Cyanide 4

The Rock and Roll Almagama of Cyanide 4

Interview by Ken Morton

Cyanide 4 is a hard rocking glam metal band from Greece who has opened for the likes of the Scorpions and Bonfire. Their latest album Amalgama has been issued worldwide via Perris Records, and it’s sure to rock music fanatics well above and beyond their historic Athens homebase. Highwire Daze recently caught up with Cyanide 4 to find out more about the amazing Amalgama, the music scene in Athens, opening for legendary collectives, the 10-year anniversary of their debut album Everyday Is A Masquerade, and more!

Introduce yourself; tell me what you do in Cyanide 4, and how long the band has been together.

Hello Highwire Daze Magazine, it’s Cyanide 4 from Greece! The band was established around 2008 in Athens, Greece, mixing influences of the 80s’ Glam Metal bands and of the new Scandinavian generation. Since that day, we’ve released 3 full albums and played alongside many acclaimed bands/artists.

Where the band based out of and what is is your local scene like there?

Well, technically the band is based on Athens, Greece, but actually each of the band-members lives in a different city. Generally, we wouldn’t say that the Glam Metal/Hard rock scene in Greece is that ‘strong’ but on the other hand Metal scene and especially the Thrash or more extreme ones, have provided many high quality bands and albums through the years. Through the recent years, many bands have toured across Europe supporting their albums by the side of wellknown artists and by publishing high quality music, engineered by masters of the art that come from abroad. So, more or less it’s only progress for the scene…Let it be progress in unity, too.

How did you wind up signing with Perris Records?

That all started back in 2012, when we had been in first contacts regarding the release of Everyday is a Masquerade. Then, it was 2017 with Nekyia, ending up to today and Amalgama. Perris Records was always interested in bands of our style, always supporting the genre we belong and generally the Hard Rock sound, so, that was the main reason behind that cooperation.

Is there any overall story or concept behind the album title Amalgama?

In Ancient Greece, the Alchemists, whose symbol was the Caduceus of Hermes, used to create alloys by mixing mostly Mercury with different metal elements. A mixture like that was called “amalgama”. That was the inspiration behind the title of our 3rd album, describing our endeavour to adequately mix all the “metal elements” each of the new members of the band had brought and blend them with the Hard and Sleaze Rock legacy of Cyanide 4.

Select two songs from Amalgama and what inspired the lyrics.

a) Redeemer: This song is about failure, that things in life can go sometimes up and sometimes down. Dont take anything for granted. Life is doing circles, so, somebody can taste both success but also failure. In the 2 verses we have 4 different stories of people that took things in life for granted, but in the end all of them faced the ‘not-so-bright-side-of-life’.

b) The Secret Doctrine, as a title is inspired by Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine, but the lyrics are about summoning spirits and use them to serve for any purposes.

What was it like supporting the legendary Scorpions and did you get to meet or hang out with them at all?

We were asked by the promoters office, if we wanted be part of this. Well, could we actually say “no?” NO WAY! We were so into it, we did it, we had lots of fun and marked our very first years as a band. We loved that!

If Cyanide 4 could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?

Two simple words: MOTLEY CRUE!

Club show is a club show, but stadium is a stadium, the numbers of the audience are completely different. The magic you feel when you see that sea of faces and hands…Wow man, that’s something else!!!

I can recall Mr. Jabs in the lobby of the hotel, hanging out where we were also drinking before the show and then he was pissed off in the elevator, because it took us about 15 minutes to reach our rooms. And of course, James Kottak hanging out with us backstage after the show. The rest of the band-members didn’t actually pay so much of attention to any of us, just passed us by like they were prime ministers of the G8, hahaha!

Your album Every Day Is A Masquerade was released 10 years ago! When you look back at that album and time in your career, what do you think if it now in retrospect?

It was our first effort, the point when it all started, what we were all about and the direction we wanted our music to follow. It brings out some innocence, you can not copy that; it’s the feeling in overall that matters.

Has Cyanide 4 ever played here in the States or plan to do so in future days?

Unfortunately, we haven’t played in the US so far, but an appearance at M3 Festival would be awesome…or something like that! We hope that any promoter is actually reading these lines now, so, feel free to get in touch!

Another iconic band you opened for was Bonfire. What was that experience like?

Well, regarding Bonfire, that was totally different than the Scorpions’-shows. We were playing 2 clubs shows in Athens & Thessaloniki, the hospitality by the host/promoter ‘Blasgarden’ was great and we had been chatting with them in a very cool way backstage, pre/after show.

One funny thing is that Alexx Stahl’s (singer) wife came to us, having our 1st EP in her hands, asking for a signature, saying that she was a fan since day-one and really loved it when we were announced as the special guests on their Greek shows. And of course, Adrian doing like a fan-boy when meeting one his TOP-favorite drummers, Andre Hilgers! Some OUZO drinks were inevitable, at that point…hahaha! Prost und schöne Grüße Bonfire!

What’s up next for Cyanide 4?

In short time, we are about to release 2 official videos clips off of the new album, for the songs Perfect Sensation and So In Vain. We are also planning a couple of “Album Release Show” gigs in Greece in late November/early December and finally, our 1st European Tour, in promotion of the record. We are also working on some surprises, but you’ll get to find that out, when time comes!

Any final words of wisdom?

Take care and enjoy each and every moment! Live, Love and Rock on! That’s what rock ‘n’ roll is all about after all!