Kostas Exarhakis

Kostas Exarhakis — Greek musician — works in the metal circuit of Greece and southern Europe. Greece has an active metal scene with characteristics of its own, though less visible internationally than those of northern Europe. The country produced bands of atmospheric black metal, traditional heavy metal and progressive metal with settled audiences, and maintains festivals and circuits running on their own structure. What distinguishes the Greek scene is partly the local musical heritage. The country has a tradition of modal music with scales that do not coincide with those of the Western tonal system, and Greek bands occasionally incorporate those elements — producing a sound recognisably different from northern European metal. It is a pattern that repeats in peripheral scenes: when access to the centre is limited, local output ends up developing characteristics of its own. What begins as isolation frequently ends as identity.