I am a massive fan of proper Death Thrash, which is the genre I assign to my own band, Aeons Abyss. One of the best Death Thrash releases so far in 2021 is Malevolent Demise Incarnation by Greek metal band Rapture. I reached out to the band and they were kind enough to do the following interview.
Introduce yourself, who is in your band, and when did you first start?
So, first of all, thank you for this interview and a big shout out from us to all the readers. Currently the band consists of Apostolos Papadimitriou (guitars/vocals, also answering this interview), George Melios (drums), Stamatis Petrou (bass) and Nikitas Melios (guitars). This lineup was formed in late 2014 and has remained stable ever since. To be honest, I think this is one of our biggest advantages, and has granted us great musical –and overall- chemistry
Rapture” is a great name for a metal band. How did you come up with the name and was this in any way a nod to Morbid Angel?
Actually yes, the name is heavily influenced by the infamous track from the album “Covenant” of Morbid Angel. It’s no secret that the death metal legends are one of our biggest influences, and we all like and are influenced by the greater majority of their overall discography. Personally, I think that from their first demo “Total Hideous Death” up to the album “Gateways to Annihilation” they have established themselves as the best death metal act to date.
Your album “MALEVOLENT DEMISE INCARNATION” released earlier this year in March 2021. What are 3 things we need to know about this release?
1. First of all, no matter how cliche this sounds coming from any band, I think its our best release up to date. It has an overall no-boundaries, no-limits approach on the Death Thrash genre. The main ingredient is of course death/thrash but if you scratch the surface you will discover a huge variety of influences ranging from classical music to Grindcore.
2. It is actually a concept album. Each and every song is connected with one another, and they all tell the tale of the ultimate incarnation of death. That act is presented as the ultimate zenith and nadir of the human race.
3. The no-boundaries element can be found in all of the album’s sectors. In the composition, the performance, the artwork, and of course the production. This is the only way extreme music should be performed. With no limits.
The recording and mix is really well suited to your style of music. How involved were the band in creating the album tones, and who did you work with to record, mix and master the release?
It is a really fortunate event, that we have worked with the producer, Harris Vougiatzis in the past for our album Paroxysm of Hatred. For that reason, he knew from the very beginning, in the pre-production sessions what direction we wanted to give to our new music. The final product is an offspring of endless experimentation between us and him with different amps, microphones and even microphone placements. Indeed, I think that it really brings up the overall compositions.
What is your favourite track and why?
Its really hard to choose, but if I had to choose only one, I would go with Inanimate Frigidity (track 2). To me this is the song that mostly captures all of the aforementioned characteristics that we talked about in the previous questions. Big variety of influences, over the top attitude, technical yet with emphasis on the overall atmosphere at the same time.
Your album artwork is superb, and tells a story in itself! Who did the artwork and what is the meaning behind the image?
The artwork concept is mostly a product of the band. However the illustration was done by the artist Chaostouched. He is great at what he does and we have also worked together in the past, for the artwork of our previous album “Paroxysm of Hatred”. We have to stress that we gave them the artistic freedom to add elements he thought would match the concept in its entirety. The final product is the ultimate visual incarnation of our musical concept, and traces of the album’s lyrics can be spotted pretty much everywhere on the artwork.
What is it like being a Metal Musician in Greece?
I think most musicians in Greece face the same problems. There are of course exceptions, like the ones who follow the current trends of the shitty Greek music industry but I wouldn’t even dare to call them actual musicians. They might be good performers of their instruments, but not actual composers. The problems most musicians face have to do with the fact that we do not have any government support in funds and in infrastructure. However, this has to do with the overall devaluation of arts in Greece in general.
What other bands would potential listeners of your music enjoy?
Over the years and after numerous shows in Europe and in Greece as well, we feel lucky to have come in contact with many bands of the worldwide underground scene. To name a few, the readers should definitely check out: Violent Definition, Hexorcist, Embrace of Thorns, Hexecutor, Sonic Assault, Haemophagus, Cryptic Brood, Church of Disgust, Unholy Lust.
I’ve watched a few videos on YouTube of you guys playing live, and you pull off your tunes very nicely. Question for your guitarist / vocalist, Apostolos Papadimitriou: How long did it take you learn to play guitar and sing at the same time, and what was your motivation to take on this responsibility?
To be honest, that was done out of sheer randomness. I always considered myself a guitarist first, and a vocalist second. Ever since the band started, I practiced a lot to be able to pull off high speed guitar work with frantic vocals. By now it feels completely natural to me. Actually, its harder for me to sing only than to sing while playing the guitar.
Tell us an unusual fact, or one funny story about your band
Lets share a fun story from the road . On our European tour in 2019, we played at a really small DIY venue in Postojna, Slovenia. The place was extremely crowded. As soon as we started performing the intro song, Thriving on Atrocity, the Slovenian maniacs started something that looked more like a football riot than a moshing process. Punches, Kicks, Bleeding Noses were everywhere. To top this all, when someone did a crowd-surfing dive, he turned upside down and walked on the ceiling as the rest of the crowd was desperately trying to hold him up. The next day, the whole ceiling was covered by footsteps. Luckily we have photographs of it.
What have you got coming up in the next 6 -12 months?
Our main goal right now is to book gigs across Europe and share our music by performing live as much as possible. All of these of course, as soon as the situation allows it.
If you were allowed to play a show at the Parthenon, talk us through how you’d set up the temple for the show, and do you think this would unleash the Titans?
This is a really unique and strange question. To be honest we have never though something like that. The only thing that I can think as an answer right now is this. In the unlikely event that something like that took place, it would be done with the uttermost respect to the historical landmark. Our shitty conservative right wing government has done horrible things in general, and some of those involve the destruction of such landmarks. Last hear they decided to cover the entire rock of Parthenon with wet cement and the result was least to say, horrific.
Thank you very much for this interview. We hope we will soon make it to a stage near you to unleash our Death Thrash misanthropy, wherever you are in the world.
Follow Rapture on Instagram or check out tunes and merch Bandcamp
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