Speedrush is an Athenian speed/thrash metal band that might have been around for more than a decade, but only debuted this year with their album “Endless War”, a manifesto of short and to the point tracks, hardly above the half hour mark (so you get the picture of how fast they play). Vocalist Nir Beer had a chat with Grande Rock about the debut album, music and other “weird things”! So, go on quench your need for Speed.
Hi Nir, since this is the first time we talk; do give us a brief bio of Speedrush.
N: Hi Thanos, thank you for having us in Grande Rock! Speedrush were formed in 2005, in Athens. The core of the band consisted for many years from myself (Nir) as vocalist, Nick Demiris as lead guitarist and Thanos Athanasopoulos as lead/rhythm guitarist (and drummer occasionally!); now after several members coming and going, our lineup is Nick – lead guitars, Tasos – rhythm guitar, Spiros – bass, Andreas – drums and myself behind the mic.
How did you come up with the name Speedrush initially?
N: The name was the idea of myself and Mike, our first bassist. We wanted a one-word name that would define our style, and Speedrush came up, which describes our style pretty well I must say.
Which kind of music did you have in mind to play as soon as the band came together? Which are the band’s main influences?
N: Hi Thanos, thank you for having us in Grande Rock! Speedrush were formed in 2005, in Athens. The core of the band consisted for many years from myself (Nir) as vocalist, Nick Demiris as lead guitarist and Thanos Athanasopoulos as lead/rhythm guitarist (and drummer occasionally!); now after several members coming and going, our lineup is Nick – lead guitars, Tasos – rhythm guitar, Spiros – bass, Andreas – drums and myself behind the mic.
How did you come up with the name Speedrush initially?
N: The name was the idea of myself and Mike, our first bassist. We wanted a one-word name that would define our style, and Speedrush came up, which describes our style pretty well I must say.
Which kind of music did you have in mind to play as soon as the band came together? Which are the band’s main influences?
N: As soon as we formed we wanted to combine speed/thrash metal and NWOBHM; we had a speed metal song (“Chains of Misery”, also featuring on our debut album) and a NWOBHM influenced one (“Beerstrike”) that we used to play along with covers of Angelwitch, Slayer, and a couple of others probably. Currently we are dedicated to traditional Speed and Thrash metal, our main influences are Destruction, Slayer, Razor, Kreator and such.
Which was the main need that made you (and the other guys) form Speedrush?
N: …for the same reason every young metalhead starts, to witness the magic of Heavy Metal, even more than that of a metal fans standpoint… with inexperience, passion and excitement!
Although the band has been around since 2005, it was not until 2017 that you released your debut album. Why’s that? Which were the things that held you back all the previous years?
N: Many reasons actually… difficulties in finding dedicated members, lack of time due to our daily jobs in order to rehearse regularly, much more to record an album… and even some bigger problems, from having a guitarist working abroad and coming home for only a handful of months per year; we were having more than half of the album recorded when the hard drive of our producer at that time crashed, leaving us empty handed. On one hand you can say that we let the time slip and we could have achieved more targets as a band… on the other hand nothing was done on a rush and we took our time in everything, and since we like the results, I (like to) think that this is what counts!
How did your cooperation with Eat Metal Records & Floga Records occur?
N: After the recordings we were sending a couple of sample songs to various labels, and one of the positive answers was from Floga records. We had good communication from the beginning and they showed interest to release our album, so we preferred to work with a Greek label for easier communication/cooperation. We knew personally Greg from Eat Metal, he liked the material a lot and wanted to release it, which is an honor for us and finally we agreed which label will release which format, something that we are very happy for.
Was your priority to release the album on vinyl along with the CD?
N: Yes, this was our goal from the beginning, we believe it fits with our kind of music, plus there is a special feeling when the needle touches the vinyl and the song is rushing from the speakers!
What does your album title “Endless War” declare?
N: The title has a double meaning; first one being the state of endless war in humanity through the years, we believe it will (sadly) never stop because it is driven by political and military interests that without wars, don’t have profit. It was hand drawn by Philip Lavere and we like the result a lot! The second meaning is referring to the nature of our music, a violent speed metal warfare!
Do tell us a few things about each track…
N: “Endless War”: Opening instrumental declaration of war!
“Speedrush”: The “spirit” of the band, lyrically it speaks about the energy of Heavy Metal.
“Malevolent Torture”: More speed metal insanity, lyrics are about how sickly creative is the human mind when it comes to inflict pain and torture other people (mostly in medieval times).
“Into the Abyss”: We made a lyric video for this one, check it out! Lyrically talks about the destruction we as species enforce upon our planet.
“Freaks of Nature”: This is a special song (lyric-wise); it deals with the difficulties and exploitation that mentally or physically handicapped people sometimes deal with.
“The Truth (Intro)”: This is just… the truth!
“Passive Aggression”: It’s about the brainwash and manipulation we are served from the TV and internet.
“Reprisal Steel”: Lyrically talks about the magic and energy of Heavy Metal!
“Plague Storm”: This one is about the 10 plagues of Egypt and even musically has a somewhat oriental touch!
Where did the recordings take place and who mixed, produced & mastered the album? Are you totally satisfied with the final outcome?
N: Guitars and bass were recorded at Thanos Athanasopoulos house, which was our guitarist for several years, drums and vocals were recorded at Entasis studios by Nikos Papakostas. Some solos we recorded at Clepsydra by Panagiotis Simopoulos (Misdeal) and that’s where we also did the re-amping, mixing and mastering. You can never be “totally” satisfied with the final outcome haha; you will always find things to improve but overall I can say we have achieved on a big level our goal and are satisfied with the result!
Will there be any concept/lyric video out anytime soon and if yes for which track?
N: Yes, we have made a lyric video for “Into the Abyss”, that I made myself, and since I worked my ass off on this one, you should definitely watch it haha! Joke aside we really liked the result of this video; it totally represents our message in this song, so check it out!
Do you plan to give any live shows in near future?
N: We have booked our first gig abroad in Malta in November! We are planning to give some more shows locally too, will be announced soon!
Which are your expectations from your debut album and what do you wish to achieve with Speedrush over the next years?
N: Our goal is to spread our music to as many metalheads as possible and so far the response is very positive! We hope to play live as much as possible, to go to new places and meet new people with passion for Heavy Metal!
Even though Greece has been having major political and economic problems for many years now, we see that lots of new and old bands are releasing great albums and are making a buzz in general. Why do you think that is happening and how can music help us find a way out of this crisis?
N: Great question! Music cannot help us in any way practically to get out of the crisis of course… but, it is an excellent way to spend some time distracted from our daily life problems. And I believe this is very very important psychologically. Our lives are so fucking hard from countless aspects and filled with so many problems, that you need to have some good stuff in there to balance it up and escape the daily misery; otherwise we will all fall to depression! Those can be either good friends, or a healthy relationship, hobbies, travel etc., and of course music! So it is very vital in order to balance it all up, this is the reason that we have many bands popping up I believe, it’s a great way to fight misery and have hope for the future! Let’s hope we don’t reach a point that music will be a luxury…
It’s time for our “weird questions”!!! If you could “erase” one thing from modern music, what would it be?
N: Sepultura after “Chaos A.D.”, because they gave birth to all those jump-da-fuck-up nu-metal bands hahah…
Which is that band that you’d like to be part of (any time & era)?
N: Judas Priest in one of their mid-80s world tours! As a roadie only though, because you can’t have JP without Rob Halford, and also because with my vocal style they would kick me out in seconds!
Which are the best 3 speed/thrash albums according to you?
N: I will tell you 5, I really can’t pick 3 favorites! Agent Steel – “Skeptics Apocalypse”, Slayer – “Show no Mercy”, Overkill – “Fell the Fire”, Helloween – “Helloween EP” and Hallow’s Eve – “Tales of Terror”.
Fill in the phrase… “Speed/Thrash music wouldn’t have evolved the way it did, if it hadn’t been for…”
N: Exciter and Motorhead!
What do you think of the “free downloading & the free streaming issue” of our time? Will that help music generally or not?
N: It helped to spread a band’s material in the old days in tape-trading format, and it helps now. We as musicians can’t do anything to stop it, so let’s just concentrate on the bright side, that it helps us reach more fans. I believe metalheads (not all, but the most I hope!) are music lovers, whatever they like a lot, they will buy it in physical format. And in any case when you do a gig it is better to have 100 fans that like your music because they listened to it online or downloaded it, than to have only 20 people that bought your CD, right?
Top 3 horror movies of any era?
N: “Alien”, “Hellraiser”, “Jaws”…
Which is the record you wish you had written and why?
N: There could be so many albums mentioned here but since I was listening to it yesterday I will just say Running Wild – “Port Royal”, because it is a timeless masterpiece.
Were you obliged to give just one album to extraterrestrials that would represent the whole human music, which album would it be and from which band/artist?
N: Wishbone Ash – “Argus”. I could say Exciter – “Violence and Force”, but it would start and intergalactic war…
If you had the chance to travel in time… where would you choose to go? To the past or the future and why?
N: Diplomatically, I will say to the future, because I am sure a time machine will be invented at some point, so this way I could visit the past… by visiting the future!
Which do you consider to be the best female & male vocalist in rock history?
N: My personal favorites are Leather Leone and Michael Kiske…
What’s the worst thing one can say right after sex?
N: “your sister does it better”!!!
You have the chance to have sex with the movie-celebrity/porn-star of your choice. Who would it be & why?
N: Monica Belluci, still gorgeous!
Where would you like to live… in Middle Earth, in the Seven Kingdoms or in a post-apocalyptic world like the one on “The Walking Dead”?
N: I will go with Middle Earth because I have no idea what the other 2 are…
Imagine that your girlfriend/wife is selling your whole album-collection just to buy an expensive ring for herself. How would you react?J
N: You’re probably looking for something like “I would kill her”, but since my girlfriend knows how important my music collection is to me, this is something she could only do to revenge me, so in order to deserve such revenge, chances are I did something really really bad, so I probably got what I deserved haha! I would still kill her though…
Finally, we’ve come to the end Nir. Thx for talking to Grande Rock. Say anything you feel like saying before we close. Take care dude!
N: Thank you for hosting us in Grande Rock Thanos; it was a very cool interview, thank you all for the support, check out our album online, and a small wish/word of advice: give more chances to small bands (not us necessarily), they need it and most of them deserve it too! Cheers and take care!