It is a great honor for all of us at metalwar.gr, to host Nick Christogiannis (Deviser), in the maiden interview for our station, thus inaugurating our new section.Special thanks to him because as you will read, it is a “heart-to-heart” interview and he shares things about both himself and Deviser.
1) How do you evaluate and how do you feel about these almost 30 years of your involvement in music?
Nick: First of all, a big thank you for the step metalwar.gr is giving me, it’s a huge honor for me and I feel just great that i share my thoughts with you, but also with the world. I wish you every success in the effort you made to keep us informed about our favorite music! We will be by your side as in every effort made for our scene.
To our question now, I have been a member of Deviser for exactly 30 years, I joined 2-3 months before the “live” with Ancient Rites & Rotting Christ in May 1993, at the rock club “Agathi” a truly historic moment and the first Black metal “live” in our country with foreign band. I would say that, a new chapter of extreme sound began back then in our country and I’m just happy that I was able to participate in all this with my band.
However, my involvement with music started when I was only 5 years old.
I played the piano or rather tried to since my father was a musician – a drummer who had a rock band in the 70’s so he got me into music from an early age, but I also found a huge rock discography ready in my house on vinyl, I learned important bands from a young age and I heard things that I would never have discovered otherwise or would have discovered much later. I really owe him a lot in my musical formation!
Until I was 14, i went to a conservatory and grew up listening to Pink Floyd’s, The “Dark Side of the Moon” since listening to this in my parents’ house was common, I had reached a higher level to write and read music on the keyboard but the rules and the sterile environment they tired me and so later, I gave up and got into metal.
I was looking for my own freedom in music without rules and metal gave me the freedom I was desperately looking for, to express myself.
I got my first electric guitar at the age of 12, a 1979 fender Stratocaster used, because then, there was no money for a new one, from a store in Exarchia I remember, whenever I started to carve out my own path, searching with music and buying vinyls frantically , swapping tapes, reading in general, constantly discovering and generally searching..
My first vinyl that got me into metal was Maiden’s “The number of the Beast” album.
I shuddered to hear Eddie and the number of the beast and said to myself that’s it, I want to play. I had bought it with my pocket money, from a record store in Patision street somewhere back in 1988 and I felt like I won the first lottery ticket, I still keep it as the most precious thing I have, it was the record that everything started for me, at least..
I made my first school band later at 14 “Darkview” band, we played covers and had 5-6 of our own thrash style tracks with some melodic elements. We played 5-6 live shows in school spaces, squats, etc. and so little by little I got more and more into music!
In Weekend we didn’t follow our groups, we played music for hours in an underground “leader” in Galatsi, the vitraux (today it doesn’t exist unfortunately), that was the real fun for us, playing music and creating!
As a self-taught guitar player, it helped me a lot that I knew how to read and write notes and together with my friends, we spent endless hours playing the guitar and thus I was constantly evolving, with passion and love I managed to move forward step by step..
In general, my 41 years of involvement in music, it was an enchanting journey full of emotions and feelings, I would not change this entire path of my life, I might have made mistakes and given much more than my time to music, putting apart from many equally important things, but I realized that this really gives my life meaning and value and I do not regret anything.
Today at 46 years old, I feel that it is an integral part of my life and without it I would have no reason to exist.
2) What would you change based on the experiences you have gained over the years?
Nick: I’ve definitely made a lot of mistakes myself and the rest of the band members, in handling situations for example during “the Unspeakable Cults” period, I remember we received offers from many companies, even a European tour by Dark Funeral, where we were officially invited to join them, but our record company at the time refused us, telling us that we should stay focused on the next album and enter the studio immediately. If we didn’t it would break the contract, in essence we accepted a raw blackmail.
I think that if we were more mature and experienced then, everything would be very different today for Deviser, but our young age and our inexperience led to a dead end in the decisions that were made..
I don’t regret anything, of course, it’s important to learn from your mistakes, to become a better person and not to step on those around you, to live today and every moment at 100% simply because you don’t know tomorrow and you can’t change the past ..
3) How do you judge today’s time, when you should be active in social media and most of the promotion work is done through of these?
Nick: We live in a digital age and we have to adapt accordingly. Personally, I am in favor of Technology, if it is done correctly and brings the right results, to the goals you have set. It has certainly helped us, with the direct communication and we use it as a tool in our work. On the other hand we receive a constant bombardment of information, all of us daily that we lose the essence, everything need balance, you have to keep what you really need which helps you move forward and discard what harms you and disorients you..
4) Why was the Greek scene then compared to today more “tied” and the musicians from the other bands were friends and did not have the feeling of competition as obvious as today?
Nick: Back then our scene had very few bands, counted on the fingers of one hand, with effort and love completely pure, without technological means but with unique tools, passion and love built something magnificent, which will be remembered forever.
The Greek stage!!
There was purity in what we did, we didn’t care about anything but the music, even if we played with borrowed instruments!!
But I think that the bands during this period are loved and connected to each other, they have respect and understanding between them as well as strong friendships.
They have matured and matured on this path and do not look at anything with a bad intention. I believe that is probably happening, in my opinion, to the younger bands that are still looking to shape their musical character, at a time when everything runs so fast..
5) I believe that each person takes from life what does he really want to? You, as a person and as a musician have arrived to the point you would like or have dreamed of?
Nick: Man by nature is an ungrateful being, but I think I still have a lot to learn in music and I try to be ungrateful only in the music field in my life.. I think we still have things to give with Deviser. I’m definitely proud of “Unspeakable Cults” and “Evil summons Evil” but that’s not enough, I think now we’re all starting again together and as a group we can give even more to our world but also shake up the waters, in the global metal community, with a follow up album that will come to establish..
6) Is there a musician or band that you are jealous of his career?
Nick: I wouldn’t say jealous, but I admire because I wouldn’t want to be in the position of Sakis and Themis, for example, in an airport 220 days a year, waiting for the next response and for it to become my second home, or in a tour bus for 40-45 days on a long tour. I lived it for about 27 days and reached my limit. I think that life on the road is not for everyone. I prefer festivals or smaller tours. But I admire them, because they give their souls and still give it, for music. They fill us with pride, but most importantly they opened the way for all the rest of us, bringing the Greek metal scene to the top of the world.
7) Is there an album by another artist – another band that will did you wish you had written it yourself?
Nick: I wouldn’t say write it myself, because then all the magic would be lost. But I will tell you 5 albums that I love too much and have them at the top:
Slayer – Reign in Blood
Iron maiden – The number of the beast
Bathory – Under the sign of the Black mark
Rotting Christ – Thy mighty contract
Ozzy – Bark at the moon
8) Do you think that a very good work like “Evil Summons Evil”, may bring back the core of the band’s friends or even create a new one?
Nick: “Evil summons Evil” brought back memories of our old friends. I mean “the Unspeakable Cults” period, but it also brought new friends alongside the band.
We saw this from the messages that Manthos and I received from all over the world and it really makes us very happy.
It was a huge success especially in America, which a large percentage of sales come from there and I think it is very important to have a base and an organized audience in the biggest market in the world!
Surely this will bring new data to Deviser, but it has also raised the demands on us, to take the next step and try even harder in all areas.
9) Is there a “timetable” for the new album?
Nick: The time we delivered “Evil summons Evil” to be cut at the factory and calmed down from it all, we immediately started, without a single day off, composing the next album. This was done because, firstly, we were in amazing shape synthetically and playingly, and secondly, we didn’t want there to be delay for the next album.
We had no pressure from our record company, how we will work, we decided how we will move, besides, they know that we are workaholics and perfectionists in what we do and the plan and all the details will be discussed in detail this fall, so that we are ready to give our best on the next album. At the end of April we started the pre-production of the new album, at “SoundAbuseProductions” with our producer again, the talented Psychon from SepticFlesh.
We already have a large percentage of pre-production ready and we are working on it every day.Roughly I estimate at the beginning of 2025, to have the new album ready and released later in the second half of the year.
10) Will there be a sequel to “Evil Summons Evil” or is there different music and compositional approach?
Nick: I think it will be the natural continuation of “Evil summons Evil” album, but without copying ourselves, nor following the same recipe.
A different approach, synthetically much more mature, but also with a more modern aesthetic..
Already in the pre-production tracks I listen with Manthos, we are really excited.
I believe that this time we took the next step, at least compositionally and we will bring the band to an even higher level.
As a band we didn’t stop working for a single day and that will be seen in the new album coming!!
The guitars take the lead with a different tuning this time, with a heavier and more voluminous sound and there is the dark veil with the keys, more subtle but not tiring.
More clever fast points, but also melodies with slow points that take root deep inside you.
It will be another Deviser album, full of emotions and pervasive darkness everywhere, we will not discount the quality of the band, nor will we release anything for just making the release, this is what we have set as a goal with Manthos and I believe we will succeed.
We will give something that will be loved and will become a part of us and of our world.
11) How do Deviser compose and record? There is a narrow contact between members during creation?
Nick: During the period of Evil summons Evil, due to the quarantine we worked a lot through technology with Manthos, I sent all my ideas, Manthos the same, etc. we still prepared and together trying not to waste time and to be 100% ready.
Now we work more as a team, the 3 of us, namely me, Manthos and Vangelis, the new member of the band. Everyone has a separate and specialized job and now it shows how this recipe works much more comprehensively, in terms of the composition of the new tracks.More as a team with passion and love in what we do and it shows how it works perfectly for now..
This will be the recipe we will use in our next album.
12) I believe, like the majority of the world, that “Unspeakable Cults” is a monument album for the Greek and not only in the metal scene. I also think it was the pinnacle moment for Deviser as well. What it didn’t work as it should, so you click on it and
take off the band?
Nick: Unspeakable Cults was definitely a huge success for us, no one expected such a big impact on a global scale.
For a long time it remained high on the charts, a huge success on the radio (HOLLAND, France, etc., in clubs abroad, etc.) and the sales exceeded all expectations, since the first half of the year alone exceeded 27,000 sales.
Even today, which is released in several editions, it repeatedly sells out almost 30 years later.
Now what was to blame, it was us ourselves the problems we faced at that time, with the members and situations like drugs, delinquent behaviors, health problems, misunderstanding between us, even intense fights, I think all these are enough to bring chaos and put the band on ice, as it happened..
13) Is there a thought for concerts on the horizon?
Nick: Our goal is clearly this, to perform live selectively and always respecting our world, to give our best on stage, with the corresponding show we can offer.
We are working on this so that in the winter, we will give some selective appearances, in Athens-Thessaloniki and later in central Europe.
14) In addition to being a musician, you are also a listener. Is there any
band which has impressed you and are you listening to lately?
Nick: I was very impressed by Euphrosyne, a new black-doom band with female vocals, who really got me hooked, I learned about them from Psychon, who did the production and I think they will make the big step soon..
I’m really happy about it and I hope there are similar efforts in our scene, but in general in my free time I listen to more classical stuff, like Maiden, Ozzy, slayer, etc. I am filled with emotions and images, these bands that I grew up with and are always on my playlist..
15) Which album made you become a musician and which musician did you have as a role model.
Nick: Maiden’s “Number of the Beast” got me into metal. It was my first vinyl and the album he put into metal. Now as a role model as a musician and guitarist, I have Jeff Hanemmann- R.I.P (SLAYER), an amazing composer, calm and humble man but also unique in what he did on the electric guitar..Jeff was one of the reasons I picked up the electric guitar for sure .
16) “Evil Summons Evil” has received rave reviews from around the world. How come there’s such a big gap between your releases and you’re able to keep it up
based on the feeling of the band, without copying yourself, but also to avoid any risk of a completely different approach from the past;
Nick: We worked very hard on this album, me and Manthos were determined for a comeback, that will be talked about and be established, that was the goal we had set and I think we made it.. After the “Howling Flames” EP, we found our footing steps again and ourselves synthetically, we took steps, little by little and with enough love, passion but also daily hard work, I think we were finally justified.
“Evil summons Evil” has sold out in just 5 months and we’ve received rave reviews from the global press. It was a new beginning for us, but also the worldwide recognition, for what potential the band has and what we can still give.
On this journey, we faced many serious health problems, but we managed to get back on our feet. Manthos came face to face with death twice, once with a serious traffic accident that almost cost him his life, but he also had a great adventure with his health, which left us inactive for about 1 year. We overcame everything, we regrouped and psychologically and we are ready and determined for the next step.
We are 100% committed to our goal now to deliver a strong follow up album to our world in the next couple of years.
17) Anything you would like to tell us about the ending?
Nick: In closing, I would like to thank you personally Spyro, for the conversation we had, to wish from the bottom of my heart, the best for metalwar.gr
I would also like to thank our people, who have been by our side all these years, in our bad and good times, and to promise that soon we will see each other on stage..
Thank you!
The fire 🔥 burning bright !
Spyros Tribos
