NO HAND PATH interview 2006

Here’s a recent demo I got from Ramin of NO HAND PATH that impressed me a lot by its many musical qualities and its obscure atmospheres. The band keeps some mystery about them and can be seen as an alternative of today dark/black metal. To understand what I mean, I encourage you to get their demo.

-Hail Ramin, please introduce NO HAND PATH to our readers. What is the musical background of the members? Listening to “First Farewell”, it’s obvious you are not beginners!
Hailz! NHP is a quite new band from Greece formed in 2005. This year (2006) we released our first demo called “First Farewell”. None of the permanent members of NHP has ever been in any other metal act. We don’t really have any deep musical education, what you hear is just works of love for what we’re doing!

-Your first demo really impressed me, firstly because of a remarkable production and secondly because of a tight musicianship. The demo is just out (July 2006); do you intend to contact labels? What are the reactions around you?
Well, thank you! In fact we paid much attention to the production, we hate it when good music loses its strength due to the bad production values… We think it’s a bit too soon for
us to start looking for a label. Our music needs some time to mature a little more in our minds.
I think our next work will also be a self-financed release. Time will tell…
Until now, we‘ve had only a little feedback – “First Farewell” has just been released – but the reactions are more than encouraging. People seem to like our stuff!

-Which bands would you name as influences? Do you feel close to any bands or musical movement? What about philosophy (“…my thirst for Wisdom grows…”)?
Each member of the band has his own musical influences, sometimes close to each other
and sometimes completely different and I really think this is pretty obvious in our music.
Of course our common influence is Black Metal. Personally I like bands like (the true) MAYHEM, MARDUK, LIMBONIC ART, DARKTHRONE, BATHORY, ROTTING CHRIST, VARATHRON, NAER MATARON and some newer bands like WATAIN. I also like much non-Metal stuff.
The conversation about Philosophy could take hours…We prefer to express our dark emotions and inner travels through NHP. As for the lyrics of the “First Farewell”, they were written by Antonis and Vassilis, so they would be the right persons to fill you in.

-Another important point of “First Farewell” is the intense atmosphere where emerged darkness, hatred, grief, coldness, despair… You seemed to focus more on this atmosphere than just brutality? How would you describe your music? Do you consider NO HAND PATH as a black metal band? I think it’s restrictive.
Yes, I think you’re right. Describing NHP as a Black Metal band wouldn’t be correct. BM is our major influence but definitely not the only one.
Our lyrical content also isn’t BM. Don’t forget that this style of music is created to express certain beliefs, and they aren’t part of the NHP’s Philosophy .

-The same would apply to your lyrics. It’s not about cheap satanism or occultism. You seemed fascinated by sickness, insanity and the throes of the mind. Is this because it’s less used as lyrics or are you obsessed by these topics? What are the journeys you are referring to?
The topics you mentioned are indeed what inspire us the most, plus the religious insanity ruining the human kind… We don’t really care if anyone has used these topics, it’s just what interests us in our NHP works.
Each of the songs in our demo is referred to as a journey (the Deepest, the Darkest and the Longest). In fact we see each song as an inner journey combining its music and lyrics. As for the characterizations we gave to the songs, I think that a closer look to their lyrics will show the reason.

-Why do you choose a moniker like NO HAND PATH? We can translate this as “no escape” or “no choice”. Is there a link with “left hand path”? Can you give us an explanation?
No, no. We don’t mean nothing like no ‘escape’ or ‘no choice’. Our name represents a spiritual path. By using it, we want to express the ability that everyone has to make his own choices, follow his own rules and serve his own beliefs. This is where religions have made the biggest damage turning their “laments” to actual sheep!

-Inside the booklet of your demo we can see someone hiding his face with his hands but these hands are transparent thus we can see his face. What is the meaning of this? Can it suggest the fatality, no use to hide or to flee? The “No Hand Path”?
Hehehe… You got us there… We used this picture basically because we find it nice and matching to our music aesthetically. Nice explanation though!!

-Some musicians helped you in the recording of “First Farewell”: Haris from VARATHRON and Sotiris from REVOLTING BREED. The first is quite well known but REVOLTING BREED is unknown to me and most of our readers. Can you give us few words about this collaboration? Are they permanent members? Are you going to play gigs with this formation?
First of all both Haris and Sotiris are members of VARATHRON and REVOLTING BREED. RB is a new band from Greece. By now they should be at the end of their first recording. BEWARE !!! Judging from their live performances it will be bonesmashing!
We worked with them, first of all because they‘re friends of us and pretty cool guys and secondly because they also like stuff like ours. They aren’t permanent members (though we would love them to be) mostly because of the lack of free time, but some gigs may take place with this formation. We’ll see.

-VARATHRON is considered as a cult Greek act in the worldwide scene. The band started playing pure black metal and then evolved into a more powerful black/death orientation. I am more into their early stuff. Do you like this band? How do you witness the career of VARATHRON?
I love bands like VARATHRON. They literally created what we call Greek BM scene.
I see the differences in their career as natural evolution although I also like their older work a little more than their new. There’s a rumour that the new album will be a fucking great piece of dark and cold art! Have an eye open!

-The third song of your demo is an instrumental. Is it a way to give a different view of NO HAND PATH and the next recordings? Do you intend to release a full length later or will you release another demo?
The instrumental track shows a different form of expression for us. It isn’t a sample for the next recordings, it’s just a different point of view.
We don’t have specific plans for our next recording, but I think that it will be another demo.. After all we like being a part of the Underground!

-Can you talk about the Greek scene? Most of us know NECROMANTIA, ROTTING CHRIST, SEPTIC FLESH and VARATHRON. What are the nowadays bands that sounds promising? Do you like bands like DEAD CONGREGATION, INVERACITY, SICKENING HORROR and OBSECRATION?
There are too many promising bands to mention, even to remember, but most of them haven’t made many releases. Some of my personal faves are DEVA NOCTUA ENTROPIA, RAVENCULT, SatyagRAHA, DECEMBERANCE, RITUAL OF THE BLACK SUN and MASS INFECTION.
I wouldn’t say I’m into the music of the bands you mentioned.

-How do you consider the use of internet? On one hand it can be a useful tool for quick communication and promotion, on the other hand anyone can get the music he wants with shitty mp3. Do you believe that bands are going to sell their music through this process to avoid getting stolen? Are we gonna buy virtual stuff without covers?
This is bullcrap! Surely the internet has stolen much of the past’s ‘romanticism’ but I really
don’t think that a crappy bunch of mp3’s with no cover and no actual human communication
interests any self-respecting metalheads. People can just have a sample of somebody’s work
and if they like it they’ll get the real thing. That’s the point!


-Are you familiar with my country? Do you have any contacts there? Which bands get your attention? How French people are perceived in Greece?
I am a little familiar with some bands from your country. Personally I like BM bands like DEATHSPELL OMEGA. There’s a lot of respect here for the French bands!

-My traditional question: what are the latest releases you enjoy a lot actually? What are you listening to while answering this interview?
I can’t say I’ve heard many recently released stuff… These days I listen to WATAIN’s “Casus Luciferi” a lot, along with some non-Metal stuff. I don’t really follow what the “big” bands are doing lately, I prefer listening to more Underground stuff. Check out SatyagRAHA’s mini LP if you want something different.
Right now I’m listening to DEVA NOCTUA ENTROPIA’s “Transerpentual” cd.

-I will let you conclude this interview. Add anything you want. I hope “First Farewell” won’t be the last journey. Darkest luck to you Ramin and NO HAND PATH.
Thanx a lot for the support! Good luck to you and to the ‘zine!
For anyone who wants to contact us, our e-mail is nohandpath@gmail.com and our postal address:
Ramin
Amerikis 29
26442 Patra
GREECE


http://www.myspace.com/nohandpathgroup