With three excellent albums under their belts in less than three years, Triumpher is not just one of the most promising, but also one of the most prolific bands of the European metal scene. Singer and main songwriter Mars Triumph shares his insights into their new album ‘Piercing the Heart of the World‘, and what makes Triumpher work as well as it does.

“There is a lot of inspiration”, he says. “And I think the live shows and the natural connection between the band members has contributed to it as well. We get to know each other better, we have started composing together, working on things again and again and again. We have so much passion and love for what we are doing, so things have been flowing well.

I used to play in other bands. Black metal bands and heavy metal bands. And I had many ideas of my own, but I didn’t find the time or the mindset to properly work on them in a project of my own. That is why after 2019, I decided to stop everything else, and focus on what I really want to play. Which is Triumpher. All that material filtered, and in the covid era, I had plenty of time to think about how the project would have to evolve in the future. So ‘Storming the Walls’ (2023) came in a time of quarantine. I had a lot of time at home to practice and to think.

Triumpher started as my project, but Christopher (Tsakiropoulos), one of the guitarists who is still with the band right now, quickly approached me and said that he liked what I was doing, and that we should run it more like a proper band. And Triumpher was born. I am the main composer, and I always write the main structures for the songs, but then everybody comes and refines the songs. The guitarists write their own solo parts. I’m not a soloist; I’m just a riff man.”

Power Instead of Accuracy

“Getting a bass player in the band freed me up as a singer. Because in the beginning, on ‘Storming the Walls’, I played the bass myself. When Stelios (Zoumis, bassist) joined the band, I just more or less taught him how I want the bass to be played in Triumpher. He’s a great player, so it’s like he couldn’t do it, but the bass has a more free and artistic approach in Triumpher than the more accurate approach that, let’s say, most power metal bands would go for. I like the more artistic approach especially when it concerns the bass, really.

A similar thing happened with Marios (Petropoulos, guitarist). From hearing him with Sacral Rage, I noticed that I like his playing so much. He’s also a great composer, but his playing is fucking great. I like having him in Triumpher. But what we do is a whole other thing than what he does in Sacral Rage. We have had many discussions with Marios about that when he first joined Triumpher.

The first show he played with us, I think it was last year at Hell Over Hamburg, he was so tight, he tried to play everything just right, to be a true professional. That’s when I had to tell him: come on, bro, relax, this is heavy metal, rock ‘n’ roll, we need power instead of accuracy.”

An Ancient Greek War Dance

“Because I hold the keys to what’s happening, the songs don’t change all that much after they are presented to the rest of the band. Sometimes, the other guys come up with brilliant ideas, and I change the structure of the song accordingly. But that doesn’t happen very often, because we know what we are doing. The music is visualized based on a theme, and we know what we are doing.

Let’s give you an example: on the second chorus of ‘Athena (1^st Chapter)’ from our previous album (‘Spirit Invictus’, 2024), there is a guitar playing a traditional Greek melody, which is like an ancient Greek war dance. That is something that cannot be changed. That melody is based on images that I had in mind when I was writing the music.

Translating traditional Greek melodies to a heavy metal context fortunately is not so difficult for me. It comes very naturally, because heavy metal is the only music I have ever played. It has been my way of expression since I was a little kid. I also listen to many other music styles, but the only type of music I can compose is heavy metal.

Also, the longer we rehearse, the longer we play live shows, the longer we are good company for each other, writing music for the band also comes more naturally. Agis (Tzoukopoulos, drummer) listens to my music because he wants to listen to my music. And I want to listen to his ideas. So as time passes, the things we do together get stronger and stronger. That’s why I think ‘Piercing the Heart of the World’ is more mature than the other albums.”

No Parthenogenesis in Arts

Triumpher’s music is often compared to that of Manowar, though more accurately, it is probably Mars’ voice that invokes the references to Manowar most clearly, as it sounds fairly similar to Eric Adams at his most aggressive. “Man, I fucking love Manowar”, he exclaims. “I freaking love Eric Adams. He is one of my favorite singers of all time. So maybe sounding like him comes naturally. I love Bruce Dickinson, I love Biff Byford, I love Geoff Tate, I love many singers, but Eric Adams is always at the top for me.

What I think happened is that my influences came out naturally when I compose music or when I record my vocal lines. It’s not something I’m actively trying to do. I’m not trying to sound like Eric Adams. There’s other examples of that. Bruce Dickinson used to love Ian Gillan. And his voice is a bit Gillan-ish, because he used the same techniques, because when he was young, he listened to Deep Purple every day. The same thing happened with us. I think there is no parthenogenesis in arts. We have influences, and then, as time passes, the influences will mix with our personal elements.”

Most prominently, the personal touch in Triumpher’s music comes from the elements of extreme metal that are quite prominent at times. “All Triumpher members are black metal fans”, Mars nods. “We are all great black metal and heavy metal fans. Those are our two favorite styles of metal music. That’s another lucky thing about the line-up we have in place today: we are all on the same page when it comes to that.”

The Core Identity of Triumpher

“We draw the inspiration from our lyrics and our concepts from Hellenic mythology especially. That is the core identity of Triumpher as a band. From the beginning, I wanted to do something like Amon Amarth did for Norse mythology, only for the mythology of our own region. Triumpher does that for Hellenic mythology, and we try to approach that with all the respect and seriousness it deserves to create exciting heavy metal.

When we are writing our songs, we try to visualize our music. So when we have a theme in mind, we write everything to that theme. It’s something like magic. That’s arts in general: you see something, you have a muse that inspires you to do something, and then we are able to write the music to it. That’s the way we do it, at least. That’s how it always happens when I compose to a theme. Something always starts happening after I build the concept behind the album.

Having a theme helps a lot. I need to have that when I write music. There are other ways to do it, of course. Marios, for example, writes the riffs and the music for Sacral Rage, and then they write the lyrics and adapt the themes to the music. Usually, at least. It’s a different approach, but I would say it’s equally viable to what we are doing.

At the moment, I am still collecting themes and building concepts. There is a Triumpher universe behind our music and our albums. Last year, in 2025, we have started writing a book about that universe. It will be released soon, so if you are interested, you can get many answers from reading that book.”

Focusing on Creativity

Promotion for the first two Triumpher albums had to be done entirely through audio media. For ‘Piercing the Heart of the World’, the band was able to make two music videos. “We did not have the ideas before”, Mars admits. “When we recorded and released the previous albums, we were not ready to visualize the music and turn them into video clips. This time, things worked out differently. We felt so good and comfortable with the material, that we decided to go on and try to film something.

But let me tell you: it was a very scary moment for me, because I’m frankly quite afraid to make images. It’s very important for a band to represent themselves visually in the right way. It’s a make-or-break point for me. If the image is not what it should be, the band could really fuck that up for themselves. Also, we are still an underground band with a low budget, and so it’s really difficult to make huge things that look great. So we decided to focus on our creativity, and we think that has worked quite well.

Especially for ‘Black Blood’, I really enjoyed recording the video, and I like the images I see in it. It was filmed in the Taygetos Mountains in Sparta. It’s a really tough place, with wolves and jackals, it’s snowing most months of the year, and it’s always foggy. There are just a few people around, only a few villages. It’s a great location, but it’s fucking rough. And it’s cold also.”

Aware of Everything

As well-thought-out as that implies the music of Triumpher is, there is room for spontaneity in the band’s live shows. “I don’t really care how about sticking as closely to the album versions as possible”, Mars states. “I want things to sound more live when we play things in concert. We have also played live shows with only one guitarist, and that also worked. We don’t depend too much on guitar layers. In that case, one guitarist just makes something unique for the entire band.

We need to be more raw and powerful on stage. We also use some backing tracks for keys or atmospheric parts, but that’s not the most important thing. The most important thing about live shows for me is to be powerful and to connect with the audience. If you need to change the songs a little from how they are on the CD, or on the vinyl, so be it. That’s the way I write albums anyway. When I compose, I imagine how it can be played at a live show.”

Those who are curious about that can see Triumpher perform on their first European headlining tour later this month. “We kickstart the tour from Up the Hammers in Athens, and then, a few days later, we fly to Denmark to properly start our European tour”, Mars explains. “We haven’t really done all that many shows so far, just a few one-offs, or two or three shows in a row. But more than two weeks on the road is new for us.

It’s a very different type of job. I’m not a professional, and it’s quite difficult to manage all the problems that could pop up on tour. You have to be aware of everything, and you have to make sure to be in time with booking everything right, with the manager, with the bookers, with the people from the venues, the backlines… But I think we’re going to make it. We have prepared this tour really well.”