Mithras
Wywiad przeprowadził AndyEngland? Scotland? Wales?? Most of us, peopole of East don’t recognize those countries. Right. Mithras comes from United Kingdom which is, for almos all of you, a capitol of doom, smooth metal. Guys from mighty Mithras don’t care about the good name on English metal doom scene and plays excellent death metal. Just check ‘em before it will be too late. I talked with Leon, the drummer, the guitarist and the engineer. 
Hi Leon! How are you doing? Everything's fine in UK right now?
”Hi there Andrzej! Yeh here everything's great, very busy! Nice weather too for once! Hope all's well in Poland!”
I’m drunk like a pig so... fuck the weather! When I listened to "Forever advancing.legions" for the first time I really was surprised! I couldn't believe that there are still good death metal bands in UK. You know, English scene makes me think of doom metal generally. Anathema, My dying bride etc.
”Yes, that's something that quite a few people say! "No good death metal bands in UK, just doom!" Well that's something that is definitely changing now, with bands such as Mithras, Throne of nails, Gorerotted, Detrimentum, Akercocke etc. There is a quite healthy scene now, with lots of good bands, as opposed to lots of mediocre ones. Yes, the UK does make people think of doom bands, but maybe that will change soon.”
I think you're influenced by such bands as Morbid angel, Nile or Hate eternal. Can you tell me what do you like in those bands most? And are those Ingredients you transfer to your own music?
”Yes, all death metal is "Influenced" by Morbid angel, undeniably if it has blastbeats. For me Morbid angel are certainly the best death metal band of all time. The main thing Morbid angel inspired us towards was the drumming and guitar experimentation, which in our previous bands we were evolving towards anyway. Nile are a good band too, but I prefer their earlier material to be honest! We aren't influenced by Hate Eternal though, as our entire album was written pretty much before they even released their debut.”
Nile is fascinated with ancient Egypt and their music is influenced with old egyptian folklore. I see in Mithras some fasicnations in ancient Rome. Will you develop your music your musical style to such symbiosis with ancient subjects as Nile did?
”Good question! No we won't. Nile are totally based around ancient Egypt as you say, but Mithras are moving on to different topics apart from ancient Rome. On "Forever...." we had 4 songs based on ancient Rome, and the rest of the songs were spread across such subjects as spirituality, dreaming, fantasy and other things. On our soon to be recorded 2nd album "Worlds beyond the veil" we go into some things that are much more personal to us, this album will reflect who we are, so much more than the debut album. We covered ancient Rome much more on our first mcd "Gods among men" and we have basically finished with that for now, but I'm sure we will have a few epic songs in the future with those concepts!”
Are you interested in ancient history? Do you know that Adolf Hitler was deep into ancient science and he tried to bulit his Third Reich on the same rules as Romans did centuries ago?
Leon: - "Yes I am and I was aware of that, it's a very interesting thing indeed, he basically took the hierarchy and military tactics and updated them, and then tried to conquer the world"
Rayner: - "Also Hitler tried to connect the third Reich to Atlantis; he tried to bend the line of history to reflect that"
What is the meaning of those instrumental tracks on cd. I mean "Amidst the fallen arches"; "The green wanderer returns".
”The songs chronologically fill the gap which is the "dark ages" between "arena sands" (the Roman Empire at its apex) and "wrath of god" (the crusades). "Amidst the fallen arches" is about the fall of the empire, then "The green wanderer returns" is nature basically re-taking, the "green wanderer" is the 
green man, which symbolises the spirit of the woods. The history goes that when Rome fell, the barbarians basically came in to Rome, looted it and then left, as they preferred to go back to the forests where they lived, as opposed to taking up where the Romans left. I've got my own interpretation of all the songs though, which is different from the band's concept.”
Leon, you recorded all drums, guitars and keyboards on "Forever." How long have you been playing these instruments? You were also an engineer of this album…
”Hmm, I've been playing guitar since 1996, drumming since 1999 and I don't really play keyboards, I just tinker with them a bit! I do a serious amount of practice on both instruments, particularly drums, and lots of physical training, which helps enormously. I'm actually a qualified sound engineer, I studied it at university, and it's been one of my jobs for 6 years as well. Rayner and I recorded the album ourselves, no-one else did anything on it at all!”
Since Mithras is a two man band will there ever be a possibility to see you live?? Why can't you add new members to assemble the band?
”We have tried many members over the years, and most just aren't dedicated enough to be part of the band. But recently we have been arranging a session drummer to play live drums for us (Mark Smith of Throne of nails), we may have another guitarist too, but I'm not sure. The problem is in England, there are no good death metal musicians of world class, which is what we need. Hopefully our new live line up will work out, and you may see us on the road!”
I know that you singer Rayner did vocals on last Serenade records. How did he find his feet into doom?
”He just did session vocals on that cd, which is think is great! He maybe recording the next album with them too, but I'm not yet sure!”
Serenade and Mithras are both in Golden lake production which is owned by Serenade members. So, you guys know and support each other pretty well, right? Is Golden lake suitable record label for Mithras?
”Yes Golden lake was an excellent label for us to get our first album out on! The guys did an amazing job, and we are very pleased with how it's gone so far! We don't know them that well as they live in Scotland, 100's of miles away, but we keep in touch. I'm not sure which label our 2nd album will be coming out on yet.”
Before changing name to Mithras you called the band - Imperator. Didn't you know that there was a band with this name before?
”Yes we did know, but the polish Imperator was defunct at the time, so we thought it would be good to use the name, as it was very suitable. The thing is,, "Imperator" means "Roman emperor in times of war" and the polish Imperator haven't got anything to do with this, they don't use the name in context. Anyway when they reformed, we thought "aha, we'd rather not be sharing their name" so we changed to Mithras.”
And, what the hell means this strange deciduous face under the CD in box?
”Haha! From the way you say "deciduous" it suggests u might know what it is! It's the face of the Green man, it's a photo of a statue my Father has. It's cool, because it's on the cd as well, and when u take the cd out, the face is there staring at you, I really like it.”
Are English always so serious? You know, your photos are so Sophisticated and cold, as the whole cd layout.
”HAHAHAHA! No of course not, but in the band we are 100% serious about what we do, and we didn't want a comedy gimmicky image like some bands have, we aren't into gore or anything like that. The 
photos are an exact representation of what we are like! Of course we aren't like that all the time, we are sometimes the stupidest silliest people you could ever meet! I'm glad that's the impression you got off the layout, as that's what was intended!”
I know that you're preparing new track for forthcomming album. What is this stuff like? When it will be released?
“The new promo cd is being sent out to labels as I type this! It's entitled "Bequeath thy visions" and its 3 tracks that will feature on our next album, entitled "Worlds beyond the veil". The album is much more sci-fi based in concept, futuristic, more fantasy, more spiritual, it's just basically fucking amazing! The new stuff is darker, stranger, more technical and just weird basically. I've been working on it for 2 years now, and it's been a real battle all the way and we are nearly at the end! We aren't yet sure which label will release it, so watch our website for details!”
Thanx Leon for answers. All the best with Mithras. Keep smiling!!:-)
”Yeh! Cheers for the interview and the support! Keep up the great work with the zine and the site!”]
Andrzej Papiez
www.mithras.freeserve.co.uk
mithras@mithras.freeserve.co.uk
