The 35 Year Legacy of the Almighty Nightfall

The 35 Year Legacy of the Almighty Nightfall

Since rising up from Athens’ underground in 1991, Nightfall have stood as pillars for Greek metal alongside current and former Season of Mist label mates Rotting Christ and Septicflesh.  Like their brothers-in-arms, founding member Efthimis Karadimas and his Athenian rebels sculpt towering gothic melodies from fiery blackened death metal. Their monumental eleventh full-length is bolstered by a powerful message and the mightiest production in the band’s pantheon-level discography.  Highwire Daze is honored to present this interview with Efthimis Karadimas of the legendary Nightfall to discuss the just released Children of Eve manifesto, their 35-year metal legacy, his involvement with Metal Music Against Depression, and a whole lot more!

Is there any overall story or concept behind the album title, Children of Eve?
Yes, actually, the track list of the 10 titles composes the story behind the concept of the album. So if you go through the titles, it reads, “I hate the cannibal lurking inside my head, seeking revenge for the expelled ones. The Traders Of Anathema with outlandish desire to disobey The Makhaira of The Deceiver Christian Svengali.” So, it’s about the increasing theocracy we are seeing globally – that it’s taking a very bad effect on everybody actually. We’ve been influenced by the current events in the Middle East, current events in Eastern Europe, and by what’s going on right now with the increasing influence of organized religion upon people and upon nations as well.

Let’s talk about I Hate, the story or concept behind the lead track.
Yes, I Hate. It’s about that epic moment where one realizes that he’s been taken advantage of – his life by organized religious leaders. It’s that epic moment when you say enough is enough. I don’t want to do it anymore. I want to be free. In an act of rebellion, you grab the sword and kill the guardian angel. That guardian angel that has offset your life, your will, your dreams, your own flesh, bones, and blood based on your faith. I mean, actually, it’s taking advantage of your faith and your goodwill in life. So, it’s an act of rebellion that we try to describe with the video clip and the track itself.

Tell me about that video clip and who directed it.
Adam Barker. It’s a Briton from Manchester. An amazing guy. The guy has produced the recent video clips from bands like Power Wolf and Sabaton. So, we’re very lucky that he found a slot for us because we wanted to produce something really big. I think that we achieved that with I Hate. We’re going to do one more video with him later this year.

We’ll go to the end of the album, Christian Svengali. Tell me about that song and the conclusion of the album.
The conclusion of the album is written in the lyrics, save me from religion evil. I mean, it’s the whole story, it’s about things that dictate our lives even right now, and the source of them all is organized religion. Take, for example, the issue of abortion, we’re talking in 2025 about the right of a woman to have full access to her body and do whatever she’d like to do. Such questions, such arguments should have found the answer based on science and a modern approach and not relying on the thousand old doctrines and writings.

You see that there is a social message behind this album, despite it being a death metal or black metal album. We love expressing our opinions about social issues and global social issues through our lyrics. This is not something new. This is something that Chuck Schuldiner did on the Death Spiritual Healing album many years ago, and I love this approach from artists.

Has Nightfall ever toured here in the States, and if so, what was the experience like?
No, we have never toured in the States. Actually, we were coming back to the States after a long hiatus. We used to tour back in the days, but then we decided to switch to a strictly studio band because that offered us the flexibility to work for a long time on new material and then not even think about how that material will be produced on stage. So actually, it was like we self-limited our activity. Now we are back on stage, and we definitely look forward to touring the States, but not alone. We need to find a good package and a strong band to introduce us to the massive audience in the States. Then, we have to prove ourselves on stage with our performance and try to attract interest from you guys there.

You should ask Rotting Christ to bring you over here. I think they’re here like once a year.
Yeah, I know. We’ve been talking with Sakis about that thing, and we’re talking again and again, but we didn’t have the new album out yet, so it was not practical for us to sit down and make some plans. Now that the album is coming out on the 2nd of May, I think we have a lot of opportunities to take advantage of and finally step onto US soil.

Tell me about Metal Music Against Depression and how that came about.
I’ve suffered from depression for many years. I was not aware of it most of the time because I myself was a victim of that social discrimination and stereotype regarding mental health. So, I thought that my mood swings and all these demons in my mind were just part of a bad day, let’s say, but it was not. So, I found myself clinically depressed only a few years ago. I decided to open this issue and share it with people in the scene using our new album At Night We Prey, and the whole thing developed in that way that progressively attracted more of my time and acquired more of my time because of the reception.

I saw many people from my country and from Europe who had a similar routine like me. They had similar back thoughts like me, but they couldn’t go forward and share their problem with people. So I took it one step further and I started an initiation with European Alliance Against Depression in Germany. We did the Metal Music Against Depression, which is just an effort to inspire people who struggle with mental disorders and depression, or people who are close to people who suffer from this, and start exchanging ideas and aiming to feel better, to feel okay. Because at the end of the day, it is okay to struggle with such disorders. It’s like you go to the doctor, you are a normal guy. It’s like you go to the doctor for a broken leg or a broken arm. It’s something that happens. If you treat it with respect, you may come into terms with it and have a normal life, be active, do things, be nice, and that’s all. We have to kill that misconception that this is something terminal. This is something that society cannot cope with.

You have another band The Slayerking with your guitarist, Kostas. Tell me about The Slayerking and how it differs from Nightfall. Is The Slayerking still going?
The Slayerking is a very expensive project that unfortunately didn’t get the funds to support it financially. I mean, it didn’t work commercially, despite the very high quality of both albums, especially Tetragrammaton. To my ears, it’s sweet music, a very original album. However, that helped a lot for me and also my bandmate Kostas to come closer and work very efficiently for the At Night We Prey album of Nightfall, and now Children of Eve. So, it’s part of us, it’s something that it’s not dead yet, it’s just sleeping. I don’t know when we’re going to have the time and the funds to do a third album, but we are looking forward to it sometime in the future. It has to be something which is going to be really interesting, massive, huge.

In order to do that, we have to work with the best, like we did with Children of Eve, where we work with Eliran Kantor, and with Jacob Hansen. That’s why the sound is massive. So, it needs funding that, at the very moment, The Slayerking does not have it.

Your music is celebrating a few anniversaries this year, and I’d like to talk about, first of all, for the 20-year anniversary, your album, Lyssa – Rural Gods and Astonishing Punishments. It was released 20 years ago. When you look back on that album and the fact that it’s been 20 years, what do you think of that album now in retrospect?
Man, time flies, and I don’t like that. I have to be sincere with you. I mean, time flies. I mean, it’s crazy. Twenty years, to me, it looks like yesterday. I still feel the power and then drama, and my personal drama back in those days, it was a very difficult period for me personally. Well, that’s nothing new, actually. But I remember that I had some ideas which I turned into songs, and then I asked a fellow guitarist to help me put everything in order. More or less, that’s how Lyssa was produced. It was a pure, how to say, outcome of from instinct, let’s say. It was not something well planned.  It had most of an underground approach.

Like, okay, I feel bad now. Where can I channel my energy in music? Okay, let’s put it there. Let’s hit it. Hit the record button and that’s it. So it was a very fresh step for me, and I still recall some good memories – good as memories, not as facts, because it was a very difficult period back then. But yes, I love this album.

We’re going back 30 years now. Athenian Echoes is celebrating its 30-year anniversary this year. When you look back on that album and the fact that it’s been 30 years, what do you think of it now in retrospect?
I wouldn’t change anything in that album. It’s an album that actually justifies why the Greek scene has become so popular around the globe. It’s an album that still carries a lot of quality, let’s say, despite its outdated production. I love it. I love it to the maximum. This is one of the best things I’ve done in the 90s.

Your band is celebrating its 35-year anniversary this year. Are you surprised you’ve been doing anything for 35 years?
No, I’m not into celebrating that sort of anniversary, because I don’t like the fact that we are getting older. I don’t like the fact that we are getting old and we still face the same shitty situation when it gets to politics, when it gets to religion stuff, when it gets to society and everything. So, I feel a little bit obnoxious, so to speak. So, I’m not into any celebration planning. However, if the label decides to do something, we’re going to support it 100%. But I’m not the anniversary type of guy.

I know you’re not into anniversaries, but I’m going to rephrase this question. What do you think has kept you so passionate about metal and Nightfall for 35 years and counting?
First of all is the anger. I still feel the same anger as I used to feel back when I was a young guy. That’s weird. So, I still have to find proper ways to express that anger. I do write poetry, and I do write some literature, but there’s nothing like music and that sort of music. Secondly, it’s the fact that I grew up in the underground, early 90s, so I do carry the spirit of the underground with me. I like to communicate with others. It’s very important for me to what we’re doing right now. I mean, talking to each other, I hear you, you hear me, and we develop a sort of friendship that may last for many years. I know that this is the best for any person around, to have long-term established friendships of any kind and become wiser, and richer, so to speak, spiritually, from this process. This is very important to me. So that kept me alive all these years. I think that it won’t change.

Do you have any messages for your fans out here in the States who’ve been following your band all these years?
I think that ’25 and ’26 will be the years that we finally going to have the chance to fly over and see you guys, play for you, talk with you, and meet each other. We’re going to meet pen pals, we’re going to meet people – that we know each other and have exchanged messages, or we have been interviewed by them, but we didn’t have the chance to meet them in person. So, this is going to be a big thing for us to fly over to the States, and I believe that if we do come once, we’re going to repeatedly come year after year like our fellow Sakis.

Children of Eve by Nightfall is now available via Season of Mist!  Definitely the epic blackened death metal experience for 2025 and beyond!

Line-up:
Efthimis Karadimas – Vocals
Kostas Kyriakopoulos – Guitars
Vasiliki Biza – Bass
Fotis Benardo – Drums

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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