X-Piral on purevolume™

Metal / Other

X-Piral were originally formed in 2000 by Nick Papanikolaou (lead guitars) and Dimitris Marinis (Synth & Piano), which have known each other from previous bands. Petros Hatzibiros, friend of both of them, was assigned with the rhythm guitar and Lazaros Damanis the vocals. The first drummer joins a few weeks later. Antonis Petridis (700 Machines) was a really skilful and technical drummer.

With this line up, a demo CD was recorded entitled Perfect Lies, at Graffiti Studios on February of 2000. Bass guitar was recorded by Nick Papanikolaou as the band didn't have a bassist at that time. The result was not satisfying enough and the CD never got to the public. Antonis left the band to join 700 Machines as he never really was into the Heavy-Power metal we were trying to build, and as we were disappointed from our recording attempt, the band splits up.

After several months, Nick and Dimitris, decided to give it one more try, so we went on searching for new members to rebuild the band, this time under the name Shadow Play. Petros took once again the rhythm guitar and the search for a vocalist had begun. An old friend of Dimitris, Michael Apostolakis, finally took this place, with a voice fitted for he band's songs, having a weird brutality, and also high notes which we needed. We started, rehearsing the songs from our Demo, with some changes, first in Nick's room, until a drummer showed up and we entered the studio. The drummer was Tolis Makrantonakis, who had a past in some known bands in Thesaloniki, and was skilful enough to play the up beat tracks.

The band remained without a bass player until opportunities for live shows appeared and bassist Kostas Liapis joined the group. The band gave some live shows for a couple of months, until it was realised that there was enough material to start the recordings for a promo CD, which eventually turned out to be a full debut album.

At that time Kostas leaves the band as his musical orientation was totally different and he wasn't satisfied. The band wished him the best and he parted in a most friendly atmosphere. In the summer of 2003 the band entered Power Studios, under the guidance and support of George Stratakis (Rust), and began recordings.

2 months later and a while after the drum recordings were over, Tolis leaves the band. This was a rather difficult time as all the financial burdens were placed upon 4 people. Soon after, also Petros leaves the band, due to musical differences and the recordings stop in order to organize the financial part.

In October of 2003 the recordings started again until February of 2004, when Dimitris left for studies in Italy. Fortunately the band had all the time for Nick to record all bass, rhythm, acoustic and lead guitars and Dimitris to complete keyboards recordings. During the 6 months that Dimitris was away, some of the vocals were recorded but there was no activity due to lack of free time. In the summer of 2004, Dimitris got back and all the vocals were finished until September when the band began mixing the material.

By the time everything was almost finished it was discovered that another band has copyrighted the name Shadow Play and the band name changed to X-Piral.

That was when Giannis Georgopoulos of Burning Star Records contacted the band and after discussion of 2 weeks, it ended up with a deal and a contract.

In February 2005 Poison Eyes was finally out in the shops. Reviews began emerging, some good, some bad, but in general X-Piral had made a good entrance to the music scene.

The music of X-Piral was a combination of 80's Heavy metal with 00's European Power Metal, also featuring some female vocals, which sounds interesting enough.

So with new strength and a label to help, X-Piral found new members, Thanos Tzanetopoulos (Inactive Messiah) on guitars, Makis Petritsis (Wheelrunner) on bass guitar, and Fragisos Samoilis on Drums. All of them are dedicated musicians and metalheads, with their own influences, working hard to build the new sound of X-Piral.

Now X-Piral have almost finished 12 new tracks to be included in the 2nd album, and still composing more. The musical direction is more complicated as 6 musicians with entirely different influences formed these tracks. One can hear Power Metal, Thrash, Rock, Classic Heavy metal, influences from Finnish scene, Scandinavian, American and all this combined with new sound in the instruments. Vocals are not using so much their high notes, which is the most overused capability of singers, but concentrate in low and middle notes, making it more solid.

November 8

Line Up Changes

It is with great sadness that we have to announce that Michael Apostolakis is no longer part of the X-Piral family. The band does not wish to discuss the reasons for this decision but we believe it is better to say a few words about Michael and his years with the band.

Michael was one of the three founding members of X-Piral, together with Nick and Dimitris, and had been the lead singer of the band ever since. He managed to record two full length albums, Poison Eyes (2005) and Hunters (2007), with X-Piral and was completely dedicated to the band. Throughout those years Michael not only managed to give X-Piral the best and most valuable parts of his own existence but also became one of the dearest friends to the rest of the band, a person that all of us are very proud to know.

We wish Michael the best in his musical quests and good luck with his life as an individual.

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November 8

Online Shops For X-Piral Albums

Many times we have been asked about ordering the album online. We created a list with links to e-shops where you can purchase our albums.

http://www.theomegaorder.com/s.nl/it.A/id.15587/.f

http://www.tarniusmusic.com/Metal/X-Piral/

http://www.lasercd.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=BSRCD016

http://www.townsend-records.co.uk/X-Piral

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/7414102/a/Hunters.htm

http://www.play.com/Music/CD/-/16/40/-/3329245/Hunters/Product.html?searchtype=genre

http://www.masterpiecedistribution.com/shop/en/vedi_articolo.php?order_id=&id=14294

http://www.inandout.at/?ff_sku=CD50997

http://www.thehut.com/hut/8610652.product

http://www.metaldisc.com/proddetail.cfmCFID=7571685&CFTOKEN=2350&ItemID=25103&CategoryID=4&SubCatID=24&CatID=4

http://www.cdinzane.com/Catalog.cfmAction=RunSearch&SearchType=SearchCategory&ProductCategoryID=1&Letter=X

http://www.cdconnection.com/details/X-Piral__Hunters/397244s=o5pscnT1DLTi&source=sitemap

http://www.blahdvd.com/Blah/CD_Product.aspx/--XPiral-Hunters--?productid=CD-BSRCD0016-P6

http://www.brennus-music.com/boutique/product_info.php?products_id=2467

The list will be upadated from time to time so check again for new stores

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November 8

Reviews For "Hunters" Album

New Reviews for Hunters Album!
Current mood: busy
Category: Music

Forgotten Scroll Webzine

URL :http://www.forgotten-scroll.net/review.php act=s_rev&id=306&rev=Countraven

Coming across this album which is the second release by those Power Metallers from Athens (Greece) I was quite surprised. It is the fact that I came across some very interesting musical material that does not sound typical in my ears but meanwhile it has all those features that keeps it far away for the "modern" mediocre. By mixing some features of modern Metal, with European Power Metal references, by enforcing their songs with many different riffs, musical themes and breakings, by keeping the melody in high levels and managing to produce all this stuff in a clear way, they simply managed to create an excellent record. A part that needs to be improved is the vocals. They have many types of different vocals, from clean and melodic to aggressive and darker but I think that in all the versions they need to be more improved as far the accent and in my opinion if the band had a BIG VOICE the songs will sound even more different and better.

I also enjoyed their keyboard parts, they are using the keyboards in a special way adding even more melody and atmosphere into their material and that is something that has to be mentioned in here. My favorite songs form the album are Fall Into Oblivion (probably their greater composition) and Duat (The Land Of The Dead). Well this band is really capable for big thinks, they have managed to create an inspired and professional sounding album with many influences mixed in a unique and interesting result.

http://www.metalfrontiers.com/reviews.php?item=173

Artist: X-Piral
Title: Hunters
Company: Burning Star Records
Release Date: March 15, 2007
Type: audio-CD
Rate: 15

The Greek band X-Piral was formed back in 2000 under the name Shadow Play. Having many problems they were finally able to release their debut album, "Poison Eyes", in 2005. After changing their name to X-Piral, due to copyright reasons, and with a new line-up, X-Piral returned to the studio, recorded 15 new songs, 11 of which were chosen for their new album "Hunters".

Naturally, the band plays a lot better than their previous release, with a very good production, due to the fact that the mix and mastering was made by Markus Teske (Vanden Plus, Mob Rules, Symphony X). The album consists of heavy compositions (that can be seen since the very first tune) with an extensive usage of keyboards, which adds some great melodies in the songs. The influenses can be found in many genres of the metal scene: heavy metal, american power metal, thrash, mixed with progressive elements that can be heard througouth the album. ".Com-Fusion", among the best moments of Hunters. But definitely the most beautiful song is "Duat (The Land of the Dead)", with its oriental melodies, that make you travel with them in some ancient land.

X-Piral's second work is a very good effort, which shows us that they are really capable of releasing good albums. I'm convinced that their next work will be even better.
Tracklist:

01..Com-Fusion
02.Golden Wings
03.Fall into Oblivion
04.Hunters
05.Duat (The Land of the Dead)
06.Timechaser
07.Powerlust
08.Hear me Calling
09.The Fire?s Burning Bright
10.Dead Within
11.Lie Down Free

http://www.metalexpressradio.com/menu.php?main=reviews&id=2158
Rating 8/10

One must admit that there are numerous Progressive Metal bands out there today that are, well, pretty damned good. There are very well known bands that hail from the U.S., but it seems as if over a short period of time, without even keeping track of things, these same genre bands have been creeping up all over the place, more so abroad than ever. Many of these same bands are extremely talented, and unfortunately many never hear of them or their music. Here is some good news, finally. X-Piral has hit the mother load. Their latest creation, Hunters, will prove that they belong. These guys are really talented musicians and can play with the best of them.

Simply put, X-Piral is Greece's Dream Theater. Founded in 2000 by Nick Papanikolaou (lead guitars) and Dimitris Marinis (synth and piano), this band has had its share of changes. The line-up has changed so often that it's hard to believe the band is still together. It's also true that X-Piral had broke up and gone their separate ways on numerous occasions. So how did they finally manage to stay together long enough to put out their latest release? Finding just the right personnel, such as Thanos Tzanetopoulos (guitar), Makis Petritsis (bass guitar), and Fragisos Samoilis (drums) was a step in the right direction. Add Michael Apostolakis (vocalist) to the mix, and everything just fell into place. Of course, signing with a new label such as Burning Star Records didn't hurt.

The band's first album, Poison Eyes, came out in February 2005, not too long after signing with their new label. It received mixed reviews. After some personnel changes and hard work in the studios, X-Piral has finally outdone themselves with Hunters. It was recorded in Esoteron Studio, Greece, and mixed and mastered in Bazement Studio, Germany, by Marcus Teske -- known for his work with Red Circuit, Symphony X, Mob Rules, and Vanden Plas to name a few. It seems as if the choices made in putting this album together are definitely reflected in the final product.

There are 11 tracks on Hunters, lasting around 68:33 and beginning with ".Com-Fusion." It opens the album with a deep heavy sound for the first minute and ten seconds, and has a person thinking this isn't Progressive at all. Then the Progressive nature of the band falls into place. Very fast double bass drumming, slow melodic piano, unmistaken vocals, a perfectly placed and good sounding guitar solo, and a keyboard attack all contribute to the making of this track. "Golden Wings" is more Progressive from the start. The vocals along with an 80's sounding keyboard style and double bass drumming hold the song together. "Fall Into Oblivion" opens to more of a Rock sound, but still has Progressiveness to it. The guitar, bass, powerful drumming, and keyboards have a nice mix integrated together that go well with the strong vocals Michael can put out there. The title track opens with a double bass barrage and guitar attack that is more Hard Rock/Metal than Progressive. "Duat (The Land Of The Dead)" has a very strange and unique opening. It has a Middle Eastern sound to it until the guitars and keyboards change to a barrage of double bass drums and deep bass. This is a very strange, but a very cool song at the same time. "Timechaser" opens with a very distinctive keyboard pattern being played repetitively. The vocals, drums, bass, and guitar all do their own thing. This is a very strong song on the album. "Powerlust" slows it down a bit with the opening. It presents an orchestral sound to the listener until the power guitar kicks in. Very Hard Rock/Metal guitar style that makes it likeable from the first powerchord. "Hear Me Calling" opens with a slow, but beautiful piano piece and then the vocals kick in. A very nice and different touch from the rest of the album so far ... more mellow and kind of heavy at the same time, if one can believe that, and one of the best songs done with feeling. Might be the dark horse of the bunch. Absolutely wonderful guitar solo near the end that is perfectly placed and not over done like so many solos usually are. Very tasteful to say the least, and fabulous guitar playing -- might be the album's best by far. "The Fire Is Burning Bright" opens blazing with keys and double bass. Around the 1:40 mark or so, there is an interesting bass and keyboard thing going on -- almost Doors-esque. "Dead Within" has a mellower and slower opening instead of the usual barrage for about ten seconds, then the attack opens fire. Another typical X-Piral type song with the relentless double bass drum, guitar, and keys taking command. "Lie Down Free" opens with some drumming, more drumming, and then even more drumming. What's with all this drumming all of a sudden? Some Thrash guitar work alongside a second guitar finally decides to join in, giving it a decent Hard Rock/Metal sound and you'll love the sudden ending.

In a nutshell, nothing too fancy, just a straightforward and real good album that has all the essentials of Rock, Thrash, Hard Rock, Metal, Progressive, Progressive Metal, 80's Heavy Metal, European Power Metal, and influences from the Finnish, Scandinavian, and American scene. The band has a powerful vocalist, excellent and talented musicians, and a very practiced and tight sound. Anyone with the slightest interest in any form of Progressive sound will not be disappointed with this album/CD.

For more information about the band, go to their official Web site found at X-Piral.com.

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November 8

Interview on Truemetal.it

http://www.truemetal.it/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=22102

Hi guys! I'm Mattia from Truemetal.it. I've been listening your new album in these days, "Hunters". I'd like to ask you some questions about it and the band, to make italian metal audience know you and the good job you've done!

As you say in the promo itself, your work is a mix of several influences from various Metal scenes. However, I think you could be considered a Power Metal band. Do you agree?

First of all hello to you too and thanx for the interview. As for the question now. Yes we are a power metal band basically, but not in the classical overused way. We have a power metal basis for our songs and then we add elements from other genres that we enjoy listening like Thrash metal or even hard rock.

The Metal scene is full of new bands in these years. What are your best qualities and what are your aims, trying to find your place near the biggest bands?

You are right. There are hundrends of new bands out there trying to gain some attention. I think that our best quality as a band is that we really play from our hearts. We play and compose because we like this and we do not really care about what the fashion is or what image we should present as a band. We just do what we like best and hopefully other people will ike it too.

You had to change your name for copyright reasons. Does "X-Piral" mean something special to you?

Yes it does. But it means something different to each of us. For me it's a symbol of things that do not exist anymore, physically or mentaly. For our singer , Michael, it a word symbolizing the power to erase other things not right.

You've changed so much since your debut album. About the music, of course! What are the differences you want to remark the most?

Lets see. First of all much more experience not only in songwriting but also in the way songs have to be recorded. Apart from it the new songs have been composed by the whole band not by 2 persons like in the debut and new ideas helped build more interesting songs. Also we evolved as musicians and we felt more comfortable playing more aggresive and faster music. I think time and the line up changes is what really made the difference. Maybe also the fact that our influences as well changed a little bit in 2 years.

You changed also the line-up, more than once, since the beginning. You said in your presentation that now it seems to work perfectly. What about it?

Yes it does work perfectly now. We changed members many times due to several reasons. Musical differences, incapabillity of members to follow our reheashall program etc. We want people in the band that will become a part of it. X-Piral is a team, if someone doesnt like our music or our schedule he simply cannot be part of it. The current line up respects all we do, works hard and we have really nice time hanging out together so i think we are in better shape than ever.

Some tracks are very long. It's a 68-minute album. You seem very proud of what you've done, and, of course, it's a very brave choice to make such complex songs. What can you say to invite people to listen to such an elaburated cd?

I would invite them to just relax and listen to the song without thinking how long it is. All this songs have many different parts and i think the listener will always find something interesting to hear throuhout the song.At least that's what we did when composing. We played until we felt a song is complete, we never really cared about how long it will become. The only problem was that with so much playing time we had to leave 3-4 songs out of the album as they wouldn't fit in.

I think a point that makes the difference between you and the other bands is the vocal impostation of Micheal. I can find something similar, talking about Power Metal only in the Swedish band Sabaton. But I think you, Michael, have other sources of inspiration. What about David De Feis, Bruce Dickinson, Russel Allen?

Yes Michael is really fond of singers like David DeFeis and this you can hear in the way he sings. But the main reason for his style is that his voice is really really strong and powerfull and we found it pointless for him to scream when his middle tones where so strong and gave the album the agressiveness it needs. Of course we have some classic power metal screams here and there but we didn't want the vocals to be characterized by that..

Let's talk about the lyrics! I like albums where lyrics are not only a filler just to "say something". And I think they are really important in "Hunters"...

Lyrics are very important for the band anyway. Since our debut album we paid attention to what we were writing about. We draw inspiration from thing we experienced or things that we see around us and disturb us, like war (Lie Down Free, Powerlust), corrupted leadership (Dead Within) also personal problems (Timechaser) etc. We believe music is expression and through music we have a chance to talk about things frustrating us as humans so we do not spend time writing about "black forests of pain" or "flying dragons".

Another really good thing is the work done by you, Dimitris, on your keyboard. Your sound fills the "music space" very well. The timbers are always the best for every different situation!

Thank you very much! Yes i am really satisfied with the result. This time i had really worked a lot for the keyboard arrangements. As you can hear out basis is guitar riffs and drums. So keyboards had to have a presence without disturbing the other more major instruments. But i believe the way keyboards are arranged i achieved this.Also due to the structure of the songs i was able to add various things i really like playing (like the piano break on ".com-fusion" or the hammond solo in "The Fire Is Burning Bright") Of course the other guys agreed with parts more filled with keyboards , like "Powerlust", or "Hear me Calling" where the piano gets to lead the song. But i tried to play only what the song needed.

And, of course, Marcus Teske's production is something really special! What about working with such a Master like him?

Working with Markus for 15 days was something incredible. Markus is a professional and has been a great help to this band as he was always trying not only to make the album as we wanted but to teach us things about recording, composing and nixing music. This experinece has been of great value to us and we want to thank Markus and Cristina from the bottom of our hearts for all they did for us. Also there is no need to say how satisfied we are with the result. We never believed our music could sound like this.

In your album you invited a lot of guest musicians. This is another fact that points out your ambitions about your work...

In fact two of these appearances were not sheduled. In ".com-fusion" Nick was recording the guitars and it happened that George Maroulis (Fragile Vastness, 4Bitten), friend of our sound engineer was there so Nick just handed over the guitar for a solo. Also female vocals were not programmed to be in "Duat". We tried it and it was good. But the main reason we had guest musicians is that we believe that these people are great musicians and it had been an honor for us to have them contibuting on this album. Also with Fabiano Romagnoli (Lunarsea) we continued our collaboration and after he recorded the solo for "Dead Within" Dimitris recorded some keyboard parts for their next album.

And now, what about your "live" experience? Are you planning an European tour?

We would really like that. We had some plans for some shows abroad but nothing is confirmed yet. Still we gave some live shows here in Greece and we hope we will be able in Summer to play some more in Europe

The next step is...

To make even better music. This band is restless. As soon as we finished the album we begun composing new stuff more aggresive, more complex. We try to promote "Hunters" as better as possible. We will continue to develop our music as long as we can and i believe the next release will be even better.

Finally, introduce yourself to Italian Metal audience! And leave a message, if you want to...

X-Piral is a heavy metal band! That's all folks! We play Heavy Metal as honest as we can and we hope you will find interesting things on our album. We really hope to play a gig in Italy someday as many of our influences are bands from Italy. Maybe one day we will share the stage with them.

Well, thanks so much! I think you have all the qualities to break through the European Metal context. I hope to have a new work by you in my hands very soon! 'til the time will come... Stay Metal!!!

Mattia

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Vennificus

Nice sound. "Hunters" is the only song I can get to
work for some reason, but It's enough. It's always good
to hear power metal, even on the slower end. You've
made my "band of the week" which many people on my MSN
view (It may not be much to you, but these guys listen
to alot fo metal, they always look for something new),
and I hope to hear more from you.

posted Jul 14