X-Piral

X-Piral were originally formed in 2000 by Nick Papanikolaou (lead guitars) and Dimitris Marinis (Synth & Piano) under the name Shadow Play. A demo CD was recorded entitled "Perfect Lies", at Graffiti Studios on February of 2000 but the result was not satisfying enough and the CD never got to the public. The band gave some live shows, until it was realized that there was enough material to start the recordings for a promo CD, which eventually turned out to be a full debut album.



In the summer of 2003 the band entered Power Studios, under the guidance and support of George Stratakis (Rust), and began recordings. In the summer of 2004, Giannis Georgopoulos of Burning Star Records contacted the band and after discussion of 2 weeks, it ended up with a deal and a contract. In February 2005 Poison Eyes was finally out in the shops. Reviews began emerging, some good, some bad, but in general X-Piral had made a good entrance to the music scene. The music of X-Piral was a combination of 80's Heavy metal with 00's European Power Metal, also featuring some female vocals, which sounds interesting enough. The current lineup was Michael Apostolakis (Vocals), Nick Papanikolaou (Rhythm and lead guitars), Dimitris Marinis (Synth & Piano) and Fragisos Samoilis (Drums) while soon after the release Thanos Tzanetopoulos (Guitars, also in Inactive Messiah) and Makis Petritsis (Bass) join the band. By 2007 X-Piral had enough material to start recording their second album.



The musical direction is more complicated as 6 musicians with entirely different influences formed these tracks. One can hear Power Metal, Thrash, Rock, Classic Heavy metal, influences from Finnish scene, Scandinavian, American and all this combined with new sound in the instruments. The album was recorded at Esoteron studios and mixed/mastered at Bazement studio, Germany, by Marcus Teske known for his work with Mobe Rules and Symphony X, Vanden Plas and Red Circuit. In the year 2008, a few months after the release of "Hunters", X-Piral made a difficult choice. After long though X-Piral replaced their vocalist Michael Apostolakis with vocalist Tassos K. (Hybrid, Secret Illusion. In 2009 X-Piral parted ways with bass player Makis Petritsis after 5 years of collaboration and he was replaced with John Litinakis (Reflection). Nowadays X-Piral are working on new songs, rehearsing and composing every day for an upcoming release.