After the stunning 2012 debut Pneuma which turned me in a life-long fan, and the follow-up Oi Magoi, the unique and exciting progressive/psychedelic/post-black trio is back, ready to unleash, after a two and a half year absence, its latest wyrd nightmare on 28th October for the ever open-minded Dark Essence.
Featuring Dimitris Douvras (Rotting Christ, etc.) on mixing desk duties and mastered by Alan Douches (Chelsea Wolfe, Motörhead, etc.), Mayhem in Blue is guaranteed to bend our minds. About time this amazing band gets the credit it deserves.

HSN will celebrate their release with two Greek shows alongside VIRUS! The lucky ones will be able to catch them at the Kyttaro Live Club in Athens on 28th October, and the Eight Ball Live Stage in  Thessaloniki on 29th October. We do hope to see them across Europe soon.

In the meantime, here’s a brilliant interview with the Greek band by Andreas Schiffmann, inclusive of (thank you!) an update on the current socio-political situation of a wonderful country that has been disrespected and violated without remission.

ED. Alex Mysteerie

Would you translate the album’s intro for us, please?
It’s Greek for “The Root of Evil runs deep, so deep not even the hand of god can reach it”
What does the colour blue in the album title symbolise?
Well, blue is perceived as a calm and peaceful colour. This turns the title, “Mayhem in Blue”, into one big antithesis. Despite the surface-level serenity there’s plenty of chaos lurking in the waters. Seeing as the earth is usually portrayed with the colour blue, it’s a nice play on words to show the Devil’s hand is wreaking havoc on our little marble of life, whether we see it or not.
How does the cover artwork of the album fit into the whole concept?
As I said, the title means to illustrate the state we are in and to kind of give a few hints about our own music and how calm parts merge with frightening ones to create a monstrous whole. Therefore, the plague doctors you see emerging from the sea represent the underlying waves of destruction about to erupt. The bell they are about to toll is nothing than if the signal to our own end. The scenery you see would be an almost one were it not for these figures. They lend a menacing tone to the proceedings and paint the titular conundrum perfectly. We are not the most optimistic of chaps and rightfully so unfortunately. The cover art fits almost every song on the album in a different way. The obvious connection to the title track aside, it’ll be interesting for the listener to try and connect the dots between every track and the artwork. We are quite proud of it.
Who is the person you mean harm to in the opening track?
That’s a tricky one. It’s not a person specifically. It’s about the selfishness of human nature and how easily it is exploited both by ourselves and figures of authority, whether they are religious and philosophical ones or political organisations. Almost every relationship that is formed, either party has an inherent need to be proven right, to constantly be the better one. That’s not necessarily bad in itself as it is sometimes the needed push to advance one’s self. So usually, at some point this need to control turns to violence, be it physical or psychological, obvious or behind the scenes. I’ve found very few groups of people that genuinely care about each other. Families are equally guilty of that as sometimes what parents call best intentions could easily be children’s, spouses or anyone’s nightmare. Religions are the best example of this. Yet represent the conundrum in the humanity’s existence. People formed religions as a means to explaining phenomena they couldn’t grasp and then followed them blindly, suppressing their desire to progress and yet in the end, every single organised religion has a number of rules set in stone for their respective flock. Also, the lyrics make for a good horror story, hehe.