What happens when The Illusion Fades…

The underground Greek rock scene is a place for people with guts.

A place for people who are determined to fight till the end to see their dreams come true or get as close to the dream as possible.

 

One of these musicians is George Dedes and his band, The Illusion Fades.

In 20 years of existence the band is about to release now a sixth album, finally through a label which is not Greek.

 

The Athenian band The Illusion Fades was formed in 1989 by guitar player George Dedes and bass player Giannis Nousios, initially influenced by American bands such as the Wipers.

Actually, they were named after a Wipers’ song titled “The Illusion Fades”.

 

The duo started rehearsing using a drum machine and Dedes took over the position of singer too as it was difficult for them to find a singer that they would like.

 

With the addition of drummer Fotis Megaloudes and second guitar player Manolis Angelakis, the wheels of the band started spinning and in 1992 they released a split 7” single with the Belgian band Midnight Men (given away for free with the fanzine “The Thing”).

They also had their track “When I Was” on the compilation “Fragmenta IV”.

 

Seems like their sound started slightly changing into gothic rock, when in 1993 they released their first single “Valentine/Born Again” which was followed by their debut self titled album in the same year.

The vinyl album “The Illusion Fades” featured 9 tracks (“Valentine” was one of them).

 

After supporting the Gun Club, The Illusion Fades started changing line-ups.

Until today, the band remained centered on George Dedes and the difficulty of finding permanent members made it hard for many years.

 

Four years after the release of their debut, The Illusion Fades released the Mini CD album “Shadowlove” with their sound turning completely into gothic-rock.

“Shadowlove” was featuring the tracks “Blue Angel”, “Dark Rain”, “Drying My Tears” and “Dark Rain (Dream cloud mix)”.

 

In 1999 the 9 track album “In the Arms of An Angel” came out.

 

Dedes decided to found his own record label, “Angel” through which his band released a new album in 2003, titled “In Black”, featuring this 12 tracks plus an acoustic version of their song “Stay”.

The band was becoming now a gothic-metal band, influenced from acts such as Type O Negative and Paradise Lost.

 

In 2006 the Illusion Fades released the album “Psycho Burn” and made a video for the song “Dead White Snow”.

 

A year later they performed at the Wave Gothic Treffen 2007.

Their song-list was consisted by tracks from all their albums as well as a cover version of madonna’s song, “Frozen”.

 

With the chances for a success over the Greek borders getting increased, the Illusion Fades saw their track “Full Of Fire” in the tracklist of the double CD compilation of the german magazine Gothic in August 2008 among bands such as Paradise Lost, Front 242 and the Greeks Opened Paradise.

 

Their next move was to open for the American band London After Midnight when they played in Athens late in 2008, the Belgian band Star Industry and the English punk rock legends The Damned.

 

Lately the band agreed with the German record label Pandaimonium for the release of their forthcoming album.

The album, titled “Killing Ages”, is expected to be released on April 24 2009 and Jan Barkved, singer of the Norwegian band Elusive, appears as guest on the track “Highway 666“.

 

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