Remember an old saying “There is everything In Greece”? Not sure about everything, but when it comes to die-hard metal fans, it is true! One of them is George Arvanitakis, a true warrior of NWOBHM. He has been obsessed with this music for years and runs a label with the name that speaks for itself — Obscure NWOBHM Releases. It was George who brought us records of Dealer, Chain Reaction, Charlie Ungry, Goldsmith and many more!
My first “touch” with music was in 1987 when I heard “Live after Death” and the self-titled album of Black Sabbath in my cousin’s stereo. I was so surprised, so with very little money I was able to take I started going to some small local record shops and paid them to record me tapes (proper records were hard to afford for a 13-years-old guy). Concerning magazines there was heavy metal magazine I remember and some rock ones that had 1 maybe 2 pages of metal if we were lucky. As for posters and patches there was the church of these things in the famous place of Monastiraki City.
What makes this music still relevant for you?
There are countless sources to hear new and old music and since it is one of the things that make me happy, I never stop listening to the music. Every day I search, hear, discover new songs, bands. During the years and as I get older and older, I find also interested sources of music besides metal — the old hard rock, prog rock and all the proto-metal bands of the 60’s. This is indeed very good music.
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| With Paul Di'Anno |
Yes, Iron Maiden was, is and will always be my fave band. One of the reasons I started to discover the NWOBHM movement was “Killers”. I am 100% fan of the Di’Anno period which I believe made Iron Maiden big and known to the public, and started the world’s domination. Of course with their second vocalist they also made global domination but they lost that raw feeling and became a money-making machine. I also like a lot the “X-Factor” and I believe if the production was better, we would talk about a masterpiece. As far as the incident of the traitor’s return (Bruce D.), the only album worth mentioning is “A Matter of Life and Death”. “Iron Maiden” and “Killers” are the 2 best album the planet ever made and the line-ups that recorded the first and the second album are probably the best line-ups ever! As for the band’s current releases, they are not my cup of tea (especially “The Final Frontier”, which is an insult to the metal community), the traitor must stop singing because he is getting old with no voice and attacking the Iron Maiden fans. Steve Harris must find a replacement asap.
What are some of your all-time favourite albums by NWOBHM bands and why?
That is a hard question…Iron Maiden s/t (10/10). The epitome of heavy metal.
Iron Maiden “Killers” (10/10). The album was ahead of its time.
Praying Mantis “Time Tell no Lies”. Excellent guitars and bass lines and it features one of my most loved songs — “Lovers to the Grave” and “Cheated”.
Diamond Head “White Album”. What can I say about it, it started the revolution.
Venom “Black Metal”. Thrash/death/black metal fans must worship this band everyday. AMAZING album.
Pagan Altar – everything. This is what horror doom is all about.
How did you get the idea of starting the label? What was your initial idea and how did it evolute with years (if it did of course)? Have you ever thought about working with bigger bands like Raven, Blitzkrieg or Tygers of Pan Tang?
When I started to discover the NWOBHM I was amazed how many bands did demos those days but never made an album. As the sources were very limited in Greece, small music sites and blogs started to appear in the Internet. I was spending hours to find more about these bands. To tell you the truth, the first years were difficult, ‘cause the bands’ members were not familiar with the Internet and you had to make a lot of effort to make them agree to talk to you, to send you their material and even agree to do a release. A lot of them were too bored to even think about it. This was one of the reasons why the label was on hiatus for some time. I like to do something with most known bands (I do not like the term bigger, bigger were Maiden, Venom, Leppard, Saxon) but almost everything form the old era has been released or it is under mechanical rights that cost a fortune.
Your first release came out in 2003. Would you say that people were more interested in NWOBHM back then?
Yes, people and generally the metal scene were hungry for small releases. Also it was a time when vinyl was not on the top and CDs were conquering the music industry. As far as I remember the only NWOBHM labels were mine and Iron Pages from Germany. Also the British Steel series helped a lot to make people be more interested about the NWOBHM movement.
Was it easy to convince bands like Goldsmith, Chain Reaction or Dealer that your offers were worth to bother?
I had the pleasure to talk to Pez (Perry Hodder, Goldsmith’s singer/guitarist), Derek (Hodd, Chain Reaction’s singer) and Trevor (Short, Dealer’s singer/guitarist) and all 3 of them were great lads that were very keen on doing a release and present their songs to the music world again. As for Trevor and Dealer, I think I made a small rock to the band’s reunion, and they still make great music. I try to put out releases that are based on music and love for what we are doing. If someone from any band only after quick big profit then unfortunately I cannot offer it.
Finding people who played in obscure bands some 40 years ago takes a lot of time and effort. How do you manage to track musicians down? What are their typical responses when you approach them?
There are still a lot of people that do not have accounts in social medias, or they have tapes that got lost in time, or they are not in life at the moment. Fortunately most of the time when I am able to track the musicians though social media and explain them what I want from them, they respond positively. There are of course some people who are rude or asking things that are out of this planet.
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| With Tino Troy |
One mistake. The band was Random Black, but I think it was time that I was not in the right mood and we got lost on the communication. Fortunately, their great material was released recently on High Roller Records and we are friends and talk with Mark (Kirkman, guitars). I even was honoured to do the Redline demo on the vol. 2 series. My biggest disappointment was Pxxxxxx (I won’t say the band, but you can guess it), they agreed on making a CD rerelease with me and at the same moment they wanted to release the same CD with another label in another continent. I did not like it at all, so the deal was off before announcement. As for rip-offs, the biggest one was Arsenal of Glory Records and although we did 1—2 trades with them, on the last one they ripped us off 50 CDs. Same goes with a USA label of a “respectful” back then dealer/producer that ripped us off 20 CDs. It was a time that almost all underground people were ripped off at least once.
What services do you provide to the bands you work with? Do you remix/remaster old tapes? Or is it crucial for you to keep the sound as original as possible?
The most important thing for me is that bands don’t lose or give away their musical/mechanical rights, so I never ask to take any rights from bands. I only ask their permission to release their work. We work with a band to make the layout, they see it and they approve every step. Same goes for the sound. We offer to remix all the material if we feel it needs to get better with respect to the original sound recording. All these are done by us, bands do not give any money. Our main goal is to make bands happy seeing the total result.
What CDs were the hardest to release in terms of the sound quality?
Definitely, Charlie Ungry. The source was so bad that my friend who does remixes gave a lot of work to hear what you hear on the CD. Also a lot of work was done on the Warrior’s CD but it was much easier comparing to Charlie Ungry. Also I am very proud with the remix we did for the Kraken single and also for the Wild Pussy demos.
What zines and websites do you work with? Do you send promo copies to zines like Rock Hard or Metal Hammer?
I do not work with any zine, webzine or any major magazine. The zines and webzines are a curse with 90% of the owners asking for free psychical material to do an internet review. As for the big magazines they have nothing to offer me or the bands. They only bother with “Big Bands”. The CDs we are making are done for specific metal fans. These persons know exactly where they can find all the NWOBHM releases. If someone from a webzine/fanzine asks for a digital copy, I would happy to provide it.
How do you see the situation with rock and metal press overall? It seems 20 years ago there were more fanzines and webzines who were interested in obscure bands…
You are correct, but… Today there are millions of pages and bandcamp, youtube, or soundcloud. All the knowledge is spread on the Internet, and anything you want to know about new bands or re-releases from old bands can be easily found. Also most of the people who do a webzine or a fanzine mainly do it to gain free material and not because they love the underground scene. Of course that is my opinion and I might be wrong.
Having a small label you can communicate with your customers directly. Where are they from? What countries are still crazy for every bit of NWOBHM?
This is another part that I like. I like to hear what people who buy my CDs have to say. This is the reason I told you on your previous question that I do not need any major magazine to talk about or review my CDs. People ask me what is next and we have a communication thought my FB page. I have to say that Japanese are the number one crazy NWOBHM fans. Next is Germany and USA followed up with Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Spain. Strange that not enough people are interested in the United Kingdom!
You’ve done two LP re-issues so far: Dawn Trader and Henry Gorman Band. Why especially these releases? Were they successful? Are you going to release more vinyls?
Dawn Trader had already released a CD through their management and I though it was a great idea to make a vinyl release. I must tell you it was very hard for me as the process of making LPs is more complicated than CDs and also take a lot of time. The LPs went out great and I sold 250 copies within the first month of the release. The album was sold out I think after 3—4 months. As for the Henry Gorman Band, I had the original single and I found out that there was an LP version from a Bulgarian label with a very poor production and minimal cover. I thought it was a good idea to make a revamp of this LP with lyrics, photos and different cover. Since it was not so popular in the NWOBHM movement as Dawn Trader, I made only 300 copies of it. Unfortunately, the LP did not sold at all and made me a huge loss. That was one of the reasons why I stopped the label at some point. I had to liquidate the rest of the copies to make the loss as low as possible. The main purpose of the label is to make limited CD pressings but there is a possibility of doing 1 LP release in 2023 but I can’t tell you any details yet. If I think there is also another worth LP, which I will put out.
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| With Overdrive |
No, it wasn’t. During my search for obscure bands I have contacted bands that only had a demo or a rehearsal tape or some various recordings. Most of them were good, so I thought, “Why don’t I try a compilation with bands that only did a demo?” My friend Mike had an idea of a cover that now is the main cover for all the volumes of the demos we’ve done. I would rather say the inspiration was taken from N.W.O.B.H.M rarities of British Steel Records. The best thing about these compilations is that you will not find the songs anywhere else, they are like a tribute to the great bands that put their part of the story to the NWOBHM movement. We’ll soon release the Vol.4 and I hope for more volumes in the future.
Your catalogue still misses the ONR005 number. What happened? Will it ever see the light of day?
The ONR005 was supposed to be the CD of Random Black. This was never happened so after the label became active again, I did not want to leave that number unused so now it is the Flight 19 CD.
What are some of the releases that you are proud of? Were there bands which you brought back to the map after the years of absence?
It is difficult to answer because I like every release I put out. The label is not for making money and living from it, it is my hobby, my love. I am very proud of Overdrive who made 3 albums (soon to be 4) and played to many festivals after the release of “On Wizard Ridge”. I’m proud of Dealer who reformed and still play and make music, Montreaux who made a new album, Medusa Touch who continue gigging and making new albums. I have released CDs of Stryder, Driveshaft and Wild Pussy which were my dreams to do. I am proud for all the others. Every release has a special place in my heart and I hope that more of my dream bands to come for a release on my label….
There are quite few labels who work in the same field: No Remorse Records, Cult Metal Classics, High Roller Records. Do you see them as partners or as rivals? Were there releases on, say, High Roller which you would love to put out yourself?
No, absolutely no. There are countless NWOBHM bands to be discovered and released, so we need a lot of labels. I am a close friend with Chris from No Remorse Records and also friends with Manos and Kostas from Cult Metal Classics. I supported Steffen from High Roller Records since the beginning, and I have utmost respect for all of them. To answer to your question I would love to do Paralex from No Remorse, Skitzofrenik from Cult Metal Classics and Dragonfly from High Roller Records.
I can only reveal some, not all. We are now doing Demos Vol. 4 and the CD of Original Sin. They will be followed by the amazing album of Falcon “Easy Prey” (the band that was ready to record at Ebony Studios but due to the big fire at the studios that was never happened), Storm (the band from Sheffield that only manage to do some amazing demos), Titan CD and many many more!
Next year the label will be 20. It’s insane, isn’t it? Are you working on something special for the anniversary? What about some reissues from your back catalogue? Most of your releases are sold-out and unavailable…
To be honest I only figured it out now that in 2023 the label will be 20 years old. I cannot believe, it is been so many years. I do not have anything special for it (although there is a band that might work the 20th anniversary release). As for the old releases, there is no plan to rerelease them as we like our releases to be special and limited, exactly as the bands they are featured on.
Thank you for the interview and THANK YOU all for the support of our label, for buying our CDs, and to all the bands that honoured us with their trust. Please follow the label at Facebook or check our Bigcartel store for our CDs.
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