At The Marble Gates To Apeiron with Arrayan Path

At The Marble Gates To Apeiron with Arrayan Path

The Epic Power Metal force that is ARRAYAN PATH returns with the band’s 8th full-length, a follow-up to 2018’s double-disc album Archegonoi.  The Marble Gates to Apeiron, is their latest sonic manifesto, now available worldwide via Pitch Black Records.  Dealing with the vast and complex subject of human nature throughout the ages, The Marble Gates to Apeiron is an adventure than music fans will want to experience time and again.  Highwire Daze recently interviewed Nicholas Leptos, the band’s driving force (also current vocalist of legendary Warlord) and bassist Miguel Trapezaris to find out more about the Cyprus based Arrayan Path and the ambitious themes behind The Marble Gates To Apeiron…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Arrayan Path, and how long the band has been together.
Miguel: Hello there! I play bass and I joined the band in 2015, but the band has been around a lot longer, since 1999!

Where is the band based out of and what is your local music scene like there?
Miguel: We are based in Cyprus! The local scene is quite active with many bands for such a small country, we produce a lot of high-quality releases and bands which are building a name for themselves outside Cyprus.

Is there any overall story or concept behind the album title The Marble Gates to Apeiron?
Nicholas: The album revolves around human nature and how diachronic it remains throughout the years. And although the theme of each song is different, there is a common spectrum involving humanity’s reaction to everything that’s happening around the world.

Select two songs from The Marble Gates to Apeiron and what inspired the lyrics.
Miguel: “Virus” is about the current global pandemic; the confusion, the uncertainty for the future that the majority of us feel with our lives disrupted and turned upside down by this whole situation, and the conspiracy theorists going into overdrive meaning many don’t even know what is real or not.

Another track is “Cardinal Order” which is about how religious extremists used their dogma to control and oppress – in this case, about the Catholics and the Spanish Inquisition. Oppression and dogma can take many forms, however.

Who produced The Marble Gates to Apeiron and what was it like working with them?
Miguel: We recorded guitars and vocals at Cyprus Studio, engineered by the great Slaven Selic, who is a great engineer and has one of the best studios here. We’ve worked with him before, so we knew he was a great choice for the recording aspect.

Drums were recorded at a home studio, and bass recorded at Infected Studios engineered by Louis Syrimis, who I play with in another project.  Mixing/mastering was done by Simone Mularoni, who mixed and mastered our previous two albums for us and we were very happy with his work!

Who did the cover art for The Marble Gates to Apeiron and how much input did you have on it?
Nicholas: The artwork was done by Giannis Nakos of Remedy Art Designs. Giannis does not really like to work with guidelines so the only thing we gave him was the theme from song 1 on the CD which is basically depicted on the cover.

What has it been like to release new music in the middle of a pandemic and so much social unrest in the world?
Miguel: Since we were unable to perform live or do anything, it was a difficult time to do anything music related. Fortunately with technology today, it’s much easier to produce and record music in isolation. We had a few ideas to work with, and when the first lockdown finished we were able to meet up and prepare demos. As there were no shows to do, we decided, like many other bands, to use the time to produce music!

How stressful was it to follow up such an epic album as Archegonoi so quickly?
Miguel: Not too stressful really – the writing of this album flowed quite easily! We had ideas floating around so it was just a matter of putting them down. And of course a lot of spare time!

What is a live Arrayan Path show like for those of us who have never seen you before?
Miguel: We try to get the energy of the music to the crowd. Especially if we play somewhere like Greece, the crowd is already pretty hyped up so we take that energy and try to multiply it, which hypes the crowd up more – like a feedback loop of power, an almost symbiotic relationship. The songs can sound very big and epic, but even more so with the crowd getting into it. That’s really key for us, make every person there feel the songs.

Has Arrayan Path ever played in the States and if so, what was the experience like?
Nicholas: I’m afraid not. We did come close once, but it turned out to be a scam.

If Arrayan Path could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
Miguel: Personally I would really love to open for a band like Blind Guardian or Rhapsody – big, epic sounding bands that we’d fit right in with! Who knows what the future will bring…

On your album Ira Imperium (2011), you had a guest appearance by Tony Martin from Black Sabbath. What was it like working with Tony Martin and do you still keep in touch with him?
Nicholas: Working with Tony was amazing! He was very professional and always open to other ideas. And in the end he sent us more than we asked for, as he recorded hundreds of choir tracks and saved us from the trouble of doing them ourselves.

Has any member of Iron Maiden ever heard or commented on your cover of Stranger In A Strange Land?
Nicholas: I have not seen any comments but we were informed that the CD was sent to the Iron Maiden management. I’m however not sure whether it has reached the band members or not.

Are you currently involved with any other band outside of Arrayan Path and if so, what is going on with the band?
Miguel: I keep myself quite busy – aside from Arrayan Path I play in Winter’s Verge (melodic power metal), Infected Syren (thrash/punk), Zivanished (grind/thrash), Oneirism (post-rock/experimental), Joakem (progressive metal), Hegemony (technical death metal) and Waerteras (nihilistic black metal). Music is a huge part of my life.

What do you hope 2021 brings for Arrayan Path?
Miguel: I want the same things that pretty much every band around the world wants – a return to playing shows, connecting with our fans, and doing what we love most. There is light at the end of the tunnel now, at least.

Any final words of wisdom?
Miguel: Times are tough. Things can be bleak and a lot of people are struggling. Remember those close to you, they will be fighting their battles, and be there for them as much as you can. And remember you’re not alone! Listen to metal, and patience until things get back to normal! We will hopefully see you live!

ARRAYAN PATH is:
Nicholas Leptos – Vocals
Socrates Leptos – Guitars
Christoforos Gavriel – Guitars
Miguel Trapezaris – Bass

(Interview by Ken Morton)

https://www.pitchblackrecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/arrayanpath