Outloud - Virtual Hero Society (2018)

OUTLOUD began with Greek guitar player Tony Kash taking lessons from Firewind’s Bob Katsionis. They began to write songs together and in late 2007 / early 2008, started to solidify these ideas into an album format and eventually got in touch with NYC-based singer Chandler Mogel, who Bob had met previously on a Firewind tour of the States.

Chandler was flown to Athens and Tony contracted his friend Jason Mercury to play bass, and in turn Bob brought on board Mark Cross, also from the band Firewind at the time, to play drums.

The five of them started to jam over the existing ideas and added the final arrangements and finishing touch to Outloud’s music and in September 2008 the band entered Basement Studio in Athens and recorded their debut album. Mixed and mastered by none other than Tommy Hansen (Helloween, TNT, Pretty Maids), the album was described by the press as “a mixture of Riot’s Fire Down Under, Skid Row’s debut album and TNT’s Tell No Tales with some Foreigner melodic elements.”

The album was released by Frontiers Records in August 2009 to rave reviews worldwide and ended up on many top ten lists by year’s end, and the album was voted “Best Album of the Year” in BW&BK/Bravewords.com. Sverd T. Soth (Bare Infinity) replaced Jason Mercury on bass shortly after the release.

Both video clips of their singles We Run and Tonite (2010), which together have since garnered well over 100,000 views on Youtube, were directed by Bob. “We Run” ranked #3 in Greek Metal Hammer’s 2009 reader’s polls in the BEST VIDEO CLIP category as well as being in regular rotation on MTV in Greece. It also ended up getting a spot on the esteemed German Metal Hammer Magazine DVD compilation. The song landed “Track of the Day” on Classic Rock Magazine’s website on June 26th, 2009, and was also included on a handful of notable CD compilations such as MelodicRock.com and Rock Hard.

Outloud, having sold over 5,000 units of their debut CD worldwide, made a successful headline tour of Greece in December ’09 (sponsored by Jack Daniels) and a companion national Greek TV appearance in front of more than 1 million viewers. 2010 saw the band playing more live shows in their native country and returning to the studio to record their sophomore album.

The band inked a brand new deal with AOR Heaven for their second release, which was recorded in Athens, Greece during the summer of 2010 and once again produced by Bob and mixed and mastered by Tommy Hansen. The album was subsequently released in Japan on Rubicon Records.

The band released it’s second effort, Love Catastrophe, in July of 2011. Much like it’s predecessor, it was released to rave reviews from the press and was mixed and mastered by Tommy Hansen (Helloween, Pretty Maids, TNT). The band released a video for the single, Waiting For Your Love, opened for rock legends Twisted Sister in Athens during this time and their song “We Came To Rock” landed a spot on the July issue of Classic Rock presents AOR – Raised on Radio compilation. Additionally, the band was featured on the front cover of Greek Metal Hammer Magazine in August.

As 2011 came to a close, the band was voted #4 “Best Greek Band” of the year in Greek Metal Hammer, and the band released via the internet a surprise single, an original Christmas song entitled “The Last Days of December”.

In early 2012 the band announced they would be releasing an EP titled More Catastrophe through AOR Heaven and following up the release with a promotional tour of Greece, their first country-wide tour there since 2009. Shortly thereafter the EP was released in Japan as a special extended edition once again on Rubicon Records.

The band went on roughly a year hiatus as Bob was busy touring with Firewind and the other members with other projects. Mark and Tony bid farewell to the band during this time each for personal reasons. In the summer of 2013 Bob and Chandler began working on demos for album #3, Let’s Get Serious. Knowing Bob could handle all guitar duties in the studio, but being at a loss as to who would play drums, Bob called his old friend George Kollias (Nile) whom he played with in Nightfall back in the early ’00s. George loved the material and instantly agreed to record. Also featured as a guest on the album is a friend of Chandler’s from NYC, on the song Toy Soldiers, guitar god Mike Orlando (Adrenaline Mob). Once tracks were complete the band once again had the album mixed and mastered by the ‘Honorary Outloud Member’ Tommy Hansen in Denmark, and inked a fresh deal with AOR Heaven for the European territory, and continuing with Rubicon Records in Japan.

However George was not able to commit to the band outside of making the record due to his duties with Nile. So Bob then recruited virtuoso drummer Kostas Milonas and also guitarist Jim Scordilis to round out the lineup.

Thus 2014 saw the release of LGS and their first video for the album, “I Was So Blind”, to wide critical acclaim much like it’s successors, a second cover on Metal Hammer Greece Magazine, and the band’s third tour of their home country, while appearing on the national network Mad TV in Greece to promote said tour, complete with successful shows in Bulgaria and Sweden (Stockholm Rocks Festival) as well. Outloud also contributed a version of the Deep Purple classic “Perfect Strangers” to the Metal Hammer Greece 30 year anniversary compilation.

The success of the previous tour was followed in early 2015 with more dates in Greece and the band’s first ever tour in the UK with the acclaimed British heavy metal band MONUMENT.

Internationally to date, Outloud has released 3 albums and an EP to wide critical acclaim in the hard rock / metal world, appearing in hundreds of rock & metal publications both print and online since then, including features in BURRN! Japan, Rock Hard, Fireworks, Metal Hammer, etc. They have become the most viewed Greek Hard Rock band on Youtube, with over 500,000+ views.



Track List:
01. Fools' Train (4:42)
02. My Promise (3:58)
03. Virtual Heroes (4:01)
04. I Am the One (4:24)
05. Share My Dreams (4:09)
06. World-Go-Round (4:26)
07. We Got Tonite (4:19)
08. Borrowed Time (4:22)
09. Live with It (4:26)
10. …And I Tried (4:08)
11. Fallen Love (2:49)
12. Fight on! (3:50)

Jim Kyritsis - Guitars
Bob Katsionis - Guitars (lead), Keyboards (Bob Katsionis, Burnt City, Constantine, Firewind, Ioannis Anastassakis, Teo Ross, ex-Encomium, ex-Imaginery, ex-Retrospect, ex-Revolution Renaissance, ex-Zion, ex-Mirage, ex-Skyward, ex-Acid Death, ex-Casus Belli, ex-Karmic Link, ex-Nightfall, ex-Perpetual, ex-Serious Black, ex-Deviser (live), ex-Septicflesh (live), ex-Star Queen, ex-Fatal Morgana, ex-Jade Lizard, ex-Lighthunters)
Chandler Mogel - Vocals (Porphyra, Theater of the Absurd, Two Hundred Feet, Chrome Public, Cities, Dangered Ace, NYC Outlaws, Talon, Until Destiny, ex-Legion)
Sverd - Bass (AmongRuins, Battleroar, ex-Bare Infinity, ex-The Silent Rage)
Thanos Pappas - Drums (Disharmony, Scar of the Sun, Fire and Steel, ex-Bigus Dickus)

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