product: Royal Quest - The Tale Of Man
release date: May 22nd, 2015
label: self-released
format: digi-pack CD
PR territory: Europe without UK
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Royal Quest was formed in 1998 in Athens when Yannis Androulakakis (guitars/ vocals) and Dennis Bekatoros (bass) started putting their musical and lyrical ideas together. After releasing their first demo in 1999 they decided to work on a concept album with an original story inspired by the “Eternal Champion”. In the meantime the line-up of the band was shaped up to participate in several underground festivals in Athens.
Throughout the years, Dennis and Yannis focused on completing the album with the addition of a new member, Odysseas (drums). Compositions, story editing, recording attempts and sound experimentations, but also disappointments and long breakups resulted in the end of the co-operation of the two founders.
In January 2010 Yannis decided to produce the album on his own. The recording and engineering plans started from scratch and in 2014 the album was mixed by him and mastered by Mika Jussila at Finnvox studios.
About the concept:
“The Tale of Man” is typically a “metal opera”, a term that tends to be established in a similar way that the term “rock opera” did in the past. There are four characters in the play: Man, Cassandra, Lord of Law and Lord of Chaos. However, the dramatical structure is different (the play is smaller as well) than the libretto of a major musical or rock opera. That purposely leaves room for the RPG-campaign oriented storyline that focuses on the main character (Man) and the storyteller (Cassandra). It also leaves room for the music, because the point was to create a metal album that can also be auditioned independently. “The Tale of Man” consists of eleven parts, some of them divided into sub-parts, intros and main parts.
Yannis Androulakakis is a guitarist and composer from Greece. His work includes metal, music for theater, musicals, film soundtrack, jazz, a fuge and a string quartet. In February 2015 he was selected as one of the arrangers of the Vivaldimetalproject.
