Despite the smog-damaged ruins of her once glorious past, Athens can be proud of its remarkable and exemplary metal scene. Amongst the members of this scene can be found Thimios Krikos (guitar) and Yiannis Papanikolaou (vocals) who in 1995, together with the young guitarist Manolis Tsigos put their admiration for their idols, Jag Panzer and Riot into deeds and formed the band INNERWISH. The line-up was completed with Pavlos Balatsoukas on drums and Alexis Levenderis on bass and in July 1997 they set up camp in the local “111 Sound Studios” and began the recordings of their debut album “Waiting For The Dawn”, which was released in May the following year.
The very positive resonance to the debut work in the press soon led to the first live shows which were greeted equally well by the fans. However, when singer Yiannis, drummer Pavlos and bass player Alexis left the band for musical reasons and were replaced by Panagiotis Myolonas (vocals), Antonis Mazarakis (bass) and Fotis Giannakopoulos (drums) the effect on INNERWISH was one of revitalisation. Under the title, “Realms Of The Night” the band, whose musical direction had also been revived, recorded a Split CD together with their compatriots from Reflection. For the rest of 2001 as well as during 2002 the band concentrated on songwriting for the next full-length album, taking only short breaks for live shows with Therion, Anathema, U.D.O., Valley s Eve and Brainstorm.
With two more new band members, Babis Alexandropoulos (vocals) and Terry Moros (drums) they entered “G-Studios” in Athens, to record the new album, “Silent Faces”. With Limb Music Products (LMP) as label and under the competent direction of the successful producer R. D. Liapakis (Mystic Prophecy, Valley’s Eve, David Chastain, Jack Starr’s Guardians Of The Flame) “Silent Faces” was a genuine success and, in May 2004 even reached 9th place in the Japanese import charts. The release was followed by support slots with U.D.O and Helloween, which again impressively served to underline the growing status of the band.
For the production of their next album, “Inner Strength” in 2005, the band left their homeland to travel to Kempten, Germany to the well-known The Prophecy and Music Factory Studios, the home studio of the successful producer R.D. Liapakis. And the result is simply sensational. Power Metal grenades such as ‘Travellers In Time’, ‘Far Away’ or ‘Gates Of Fire’ as well as melodic metal pearls like the memorable ‘Lonely Lady’ (Q5 cover version) prove that INNERWISH has no problem at all combining various styles of high class metal music on an intelligent and exciting basis. “Inner Strength” is certainly one of the biggest surprises of the year and is a Must for the next shopping list of every fan of power and melodic metal fan. Even Athena would agree with that !
