough to wash over that noise. Times are changing no matter how some pathetic nerds want them to remain the same. I don't like to put a label in front of my ideas as of now. I would say I'm closer to anarcho-communism but I don't like to subscribe to specific rules, every ideology has a lot of huge pitfalls that come along with the good stuff and the left needs to be influenced from different and even opposing perspectives to combat the huge tide of reaction that comes towards it.
Every formula has been tried and all of them have failed as much as they have partially succeeded historically. We always need new ideas and the bravery to admit where our methods are lacking and have to be adapted.
Are you a spiritual person, as for example a mystic of a certain religion would be, or more of a classical philosophical person, which can of course be the same thing?
I have the impression that this is bit of a reason versus faith question. Spirituality is a very loaded word and I think that man's tendency to place all hope to faith is one of the greatest maladies of the human race. A lot of religion and spirituality seems to me as the avoidance of the pain of reality and a preference of easy answers to difficult questions. At the same time, the human desire for reaching new and deeper forms of existence and truth is something that I share too, as of course the hope for the continuation of our consciousness or being in some form into eternity. However, hope must only be our last refuge in the face of an overwhelmingly grim world, one that is only evoked when we have nothing more to give. In the meantime, what we must to is to find real answers for our questions and to change our reality through action.
How much do you value and draw from the culture of your ancestors? As the ancient Greek (and Roman) civilizations did not care much for ethnicity and race in relation to the culture a person belonged to, as they saw a person as "Greek" rather than of a certain race, what do you think of the recent popularity of genealogical DNA-test companies which draw lines between so-called ethnic groups? Have you studied your own ancestry much?
I'm not interested in ancestry at all. While it's true that you could perhaps discover some things about yourself by looking at the life of your immidiate ancestors, the farther you get the more insignificant this information becomes. The fallacy of nationalists and fascists to define their culture through some kind of relationship with people that lived thousand years before is excruciatingly stupid. It's what we're fighting against - people abandoning reason completely to follow some made up ideal that has utterly no connection with their life today and brings them at odds with all others. A nationalist is nothing more than a football fan that still thinks his team is better when they're losing by ten goals to one. So yeah, fuck that shit. What interests me is history - the relationships of people in time, where truth, reason, beauty and bravery were present in each time and occasion. And as every student of history knows, it's never in the same place, not even in the same person, let alone "cultures" or "nations". It always comes and it goes.
Thank you very much for this interview! What can you tell me of your plans for the next year of
2022?
Thank you too! My biggest plan is that I hope to release IV, the next full length for Spectral Lore following in the direction of III. We'll see about the rest.
Comments