Born and raised in Athens (Greece), a kid with a dream of becoming a true guitar player. He is a self taught guitarist and his parents were very discouraging. After many failures of create a band, Jonkal (Giannis Kalamatas) started to be part of other bands of different styles of music. He played a lot of different styles (hard rock, heavy metal, death brutal slam metal, power metal ect.) but there wasn’t a style that could be played better than his own style.
It looks like that a defining moment for Jonkal was when he met Nick Marinos (Vocalist of God in a Cone, Slitherum) cause Nick asked Jonkal if he wanted to create a band together. Jonkal accepted with pleasure and they created Slitherum, a mix of Gothic, Doom, Industrial and Heavy Metal with a very unique and melodic way. So after Adonis Kanaras (Drums) joined Slitherum they started recordings for their first album. There was a really nice chemistry between them and they finished the whole album in a month! At the end of 2015 they finished their first Album and they named it “Godbox Suicide.” The album has received a lot of positive reviews and many people loved it. It was a perfect moment for Jonkal to start touring with Slitherum but the whole thing is paused.
Jonkal’s love for guitar and music couldn’t let him wait for a miracle. So he thought that it’s time to stop searching for a band and he had to do it on his own. Some Heavy Power Metal riffs came to his fretboard and he putted some fury nostalgic leads on them! He came up with his first video on Youtube on 26th March, 2018. This Track was “This Fight Is My Own” and it received a lot of positive comments. He started to be very active on social media and he was creating opportunities. He was practising a lot of hours every single day and he found his own music character, he started to create a bridje between his soul and his guitar. He uploaded 3 more tracks of his album on Youtube and he was on his way to finish his album until he joined Rotting Christ.
He became the new guitarist of Rotting Christ and he joined the band for a year (2019). He toured all over the world (Europe, Latin America, Russia, Ukraine, England etc.) and he had the chance to play on some really big festivals and they opened the stage for some huge bands as Slayer, Dream Theater, Soulfly etc. He took a really big experiance from touring and he earned much love from people. At their last Europian tour with Moonspell he left the band.
So it was the right moment to finish his Album and he did it ! He finished the recordings and he collaborated with Remedy Art Desighn in able to create the ablum’s artwork. On 3rd November of 2020 was the release of “This Fight Is My Own” and so far people seems to love it. New videos are on the way and he already writting new ideas for his next album.
Band Line-Up:
Jonkal
Read our review here.
