In March, I reviewed the debut album, Morus, from the Greek black metal band Euphrosyne. I found it to be a deeply emotional experience. I’ve been working my way through the Greek underground metal world, and I think Euphrosyne could be well on their way to becoming a mainstay fixture of the black metal world. Over the weekend, I got the opportunity to sit down and chat with Vocalist, Efi Eva and guitarist, Alex Despotidis, about the new album and the Greek metal world. This was a fun conversation as the pair talked about the connection with their fans, their influences and the hardships of being a band in 2025.
Mick: So, yeah, the album, Morus, came out at the end of March. How have you felt like the fan reaction to the new album has been?
Efi: Well, I think it's been great. Actually, it was more positive than we thought that it could be and we're very happy about that. Maybe the whole concept of the album isn't so cheerful, but I think the fans accepted that.
Mick: Yeah, definitely. I was definitely emotionally moved by the album as someone who has lost family members myself. What would be your personal favourite songs from the album so far?
Efi: That's a tough question, to be honest, because you can’t choose among your children who is your favourite. I would say for me it’s “Μητέρα” (Mother) and I think “July 21st”. If I had to choose, I would say “July 21st”.
Alex: For me, I think it depends on the time. For now, I think my favourite is “Asphodel”, I think. It has many elements that I love. It has very atmospheric parts, like more blast beats and all the black metal stuff. yeah, “Asphodel” for now.
Mick: I genuinely liked how you were able to balance a lot of those really heavy black metal stuff with the more melodic sounds. How do you manage this in the songwriting process in terms of how you mix and match those sounds? Because it sounds fantastic, but it would just be interesting to know your process of how you maximise the sound.
Alex: I think the main idea for a song came from me. I write the music to flow between different genres. I want to combine it all together.
Efi: Well, generally Alex writes the music and he sends me all his compositions, and I write the lyrics. This is just our recipe, and I think the different styles that we mix is because of all the different genres that we're listening to, as Alex said.
You know, we have the fundamental genre that is black metal, then we try to combine them with, you know, more atmospheric things, melodic stuff and more complicated stuff. Like progressive and more harmonic stuff and all that. Wejust want to combine it with the black metal aggression. All our favourite elements.
Mick: I noticed a lot of the creative elements. Do you have any particular bands or artists that you feel inform you for seeing as a whole, as a collective?
Efi: Of course. I would say Pain of Salvation. Opeth. Steven Wilson and Nevermore, for sure, especially for Alex.
Alex: Yeah, yeah. They’re my favourite band.
Efi: Loomis is his favourite guitarist.
Alex: Our music is not very similar, of course, to Nevermore, but they’re a very big influence for me, for sure. For the songwriting, of course, Steven Wilson is a very, very big influence on our songwriting. I think for the black metal parts, I don't know exactly the bands that influenced me. I think more traditional stuff, like Gorgoroth, or more atmospheric black metal bands, Behemoth and all that stuff.
Mick: I mean, Greece itself has such a fantastic pedigree for black metal. I'm just fascinated by how the scene is over there, how healthy is it to put on shows in Greece? I would like to know what the metal culture is like in Greece.
Efi: Well, even if we're a small country, we're only 10 million, you know, we have a really big metal scene. Apart from the big bands, you know, like Rotting Christ, Subject Flesh and et cetera, we have an active black metal scene. There are bands like Melan Selas, Kawir, and they're, you know, they're making the scene great. We have a lot of underground black metal lives also here.
Mick: Do you have any, like, particular venues that are particularly known for the metal scene? Like, if there's a metal band in Greece, is there a venue that you ultimately want to play? Like, you've made your mark if you've played there.
Efi: There are not many anymore, unfortunately. We do have a few. Like Temple, which is not a big venue, but it's like a mid-range venue. It's great because it has the feeling of the underground. We have the An Club, which is a legendary venue for rock and metal. We have a lot of great stuff there.
Alex: And we have bigger stages, like Fuzz Club, Gagarin205 and Floyd Club.
Mick: Oh, I've heard of Floyd. Franki from InnerWish told me about that. So, yeah, there are names that kind of keep coming up when I talk to more and more bands from Greece. So I find it personally quite fascinating as I'm doing more of this research into it.
So just coming back to your music, have you managed to play any shows yet for this new record? I know you did the album launch show, but have you played any more on top of that? If so, how are you finding the live reaction to the songs?
Efi: We've done around three live shows uptol now, playing the whole album. We also had a live presentation. I can tell you that the first time that we ever played Μητέρα, the audience was a little bit, you know... How can I say that in a good way? It was a little bit sad, I think, but in a good way. There were tears in the crowd, because it was the first time that we ever had a song in the Greek language. So they understood the lyrics and it was more intense. I saw a guy crying, and it was so moving because I could see someone who felt the same way as we do.
Mick: How does that feel as a musician? You know. Seeing something you've written causes that kind of effect in someone?
Efi: It's really nice because, firstly, we want to connect with other people. You understand that you are not alone with your feelings. It doesn’t matter if you're sad or happy or anything else. Especially if you're sad and something bad happened to you, it's more like a relief if someone feels the same.
Mick: I know this was a very personal project for Alex in terms of this project. Is it a surreal moment for you when you have that same emotion matched back at you for something you've written about something so personal?
Alex: For me, it's a very personal record, of course, for my parents and their loss. It's a very strong feeling when we play the songs live. It's a very big honour for me when people connect with our songs, with our lyrics and all that, and with the music. Yeah, it's very sentimental, for sure. Especially the live presentation, it's a very strong and very sentimental feeling.
I think on one side, it's good, and more relaxed. I think, for this, there was a comfort, because I tell stories to the people with my music. On the other hand, it's a very strong and difficult feeling, of course, because I have to speak for that and tell the story, and for me, this is something I find difficult.
Mick: So, if there was one thing now you would want to achieve in your career, it doesn't matter how far in the future, but if there's one thing you want to achieve now as this band, what is that goal?
Efi: That's also a difficult and restrictive question, because it has a lot of limits. I have to choose one thing. I would say that something I would like to achieve is to bring comfort to as many people as we can. As more people listen to our music, more people will feel relieved and less alone, and join our lives and feel something. Not just at a live gig, no, I would like to feel freer and have something to think about after that.
Alex: Yeah, I think that for me as well. To tell our story and to connect with the people. We want to make people feel something. That's, I think, the goal, to feel something deeper, if we can.
Efi: Okay. One more thing. I want to play at Wembley someday.
Mick: I would love to see that one day.
Efi: Me too, of course. I wouldn't say no to that, but I didn’t want to be so shallow.
Mick: It's fine. We’re all human and have dreams! So, this is my final question. I ask every band this at the end of every interview. What is the hardest thing, professionally or personally, you've had to overcome, and how did you overcome it?
Efi: I think two things. The first one is the stress, because it's really stressful having a band in 2025. Secondly, I would say the lack of money, because a band is like an investment, so you need money to do things, and then to gain money after that. So in the first place, you have to invest, to do nice clips, to do a nice record with a nice quality, and stuff like this, I think. (21:48) And then there's the whole way to organise them. That's the thing that causes the stress.
Alex: I think it's similar for me, and I think these two are connected. I mean the stress and all the money thing, because you have to, and here in Greece. You have to work one day, another day, and you have all the stress. For sure, the money is an important thing, because we have to have it for the band, and for lives, and for touring, and all the stuff we want to do. (22:49) Yeah, I think these two, and for me, the stress and all the money thing, and all that. The problem of the city and the big life.
Efi: The capitalism of it all. Yeah, two problems, art and survival, sometimes they go hand in hand.
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