' SCREAMS FROM THE GUTTER' MAG. Nr.42 / June-July 1996 (USA)
	*Interview by DAVE ROHRBACH

DESPISE

In a scene lead by modern punk, black metal and Seattle grunge, Greece's DESPISE play in a style greek to many.

-DESP.:'Well, as a matter of fact, starting a band in a country which you know from the start will offer you no help whatsoever in any field, is quite difficult. Especially if you are into underground music, where there is no one to help you, from teaching you to play down to promoting you as a ready-made band. In this way, anyone is condemned either to abandon their attempts or to stagnate without any future, working with inappropriate people who don't take their job seriously. There is, of course, a third option which is deciding to do everything by yourself, which while being slow, is the only way to get things done the way you want it...Other than this, we've encountered several difficulties over the years, such as the compulsory military service of two of our mebers, also the difficulty in finding talented musicians that would suit our style of playing and the extremely high cost of the necessary equipment as we wanted to be 100% independent as far as rehearsals, live and recording are concerned. [As a result, these hardships held us back and didn't allow us to release our demo ''State of Brutality'' on time, even though the four songs that it contains already existed as entire compositions.]'

-DESP.:'After the demo release, there was interest from certain foreign labels, but while not having signed with any particular one, negotiations are still taking place.Anyway, whatever happens, we intend to release our debut album on CD format soon. [We have recently been featured on a CD compilation put out by Canada's ''New World Symphony Records'' called ''Undergound Symphonies-Vol.2''. It contains sixteen mostly American death metal bands and we're satisfied with our participation in it with our song "State of Brutality". It sounds really cool as it's recorded straight from our D.A.T., so you can imagine it sounds a lot better than the tape.The comp. is available directly through us.]'

-SFTG: 'A good amount of your lyrical inspiration seems to be derived from war.Why is this?'

-DESP.:'As a matter of fact, our main source of inspiration is life itself and not war.We turn our views, feelings and images of ''good'' and ''evil'' into lyrics, sometimes directly, sometimes metaphorically, such as ''Mindless Warrior" which doesn't talk about military but social conflict.In general, we prefer writing raw lyrics because we feel it combines well with the aggressive style of our music and therefore with our characters.'

-SFTG:'How about "Cruel Mission"?'

-DESP.:'That's the only song on the demo which has do with war. It turns against everyone who moves the strings in a war machine, starting from politicians down to the private soldiers who also take part in war's paranoia.'

-DESP.:'At this moment there's enough complete material which has been roughly recorded as a pre-production to the record which we have mentioned we are going to make. Once more we will independently work, recording in our own studio, just as in the demo and producing everything by ourselves.'

-DESP.:'Our demo was recorded in '92,released in '93 and received only positive reviews around the world, both in the music and production fields.People supported our effort with enthusiasm, even though the material, as people knew it, was old.'

-SFTG:'But there must have been a few that responded negatively.'

-DESP.:'Only very few wondered whether there would be any future for a band like ours, if we continue playing old style thrash into '95.Our answer to this was simply telling people that in our new Album, which will contain more songs and more recent material than the demo, there will co-exist the old impression of thrash, this time together with a more evolved style which has spontaneously come to us those last few years and we believe is adapted to our times and will give new ideas in thrash.So, we think our next piece of work will show a somewhat more complete picture of our band and in the meantime will still please all fans of the genre.'

-SFTG:'Being a fan of old thrash, I'm looking forward to hearing it.Has the current overwhelming popularity of black metal discouraged you in any way?'

-DESP.:'Today it may seem that black metal attracts people, especially in Europe, but that hasn't affected us as a band.Of
course, it's sad to see a type of music on the rise which in
the majority relies on anything but music itself.'

-DESP.:'We believe black metal has run out of options and will not keep on for long, exactly because there's no quality background starting from compositions and performance of the songs down to the production.And as a conclusion, we think that none of those things that black metal tries to give will succeed in time and that's why this trend sooner or later will fade away.'

-DESP.:'Well, the scene is not very active and doesn't offer any opportunity for the Greek bands as we were saying before. Quite a few gigs take place mainly on a small scale and of course in humble clubs, that's why it's quite rare for a Greek band to get the opportunity to take part as support in large events with foreign or well-known bands. Even though there are numerous bands in Greece, still we believe that there aren't any really worthwhile, or at least haven't succeeded yet in developing.'

-SFTG:'What countries seem to have happening scenes then?'

-DESP.:'Certainly the conditions are more favourable for other places in Europe and there's a lot more activity, including labels, zines, gigs etc. in countries such as Germany, Holland and England and others, but we don't know precisely which has the most happening scene.'

-DESP.:'Since all of us have lived with thrash since its very beginning, our main influences have been what we consider as good American thrash bands such as Dark Angel, Slayer, Testament and many more. But as individual musicians, we are open-minded to different kinds of music and while being influenced by a wider music field, we try to expand our horizons without really losing our thrash roots which for us are still alive.'

-DESP.:'This name is really us and reflects our anger for anything negative taking place around us and we've chosen it as we think it combines well with the aggressive style of our music and lyrics.'

-SFTG:'If you could bring back three bands that have disbanded with their original sound, which bands would they be?'

-DESP.:'We'd like to bring back Discharge, Dark Angel and S.O.D., because we think that they were all really worthwhile and powerful bands and also because we were their fans at the time when they were at their peak.'

-MARIA/DESP.:'Personally, I'd like to live in the era of Liszt as I have always dreamed of attending one of his famous live piano performances.'

-DESP.:'Thanks, Dave and SFTG zine for the interview. Check out our demo 'STATE OF BRUTALITY' and hopefully we will soon be able to present our first LP.'

'KEEP THRASHIN' !'