Margin Of Existence

Margin Of Existence are a new and exciting death metal band from Thessaloniki, Greece and before they present us with their first studio album "The Road To Despair", we have a little chat with their lead guitarist, Alexandros Bondroit!

-Hello Alex! First of all, tell us where exactly you are from. (Your name is very cool, but you have to admit it is very strange, my friend!)
-Hello Damien! I was born in Drama, Greece. My mother is Greek but my father comes from Belgium so there you go! Hahaha!

-Tell us a few things about Margin Of Existence?
-The band was created in 2006 in Drama from me and Giorgos (the singer). We started to work on our own tracks and covers and in the same time we were searching for musicians who want to work and love metal to complete our line-up. In the beginning, especially in the first year, this was not easy at all. Band members were changing all the time so we could not do what we wanted fast. Imagine that we have played live with a drum machine because we did not have a drummer hahaha! From then on, after a lot of changes and after we moved to Thessaloniki , we have a steady line-up that is really working and consists of Giorgos Triantafyllou (vocals), Petros Stavropoulos (drums), Anestis Sidiropoulos(guitars), Apostolos Touloupakis (bass) and me in lead guitar. We have played several gigs and festivalsaround Greece and once abroad in Sofia, Bulgaria. Last October, we signed with the english record company Casket Music which will release our first album entitled "The Road To Despair". Our plans are to play live in Greece and abroad in order to promote the album.

-Are you satisfied with the reception of your first songs? Reviews of the album are generally very good.
-We are all satisfied since the record hasn't been released yet because of problems caused by both sides, but still there are a lot of people that are interested in our music. All the reviews are very positive so far and we are very glad about it. All we can do now is wait for our album to be officially released and it probably will hit the stores around May.

-Will your next effort also be released from the same record company? Do you think that the cooperation with an english company will help you?
-Nothing is certain, a lot of things may come in the way, you never know... I do believe that our cooperation with Casket Music will help us be heard abroad.

-It is obvious that your sound is influenced by the Swedish Death Metal Scene (eg In Flames). What other bands have influenced you?
-We have a lot of diverse influences and all of them are metal. The most prominent ones are bands from the Swedish metal scene, like At The Gates, In Flames, Hypocrisy and Amon Amarth but also U.S. extreme metal bandslike Lamb Of God, Devildriver, Unearth etc. Of course I have to mention the bands we grew up with (Iron Maiden, Metallica, slayer, Iced Earth etc.)

-You are relatively new in the metal scene but you have managed to make a lot of heads turn your way. What would you advise new bands that want to release their material and play live?
-It is true that we are too fresh to give advice, but I would say it is important to love and feel what you do and of course, work hard both individually and as a band. The rest will come in the way.

-You have studied a lot of instruments, musical technology, music schools etc. Do you consider this knowledge necessary for a young man to produce music?
- Everything you study revolving music genres, musical instruments and how they operate, theoretical knowledge etc is beneficial for the musician. His ideas can be expressed with a lot of different ways technically and his horizons can be expanded, but up to a point. Books do not compose music, instead it comes from oneself, what he feels, what he has lived and what he wants to say.

-Many people say that extreme metal has become stale nowadays. Do you agree?
-No I don't. There are many bands that can offer a lot of things.

-Finally, tell us about a new record that impressed you.
-Recently I heard The Haunted's new album and they never fail to impress me with what they do! They are not afraid to experiment and I love the results!

-Thank you very much Alex!
-I should thank you for the opportunity to say a few things about us. Hail to all readers of the site!

D.Damien.