Angelknight

Paying dues to the all-time classic output of IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, MANOWAR, RUNNING WILD and WARLORD, Larissa’s ANGELKNIGHT makes no fuss playing pure, no-frills Jeavy/Power metal. Their history reaches back to 1995 when the band started doing concerts, but it took a few more years until their first demo “The Light” was released in 1997. This tape allegedly received positive reviews in both national and international press and sold a few hundred copies. Unfortunately, we haven’t had the possibility to listen to this tape, but since their next demo “The Angels are Back” (1998) – this time on CDr – contains updated versions of each of the tracks of the previous demo (plus four newly composed songs and two covers), we should have a pretty good idea of the early material’s constitution.

Taking cues from the cream of the crop of 1980s Heavy Metal, “The Angels are Back” offers pleasant throw-back nostalgia, yet updated with the energy of 1990s Power Metal and of course topped with the rustic character of Hellenic HM. The demo sold pretty well and despite a negative review in one of the big Greek metal magazines, the CDr was received positively in the international press. The band kept gigging and even received the honorable opportunity of head-lining a festival in their home town Larissa.

After a lengthy break in recording, ANGELKNIGHT came back in action with the release of the “Rage of Angels” (2004) EP via the Larissa-based Warcry Entertainment – a joint locally-anchored concert/studio/management/record label endeavor. While hardly classifying as modern metal, the EP featured a slightly updated sound, but shouldn’t disappoint fans of the band’s earlier work.

Following the release of “Rage of Angels”, ANGELKNIGHT soon began work on their first full-length album, yet something must’ve gotten in the way at one point or another because the album didn’t see the light for another ten years! “Alpha and Omega (Α-Ω)” finally hit the market in 2015 in a limited edition of 500 copies (also officially available for free on Youtube), continuing in a similar musical vein as previous releases with partially re-recorded material, yet once again with a slightly updated sound.

In 2017, an announcement was made on ANGELKNIGHT’s official FB-page that the band was splitting up. However, the unfortunate news was followed by the following notion: “we will continue making music under a new name witch [sic] we believe is the natural course of things!
A circle has ended and another one is about to begin when the time will be right!“

Compilation appearances:
* The Religion of Steel – A Tribute to Manowar [CDr, Comp: Knights of Sunrise ‘Zine, 2000]
* Greece Attacks – The Next Assault [2CD, Comp: Sound & Vision, 2004]
* Hellenic Forces Compilation Vol. 2 [CDr, Comp: Self-released (Hellenic Forces Fanzine), 2006]