One of the things that characterizes metalwar.gr is its support for the Greek music scene, especially new bands and artists. One such new band is Heavy/Thrash Metallers ETERNAL FORCE, who are ready to give their first headlining show at Underground Music Studios next Saturday, November. We are pleased to welcome the band’s founder and guitarist, Mike Dervos, who spoke to us about the band, their live performances, and music in general.
Metalwar: Good evening, Michalis. Welcome to metalwar.gr. It is our pleasure to host you on our website. Since ETERNAL FORCE is a new band, I would like to start by asking you to introduce the band, its members, how it started, etc.
Mike Dervos: Thank you for the invitation. ETERNA FORCE consists of five members. I play guitar, Giorgos Gritsis plays bass, Andronikos Maltezos, also known from WILDFIRE, plays drums. On vocals we have the mysterious member who does not want to reveal his real name but is known as Antonis Obsessick, and finally, our fifth member, a very talented 18Metalwar:yearMetalwar:old guy called Stefanos Hatz, recently joined us on guitar. Despite his age, he is an amazing musician and has tremendous perception. In fact, the live show we will be doing next week will be his first ever.
Metalwar: Excellent! How is he taking it? How is he feeling psychologically?
MK: He’s taken it very warmly. He’s very enthusiastic and wants to give it his all. In general, we are ready for this live show. We are now more united as a band, compared to our first live show in March at least, and many things have changed.
Metalwar: How did you decide to start ETERNAL FORCE?
MK: The band was formed mainly due to Antonis who insisted on doing this.. We initially started out with a different name. The band was called FOR A GOOD CAUSE, and the idea was to play covers and do some charity gigs. All the money we made would go to charities and stuff. However, this arrangement only lasted for a short time, and it wasn’t long before Antonis came up with the idea of finally doing something of our own and getting more actively involved in music and composing our own songs.
Metalwar: So you and Antonis are essentially the founding members.
MK: The original members, yes. And because Antonis always admired the music I wrote with my previous band, HATEFLAMES, and because as a musician he didn’t have the same experience, he wanted a band to start his career as an artist because he had never had the opportunity to collaborate with anyone else. Antonis is a selfMetalwar:taught singer, extremely talented, and with my help, he now has the recognition he deserves from the public. In general, we get the best feedbakc about Antonis, and I am very proud that he has achieved all this without lessons. So, the two of us started out sometime in 2022Metalwar:2023, and then there were some additions and changes to the band’s lineMetalwar:up until we finalised the lineMetalwar:up we have today. For drums, we ended up with Andronikos, who works as a session musician. We had worked with Giorgos, the bassist, in HATEFLAMES, so he is a very good friend of mine and I have known him for many years. Finally, we settled on the second guitarist, so we completed the lineMetalwar:up and are moving forward from there.
Metalwar: At the moment, we have a first sample of the music you want to play, but I would like you to tell me how you would describe ETERNAL FORCE’s music to someone who has no idea about it.
MK: We certainly can’t isolate one musical genre, but it’s a combination. Some examples of our influences, however, are definitely METALLICA, MEGADETH, and JUDAS PRIEST. You can even find elements of DREAM THEATER in our music, or AVENGED SEVENFOLD, as some people have told us. In general, we would say that it is a fusion of Heavy, Thrash, and Progressive.
Metalwar: From your first single, “Kill To Live,” I detect a retro aesthetic of the 80s and early 90s, perhaps because of Antonis’ voice, which reminds me a little of JUDAS PRIEST and a little of Dickinson, but I will wait for the rest of the songs to draw better conclusions.
MK: I’m glad you get that feeling because that’s what we wanted to achieve. To produce something classic Heavy because I think that’s what’s missing from our scene. Nowadays, most bands play more modern metal, perhaps because that’s what sells, but we wanted something more classic.
Metalwar: What is the songwriting process you follow as a band?
MK: Basically, I write the songs and do the preproduction on my own. Of course, for the album, we wanted to do a more professional job, so we went to Giorgos Arniotis from One Eleven Studios in Peristeri. It’s a legendary studio from the 80s that has been revived in recent years and offers many services. Giorgos is experienced, very good, and helpful, and he managed to bring our songs to life. We gradually recorded all the instruments, and each musician added their own identity, so we got the result we wanted.
Metalwar: In general, what inspires you? Where do you get your inspiration when you compose music?
MK: There are many factors. Personal experiences, the social situation, etc., but mainly personal experiences and things related to our interpersonal relationships. To give you an idea, our album will be called “Race Of Evil,” so you can see where we’re going with this. We are concerned with many things, such as our relationships with other people, war, society, etc.
Metalwar: What is music to you?
MK: I’ve been playing guitar since I was 13. I started with classic rock thanks to my father, who instilled that sound in me and made me pick up the guitar. Then I discovered METALLICA. It didn’t take much. I learned from guitarists like Gary Moore, Yngwie Malmsteen, Dave Mustaine, and James Hetfield. They were all heroes to me who made me start playing music and never stop loving it.
Metalwar: Today’s conversation is partly to get to know you and partly about your upcoming live show, which is your second as a band but your first as headliners. First, tell me how you experienced that live show in March with NOMOS.
MK: It was the first time we all got on stage together, and there was a little anxiety. In fact, our singer had bronchitis, so he had a hard time, but in the end, he gave 1000%, and the feedback we got was very positive, especially for a first live show. The venue was packed, we played some of our songs that people liked, so everything went better than we had hoped. Also, the guys from NOMOS are awesome, both as musicians and as persnalities.
Metalwar: How did you meet NOMOS and start collaborating?
MK: Through a mutual acquaintance who recommended us, we sent them our video clip, they liked it, and so we collaborated.
Metalwar: So, let’s talk about your upcoming live show. Give us some information about it.
MK: The live show will take place on Saturday, November 1 at Underground Music Studios in Peristeri, and we will be joined by REMAIDEN, a band dedicated to the great IRON MAIDEN, playing exclusively their covers, including difficult songs that we don’t usually hear at MAIDEN live shows, such as “Alexander The Great.” We will present almost the entire upcoming album in an hourMetalwar:long set, and there will also be a surprise. This way, people will get a good idea of what we stand for musically. As for the album, as we said, it’s not ready yet, but we’re on the right track as we’re now recording the vocals and in November we’ll start mixing and mastering so that it can be released by the end of 2025. We must say that the whole recording process is being made in David Prudent’s Made In Hell studio. Initially, it will only be released in digital format on all the wellMetalwar:known platforms, and we are looking into whether we can also release it in physical format.
Metalwar: I assume you are not currently working with any label.
MK: Not at the moment, but we will look at our options to find a company that suits us and make a good deal. Otherwise, it will be a purely selfMetalwar:financed release.
Metalwar: As far as I know, as musicians you already have significant experience beyond ETERNAL FORCE, so I imagine you have a general idea of the scene. How easy is it for a new band, even if it consists of experienced musicians, to get started and find a way to present its music? I imagine it’s even more difficult if the musicians who make up the band are completely new to the scene.
MK: It’s definitely not easy. It requires sacrifice, hard work, a lot of practice, dedication, and faith. You can’t approach it with the mindset that you’re going to make money. That way, you’ve lost from the start. You need endless rehearsals at first and then experience from live performances. And, of course, connections and networking. You need support from other bands and, more generally, from people involved in the scene, which is unfortunately rare. Finally, you need an organized presence on social media, to shoot some video clips, and generally to have good publicity.
Metalwar: Even the issue of live performances has become more difficult. Many of your colleagues have mentioned to me that many small venues have closed in recent years in Athens and in other cities, and those that remain either cannot accommodate bands that do not have a large fan base or have raised their costs too high. What is your view on this?
MK: Live performances are quite difficult in Greece, especially for metal music, because it’s not the most popular genre in our country, so people are unlikely to support it. Even the venues that organize live shows don’t really promote them, leaving all the work to the bands, who have to bring their own audience. And the newer a band is, the harder it is to draw a crowd.
Metalwar: How do you view new trends in music in general? I know you have a profile on Spotify, for example, so I assume you intend to release your music through that channel as well.
MK: Yes, yes, obviously. We’re on all platforms. YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Beyond that, the truth is that they don’t help much. I mean, a band can’t really make money from streaming. I believe that even the biggest bands don’t make significant profits from it. The only way a band can make money is through live performances. Streaming mainly makes it easier for fans to get to know your music better. In other words, it’s an easier way to introduce yourself to the public.
Metalwar: Another big issue that has come up recently has to do with the use of AI in music. From creating a cover to composing an entire song. This is a question I always ask lately because it is very interesting to see what musicians think about it. And I’ve heard everything from the most optimistic to the most pessimistic opinion. How do you see the future of music and musicians, especially in relation to AI?
MK: I believe that if used intelligently, it can help, but there are limits. You can, for example, take a recorded voice and change its tone slightly or add a special sound effect at a certain point in a song. In other words, small interventions that will improve the result. However, I believe that excessive use is not beneficial. This applies to music as well as album covers or anywhere else it may be used. I think that this detracts from the meaning of the music, the human factor, which is the most important thing. In general, I don’t like overly polished productions where everything is perfect and they all sound the same. They sound as if they weren’t played by humans. With ETERNAL FORCE, we worked a lot with the traditional pattern. Completely analog production.
Metalwar: I believe that in metal, we still like the more traditional, grungier productions.
MK: Not all bands, though. Nowadays, even record companies set certain standards that bands have to follow.
Metalwar: Another problem that arises from all this, of course, is that bands ultimately cannot reproduce live the studio version of their musiv, and this can cause them to lose fans who heard one thing on the CD and something completely different at a live show.
MK: Exactly, although now many bands, especially larger ones, use so much preMetalwar:recorded material that the result can end up being almost the same as the album. Vocals, second or third guitars, backing vocals, etc. In other words, the band plays and the track plays in the background so that everything comes out perfectly.
Metalwar: After COVID, do you think the way we entertain ourselves has changed, especially when it comes to live performances?
MK: I think so. The way we have fun has changed because the situation we experienced back then created a bad atmosphere and emotional tension among people. So, as soon as things opened up, people came out with a greater desire to see, hear, and support. And even though so many years have passed since then, this trend still holds. Even in Greece, you see that there are many live shows every week and people generally support them.
Metalwar: One last question. What is your vision for ETERNAL FORCE?
MK: I certainly can’t predict how all this will turn out, since life is unpredictable and things can change at any moment. But we want to continue together with the other guys, united as a band, as a family, because that’s how we see each other. We are aiming for festivals and other live performances in general. There is talent and enthusiasm and everyone contributes to the creative process. Imagine that we already have songs for the next album, even before our debut has been released. We have enthusiasm and ideas and we want to continue working, improving, and I believe that the future will prove us right.
Metalwar: I really hope everything goes the way you want it to. I would like to thank you for your time and wish you every success with the live show and in general.
MK: Thank you for your support. We look forward to seeing you at the live show!
Facebook Page: Eternal Force Band | Athens | Facebook
Instagram Page: eternalforcebandmetal
Interview -text: Kostas Boudoukos
Photos: Yiannis Dolas
