Suicidal Angels

Suicidal Angels
Suicidal Angels at Rockharz festival 2016 in Germany
Background information
Origin	Athens, Greece
Genres	Thrash metal
Years active	2001–present
Labels	OSM, Nuclear Blast, NoiseArt
Website	suicidalangels.com
Members	Nick Melissourgos Orfeas Tzortzopoulos Angel Lelikakis Gus Drax
Past members	Christina Gemidopoulou Sotiris Skarpalezos Themis Katsimihas Panos Spanos Angel Kritsotakis Chris Tsisis

Suicidal Angels is a Greek thrash metal band formed in 2001 in Athens, Greece, by guitarist/vocalist and main songwriter Nick Melissourgos. Since its inception, the band has released six studio albums.

Early years, 2001-2006

The band's first demo, United by Hate, was released in 2002. Two years later, and after a further two self-released demos, they recorded their first extended play, called Bloodthirsty Humanity, followed in 2006 by the first work of the band distributed by a record label (Greek label Live Records), the EP Armies of Hell. The band's line up for this release consisted of Nick Melissourgos on guitar and vocals, Themis Katsimichas on guitar, Orfeas Tzortzopoulos on drums, and Christine Gemidopoulou on bass.

First album and signing with Nuclear Blast, 2007-2009

Soon after, Christine left and was replaced by Sotiris Skarpalezos on bass, and the band started recording its first full-length album, Eternal Domination, which was released in July 2007 by California based OSM Records. During that year, and after having built up modest experience by playing the local club circuit in their hometown and a few gigs abroad, Suicidal Angels went on their first ever tour, joining Rotting Christ's Theogonia Balkans Tour, while later in 2007 and 2008 they toured in Europe with Onslaught and Massacre. Prior to the release of Eternal Domination, in May 2007 Suicidal Angels also supported legendary German thrashers Kreator in Athens. This live proved to be a turning point in their career, as Mille Petrozza noticed the band, praised their live performance and continued to support them until their breakthrough into the music industry.

In early 2009 Sotiris Skarpalezos left the band and was replaced by Angel Kritsotakis on bass. In March 2009, the band visited the "Music Factory & Prophecy Studios" in Germany to record its second studio album, Sanctify the Darkness. Soon after the recordings of the album had finished, guitarist Themis Katsimichas left the band to pursue a career as a medical doctor and was replaced by Panos Spanos. Later that year, the band entered the Rock The Nation and Nuclear Blast band contest, in which they eventually took first place, topping 1,200 bands from Europe.