Fire It Up

"It's mind-blowing when somebody comes up to you and tells you that you've influenced them in some way, or inspired them to pick up the guitar and start playing music,” Firewind's founding shredder Gus G (real name: Kostas Karamitroudis) gushes. “It's such a great feeling. I don't see myself as a guitar hero, but I do understand what somebody means by that, because I know what that [means] for me, for the people that I admire. So it's humbling.”

Those flashing fingers and that guitar magazine adoration have helped ensure the Greek power metal mob's popularity has steadily grown over a seven-album career. Also playing a sizeable role in their enhanced profile was Gus – formerly of Arch Enemy, Dream Evil and Nightrage – replacing Zakk Wylde in 2009. However, while the boss is currently on a Black Sabbath tip, Firewind's main man has his own extensive plans.   

After Firewind's inaugural Australian trek, the itinerary includes determining their future direction. Following leather-lunged singer Apollo Papathanasio's recent resignation, Kelly Sundown Carpenter has been performing as touring vocalist. Gus assures The Music no call has been made on a permanent frontman. “We haven't made a decision yet because after this we're going to take a little break, 'cause I'm gonna start my solo band touring next year. Firewind's going to be on a break for a while and I'm gonna be writing material for the next album. I think that's when we're going to make a decision.

“Things have been going really good with Sundown so far, though. We want to keep working with him. Technically he's the best of all of us in the band… The guy just doesn't miss a note, he makes no mistakes. He's like the perfect vocalist; the guy just sings everything with no problem. It's out of this world how good this guy is. We want to write some music with him first, and see how that goes. We just don't want to make a rushed decision and make announcements and stuff, because it might be another year or two until we release another album.”

As for his impending solo venture, Gus concedes few details regarding guest appearances. “I just signed a deal for it. I'm mixing the album as we speak, but I'm still working on some more songs. I'm going to have a lot of guests on the album; different bass players, drummers, singers. It's going to be very different from what Firewind is doing. It's not gonna be power metal, or heavy metal at all, actually. There's gonna be a couple of heavy metal tracks, but the rest is going to be more like hard rock, modern rock or whatever, classic rock.

“I can't really say that much right now, 'cause I'm still working on it. There'll be some surprises, there'll be some guys that are known and some not that well known. I'm playing with some of my favourite musicians on this, and some really talented people.”