METALMORFOSIS - Mask of Gold 7" HRR 106, limited to 450 copies, 150 x blue vinyl + 300 x black vinyl Nick Banger - vocals, guitar Billy Blade - guitar Dennis Bleak - bass B.J. - drums - Mask of Gold - X Dreamer SOLD OUT!

Metalmorfosis stem from the Greek capital Athens and have just released a brand new 7'' single on High Roller Records. In case you have not heard of Metalmorfosis before, Nick Banger talks a little bit about the band history: “In 1989, me (Nick Banger, vocals and guitar) and Steve Breaker (drums) originally formed a schoolband called Mad Ages and recorded three home demo tapes. In 1993, we changed our name to Spectre and recorded three demo tapes. In 2003, after a serious discussion, we resurfaced as Metalmorfosis. In 2006, our first private 12'' was released and some line up changes followed. Some time after that we came back playing many live shows with local acts or headlining on our own. We also supported legends such as Brocas Helm and Elixir. All these years, our musical style has stayed the same: pure Heavy Metal!” So as you can see, despite having gone through some name changes, Metalmorfosis are not really a newcomer band in the strict sense of the word. Neither is their current offering on High Roller the band’s first ever release: “No, we did release the mentioned 2-track 12'' in 2006 and one year later we pressed some CD copies for our shows. In 2009, a limited edition CD (100 hand-numbered copies) became available for the Japanese market only.” The band is already working on a full-length album and has written some brand new material: “We all have to wait for it until it will be completed! The newest songs I have written were those two of our first EP. We have enough songs to release two LPs. The one that we are working on right now will contain songs from the Spectre days, written between 1996 and 2003.” How did the band get in contact with High Roller Records in the first place? Nick knows: “As far as I can remember, I first came in contact with High Roller Records in early 2007. I think Steffen has distributed some copies of our EP in Germany. He liked our music and from that point we had planned to arrange a future collaboration. And here we are!” How comes that there were only so few Greek Metal bands around in the ‘80’s, whereas today there are quite a few. It seems as Metal was only getting big in Greece in the 2000’s ... Is that what Nicks thinks as well? This is his comment: “Well, only a few Greek Metal bands managed to release records in the ‘80’s because they had luck. The Greeks are born for bouzouki and not for electric guitar. The truth is that in the ‘80’s and in the ‘90’s times were very hard for a traditional Metal band in Greece. My opinion is that the bubblegum that we call Greek Metal scene is a twisted situation from all kinds of faults starting from the musicians, record companies, magazines etc. A vicious circle.” Harsh words indeed. The band’s name, Metalmorfosis, is tied to ‘80’s Metal, as if you would not have guessed: “Back in 2003, when we had the conversation with Steve Breaker about changing our name, I insisted that the first word will be the word METAL and at the same time we were listening to Baron Rojo’s ‘Metalmorfosis’. And that was it!“ Nowadays it is rather en vogue for a lot of bands to incorporate quite a few cover versions into their set in order to show some ‘80’s Metal credibility. However, Metalmorfosis, are not really too keen on covering somebody else’s tunes: “Well, we have only played two covers in some of our live shows. The first one was ‘Licensed To Kill’ by Jag Panzer, that was when we were opening for Brocas Helm. The second one was ‘The Oath’ by Kiss. One funny thing that I remember now is that the audience really liked the song the way we played it and they all thought that it was a new song of ours. When I told them that it was a Kiss cover they felt somehow disappointed. Hahahaha. By the way, we recorded a version of ‘The Oath’ for a Greek Kiss tribute.” Matthias Mader