This was a wise decision by the band who have in the meantime
established an almost unique sound and category which is consequently
followed on “Savage Souls”. „We have kept our roots and everybody who
heard the album yet, recognizes it as MYSTIC PROPHECY immediately”,
says the outstanding Greek vocalist R.D. „Lia“ Liapakis with strong and
well deserved confidence, “Savage Souls” has a great range of
varieties, sounds updated and the songs are all darker and more
aggressive. We still have a melodic edge though without being cheesy at
all, all in all we are still real METAL!”.
The fact that MYSTIC PROPHECY were able to establish and even improve
their level is not the most usually thing – facing the fact that there
was a lot of stress going on in the last months: guitarist Gus G. left
Lia and the others some time ago to concentrate on his other band
Firewind.
Although the split was done in a friendly and both sided manner it was
not easy to find a replacement. But MYSTIC PROPHECY never hesitated for
a second and chose a new double-axe department: the two new guitarists
are Markus Pohl (known from Symphorce; and longer part of the live
line-up of MYSTIC PROPHECY) and Martin Grimm (Headstone Epitaph).
In addition drummer Dennis Ekdahl was more and more busy with his other
band Raise Hell and also left. New drummer is Matthias Straub from
Sacred Steel after Klaus Sperling from My Darkest Hate was a member of
the band for a while.
The album was recorded and mastered at „Music Factory Studio“ by Lia
while the excellent mix was done by Fredrik Nordström, whose
Fredman-Studio is one of the top studios in Europe for years now.
“We wanted to try something new” Lia explains, “I think the result
is a very good bridge between classical stuff and modern metal like
Nevermore play these days”. The songs on the album were written by the
complete band this time. It is great to see, how well Markus Pohl and
Martin Grimm have been involved in the band.
“Both know right from the start how MYSTIC PROPHECY have to sound,
so they played the perfect way and our special flair remained” says Lia
proudly after the confusions in the line up left their marks.
“Savage Souls turned out a little more depressive, as we had quite
a lot of stress and problems with the many line-up changes. But the
hard work paid off: the band never sounded that heavy and aggressive.
Accordingly the lyrics don’t follow a concept as the previous albums
but refer to environment, polictics and religion – and surely a lot of
personal stuff, which needs to be reflected when things don’t turn our
that well”.
The things will turn very well again at the latest when “Savage Souls”
is released! Even strict journalists or the writers with the “I heard
this all before”-attitude will have to accept one fact: MYSTIC PROPHECY
are one of the leading German , if not European, bands in their genre
and will break through now with their fourth album. “Savage Souls” is a
definite highlight!
http://www.mysticprophecy.net/http://www.myspace.com/mysticprophecy