 Essex is known for many things, some of them and some bad. It's metal scene is one of the good things and then there's TOWIE (The Only Way Is Essex) which is the worst thing to happen since My Chemical Romance being classed as a metal band. But focusing on the metal scene, it's had the likes of Tides of Virtue, Forged In Black, Sanctorum, Dismanibus, etc grace the fertile soil from Southend and Colchester respectively. However when one speaks of Basildon, one thinks of Depeche Mode, chavs, Basildon Bond paper, Denise Van Outen., etc, and now there is Raze The Void. GMA caught up with the Essex mob to find out how they fared with Bloodstock, the Essex Metal scene, debut EP and plans ahead.  Credits to Down The Barrel. "the title itself 'Obsolescence' covers what the current state of the world really is; the system is obsolete" Raze The Void has only been going a year, were you all in previous bands prior? How did Raze The Void come to be? "We have all been playing together for around with each other for 15 years nearly and just managed to get together and start a band from that after realising we all wanted to start playing and touring and seeing the world. RTV literally came from out of a dustbin a few years before we started playing the scene." The Essex Metal scene seems to be a little quiet at the moment, could you tell us the current state of the scene? "From Essex, apart from it being quiet, to really. There are some amazing acts in and around Essex, but you just have to sift through the venues and have a look out there and see for yourself." Having played Bloodstock, what was your experience like? How did you end up winning a slot? What advice could you give Metal 2 The Masses bands next year who are vying for a slot? "Bloodstock and everyone who we met from it and regarding it were amazing, very supportive and the feedback from everyone and all the reviews have been awesome and extremely positive. For anyone out there who is going to go into it; be serious but have fun. If you believe what you do it the best thing you do, you have fun doing it and you all have fun playing with each then do it, go for it, be the best band you can band! If you doubt anything you say or do or if you're not professional enough or not having enough fun, the crowd will sniff you and not like what they are smelling. They are as much a part of you as you are of them, so be there with them, get them involved. That okay?" As a band are you worried at the lack of local venues with only Chelmsford's The Asylum, Southend's Chinnerys, Harlow's The Square and the Colchester Arts Centre being the sole main ones? "It's not a worry when you can book outside of Essex and in fact, to just book in Essex, from experience, people then just seem to feel like that they will miss that one and go to another one as it's only up the road or whatever. Bra chin out into other places and leaving home has not only proved well for us, but is something that everyone should do and we in fact recommend. The live music scene is dieting but it's not dead."  Outside of music, what other hobbies or interests do you have? "We all work full time and between that and the band; writing, playing, re-writing and down time there isn't a lot between, but some of use do things like cycling, rock climbing, wind surfing, extreme ironing; mainly physical activities. We are all very involved in quizzes and chess and some of us have other music projects going. We are generally very busy." Tell us more about your debut EP, where was it recorded? What does the title mean? "We recorded the EP with one of the most talented and hard working men we have ever worked with who we honestly consider family now, a man named Dan Kerr or Avenue studios; absolute genius! The EP and from that flowing into the upcoming album is all conceptional, revolving around human error, greed, the rising of the underground movement, corruption and the title itself 'Obsolescence' covers what the current state of the world really is; the system is obsolete." What plans do you have for the year ahead? Are there any greetings you wish to send out? "The album is being written literally as this being typed out to you....now. We will continue gigging and getting the RTV name out there to people and then launching the new album along with more media stuff and hopefully some new merch. It's all going UP! Shout out to Quimby, everyone who has helped us get this far, turned up and sung along with us, Nick Plews, Bob from Club 85, Ross, Phil and the boys for all their support and love and physical moves and to Neil- we hope you recover soon. " https://www.facebook.com/RazeTheVoid/
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 Forged In Black are arguably the best thing to come out of Southend since the expansion of London Southend Airport, Phil Jupitus' career taking off and of course (dare we say it) Busted. Forged In Black were originally called Merciless Fail and it was under their former name that they secured a slot on the New Blood Stage at Bloodstock Festival 2012. Forward on a year and Merciless Fail changed their name to Forged In Black after their first EP 'Forged In Black'. Since 2013 Forged In Black have released 1 album - Forged In Black (2013) and 3 EP's, The Tide (2013), Fear Reflecting Fear (2016) and Sinner Sanctorum (2017). Chris 'Stoz' Storozynsk gave GMA the low down on their past success, the current state of the Essex Metal scene, touring plans and their new music video 'Pay The Price'.... be prepared to be Forged In Black.  "The song ['Pay The Price] has an anti-war theme... a concern that world leaders are not thinking of the consequences of their actions." Forged In Black has not stopped working since your Bloodstock appearance, will we see you back at Bloodstock next year? "Hi GMA, Stoz here, and good to speak to you again. We had a fantastic time at Bloodstock 2012 after winning the Metal to the Masses competition. We’d love to return at some point on a bigger stage with our music, and are looking to book up quite a few festivals throughout Europe in 2018 alongside the release of our new album, which we are currently writing. We have just released our newest EP “Sinner Sanctorum” which is available to download on iTunes or purchase via our social media channels." You just released your new music video 'Pay The Price', what has the reception been like? "The reception has been great, lots of people liking and sharing on social media, it was a very well produced video and really hammers the song home. We have released two music videos for songs on our new “Sinner Sanctorum” EP which can be viewed on YouTube and our social media pages." Are you worried about being perceived as politically motivated with this video? "Well, not really. The song has an anti-war theme yes, and a concern that world leaders are not thinking of the consequences of their actions. It’s my observation of the current state of affairs. We have written many songs now about many different themes." Andy Pilkington (Very Metal) created the video, what was it like approaching him? Does the video reflect the song's meaning? "Andy has done a fantastic job on the video and we are all very proud of the result. Our management team put us in contact with Andy and we are glad he had space in his very busy diary to fit us in and work with us on it."  It seems that things are going your way a lot lately, where do you see Forged In Black in 5 years time? "Well I'm sure we will still be forging away on new music and our live shows, but ultimately a record deal would be nice." The Essex metal scene doesn't appear to be as pro-active in recent times, what are your thoughts on this? "Yes unfortunately the Essex scene seems quieter then others, I think because of venues closing and the lack of new young promoters putting shows on, but that is understandable in this current financial climate. There are still some great musicians and bands coming out of Essex though and the talent is still well and truly there waiting for a light to shine on it." Will you be doing a UK tour in late 2017 / early 2018, are you looking to play abroad? "We are currently writing for the new album, which we will be recording in April 2018 and is being produced by Romesh Dodangoda, so all hands are on deck to write some great new stuff, which we’d love to show off in the UK and Europe." Since Tim Chandler left last year, will you look to recruit another guitarist or stick as a four-piece. "Well Tim actually left I think about 2 years ago, and since then we recruited the talents of one fine Mr Chris Bone, who is on our new release “Sinner Sanctorum” and has been playing live with us for some time." 'Sinner Sanctorum' EP is out now https://www.facebook.com/forgedinblacks/  "We knew Bloodstock is the UK’s biggest Metal festival, how could that not be special?" How does it feel to be part of M2TM? Was this your first time in the competition? "When we found out that we were going to be a part of M2TM it gave us a new drive! We thought we wouldn’t even get into the competition let alone make it to the quarter (quinter) finals as we’ve done. We’re loving it, it feels wicked to be apart of it and gives us a chance to get more involved with metal scene and see what other bands are out there." How did imperium come about? And was it plain sailing? "It definitely wasn’t plain sailing to begin with, for a long time we went without a vocalist and bassist and we would just meet up and write songs without any goals in mind other then to enjoy playing fast heavy metal. We were constantly on the lookout for new members but there just seemed to be no one around that wanted to play our style of metal, eventually we had a few auditions but they just weren’t what we were looking for. Ben our vocalist used to watch us jam in the early days as we have known each other from school, we never thought to try him out on vocals at the time and it wasn’t until a while after when we had some auditions going on Ben said he’d try it out!, and he ended up being a perfect match considering never singing before! Last year in September we played our first gig and now we have a new bass player that has stepped the band up again! The momentum keeps building for us and we love it" What makes M2TM and bloodstock so special? Have you been to BOA before? "We knew Bloodstock is the UK’s biggest Metal festival, how could that not be special? M2TM gives bands like us, that no ones heard of, a massive chance at playing and mixing with some of metal’s finest. It’s the most mind blowing thing that could happen to us or any other band in this competition! A few of us have been before and love the vibe, we are mega keen to go together as a band a witness!!" What is your local scene like? (name venues, record stores, bands etc) "Our local scene is limited, sucks to be fair, the best venue is the Fighting Cocks in Kingston near us... great when it's busy but dead when it's dead! Banquet Records in Kingston is a cool record store and we have a few wicked bands knocking about but its dominated by this new screamo metal..... everyone is fantastic at the instruments but I feel like I'm watching football everyone's trying to be the star man! Just do your bit in the band a create something the world will want to hear forever! Not forget.... or to hope they forget." Are you surprised by metal’s global spread? What (If any) bands from outside of the america’s and Europe have you heard of? "Honestly there are some unreal bands out there. That's like not believing in aliens. Australian and Asian metal is seriously dark! I couldn't tell you many by name however as it just isn't our bag. But we know they exist!" What plans does imperium have for the year ahead? "At this point we are fully focused on M2TM and aiming to go as far as we can and we see no reason why we can’t go all the way. Other than that we will continue playing live shows in and around London and have plans in motion to get some of our songs recorded at Powerhouse Studios in Addlestone! Then spread this devastation like warm knife of chocolate butter on a golden brown piece of toast. only to be eaten up by the metal heads, digested and then shat out further onto the rest of the world that doesn't even want to know!" Metal. https://www.facebook.com/ImperiumSound/  Photo Credit: Daniella Beswick Photography
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