The Guitarist and driving force of Firewind, Kostas Karamitroudis (Greek: ΚώσταςΚαραμητρούδης) aka Gus G., born September 12, 1980 in Thessaloniki, Greece.
| Gus G. | |
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Real name: |
Kostas Karamitroudis |
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Instruments: |
Guitar |
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Birth date |
september 22, 1980 |
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Other facts: |
cant juggle, orders extra sauce on his salade |
Early Life
At the age of 18 he left Greece to enroll in the Berklee College of Music, but left after only a few weeks and began working on making a name on the Metal scene. During his brief time at Berklee Gus came into contact with Joe Stump, who he credits as a great influence on his career
Breaking into the Metal scene
He recorded a demo album with Brandon Pender as singer who he met at Berklee, and Matt Scurfield who was the drummer for Joe Stump.
This demo album he send to different recording companies and ended at Leviathan Records. But any further activities with Firewind where stopped once he help found Dream Evil and was hired by Mystic Prophecy.
Between Heaven and Hell
After he recorded the debut albums for Dream Evil and Mystic Prophecy Gus returned to Firewind. David Chastain brought in Stephen Frederic and Brice Harris. And Gus asked a favor from his friend Kostas "Konstantine" Exarhakis. In separate studio’s they all recorded there bits and it was mixed by Fredrik Nordstom.
The actual recording of the album lasted a summer long, but Gus was writhing demos since 1999 for this album.
Burning Earth
After the release of Between Heaven and Hell Gus worked further on all his bands including Dream Evil, Mystic Prophecy, Nightrage and Firewind. Only he changed the line-up for the next album, Harris and Konstantine where replaced by the Norwegian drummer Stian Kristoffersen and Greek bassist Petros Christo. And they recorded the album in the same way as the first all in separate studios and Burning Earth came out of the work. Gus decided that they would tour Japan as promotion of the new album. After the un announced leave of Stephen, Gus had no singer for his band. But on the internet he found a new singer the Sri Lankan singer Chitral "Chity" Somapala who would replace Stephen on the tour, after being mailed by Bob Katsionishe decided to use Bob as a session member and so the band was made for the Burning the Earth tour.
Forged by Fire
After the first tour of Firewind Gus decided to keep Chity and Bob as full time members and after that he left all his other bands to focus all his attention to Firewind. Also during this time ESP guitars released Gus his signature model guitar the GUS-200 what later became one of the best selling signature guitar from ESP. With that line-up they recorded Forged by Fire but before they could tour Chity left the band for unknown reasons. After that Gus decided that he wanted a all Greek band and Saint left.
Allegiance
With the new album Gus brought in a new vocalist Apollo Papathanasio who has been a friend of Gus for a long time and been asked for Firewind earlier, but due to his other project clouded for fill the position all singer. And Drummer Mark Cross was brought in for the drums. They recorded the album Allegiance, he and Bob co-wrote most of the album and they recorded it in Sweden, as always Gus was really positive about the recording studio’s in Sweden..
The Premonition
After a lot of touring in Europe and the rest of the world Gus got working on the Premonition, he wrote some songs how ever only 12 of those songs made it onto the album. Some songs needed to be cut for copyright reasons including one instrumental song. After finishing the album Gus and Firewind started touring starting with “the Bloodshed and Tyranny tour” what featured Arch Enemy which Gus played with during there 2005 Ozzyfest dates as a fill in for Arch Enemy’s normal guitarist. After the Bloodshed and Tyranny tour Gus prepared with Firewind for there first Headlining tour the “Live Premonition over Europe tour” during this tour Gus started writing new songs. After the end of the Live Premonition over Europe tour Gus had a few weeks of.
Days of Defiance
Currently Gus and Firewind are recording a new Firewind album Called "Days of Defiance". Its is now in the final stages of competing and will be released around the end of october.
From 20 October he will be a guest on full metal jacket radio to premier a new Firewind song
Ozzy Osbourne
In august 2009 Gus was contacted by Ozzy Osbourne who needed a guitar player for his Blizzcon date and he appearance at the Sunset Strip Music Festival where Ozzy announced that his longtime guitarist Zakk Wylde would be replaced by Gus. Thiscaused a lot of confusion with the Firewind fans fearing that Gus would leave Firewind for Ozzy, But he announced that he would never leave Firewind for a other band saying: “Firewind is MY band,I just happen to have the coolest guitar job in the world next to Ozzy & I'm grateful! for as long as he wants me by his side, I'll be there. Now Ozzy has released a new album called "Scream" it was released with Gus on guitar, but Gus didnt have a lot to do with the writhing of the album all the riffs where pre-written by the producer and Gus only needed to play them. Now Gus is on tour with Ozzy on a world tour for the next 18 months.
The Name
The stage name "Gus G." has two sources of origin - "Gus" is a common Greek American English translation of the name "Kostas," and "G" was a nickname given to him by a friend during his time living in the U.S.
Gear
Guitars
ESP
GUS-200 LTD, BLK, not other specs
Gus G FR(is no longer sold) LTD, STBC, Floyd Rose Bridge, Coil splitter, Reverced Headstock
GUS-600 NT LTD, STBC, Coil splitter
Gus G NT ESP ESP, STBC, Coil splitter
Gus G NT ESP, BLK, Coil splitter
GUS G. FM-NT-II ESP, STBC, Coil splitter, Firewind symbol fret inlays
Gus G NT II ESP,White w/ FIREWIND Logo, Coil splitter, Firewind symbol fret inlays
LTD Revolver EC LTD, Rockart Graphic Finish, Kill switch
Washburn (used from 2001 until 2004)
Washburn Culprit Guitar
Fender(used from 1998 until 2001)
Fender Floyd Stratocaster
Amps
Gus now uses Blackstar amps from about january 2010 saying the following in a interview on the NAMM 2010 “This is the new amp that will take over the Metal world! Amazing tone, incredible gain and top notch quality! The Blackstar Series One 200 is my new addiction!”.
Before he was a longtime user of Randall T2’s and even having his own signature amp the Randall T2HH from 2002 to the end of 2009.
In his early days Gus has been seen playing Marshall amps from about 1998 to 1999.
And 2000 to 2001 during the recording of "Between Heaven and Hell" he used a FENDER ROC PRO AMP
Distortion Pedals
Blackstar
HT-Blackfire Valve Distortion Pedal only 1000 copies on the market.