We´re great at the moment, thanks, we have been waiting for the new album to come out, but finally the wait is over and we are very glad it is.
The band name MITHRAS goes back to the name of a Roman god with it´s roots in the Persian culture as I have informed myself. Why did you exacty choose that? What connects the band to these parts of history?
Well, the band name was chosen due to the history and "meanings" behind the Roman god Mithras; interestingly some claim his story to be very similar to the story of Jesus, in fact some even believe that Mithras and Jesus are one unto the same. The god Mithras was the god of light, both Leon and I believe that man should strive towards the light and therefore away from darkness. He was as you say a Roman god and at the time of choosing the band name we had a lot of Roman themed links as can be seen on the "Forever Advancing Legions...." album, so it was part of the beginning of the band and its story. We have always had a concept and story within the band which has kept the albums linked together.
The band has already been formed in 1998, but it seems that you are still not so well-known in the extreme metal-scene. What do you think might be the reason for this?
We have had a lot of trouble with other members over the years, Leon (guitars/drums) and I do it on our own, so this has led to us not being able to do many gigs or tours which could be a factor. Also we are a band that "came from nowhere" in the UK, most of the major UK bands come from London or other major cities, so I think it gave us room to grow at first without being noticed as much. Another reason may have been that we did spend a lot of time before our first album "...Legions" writing and playing and practicing and trying to find other members, before we even stepped into or anywhere near the limelight. We have always been hindered by time wasters in the band, this is why it has ended up with just me and Leon. However, we are hoping to do some live gigs with session musicians in the future to help raise our profile, but that is not 100% confirmed yet.
Where do you get your musical influences from? The style of MITHRAS reminds me a little bit of bands like VADER, MORBID ANGEL, DEATH or HATE ETERNAL. Is this the direction you come from?
I always find this a hard question to answer, I hear a lot of people say we are influenced by Morbid Angel a lot, which I don´t see that much of and, how many extreme bands nowadays aren´t? We listen to a lot of bands, lots of extreme, experimental, folk, classical, prog, (and all the rest) bands which influence us in a positive or negative way. In MITHRAS the music creates itself, it starts from a seed and grows and grows, we add our own take on parts and it transforms into the complete song, a song is never finished until it is out on an album.
Your last album "Worlds Beyond The Veil" is already four years old. Why has it taken so long to finish your new record "Behind The Shadows Lie Madness"?
It actually wasn´t released properly until 2004 so it´s only 3 years old, hehe. We took a break for a while after "Worlds..." as we had been doing MITHRAS solidly for 6 years, and by that time though we had got a major record contract we were so tired we needed to take a break, and also sort out some private matters. Another setback was that again we were let down by new members who joined after "Worlds...", and we were left with just Leon and I again to do the new album (exactly as was the case with "Worlds..."). Leon had to spend time learning and training for the drum parts on "Behind The Shadows Lie Madness", as they were not easy by any standard, this took time, and again put us back. But with that said, once we were able to get on with recording it, it went quite well.
What does the album-title mean exactly? Is there a complex concept behind it?
Yes! As with all MITHRAS albums so far, "Behind The Shadows Lie Madness" continues from the previous album "Worlds Beyond The Veil". The story started right at the start of our first album "Forever Advancing Legions" and has continued throughout. "Behind The Shadows Lie Madness" follows a story whereby if the main character in the story stays within the part of his world illuminated by the sun he will retain his sanity, but if he wanders into the darkness he will be lost to madness and the monsters therein, basically. It´s obviously a bit more complicated than that, but that was the condensed idea we were trying to get across with the album title.
The cover-artwork seems to be created by Dan Seagrave, anyway it looks as if he has done it. Do you like his Artworks?
It certainly is he! His work is unmistakebly fantastic. He was so professional and worked off the ideas we had so well, also adding his own, which made it a pleasure to work with him. We were highly delighted with the piece which added so much to the feel and effect of the album.
Have you ever toured in Germany? And if not, are you planning going on tour here next year?
I have not been on tour in Germany although I would love to go. Leon has been on tour with a band called THRONE OF NAILS which played a few gigs in Germany. We haven´t as yet got any plans to tour Germany but hopefully soon!
Is there finally anything that you would like to tell your fans in Germany?
Thanks for supporting MITHRAS and we hope to see you guys sooner rather than later, and keep and eye out for our new record "Behind The Shadows Lie Madness" and T-Shirts out soon! Check out http://www.mithras.org.uk.
