For a band whose lyrics revolve around topics involving fantasy and death, you would have thought that the single 'Stalingrad' would have been by a Black Metal band. Instead it's by Egyptian Progressive / Folk Metal entity Riverwood and as frontman Mahmoud went on to explain, the single is drawing a comparison to the second world war and the current war against COVID-19. During his interrogation he confessed as to how the band came about, why Egyptian Metal is embracing a revolution and what venues metalheads should go to in the city of Alexandria. For those who have not heard of Riverwood, could you give us a brief history of the band? "The band was formed only 2 years ago under the name of Riverwood. Our first album was released in the same year and its called "Fairytale". With 1 million streams online "Fairytale" has been chosen as one of the top 20 Folk metal albums in 2020." You recently released your new single 'Stalingrad', what was the idea behind this - why a song about WW2? "The song basically tells the story about a timeline that is almost the same as the current one, as the world is at war now with the COVID-19 virus. That's why we have decided to release it as a stand-alone single since it will not be a part of our second full album." Your debut album "Fairytale" is out now, what was the reception like and have you had people outside of Egypt download it?; will it be on CD / vinyl? "It has exceeded my expectations. I've never imagined it will be viral in the middle east that fast and also never imagined that it will reach one million streams online all over the world. The album is on CD as well and its sold outside of Egypt. We've sold CDs in Germany, France, Poland, Spain and many more international countries." Do you feel that there is a rise in Middle Eastern / North African tinged metal? (Myrath, Riverwood, Blaakyum, Scarab, Orphaned Land, etc); how would you describe your sound? "Unique. That's how I would describe the sound as all of the mentioned bands including Riverwood are injecting the Arabian sounds and Eastern cultures into their music and stories." What is the current state of the Egyptian Metal scene? Is it going strong? When did metal music first arrive in Egypt?
"It was pretty much dead since 2010, but since 2018 it's being brought back to life with a lot of shows and releases." For metalheads visiting Alexandria, what sights / attractions and bars / venues could you recommend? "Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Sawy Cultural Wheel, Jesuit Center... these are the top notch venues for metal heads." What plans does Riverwood have for late 2020 / early 2021? "Currently we are working on our second full length album. Just like "Fairytale", the album will be telling a story that will be visualized in a book. The album also will be featuring more than one artist, of which 2 of them are big names in the metal music industry." Do you have any greetings or thanks you wish to send out to friends, family, fans etc? "As we rarely use the word fans, I would like to thank our family and warriors for all their support through out the "Fairytale" journey, it never could have been done without you and until we see you again on stage please stay safe. Wash your hands! Much love!" https://www.facebook.com/Riverwoodeg/
0 Comments
"2021 is our 40th year anniversary we are booked for UK festivals and to return Europe to play in Belgium, Spain, France, Germany and The Netherlands." Too often are bands of yesteryear forgotten about or fall by the wayside, but in counteracting that there are times where bands are effectively pulled out of hibernation, such is the case for NWOBHM quartet Troyen who received the harking call to reform and drum out material to quench the thirst of their fans. Now armed with newfound rigour, the Cheshire natives are due to release a new album, hopefully play some UK and European shows next year to mark 40 years of the band and prove that it doesn't matter about your age, as long as your heart is in the music, endless things are possible as drummer Jeff Baddley told GMA during his interrogation. Troyen has humble beginnings in that you started back in the 1980's, but the band was untenable, so surely it must have been a godsend to reunite? "Unbeknown to us there was quite a cult Troyen fan base, especially in Scandinavia and the USA, and the guys who run the Brofest festivals in Newcastle had been approached by fans asking if they could get us back together to appear at Brofest#3 in February 2015. It was a bizarre feeling for me to get a message via Facebook messenger asking firstly if I was the Jeff Baddley who used to be in Troyen, and, if so, could I get the band back together again? Initially we reformed just for one gig but once it entered the public domain other gigs and festivals approached us so there was no going back. Following the response we decided to release an album consisting of our four original demo tracks and four new tracks." Given you've seen the British Metal scene grow up as it were, what advice can you offer to the next wave of bands? "The only advice I can give is work hard. The music scene is a different animal now in this digital age and all the platforms available need to be embraced, back in the 80's the only way fans could get to see you was by playing live. In many ways you have to work smarter now to keep your profile in the public domain." In some respect you're role models in that age doesn't mean a think when it comes to playing music, would you agree? "There is always a place for role models and having people to aspire to but ultimately there is no substitute for being your own person, after all we are all unique." Given the current global pandemic grappling the world, do you feel that music has become ever more important and that a world without it, is a boring place? "Absolutely, music means many things to many people. We all turn to music when we are happy, sad or all the places in between. The global pandemic would be much harder to endure without music to immerse yourselves in." Outside of music what hobbies and interests do you have? How have you all been coping during the lockdown?
"Music is our main focus and it’s been difficult during lockdown especially for me as I don’t have the space at home to set up my drum kit and unleash my frustrations. We have all spent time doing all the jobs we had been putting off around the house and some that didn’t. We’ve been in constant contact with each other as we are collaboratively writing new material for our new album., whilst also spending time keeping our social media pages updated." What do your families think of your music, are any of them musicians also? "None of our family members are musicians although they are very supportive of what we do even though NWOBHM may not be their thing." What next for Troyen? Are you drafting up late-2020, early 2021 plans? "We have pretty much written off 2020 for live music, but we’ll have to see how that unfolds. We are writing a new album initially for release in November 2020 but that may be pushed back to early 2021 pandemic and social distancing allowing. 2021 is our 40th year anniversary we are booked for UK festivals and to return Europe to play in Belgium, Spain, France, Germany and The Netherlands." Do you have any thanks or greetings you wish to send out to friends, family, fans etc? "We’d like to thank all our fans, friends and families for their continued support. Without you we’d be nothing. We will just continue to ride the wave and play for as long as people want to hear us after all you don’t stop playing music because you get old, you get old because you stop playing music. Stay safe." https://www.facebook.com/Troyen14 "When we released 'Ari Ari', a famous Bollywood actress Ileana D'Cruz liked it and actually posted about it on Instagram, that was pretty cool" Arguably one of the most talked about metal bands from Asia alongside Babymetal and The Hu in the last few years, India's Bloodywood have shaken the foundations of metal with their aromatic and flavoursome blend of Bollywood covers, Indian Folk Metal and cultural panache that landed them a slot at Wacken Open Air last year, and a slot at next year's Bloodstock Open Air after the 2020 edition was postponed due to the coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic. Vocalist Jayant Bhadula gave GMA the low down about their humble origins, the strength of the Indian Metal scene, how they became known across the country and why it's Asia'a time to showcase it's wealth of talent to Europe and the USA. What was the initial idea behind Bloodywood? "When we started we always had a plan to release original music, that has always been a goal for us, but we didn't find a way to get it out; because I think there are a lot of metal bands in India and that's the thing. We wanted our music to reach out and not just be restricted within our region, state or country, we wanted our music to spread worldwide. This is why we thought the best way to go round it would be by doing covers, actually it wasn't really covers, first we tried to make metal renditions, like give it our flavour 'Sinbad The Slayer'... It was a gradual process through trying to make our sound that we would be comfortable with and eventually it lead to 'Ari Ari' and then to others." What was the reaction from both the Bollywood and Metal music scenes to your music? "It was widely received well in India with the audience here, it was also seen as funny. Finding it funny and then actually appreciating the metal behind it too is what we got from the Indian audience, but I would have never imagined that someone from Bollywood would have actually acknowledged it. The Bollywood industry I mean... it happened with 'Ari Ari' though; when we released 'Ari Ari', a famous Bollywood actress Ileana D'Cruz liked it and actually posted about it on Instagram, that was pretty cool." As you have only been going since 2016, to be where you are now (having played Wacken last year) it must be a dream come true for the band? "Oh yes absolutely, I'll give you a little fun story. This was around the time when I was in my final year at college, I was like 'I should start saving money and go see Wacken Open Air', I wanted to there and experience what it's like so I started saving money, go to Germany and see Wacken Open Air. Then because Bloodywood was going on and then I was actually working with another band; I've got one more project alongside Bloodywood. Bloodywood was getting busy and we eventually finally got the call for Wacken Open Air, that was personally for me and I can vouch for everyone in the band a dream come true for everyone; even the sound engineer he plays guitar with me in my other band, for him to be there to manage our sound was a dream come true for all of us." You've shifted from covering Bollywood music and writing your own material, where does your inspiration come from? "So it wasn't just the Bollywood songs that we used to cover, we used to cover almost anything that used to catch our eye. Literally from Bollywood to anything else, as long as we felt it was catchy we would just make a diddle on it. But the transition began when we started making ''Punjabi Metal', that was for the 'Mundiya Te Back K Rahi'... because while we were composing 'Mundiya Te Back K Rahi' around that time in the end we actually realised that and it was was Karan Katiyar who showed me that dhol goes really good with guitars and I took it as a joke, I was like no I don't think so, that's not going to happen. So he actually created the whole instrumental and was like now check it out, dhol which is a traditional north Indian folk instrument that was going perfectly with it. I felt it made the song more groovy, so what's where we got to the point where we should try experimenting with more Indian instruments and even then we're experimenting with more instruments." Arguably that's how metal seems to be evolving, by utilising other sounds and non-traditional metal instruments like the dhol per se. "I mean it depends on which metal act we're talking about, for Bloodywood at least I can say that when we started experimenting with folk instruments from our country, the idea was actually to incorporate instruments to make our sound a little more Indian. It's like Alien Weaponry who I don't think use folk instruments however they sing in Maori. I mean it really comes down to which bands you're talking about, I mean for example The Hu from Mongolia, they do use their folk instruments with metal so, but I don't think bands are introducing instruments for the sake of making a new sound. I feel that everyone is trying to express themselves in the best way they can like we did with Bloodywood, that's what I think the bands are doing." With all the things that has happened to Bloodywood, surely it must make you pinch yourself in asking 'is this really happening?' "Yes that happens quite a lot at least with me, because every time I go to the studio it takes me back to the time when I used to go to Karan's house and record a lot of stuff. But because a member in my other band owns a studio, we ended up going there thereafter; he's been such a nice guy about it all, given us his studio almost for free - just because he is friends with us and has supported us throughout. So when I look back I have a sheer amount of gratitude for those people, they didn't expect anything, they just wanted to help us out." What do your parents think of your music? "(laughs) my parents? My parents basically asked me 'you cool? Are you happy with what you're doing?' and I said 'yes' and so they said 'Ok we're cool too', they don't get metal. When I was in Chicago with my dad and we were sitting in the same room, Veil of Maya was playing nearby where we were staying and I put some of their music on the music system and my father looks at his uncle, and says 'this is what he does', my father looks at the screen and sees a guy screaming and guts out, and he's like 'yeah don't do that'." For those who listen to Bloodywood for the first time, what languages are you singing in? "'Ari Ari' is Punjabi but if you go to the rest of the songs after that it's Hindi." Are they completely different or similar? Are they easy to understand? "There's a lot of differences, I wouldn't say they're 100% different but there would be around 97% differences. There are a few little words here and there from what I use in Hindi and put into Punjabi. But there's a lot of languages in India, at least 100 plus (I'm not sure of the exact number) and lots of different dialects and they change as you travel in any direction. Yes we can understand each other, that's the funny part... English is actually quite useful in India... almost everywhere I think English is spoken and even though there are times when you get to the point where you are not sure what the person is saying, English comes in and saves us." Has Bloodywood released any EP's or an album? If not will we see one this year? "It's not out of the question that we will end up doing that, because I mean this year the festivals are shut, I don't think something will be happening anytime soon, I hope that the world gets better and we can go back to festivals. But as there are not a lot of festivals which are still happening, I think this year we will be focusing on creating and hopefully if everything pans out, an album might not be out of the question, but it's still not been decided yet." Some people refer you to as a Folk Metal band, others a Nu Metal band, could you please clarify your sound? "I like to call it Folk Metal because that is what we want to be seen as for everyone, we do incorporate modern elements because we embrace it - if you look at my influences they are all Deathcore, Metalcore bands. Our drummer Vishesh Singh is heavily into Death Metal, so because all of us come from different niche styles of metal, when we combine it together it comes out to me what the 'Bloodywood sound' is; which I like to call Indian Folk Metal; mainly due to the instruments we use." On that note is it relatively easy or challenging to master the art of playing these traditional Indian folk instruments? "It is tricky, for example the dhol we use there are multiple variations of it. But the instruments themselves are tricky, that's my take on it because I don't play them. So I'm probably not the right person to ask regarding this (laughs)." Speaking about the Indian Metal, arguably Demonic Resurrection and Kryptos were the leading pioneers, would you therefore say Bloodywood is carrying the scene forward?" "Well it does not just end with Bloodywood, Demonic Resurrection or Kryptos, it's actually all of the bands that are in the metal scene. The Indian Metal scene is small, but I say this in every interview and I cannot stress enough on it that it might be small, but it's really tight-knit. We've got Systemhouse33, Gutslit, Kryptos, Demonic Resurrection all of whom played internationally, there are just so many bands from India producing so much quality material that I think its all of us who are carrying it forward." Nowadays what are the challenges that most Indian Metal bands tend to face (excluding COVID-19)? "Don't even get me started on that (laughs), Indian Metal bands have been facing so many problems for so long. It started off with venues not being open to letting metal bands to play there, to not being paid or not doing tribute shows or, I mean it's not a bad thing to do a tribute show, but at the same time there used to be less scope for original music to come up because people tended to come out for more of the tribute shows, but now as the audience is opening up there but still there are lots of venues and not a lot of money being invested in it. I think it's going to get better because the number of shows last year at least were a lot, I've never seen a lot of shows like that. There were a lot of bands from the US and Europe coming in, just in January we had As I Lay Dying come here, so I mean we've come a long away from just one metal band coming to India in a year, maybe for Bangalore Open Air per se where we get to see quality acts. Apart from that there was nothing, hardly any shows going on, but now even the promoters are getting into it." Do you feel it's more important than ever for metalheads from Europe to pay more attention to bands from Asia per se? "I feel the world has been sleeping on Asia for a long time and maybe now it will... maybe Bloodywood, or The Hu from Mongolia or Underside from Nepal; I love those guys, so I mean us Asian bands trying to get out and actually doing shows and getting a positive reception actually does make a way for other Asian bands to come out. I think people in Europe and the USA are actually embracing this. I actually met a guy in Osnabrück, Germany who was wearing a Gutslit t-shirt - Gutslit is an Indian band, I wanted a photo and send a message to the guys saying 'hey guys I saw a guy with your t-shirt in Osnabrück, Germany." Finally have you got any greetings or thanks you wish to send out to friends, fans, family, etc? "I want to say hello to everyone who's going to believe in us." https://www.facebook.com/bloodywood.delhi/ "[Melbourne is] definitely the best metal scene in Australia... lots of bands from Brisbane, Adelaide and other cities go to great pains to get to Melbourne to do shows" They may have only been going a couple of years, but arguably Australia's Ironstone have so far had a really good run - supporting Rhapsody at a small festival, lining up their debut EP at the end of May, gathering fans from Europe, joining up with arguably Australia's finest PR in Black Roos and all at the average age of 20; Dan being the oldest at 22... they are destined to go far with their work ethic and attitude. Watch this space. To fill in the details, lead vocalist Dan Charlton and lead guitarist / vocalist Edward Warren spoke with GMA about said achievements, the Melbourne Metal scene, how they got their unique name and how Lewis Capaldi has had an impact on Dan Charlton. Don't worry we know this is an interrogation, we didn't spit roast them on a BBQ on the beach... instead we inoculated them with Fosters... good call! Hi guys could you tell us how Ironstone came about and what the band name means? Edward: "It started quite a long time ago. It was initially a cover band with a couple of mates and I. We were just young kids. We played gigs in pubs; played AC/DC and all the classics and it developed over time until we started writing original music and creating our own sound. It came to a point where we wanted to take it more seriously and really define ourselves as original artists and not just be a cover band. The singer at the time lived on ‘Ironstone Road’. We just liked the sound of that. We discussed the name and thought we’d leave out the ‘road’ part because it sounded a bit ‘country’. But we really liked ‘Ironstone’ because it's nice and ambiguous. It can mean anything in terms of genre and creative freedom and it sounds pretty cool too, so we just went with that." Nowadays it's even harder coming up with band names due to names already in use or having to be changed due to legal reasons. Edward: "Yeah one of the criteria of the name was that we could get the web address and social media handles, because some bands pick a really cool name then because a lot of people already have it they have to put 'official' or something after it, blurring the lines between who is actually this band or that band. So we were really fortunate with our name." Now you've got your EP 'Prophecy' coming out on 29th May, are you doing at-home promotion for it? Would you release it on vinyl and CD? Edward: "Yeah we're just plugging away with our social media, trying to keep as active as we can, which is important because of self-isolation. We're doing everything we can... including PR to help with international coverage which obviously leads to interviews and reviews. We think this is a weird time to be releasing, but might be slightly advantageous because more people are on the internet and the industry is pretty quiet at the moment. Oh yes we want to release it on vinyl so badly. I love vinyl. If I had a CD right now and you said I'll give you $100 to play it, I would be pressed to find something to play it on.” Dan: "The good thing about vinyl is that it's really coming back, CD's are not going out but a lot of the new cars don't have CD players any more. Everything is online now with Spotify where you can instantly play music, but I guess people some people still want to go analogue, old-school." With the EP, have you got a favourite track that stands out for you? Edward: "Well the thing is that we generally love all the songs so much. 2 weeks before the EP we will be dropping our new single and music video 'Downpour'. The video was shot just before all of the closures and was edited during lockdown. It's very thematic and has this kind of Middle Eastern, South-East Asian sort of flavour, it's really very exotic and spicy." How long did it take you to write, record and finalise the EP? Edward: "Half of the songs were written 12 or more months ago, the other half in the last six months since Dan joined the band and started writing with us. The drums, guitars and bass were tracked very quickly…in less than a week. Jack our drummer then sorted the stems out and got everything organised. Start to finish it was no more than a month I think. The whole process gave us confidence and experience that enabled us to push forward.” Dan: "Vocals took the longest, vocals took about 3 weeks or so and then once we had it done we sent it through and had it mixed and mastered by Chris Themelco at Monolith Studios; absolute legend, who managed to do it so quickly. The first revision was almost perfect, apart from tiny nit-picky stuff. It was good as well because Chris really liked the songs and is a big fan of ours. We were rapt about that because we have so much respect for the guy. He is very highly respected here." Would you therefore say that's the direction metal is heading, by tapping into other flavours to expand? Edward:- "I think it's heading in that direction, there will always be old-school, kind of more pure traditional metal, but I think for bands who are trying to be more progressive and cover ground in thinking, it's going to become more prevalent in exploring different cultural influences, scales, etc., I know there's a lot of Japanese scales, Middle Eastern scales that have already been explored. You could get into Bulgarian scales, Slavic scales, there is so much you can do musically because every single culture has a different slant on the scale of music. It's inevitable that the progression will lead to change, making it something different." Dan: "I think it's also the younger generation. Old-school metal in the 70's and 80's is a lot different to the metal in the 90's and early 2000's. Metal has has changed over the years in the same way other genres like pop have changed." Outside of metal music, do you take influences from elsewhere? Dan: "Oh for me even though I listen to metal, I'll also be listening to pop music - a lot of the chart stuff, I'm a massive fan of Lewis Capaldi's voice, specifically the tone of his voice which has brought a lot of inspiration to my vocal technique. Our sound is like what Eddie says. You can show it to your friends who are really into technical metal and they get into the riffs, but then you can also show it to your parents and they'll be like 'Oh that's a nice song, I like that, that's catchy'. That's definitely not something to be afraid of, being commercial. I think it's a great thing; not aiming for super-duper niche, I just want people to listen and enjoy the music." Edward: "You've got the case where a lot of Progressive Metal bands have really clean beautiful male vocals and then really brutal screams. Dan’s vocal style is kind of like a rock 'n' roll, grungy, really emotional voice over Prog which is something that gives us a particular sound that's really unique and kind of hard to place. I do love movie soundtracks and stuff like that, people like Hans Zimmer for example, orchestral music, ambient stuff... I really get chills when I listen to stuff from soundtracks and video games; such as Battlefield. Our drummer Jack used to make trap music, he used to make a lot of dubstep and stuff like that so that's crept its way into the band. I definitely appreciate dubstep for build up and suspense. I guess Prog Metal is kind of dubstep played with guitars, you kind of build it up percussively. I think our music has a particular musicality and palatability at the same time. I love screams and complicated, percussive feels and breakdowns... whereas Dan's got a real mind for pop and structured melodies. When you combine the two, you get this sort of strange blend. You potentially get people who are normally into Meshuggah and Periphery style of music clashing against pop-influence metal." Is learning music and music instruments encouraged by schools / colleges in Australia?
Dan: "I'd say so as much as anywhere else really, there's always school bands, school programs. There's always this constant reminder that it's an option or a path for you to go down, which I think is a really good thing." Before now have you had any fans contact you from outside of Australia? Edward: "Yeah we get messages on Instagram all the time. Since we started promoting the release internationally we’re suddenly getting fans from places like Latvia, Romania, you know all these places that we haven't considered as potential fan bases. It just makes us realise how big the world is.“ Dan: "Yeah we've got quite a few messages either personally or through the band page just saying that they found us over Instagram or YouTube, saying that they really like us and they want want to support us in any way in they can." What is the Melbourne Metal scene like in general? Edward: "Generally it's really good, it's definitely the best metal scene in Australia and there are a lot of bands from Brisbane, Adelaide and the other cities who go to great pains to get to Melbourne to do shows and gigs. We've been fortunate enough to play some really fantastic shows in Melbourne, so I'd say the scene is great. Unfortunately with the coronavirus everything has shut down, but I'm sure it will all wake up once this is over. It's going to be a big deal as there's a lot of bands, not just in Australia but all over the world withholding releases and so when this is all over it's going to be insane." Dan: "It's gonna be huge when it bounces back." For metalheads visiting Melbourne, bars / venues and festivals could you recommend? Edward: "That's kind of tricky because we actually live in Bendigo which is a 2 hour drive away from Melbourne, so we don't actually live in Melbourne. Dan knows more about the venues than me. I've only just turned 18 and so I haven’t attended many things as a punter. Dan is 21 so he’s been to a lot of festivals and gigs." Dan: "Venue wise there’s Festival Hall which has had a lot of really big acts play there. That’s personally one of my biggest goals… to play there, it's so iconic. Another place I do like is Max Watts, it's like this kind of underground metal heaven really... it's just crazy and amazing, playing there was one of the best things ever. We supported Rhapsody there at the Southern Gathering festival which was awesome. Aside from Download, there's a new festival that's just come out called 'Good Things' which is more towards Punk music, but over the past couple of years it's gotten heavier and had Parkway Drive headline last year; I went to that and it was absolutely phenomenal; there are some really good musicians. [Edward chips in with Unified] Ahh! Unified is an awesome metal festival, alongside Download and Good Things, they are probably the 3 biggest metal festivals." What are some of the everyday challenges that metal bands in Australia have to face? Dan: "Certainly the biggest challenge musically would be trying to become well known, it's quite hard with music let alone being an Australian metal band." Edward: "The thing is also we've got a country that's very large, something like 13 times the size of Germany and has a very sparse population. So if 1% of the population likes the music then out of the world's population that's like 709 million people, but with only 24 million in Australia it's considerably less with people being spread out. Plus it's hot so no one wants to do anything. It's just difficult trying to get that foothold and finding good bands to do shows with, finding a band that's within the niche Prog Metal / Djent, that sort of genre which is what we're going for. The financial aspect also is there, if you're in Europe you'd play a gig and then could just pop through France. But we have to drive 10 hours and we've nearly reached Sydney! The distances here are vast. But we're really lucky, we live not far from Melbourne and it takes about 2 hours to get there for a gig" What plans do you have for the back end of 2020 and going into 2021? Were any postponed? Edward: "I think the ultimate goal from whatever means necessary is to do a UK / Europe tour (and to get our music out there). We just want this lockdown to end and for this thing to be over... we just want to do gigs." Dan: "Yeah just play as much as possible in Melbourne, might travel up to Sydney and maybe Adelaide, but for now just want to focus on Melbourne and build on our following." Have you got any greetings or thanks you wish to send out to fans, friends and family? Dan: "Thanks to all our fans for sticking by us at the start, and to all of the new fans that come after 29th May, and to the stadium full of people (laughs)." Edward: "Thank you to the families for supporting us, the band members for always being consistent. We've got a unique case where all of the band members (except Dan) go to school together so we're already absolutely best friends. Then we've got Dan who may as well be my older brother; comes to my house all the time, stuff like that. Great people we work with like Chris Themelco and Michael Lueders from Black Roos Entertainment who make our life just so much easier. Thanks to everyone who helps us out and supports us." "Prophecy" is out 29th May via an Independent Release https://www.facebook.com/ironstone.official "Like Michiganders do, by getting piss drunk. We are making it through this pandemic by pure spite (laughs)." Into The Void are not your generic American Metal band nor are they willing to accept the term generic; we don't blame them. The Alternative Metal leviathan that resides within Edmore, Michigan, gave birth to it's debut album "The Way We Are" back in January and immediately garnered attention worldwide. Now with a lot of plans shelved or postponed, GMA found the time to interrogate the Michiganders (we learned a new word today) about how Into The Void came to be, the album itself, the Michigan scene and where metalheads can go in terms of venues. Vocalist / rhythm guitarist Dan Hernandez, drummer Jordan Campbell and bassist Cameron Allen survived the interrogation. Lead guitarist Brad White did not. Can you explain to us how Into The Void came about and what the band name means? Dan - "Into The Void came to be basically from me getting tired of my own bulls**t. I spent a lot of years trying to write what I thought people wanted to hear and dancing around my words so I wouldn't make anybody upset. It never went anywhere and no one was listening so I kinda said f**k it, I want to write something that I want to hear and that is meaningful to me instead of trying to make songs for other people. I'll put it out there for me and if people like it, awesome. Everybody else joined later on. I didn't want it to be a solo project but that's definitely what it was for a hot minute (laughs). As for the name, it's essentially a jab at my own mental health. Most people think it's a Black Sabbath reference but I didn't even realize it was a Black Sabbath song until later on." What was the reception like for your debut album "The Way We Are"? Was there any interest outside of the US? Dan - "We've actually had great reception so far. There's a few that have said that it's not their particular style but no one has really been able to say they hated it. We've actually grown really fast, even despite COVID-19. We've actually received a good bit of interest from the European and Russian crowds which is exciting, and even a little bit from the South American scene." Talk us through the album process, how long did it take to make, how did you decide upon lyric themes, etc? Dan - "It took what felt like forever (laughs). This album was, I think, 4 years in the making. There's hundreds of demo songs that didn't make the cut. As far as themes and writing process, it's really just about my life at the time. It was as real and as raw as I could make it. I was struggling with alcoholism, anxiety, depression, and a lot of inner demons and I just kind of poured it all into the songs. After I had all these songs, I had someone who really believed in me say that they were willing to fund an album and get me started. I finally found Josh (Wickman - Dreadcore Productions) and he was losing his mind with the demos and we really just clicked. We set up our first recording date and I practised all the parts and went in to record 'Old Habits'. About a month later I went in and did 'Blurry Eyed'. I released those as singles and started hunting for a band. During that time I recorded 'Better Off Dead', 'Ready When You Are', and 'Shallow Grave'. After going through quite a few people who just didn't quite fit; love them all and am glad I got to meet all of them; I finally met Jordan (Campbell - drums) and we hit it off. He learned the songs insanely fast. He and another friend introduced me to Cameron (Allen - bass) and that was that (laughs). We went back into the studio and did the title track and a couple others. We went back one more time and finished recording the rest of the album. It was a long and messy process for sure." Jordan - "I helped write 'Hindsight', mostly. I wrote the drum part, huge influences from Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit, and that marked the beginning of the end of the writing process it seemed. Shortly after that, we had the rest of it fleshed out and ready to record. I did my part, learned the last few of the songs we had to record; following that we hit the studio pretty hard. I think we were there for a week in total (myself only 2 days). I tracked all of my parts (5 songs) in 6 hours. The next day was editing that. Then everything else got thrown in pretty quickly. Mixing was the longest wait for me. It seemed like it was ready to go--but it wasn't. Once it got mastered, it flew out. Rather well received album, too. Not bad for our first FULL release, you know?" How would you describe your sound without the use of genre tagging? What sets you aside from the plethora of bands? Dan - "Without genre tagging? I guess I'd have to say just dark, emotionally intense, and real. None of those sound like they set us apart but it's different from the common uses of those words in the metal scene (laughs). We've got a much different attitude than most people when it comes to our own music. It's not really following any trends or paying any attention to what others are doing. It's kind of like Nirvana meets Korn meets Slipknot meets Beartooth meets Deftones." Jordan - "A lot of people have mentioned that we have a defining rhythm to our music. It doesn't sound "generic" like we followed someone else's form. I think our combination of style influences helped with that. I drew my inspiration from punk rock, metal, and even jazz and marching percussion. I think what really sets us aside is that you can tell we play with purpose. We aren't just noodling around-so to speak. Our fills aren't just the same BS or extremely typical; they just make sense. It's perfect for people who relate to the lyrics and the emotion we convey. You can really relate to 'not being good enough' or 'I just want to be different'." Given the current COVID-19 global pandemic, what plans did you have that are either cancelled or postponed? Dan - "We had to cancel or postpone pretty much everything. We had plans to be releasing a music video in late April / early May but haven't been able to film. Had a bunch of shows that have been cancelled or postponed too. It's just been kind of rough. We really want to be out there promoting our stuff through live shows and meeting our fans and we don't really have any new music to release so everything's just been put on hold for us. Cameron, Jordan, and I all had to celebrate our birthday's from home as well." Jordan - "I had a few personal plans I wanted to do like dates, events, and just general 'vacation' days. With co-workers taking a lay off due to concerns with the virus, I was left to be one of the few who can do my job, so I ended up with more work than ever." How are the folk in Michigan coping with the lockdown? Tell us about the situation there. Dan - "Like Michiganders do, by getting piss drunk. We are making it through this pandemic by pure spite (laughs). No, but there are some people who are less than intelligent and they're out protesting and making us all look bad but most of us have really come together as a people and stayed the f**k home. We are tough people who love each other a whole hell of a lot and want everybody to be safe." Jordan - "I'm seeing a lot of people who are treating the lockdown as a loss of freedom we enjoyed as Americans. There was a rally in the capital, hundreds of people, maybe even a thousand or more all showed up. Traffic was backed up for a few miles, flags, signs... It has caused a shift in executive orders for sure. It's been incredible to see all the different kinds of people we have in the state of Michigan. We are a people who really enjoy being able to go and do what we want." Cameron - "What lockdown? This is god-damn Michigan. We ain't no bitches (laughs)." For metalheads visiting your village of Edmore, or indeed your nearest city (Grand Rapids?) what sights / attractions could you recommend? Any bars, venues? Dan - "There's really nothing to see out my way (laughs). A lot of the people around here call it Deadmore for a good reason. The nearest attraction is definitely the Soaring Eagle Casino though. Normally they have concerts going on all summer and have a smaller venue inside for the winter. Haven't really spent much time in Grand Rapids though. It's the closest big city to us. I know The Intersection is a pretty sick place and they have big shows at the Van Andel Arena. I've heard good things about Mulligan's Pub as well but I've never been there personally." Do you have any greetings and thanks you wish to send out to friends, fans, family, etc? Dan - "I just wanna say thank you to everyone who has supported us and enjoyed our music or at least given it a listen. We love you guys. Stay safe out there." https://www.facebook.com/IntoTheVoidBandUS/ "Do not think that there was no heavy music in the USSR at all. Groups such as "Aria" and "Master" were prominent representatives of heavy metal and due to the fact that it was difficult for people to get albums of foreign bands, they became incredibly popular." Promising Russian Melodic Death Metal outfit Drops Of Heart are set to unleash their second album "Stargazers" on the 22nd July and arguably is a huge step up from their debut, not just in terms of writing as the band went on to explain, but also the fact they recruited well known Swedish vocalists in Richard Sjunnesson from The Unguided (on "Frost Grip") and Bjorn Strid from Soilwork (on "Starlight"). 12 years have past since the bands inception and with this new album on the horizon, it was only fair for GMA to give the band a grilling... vodka was involved. They divulged about the album writing process, challenges Russian Metal bands face in terms of recognition, touring and networking and how heavy music existed back in the Soviet Union era. Guys you must be excited to drop your 2nd album "Stargazers", what (if anything) was done differently in comparison to "New Hope"? Will the new album be released on vinyl? Is Vinyl popular in Russia? "It’s hard to explain, how much we are excited! Honestly, work on “Stargazers” was fundamentally different in comparison with “New Hope”. When we wrote our previous album, we suffered from a lack of professional experience. We didn’t know exactly how to do this. We tried to blindly imitate a sound of bands that influenced us and didn’t pay enough attention to the arrangements. Now the situation has changed radically. In “Stargazers” we wanted to reach the maximum of songs arrangements, make the whole album diverse and as entertaining for metal fans as it possible. We can’t say anything about vinyl right now, but situation may change in the near future. If we talk about attitude to vinyl in Russia, it’s not as popular as in Europe or the USA, but this market is developing now, in comparison with CD." Obviously COVID-19 has put a halt on a lot of events bands had planned, what events did you have planned that are no longer going ahead? "Of course we planned a tour in support of the album, but the world situation made us stay home and deprived some of us of work." On a greater scale can you tell us what the COVID-19 situation is like in Russia? What have you been doing outside of music in the mean time? "The situation sucks. Not only because the number of infected is growing rapidly but also people's scepticism and dubious decisions of the authorities (the Government didn’t declare a state of emergency and made people stay home without salaries). Some of us work remotely, some stay home and have to wait." Do you feel that Russian Metal has come a long way since the fall of the USSR? Do you know if rock / metal existed during the Soviet era? "Metal in Russia was under a lot of pressure. The censorship of the USSR didn’t allow this genre to fully develop until the second half of the eighties, therefore, after its collapse, the bands had to create everything from scratch. But years passed, globalization did its job, and the genre raised its head. But do not think that there was no heavy music in the USSR at all. Groups such as "Aria" and "Master" were prominent representatives of heavy metal and due to the fact that it was difficult for people to get albums of foreign bands, they became incredibly popular. Unfortunately, there’s no world famous modern metal band from Russia nowadays. It’s really sad and we tried our best to make the world talk about Russian metal scene." Looking towards the back end of 2020 and into early 2021, what plans do you have?; COVID-19 depending. "After release of the album we will promote it online as possible. New merchandise, online live shows, maybe b-sides album. And, most importantly - due to the lack of tours, we plan to to record new songs as soon as possible. We recorded “Stargazers” for 3 years, and during this time we have accumulated a bunch of new material, which we are already eager to record and release." It must be challenging to do a tour of Russia; do such tours exist? Given Moscow is 18 hours away? "This is the biggest problem for beginner bands in our country. Big cities are located at a distance of 500 kilometres or more, and even a small tour can turn into a real adventure, for which new people in the field may simply not be ready. At the same time, problems can carry on if you have already covered this distance - today metal in Russia is going through difficult times, and it is sometimes very hard to gather a sufficient number of people in a not-so-well-known group." For those metalheads visiting your city of Ufa, what sights / attractions could you recommend? Any venues, bars, etc? "Our city is full of Bashkir folk influences and bars with pop-cover-bands, so it’s probably the most difficult question, huh. But we have a really nice historical centre and some really good pubs like “Harat’s” or “Jagger”. By the way, our vocalist Denis brews great beer himself!" Do you have any greetings, thanks, etc that you wish to send out to friends, family, fans etc? "First of all, we want to wish all people in the world to be strong and brave in this hard time. It’s important not to bow down and support each other. And we will try to make you a little happier with our music. Stay metal!" www.facebook.com/pg/dropsofheartmetal |
© 2011-2022
|