This Athens based Greek Metal act was founded in 1997 by bassist Nick M. (whom was actually born and raised in Sweden) and singer/ guitarist George T., and it wasn't until 2005 that the band gained a seeming stability with the joining of drummer Dimitris “Jim” Manolopoulos (an event preceded by the joining of lead guitarist George Papadimitropulos in 2003).
Gradually altering the direction of their musical style, which went from a more straight-forward mixture of Heavy and Thrash Metal, to contain more and more progressive elements, the band released demos, simply titled Promo 2006 and Promo 2007 (and you'd have to be a nitwit nót to understand in which years they were unleashed), the release of which increased the band status thanks to high level support slots for the likes of Nightrage and Ensiferum, and culminated in the band's appearance at the 2008 Rockwave Festival (where that year, the guys would share stages with the likes of Judas Priest, Cavalera Conspiracy, Morbid Angel, and Carcass. More importantly however, was the fact that InsIDeaD won the Greek Wacken Metal Battle, which secured the band a spot on the 2009 Wacken Open Air festival, and put them under the attention of Massacre Records...and it's just when that significant change in the band's career (to jump from pure amateurism to a more professional level), that guitarist George P. decided to quit.
Having by then incorporated elements of DeathCore and Modern Metal into their own brand of Heavy and Thrash Metal, the remaining members re-worked some of the ideas from their demos, and recorded these as a form of pre-production in their own Athens-based studio. The actual recordings for the band's debut album Chaos Elecdead were done during Summer 2009, partially at the band's own studio (In The Core Media) and at Encore, by sound engineer Labyss Kastanas, and consequent mixing and mastering of the material was then done by RD Liapakis (singer of Mystic Prophecy) and C. Schmid at the Prophecy And Music Factory in Germany (a team which before already had done albums by the likes of Mystic Prophecy, Suicidal Angels, Sacred Steel and Eldritch to name a few). Artwork for the album was done by renowned artist Meran Karanitant (whom had already worked with Mystic Prophecy, Hatebreed, Six Feet Under, and others). The album would eventually be released in February of 2011, and to promote it, InsIDeaD played some shows in Athens as support to Dark Tranquillity and Arch Enemy.
But, the remaining members (remember the band was cut down to a trio now) did not waste much time, and were soon found back in the rehearsal place, writing new material for a follow-up album. After several rehearsals and discussions, the decision was made to give their music a new twist, by introducing the ancient Greek culture into their music, not only lyrically, but also musically. And so, InsIDeaD began collaborating with some of the leading names in Greek traditional music, and recorded the material in their own studio, along the way gaining sponsorship from international corporations Schecter, Mapex and Randall Amps. For the mixing, the band this time turned to Logan Mader (he's not only mixed albums by his own band Hatebreed, but also of Divine Heresy, Domine, Fear Factory, Gojira, Soulfly, WASP, and more), and for the artwork they went to Greek artist Cosmas Hiolos (not exactly an unknown entity in the music business, having delivered work for the likes of Darkane, Infravision, Mindthreat, and The Fallen Within).
Now, in all fairness, the Greek musical influences are not thàt present in the first part (4 first songs) of the album, except for the gravely spoken narrated intro (which díd get a musical accompaniment existing of some fawn flute, percussion, and some very drawn-out keyboard line – the latter used merely as a background). Nay, after that intro, “We The Hellenes” is very much what you might've expected from the band in its past, given some further progression, of course...although the fawn doés return, and also that keyboard, in a more prominent yet still atmospheric way. During the ensuing “Together As One”, “The Cave Myth”, and “Reign Into The Light”, that keyboard (albeit Ambient in the intros, more atmospheric within the songs) is really the only addition To the band's Progressive Heavy/ Thrash Metal I can hear. A more dramatic change comes from the 5th song (the album's title track and center piece, having a length just over 10 minutes) on, with an increased use of that Greek narrator. He returns for a shorter passage in the ensuing “Athena” (which also sees some traditional Greek instruments used towards the end), a longer one during “The 7 Dogs” (for the opening and closing of which the band used additional choral singers, and more traditional instruments), and the album closing “Alexander” (an almost 12-minute tracks which not only finds that narrator present aplenty, and passages drenched in that atmospheric keyboard, but also finds use for a female cantor – along with traditional instruments including percussion - in the latter third of the song...she, in fact, ends the album a capella in the Greek language), which is preceded by “Zero Point”, which has nó narration, and is classifiable as stylistically belonging to the first part of the album.
For your introduction to the album, you'll have to make due with the 6:35 sample collage posted by the band in the “Videos” section of their own website (www.) insideadband.com (a coupe of song samples of the debut album can be found at (www.) facebook.com/pages/InsIDeaD). The band also has a MySpace page, and if your computer is a fairly recent one (or has recently been upgraded), your browser will support that page. At any rate, the album is a thing to be savoured as a whole, preferably several days in a row. Darned...before I forget, the band has recently added a new second guitarist to their line-up in the person of one George Vichos (in the info sheet one Jim T. is mentioned, but I see no trace of such a person in any of my other info sources).