Arysithian Blade operate on instinct, fantasy, and pure creative chemistry. In this conversation with TheNwothm, the trio reveal the origins of their sound, the lore behind their name, and the magic that drives their music.

Interview

TheNwothm: Hey there! Can you please introduce the band and mention where you are from?

Hello Rob. Thanks for the interview. We are Arysithian Blade: Three nerds living close to the shadows, delivering Arcane Steel. Chris Papadakis on vocals, Giannis Aktypis on guitars, keys and programing and Petros Vasiliadis on bass.

TheNwothm: What inspired you to start this project, and how did the band come together?

A.B: Me and Giannis are close friends since the ancient days of Lyrr. We spend countless hours talking music and in fact playing music together. Lots of material have been developed all those years in demo form.

It is actually the music of William J Tsamis -Warlord / Lordian Guard- plus the overall material of 60s and 70s “new wave” of Hellenic music and of course the works of Greek composers like Manos Hatzidakis, Giannis Spanos, Thanos Mikroutsikos etc that developed a strong artistic connection between me and Giannis -as we both love the above mentioned musical stuff-. It all begun as an expression of adoration for the music between friends but it quickly evolved to a creative procedure, as we begun to compose music inspired by the above influences. It came so natural! We never said “lets create a band”, we just started to develop songs, like we always did.

As the first songs begun to take shape, we thought of just releasing a demo on bandcamp, or something like that… But we first shared the stuff with some friends -always in demo form-. It was Kostas Athanasoglou from Steel Gallery Records who insisted that we should gather all this material and create a release. So we decided to produce an album. Needless to say that we would go on  composing and developing songs even without any feedback. This was our formula after all, to develop and record music for ourselves, to spend some valuable creative time as friends and musicians.

So yeah, this was the genesis of the blade.

TheNwothm: What is the meaning behind the name?

A.B: Arysithian Blade is the sacred sword of a race lost deep in the realms of time – no time.

TheNwothm: Greece has a strong heavy metal scene — how has the local scene influenced your music and style?

A.B: I already mentioned our main influences and their connection with Greek music. We love the Greek metal scene and actually spend a big amount of our free time to discover every single demo release from Greece -from various time periods-, we adore various bands and releases but the core of our influences is coming from different sources than the “actual” Greek Metal scene of the past and the present.

TheNwothm: What do you think of the current state of the heavy metal scene, both in Greece and globally?

A.B: Lots of amazing bands and releases, the overall level of the scene is increasing daily in terms of musicianship.

TheNwothm: Where do you take your main inspirations from? Books, movies etc?

A.B: Speaking about the music I think I already covered the topic. As far as the lyrics, they are all based in fantasy lore that I have been developing since my teenage years.

TheNwothm: Outside of music what do you like to do in your spare time?

A.B: What is spare time?

TheNwothm: For fun, If you could write a soundtrack for any fantasy novel, which one would it be?

A.B: Well the actual “Iriath” album is the soundtrack to my own lore. So we are already there.

TheNwothm:Your debut album “Iriath” was released in 2024. Can you tell us about the concept behind the album?

A.B: There is not a specific concept behind the album. “Iriath” is actually an attempt to explore this strange realm of this fantasy lore of mine, that has been a big influence for me since forever: It is both a source of inspiration and at the very same time a mystical calling for exploration, to discover what? Perhaps my own self…

The overall artistic connection with Giannis and the very specific formulas of songwriting we use, often unlocks places of this lore. Giannis will send me a guitar riff or melody and I will instantly come up with vocal melodies, even lyrics, even names of places unknown that are mentioned / described in the lyrics. Or I can even send a vocal melody to Giannis and he will respond with an out of this world guitar theme. This is called magic my friend: The music, the lyrics, the names, the places, the rivers, the skies and the seas, everything is coming in existence through the miracle of artistic creation.

TheNwothm: The tracklist suggests a rich, fantasy-driven world. Is there a cohesive storyline that runs through Iriath?

A.B: I have been developing the overall storyline of my fantasy lore since I was a teenager. I have written countless poems, song lyrics, even novels based to this lore. Someone can find references to it, on the lyrics of my other bands as well -for example on the song “Talisman” from the second album of Afterimage, where there is a reference to the “Symbol of Nimir”. However as I explained before there is not a specific concept or storyline that develops the Iriath album lyrically. There is not a beginning or an end…

TheNwothm: How do you approach songwriting? Do lyrics or riffs come first, or is it a collaborative process?

A.B: Lyrics always come last if they do not come instantly -as the overall composing process unlocks lyrics on the fly, believe it or not-..

Giannis would send me a guitar melody or riff or even a complete song and I would add the vocal lines.

He can even send an intro first and this intro can guide us to the first verse for example, as I would instantly start to sing a vocal melody.

There are also times where I would first send a vocal melody to Giannis first, a complete verse or a complete chorus, or just a vocal idea, something that would visit my head during the day. That is why I always carry my mobile phone to capture all those ideas as they come. I would send this stuff to Giannis and he would come back with some pure guitar magic.

There are times where I would also sing “guitar riffs” and Giannis would turn them to complete guitar mastery.

With Aktypis I have found the perfect partner in the terms of music creation. Our connection is so strong and the overall work flow in terms of composing is so smooth! We have very similar musical taste, very similar things we love in music and a very similar approach in terms of writing music. In fact all the composing sessions of the Blade stuff are included among the happiest moments of my life! This guy carries a miracle of pure talent!