There are a number of projects (both music related and not) that I [...]]]> Lately it seems that the only way for a band (or film, or author, or artist) to make it is to promote themselves like crazy. I, for one, am all for a bit of shameless self-promotion, which is why I’m writing this.

There are a number of projects (both music related and not) that I believe need a bit more exposure, and I’m sure that there are many more out there. So, if you in a band trying to get your name heard, making a film, trying to sell your self-published book (or, hell, a traditionally published book!) or whatever, then please leave a comment below with a link to your band or project. My plan is to then try and promote as many of you as I can on here, Facebook and Twitter. Sound good? Of course it does!

To get started, I’d like to point you in the direction of a few of the projects/bands that have really caught my interest… I’ve chosen to do seven because everybody does lists of 5 or 10 and I wanted to be different…

#1 Metal Meowlisha
Two things that are close to my heart are Metal and cats – so this was bound to appeal to me! Metal Meowlisha is a couple of metalheads who really love cats… and take care of more than 130 homeless cats on the streets everyday. Donald Tardy (Obituary) and Heather Tardy are committed to caring for feral cats in more than 20 spots or ‘colonies’ each day, 365 days a year. To donate (either by PayPal or via a Petsmart or Wal-Mart voucher – great for buying cat food!) and to find out more please go to obituary.cc/helpcats.html or send an email to helpcats@obituary.cc

#2 Devilish Impressions
It’s no secret that I’m a MASSIVE fan of Devilish Impressions, so I’m more than happy to help them get a little more exposure. The band are putting together the finishing touches to their forthcoming album, “Simulacra”, and I’ve been lucky enough to hear some tracks from it. AMAZING stuff! If you like your Avant-garde extreme metal, then please support these guys by ‘liking’ their Facebook page, visiting their website, following them on Twitter, ‘liking’ this fan-made Facebook page that’s intended to show Bloodstock how much we want DI to play there and, probably most importantly, buying the album when it’s released and checking them out when they are on tour! Click here to view more Devilish Impressions stuff on Loucifer Speaks.

#3 Indywood Films
If you follow me on Twitter, then you’ve probably seen me talking about this project and retweeting the hell out of the stuff that the project’s mastermind, Ad Lane, posts. Ad Lane / Indywood Films is creating a 100% fan-funded horror film called “Invasion of the Not Quite Dead”. The film is set to go into production this year and, if you want to be a part of zombie history, donate to the project and become a producer (there’s a LOAD of perks tied in with doing this! I’m a ‘producer’ myself!). Visit the website to find out more and to donate and follow them on Twitter.

#4 Spectral Press
I recently received my first chapbook from Spectral Press and it’s a thing of absolute beauty! Spectral Press is a publisher, on a quarterly basis, of very limited edition signed and numbered single story chapbooks in a quality presentation, and devoted to ghostly/supernatural tales. And the occasional novella as well an annual Christmas Ghost Story anthology. Click here to visit the website and click here to ‘like’ them on Facebook.

#5 Misantrof ANTIrecords
This is a site that offers free and, most importantly, LEGAL downloads from some fantastic bands. I owe this site for helping me to discover PLAAG and Episode 13 – two fantastic bands! Interestingly, despite having got PLAAG’s album for free, I have since bought it on CD – just because it’s so good and I wanted to show my support even more. Check out the Misantrof ANTIrecords website here and ‘like’ them on Facebook here.

#6 Spine Extraction
Spine Extraction are one of the hardest working bands when it comes to self-promotion that I have ever come across. They are constantly keeping in touch with their fans and letting us know what they’re up to. Plus, their album is awesome. Here’s a band that’s about to knock the Death Metal world on its head! Want to show your support? Click here for their Facebook, click here for Twitter and click here to buy their album from CDBaby. Oh, and you can click here for more Spine Extraction stuff on Loucifer Speaks.

#7 Saille
Here’s another band that takes self-promotion to a new level and, once again, they have the talent and music to back them up. “Irreversible Decay” is a mindblowing journey through a Symphonic Black Metal soundscape. Click here for their website, click here for their Facebook and click here for their Twitter… and click here for more Saille related stuff on Loucifer Speaks!

If you want to support these projects, then that would be great! It would also be great if you could spread the word about them!

Again, if you want to promote yourself, then please leave a comment in the box below – or send me a tweet (please note: do not send a DM, my app doesn’t always tell me I have them!)…

I’ll be doing another one of these posts real soon with links to a bunch of other projects… so make sure that I know about YOURS!

Rather than blind you with facts and figures [...]]]> I read an article today where the CD’s untimely demise is suggested as a very real possibility. I’ve written about the advantages of physical media over digital many times, but after reading this article I figured that one more post couldn’t hurt.

Rather than blind you with facts and figures (mainly because I don’t have any), I thought I’d approach this from a far more personal angle. Let me get straight to it: I love CDs. I love vinyl too (which reminds me that I really need to get a record player that works). Without sounding like a broken record (pun intended), there’s something special about owning an album in a tangible format. I know I probably sound like a nutcase saying this, but I find that I form an emotional attachment to an album when I own it (rather than just having a download).
A very recent example of this is two albums that I have loved from this year: Imperial Vengeance‘s “Black Heart of Empire” and Spine Extraction‘s self-titled album. Both, while very different, are phenomenal pieces of work and both are albums that should stand the test of time. However, (and as much as it pains me to say because I love Spine Extraction) I feel more of a bond to Imperial Vengeance’s “Black Heart of Empire”. And here’s why…

When Spine Extraction released their debut, I bought it immediately and added the files to my iPod. If a physical version was available at the time (and if it would have arrived at the same time as the download), I would have got it… but I knew that other people would be listening to the album straight-away and I didn’t want to miss out. Anyway, once the files were happily sitting on my iPod, I listened to them and liked what I heard. The music was astoundingly good and tore my face off with the greatest of ease (this is a good thing). So, I was a happy Loucifer Bunny.

However, when Imperial Vengeance’s album was due to come out, I pre-ordered the CD (and the “penny dreadful” style booklet that accompanied it) and awaited its arrival. I avoided all leaks and so the first time I listened to the album was the first time I’d heard any of it. Sitting down, listening to the album, while browsing through that booklet was a fantastic experience. That first listen cemented what was to become a love affair with the album and now I can’t stop listening to it.

The music on each album is very different, so they’re not comparable in that respect, but if I bought a physical copy of the Spine Extraction first, I feel that that I would have a stronger connection to it. Don’t worry folks, I will be rectifying this and buying the Spine Extraction CD at the earliest opportunity if one becomes available… and I suggest you all do the same. Please, people of the interwebs, learn from my mistakes. Hell, I may even treat myself to a t-shirt too…

If CDs (or physical media of all kinds) are to be disgarded in the very near future, I fear that our relationships with albums (and music in general) will be lost. Like the original article mentioned, many people have already become musical scanvengers; only downloading the tracks they want from albums and ignoring the rest. This may be a good way to get rid of the rubbish stuff, but it also means that we’ll be missing out on those hidden gems. How many times have you listened to an album and thought that a seemingly random album track was much better than the track that was put out as a single / on YouTube / on the band’s website?

Basically, my point is this:
I will continue to buy CDs until they stop being manufactured… and then I’ll bitch and moan about the fact that I can’t buy CDs any more. Maybe I’ll start a campaign to bring them back… I do like a good project…

Do yourself a favour and check out the bands mentioned in this article. If you like them, BUY THEIR STUFF!

Want links? We’ve got ‘em:
facebook.com/pages/Spine-Extraction/152390211438377 – buy Spine Extraction album
facebook.com/ImperialVengeance – buy Imperial Vengeance album on CD

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or if you have absolutely no interest in Death Metal at all), [...]]]> I started writing something to post in the Morbid Angel thread on the forum, but it kinda strayed away from the point so I decided to turn it into a bloggy post on here.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or if you have absolutely no interest in Death Metal at all), you’ll probably be aware that Morbid Angel will be releasing a new album, titled “Illud Divinum Insanus”, on 6th June.

I really love Morbid Angel. Admittedly, not as much as I love Obituary, but I do love them… and so I’m really excited about the new album. But, the thing is, I haven’t heard any of the tracks from it (well, apart from about 5 seconds of one – curiousity really did the better of me). The tracks are out there and I could go and listen to them right now if I wanted to, but I don’t want to. This may sound crazy or old fashioned, but I still like to get that ‘release day buzz’.

I’m going to pre-order the album on Friday (aka Pay Day! Woo hoo!) and I’m going to wait for it to drop through my letterbox on the 6th. There’s something about having that first listen to an album that you’ve been waiting for. There’s no need to rush through it and listen to inferior versions of the audio tracks online. When did this kind of thing become a race to hear things first? No, I’d much prefer to wait for the album to be released so them my first listen of it will come when I’ve got the artwork to hand to peruse over, while I embrace the music.

This is the kind of thing that I used to do when I was younger. It didn’t matter if the album was a new release or not. Whenever I bought a new album I’d race home (as I didn’t do my shopping online then) and put it on (all the time treating the CD or record with as much respect as I could muster). Then, for the next 30 minutes – 1 hour (or however long the album happened to be), all that existed was me, the music and the artwork. And, do you know what? It was awesome.

I have to admit that these days, I don’t do that as much. And I think that’s pretty sad. What’s wrong with truly focusing on an album for its duration? What’s wrong with actually taking the time out to enjoy and appreciate it? The answer is: NOTHING! I’m thinking of starting a club and calling it “The Society For Those Who Truly Appreciate Music”. Or perhaps I’ll call it something a little catchier… something with zing. Anyone wanna join me? We could all hang out, listen to music and drink Jack Daniels. I might even throw in some nibbles. I know I’ve won you over with the nibbles…

Now, you may have noticed that the title of this little blog is “Will I be buying the new Morbid Angel album?”. As you can probably guess from my rambling so far, the answer to that is a big meaty ‘yes’. With that said, there was a moment where I thought ‘am I sure I want to do this?’. The reason behind this is, like most people, I read stuff online. And, over the past few months, snippets of information about this album have surfaced. Some through official channels and some from random metalheads who like to post stuff online (people like myself, for instance!). Much of this stuff has left me feeling a little bit sceptical. It would appear that this time around, Morbid Angel have encorporated an industrial / electronic edge to their sound. Personally, I’m not a fan of Industrial Metal (or electronic music as a whole), but I am still willing to give this a fair go. After all, I more than raised my eyebrows when I heard Axl Rose had added a load of industrial stuff to the tracks on “Chinese Democracy”… and that turned out to be one of my favourite albums ever!

I know GN’R and Morbid Angel aren’t really on the same page in terms of genre (in fact, I feel kinda odd about mentioning them in the same breath… or… er… paragraph), but the fact is that many fans could be pleasantly surprised with “Illud Divinum Insanus”. I’ve read a lot of comments from people slagging it off… and this was before many of them had even heard it (hmmm… just like what happened with “Chinese Democracy”…). So, I say, bring on 6th June! If we all listen to it and we hate it, then fair enough – but at least we would have given it a go. It may not reach the heights of “Altars of Madness” or “Blessed Are The Sick” (or, my personal favourite, “Covenant”), but could Morbid Angel EVER top those albums? In many ways I feel that, even if the band produced a complete and utter masterpiece, there would still be those folks out there saying “Well, it’s not as good as ‘Altars…’, is it?”.

So, in answer to my own question – Yes, I will be buying it. I’m just gonna stick to the CD though (or maybe the digipack version… or the ‘star pack’… but I’m still not completely sure what that is!) – unfortunately I don’t have the money to spare on the super-dooper, bells-n-whistles, all-singing-all-dancing version. These are, afterall, difficult economic times. Although, if anyone would like to buy it for me, I won’t complain.

As always, feel free to comment below… or on the forum, Twitter and Facebook.

Admittedly, this particular story has fallen into my lap via a modern form of Chinese Whispers – someone posted a link to it on someone else’s Facebook status, the link went to Blabbermouth and Blabbermouth got the [...]]]> I can’t believe I’m actually writing about Lady Gaga on Loucifer Speaks, but we live in strange times.

Admittedly, this particular story has fallen into my lap via a modern form of Chinese Whispers – someone posted a link to it on someone else’s Facebook status, the link went to Blabbermouth and Blabbermouth got the story from The Mirror (of all places!). So, I really can’t verify the authenticity of it, but – for the sake of this article – I’m going to treat it as fact. Also, I am aware that I’m about a month late to this particular party… but hey, I only just found out about it!

The story goes (please click here to visit the article on Blabbermouth) that Lady Gaga is such a big fan of Iron Maiden that she volunteered herself to be their unofficial and unpaid roadie during a date or two in Florida. Apparently she catered to their every need – fetching drinks, getting food… all that kinda stuff. Below you can see a photo of her with Nicko McBrain (photo from Blabbermouth).

Personally, I’ve never really paid a large amount of attention to Lady Gaga. To me, she is that crazy lady who sings those annoying songs. I have nothing against the craziness, but the songs really grate on me (sorry if any Lady Gaga fans are reading this). But I do think that she is incredibly intelligent and has marketed herself fantastically well. So well, in fact, that she has found herself legions and legions of fans within a relatively short amount of time.

“Why should we care about that?” I hear you cry. Well, we shouldn’t. Not really. But, it may end up working in Metal’s favour a little bit. Due to this little incident, a whole new set of kids (who may, otherwise, just be listening to whatever the charts happen to throw at them) could decide to check out Iron Maiden. Hell, Lady Gaga also talked about Black Sabbath there – maybe they’ll check out them too and realise that Ozzy is more than a reality TV star. Who knows?

Yes, their journey into Metal maybe slightly unorthodox. It’s gonna be odd to ask people how they first got into the genre and have them answer “Because of Lady Gaga”, but does the point of entry really matter? We’ve all gotta start somewhere, right? And, if these kids then find that they have a true passion for it, then that can’t be a bad thing!

I never thought I’d say this, but…. I salute you Lady Gaga!

Wanna comment on this / discuss it further? Use the sexy comment box below! Or, if forum’s are more your kind thing – click here to visit the relevant post on our forum. As always, there’s also Facebook and Twitter.

Apparently, now is the time when we need to vote for things… so here we go: This is the Loucifer Speaks Poll/Survey/Thing for 2010!

This survey will close on the 15th January 2011, and the results will be posted on the site soon after that (probably after I’ve recovered from my Post-New Year’s [...]]]>

Apparently, now is the time when we need to vote for things… so here we go: This is the Loucifer Speaks Poll/Survey/Thing for 2010!

This survey will close on the 15th January 2011, and the results will be posted on the site soon after that (probably after I’ve recovered from my Post-New Year’s Hangover).

As always, please feel free to leave comments below or on our forum

On the 27th October, I caught up with Ryan Roxie over Skype and we discussed a whole bunch of stuff – everything from Roxie 77, Alice Cooper, kids, Spotify, cassettes to things going ‘viral’. I had originally planned to [...]]]>

Ryan Roxie - Photo by: Ulf Magnusson Photography

Once again, I find myself thanking a random piece of technology – Thank you Skype!

On the 27th October, I caught up with Ryan Roxie over Skype and we discussed a whole bunch of stuff – everything from Roxie 77, Alice Cooper, kids, Spotify, cassettes to things going ‘viral’. I had originally planned to edit the audio track down to something around 10 minutes long, but after talking to Ryan Roxie for over 40 minutes, I realised this wasn’t going to happen. I tried – I really did. I cut HUGE chunks out of the interview, but every time I did that it felt like I was extracting teeth without anaesthetic – it was too painful. Too many funny, interesting and insightful things were said to cut anything out. So, I was left with a dilemma – I had a compelling 40 minute interview, but I knew that these days no-one really has the time to sit down and check out an interview for that long (especially if you’re having a sneaky look at the site while you’re at work/school!), so I decided to transcribe it… but that didn’t seem like quite enough… so I’ve added snippets of audio (added to YouTube videos so you can easily share them with your friends, neighbours, etc) as well. One interview – 2 mediums…. There is, after all, two sides to every story (sorry for the pun, but I couldn’t resist it).

Anyway, that’s more than enough from me… ENJOY…

Lou: Hi, how are you?

Ryan Roxie: I’m doing well. You can see the crying baby, right? [referring to his avatar on Skype] That was my daughter when she was like 3 months old, but for some reason that picture sticks… it makes people laugh.

Lou: How old is she now?

Ryan Roxie: Now she’s 5 years old, but she’s 5 years old going on about 17! We had about an hour and a half talk last night, like an adult talk. I could believe it! 5 years old and she’s keeping me up until about nine thirty at night talking about every single drama at her nursery school. And there is drama that goes on in nursery school apparently. I was totally unaware and I was totally oblivious to it and now I know all of the inner goings on at a pre-school [laughs]

Lou: It’s like a TV show!

Ryan Roxie: It’s actually more dramatic! I’m telling you it’s like the House of Rehab or Lost or whatever those shows are… but this is way more. This is five year olds and four year olds starting to play the game already. It’s weird how it works. If boys like girls, instead of going up to them and actually asking them out they actually push them. It’s a little bit caveman! [laughs]….

Lou: When she is 16 or 17 she’s gonna kill you for putting that photo up!

Ryan Roxie: [laughs] You know when she’s 16 years old she’s going to have so many more photos that she’s put up herself already! She likes to take pictures all the time. She’s already taken photos of her and her brother being completely nuts… like dressed up as cats and stuff… so, yeah, it probably won’t be my fault… But I’m prepared! And… c’mon, a daughter is God’s way of paying back every guitar player [laughs].

Lou: You recently put a track on your site called “When You See God”. Is there a story behind it?

Ryan Roxie: Well it’s one of those really heartfelt songs that for a long time I was actually a bit too much of a coward to put it out because it’s been one of those songs that I wrote many years ago, but I’ve been refining it ever since. I kinda think that this 2010 version is as close as I’ll get to where I want the song to be. Sometimes, the reality of it is, that certain songs come in two minutes and other songs come in a matter of ten years. Some songs take a long time to develop until you say “yes, this is the way I want it” and some songs never even make it to that point. I’m still developing some songs that were ideas over 15 years ago. So it just depends… but this is one of those ones that I always felt was really close to my heart. But I was a bit trepidacious to put it out at first because I didn’t want it to be conceived as being ‘anti patriotic’. I come from the United States where there was a time a few years ago where, if you didn’t support the government or the government’s decision, then all of a sudden you supported something else, and you didn’t support the troops… which couldn’t be farther from the truth. Especially from my point of view because I played for so many of these guys right before they were going off to Iraq, or when they had breaks on their tours of duty… they’d come to an Alice Cooper show or they’d come to a Roxie 77 show just for entertainment. I actually played for these guys and there was a couple of shows I played in Virginia right off the base camp…. and it was a week later that some of those guys were going off to Iraq and that was like their last Friday night out and who knows if all of them came back? I hope they did. So I felt really close to the troops when I wrote the song and I tried to see it through their eyes. It is a song about basically flying down from Heaven and dropping into Hell… in a place that you don’t wanna be. You don’t wanna be there anyway. And , yes, you’re fighting for freedom or yes, you’re fighting for what somebody tells you you’re fighting for… but at the end of the day who’s position is it to play God? I don’t know if it’s any of our positions to say we’re God or to act like we’re God… or to make those decisions and I think it’s a pretty hard decision to take another person’s life. I feel a lot for these guys that have had to go through that.
It’s not one of my lighter songs, let’s be honest! It’s not that it’s not hopeful, because it is hopeful. That is sort of a tie-in thing with my songs – I try to tie in a sense of hope. There’s enough hopelessness and there’s enough darkness going on in the world today. The music that I write, for the most part, is supposed to be 3 minutes and 30 seconds to take you away and take you to another place. But, there are certain songs like this [“When You See God”] that will hopefully take you to a place where you think about something for a second and maybe come up with a solution yourself. If you come up with a solution yourself or if you come up with some sort of idea on how to change things then the song has done its magic… and that’s what it’s about.

Lou: What sort of feedback have you received for it so far?

Ryan Roxie: So far… everyone appreciates the fact that it was just me and an acoustic guitar singing a heart-felt song with some lyrics that made them think… and it’s one of those things where people have decided to take it upon themselves to promote the song and tell their friends. It’s exactly what I wanted. The goal of the song was for this to be one of those songs that maybe catches on not right away, but builds up into something that 6 months, a year, 2 years from now where people regard the song as something that was important. I really do think that it’s an important song and I don’t usually talk about Roxie 77 songs as being important because I’m realistic, and know at the end of the day we’re entertainers and if we start to take ourselves too seriously or get too political then no-one else will take us seriously. I tread lightly on the fact that I think it’s an important song because at the end of the day, hey – if it was different lyrics then it would be regarded as something else. I still think it would be a nice melody and a catchy pop song.

Lou: On your website you’ve got the video for the song. Has anyone sent in their own versions of the video?

Ryan Roxie: I actually have our Roxie 77 team going through it now. There has been a couple versions that have been sent in and they’re going though them and seeing if everything’s legit and the footage that they use isn’t going to completely get us in trouble! If does, hey, maybe it’s even more controversy, who cares?! But yeah, there have been a few that will come up in the future and, like I said, you’re more than welcome to download the song for free and you have my blessing to use it in your own video and send it to me and I’ll put it right up alongside all of the other videos that are out there for the song.

Lou: You mentioned downloading for free there and at some point all of the tracks from your current album, “Two Sides To Every Story”, have been made available as free downloads. What made you want to go down that route?

Ryan Roxie: Because at this point we’re almost back to square one with music. The musician has always been the guy where it’s like “oh man, it’s not fair these big companies are making all the money and we make zero money” and it’s like well, our only way to actually seize back and get back some of the power is to say “y’know what? Have the music!”. It’s our marketing tool now. It’s our promotion. But when you come to the show, you will buy a t-shirt if you like the band and you will buy a ticket to the show. You’ll support us in one way or another. So… even if it was downloadable and we were making money, say 99 cents for a song, when it comes down to this person getting their piece of the pie and this person getting their other piece of the pie, it really adds up to not very much. The idea of giving my songs away with a conscious-free download, and that was the concept that I came up with, was why not give the fan or the listener the best possible version of your work for them to appreciate and, hopefully, for them to turn someone else onto it.

I’m the old school guy that wants to sell a tangible CD that you can hold and touch and that’s all in the works… it’s gonna come out… but 99% of people today, even if they do buy a CD, they stick it in their computer and put it onto their iPod and then the CD goes onto the shelf never to be seen again. I’d much rather have the songs go directly to their iPod, you get them for free, but then when they want to support the band they can buy a t-shirt that they can wear and people can actually see it. Or you buy some kind of merchandise and people actually can see what band you’re supporting. That’s why, to me, songs now are escapism for three and a half minutes and they’re also a really good way to market your own brand – especially if you’ve been around for as long as I have! I’m one of those guys that you might never have heard of my name Ryan Roxie, but I’ve been around for a while and I’m not hoping to go away any time soon! I’ve still got a lot of things in the works – a lot of bands that I’m working with, and a lot of projects that I’m working with too, so hopefully I can be around in this scene for a while. I think you have to adapt to the way that the musical environment is and right now people are accustomed to not paying for music [laughs]. Unfortunately that’s one of the drawbacks of the Internet. But, that might be a con, but the pro is I have a million more people… For instance, this song “When You See God”, 10 years ago or 15 years ago when all this stuff was in its infancy, it would have been much harder to release a song the way I did and have it be so universally known so quickly.
I hate to use those really common tags like something going ‘viral’ or whatever, because it sounds like something I used to catch at the Rainbow Bar & Grill! I don’t wanna get anything viral! [laughs] But now you kinda want stuff viral, y’know! You want things to go viral…. but let me tell you, in my day, hanging out in Los Angeles, you didn’t want anything viral – it was bad! [laughs] But now it’s a good thing. I actually think that with all of the bitching and moaning that the artists have about not being able to get paid because of Internet, it’s because of the Internet that all of these artists are able to hang around and still have this communication and relationship with their fans. I still have contact with fans and people who listened to my first album with Electric Angels… and they’re fans now of all of the bands I’ve been in right up to Roxie 77. Hopefully they’re still fans! [laughs]

I’m just curious, how did you find out about my music?

Lou: A friend of mine actually gave me the Dad’s Porno Mag CD and “Peace, Love and Armageddon”. [Incidentally, it’s a friend that I’ve lost touch with – please feel free to drop me a line if you see this!]

Ryan Roxie: So you learned about it through the old school method of a tangible CD? It wasn’t a file at that point?

Lou: Nope, it was actually CDs.

Ryan Roxie: I salute you for being old school! [laughs] It wasn’t a cassette though!

Lou: No, not that old school! Not vinyl either!

Ryan Roxie: Cassette’s the real old school. I was just talking about that to a friend. Vinyl’s one of those things that’s so classic that everybody wants to bring it back, but I don’t think anyone’s talking about bringing something back on cassette! We forget so quickly how much the cassette tape was so much a part of our lives for so many years. I mean, for so many years the only you could listen to music in car was if you had a cassette player!

Lou: Are you gonna bring it back?

Ryan Roxie: Absolutely not! Cassettes are horrible! [laughs] I might package a zip drive or whatever it is into cassette packaging. I love packaging! But, c’mon, you have to roll with the changes and if someone offers you a better and easier way to do something then you shouldn’t just stick to your old ways just because they’re your old ways. Like I said, I’m probably one of the last rock ‘n’ rollers who is able to say that they’ve made records on every format possible. I mean, I made it on big old magnetic two inch tape, and it’s gone through all of the different phases of digital recording so I’ve been able to make albums on every format possible and I do still prefer actually doing drums and some amount of basic tracks on tape. It does give a certain thickness to it and a certain breathability… a certain airiness to the sound. But, c’mon, our ears our accustomed to hearing things out of iPhone speakers and how much hi-fi is really there? [laughs]

The most bizarre thing is that when we listen to music in our own private setting our ears are sort of downgrading because now we listen to it on either computer speakers, or we listen to it on iPhone speakers or whatever it is… but then when we go to a concert the sound quality has got so much better. Now if we go to a live concert we almost expect to, no – we demand it actually, that it sounds as good as the record… which in my day, back when I started playing live shows, we were lucky if you could even hear any separation between the musicians and the feedback and everything. The live sound has changed so much over the years. It’s quite a weird concept. Now at a live show we demand real hi-fi clarity and we not so much like that when it comes to our own personal listening. Psychology!

Lou: What do you use to listen to music on at home?

Ryan Roxie: Well, I’m actually lucky that I have a pair of studio monitors that I have hooked up. I only have them hooked up because I think I’m too cheap to actually go out and buy a really nice stereo! [laughs] But, my studio monitors are hooked up to my Mac. And there’s a thing called Spotify out here… I don’t know if you guys have it yet, but it was invented here in Sweden, and it’s one of those revolutionary things that’s gonna change the way we listen to music and the way we enjoy music and I actually love it. I do listen to it through a set of studio monitors and it sounds really nice.

Lou: As well as the conscious-free downloads you mentioned earlier, you also have the Split the Profit downloads. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Ryan Roxie: Yeah, the conscious-free download is a way to make the listener not feel guilty at all about downloading my songs. I want you to download them, I don’t want you to feel like you’re doing anything wrong. If you feel like ‘you know what, I want to contribute to Roxie 77, I wanna donate something to this project”, what I’ve done is this thing called splitting the profits. So anything that you donate… so basically, if you buy one of the songs – I think 77 cents is the minimum… I love the numerology of it… but a lot of people do it for a lot more than that – I take the whole amount and I split it in half and give half of it to charity and the other half we take and put it back into the band. So far it’s been very successful. The three charities that we work with have all got donations on a regular basis and that’s Doctors Without Borders, The Art of Elysium that provides music for children in hospitals in the Los Angeles area and then the third one is the Love, Hope, Strength Foundation which is a cancer foundation and it was set up by the lead singer of The Alarm. So it’s working out well so far.

Lou: Do you have any idea on how much you’ve made for those charities?

Ryan Roxie: I really don’t. I mean, if I said that it was in the thousands range then maybe that would be ok. The thing is we’re not at the point where we’re raking in tonnes of money, but 50% is going to the charities and we hope to keep it going. The whole idea of Splitting the Profits and Conscious-Free download is to inspire, hopefully, a bigger artist like someone who sells millions of copies to do the same thing… and I can just imagine if some sort of hip hop artist or a really big pop artist was to do the same exact concept the amount of revenue that would be generated through something like that. My small rock band Roxie 77 is doing its part. I hope that in the future it keeps growing and growing, but at this point it serves as an example and an inspiration for other bands.

Lou: So hopefully someone else will pick it up.

Ryan Roxie: We can only hope, we can only hope. That’s the thing, it has to start somewhere. If you have a good idea you should try to implement it, instead of just saying “that’s a good idea” and then not testing it. I came up with a lot of ideas over the past couple of years and I actually implement them. One was the album title for this last Roxie 77 album “Two Sides To Every Story”. We made a 12 song album and recorded it electric, the way my rock band would record it, and then I took the exact same songs with the exact same words and we did acoustic versions of each and that doesn’t mean just breaking down the song and doing the same chord structure – it means going for different arrangements. The concept was that to everything there’s always two sides to every story and I wanted the music to show that. Every song I wanted the listener to hear two different sides.

Ryan Roxie - Photo by: Fredrik Etoall Photography

Lou: Out of all the songs on the album, which is your favourite done both electrically and acoustically?

Ryan Roxie: Wow, that is a very hard question for a guy like me to answer because they’re all kinda like my children. I know it sounds clichéd to say that [laughs]… Alright, they’re all like my illegitimate children! One thing that was really cool that I can sort of relate the story to something that Alice [Cooper] told me a while ago, if I use the whole children reference, was when I had my son, Lennon, and we were about to have our daughter named Natasha Grace, I actually asked Alice “I’m gonna have a second kid and I’m really worried that I’m not going to be able to love them the same. I’m always gonna love the first one a little bit more or I’m gonna love the second one more. I’m confused.” And he said “You know what? I have 3 kids, Roxie, and I honestly love them all the same”. It’s really true. I don’t choose my son or my daughter. I don’t say, “I like this one more”… there’s certain things that they do that can annoy you more or less than the other [laughs], but when it comes to overall love you love them exactly the same… and if I take that back to the song reference, it’s really hard for me to choose . I put them on the album because, in their own way, they are special little children and they’re stories – each one of them holds something. I can tell you that the one that kinda always makes me feel good both electric and acoustically, because they’re so different in versions but I enjoy listening to both versions back-to-back, is “The Question”. Because “The Question” is one of those songs that, to me, it’s just such a straight-ahead, Oasis-y, rock song when we play it electrically, but then when you take the acoustic version of that, it all of a sudden becomes some sort of Carole King / James Taylor sort of singer/songwriter vibe. I honestly like both versions just as much.

Lou: That was a big answer!

Ryan Roxie: [laughs] There’s gonna be a lot of editing on that one! Sorry about that! I think that if you’re looking for a short interview you should probably ask me those questions like “What’s your favourite colour?”

Lou: [laughs] What is your favourite colour?

Ryan Roxie: Silver and black! [laughs] I’m actually going through my “white phase”. Everything in my apartment is white, my couch, my furniture, my speakers, my TV even, my table. So I’m going through that weird – I don’t know if it’s weird – I think everyone goes through it. You kinda feel like if everything’s white and clean in your personal life it must be really clean and together inside your head. I’m not sure if that’s the truth! [laughs] I’m not sure if that’s the truth at all! I must ask my white iPhone…

Lou: You’ve mentioned Alice a bit today, do you still speak to him?

Ryan Roxie: Actually, yeah. Not that long ago, Alice Cooper came into town and Roxie 77 opened up the shows… it was actually just last year. So we had a good long talk then… and I just found out that recently he finally got that well deserved nomination to go into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, so I sent him an email… but I didn’t send it to him because he is obviously so old school that he doesn’t have an email address! But I sent it to his wife because I know that’s the best way to reach Alice. I sent her an email and I congratulated him and he was very proud of the fact that he did it. And he should be. It’s one of those things that’s been coming for a long time and there’s no-one that I think deserves it more than him because he really has influenced so many rock ‘n’ roll artists.

Lou: Who has been the biggest influence for you?

Ryan Roxie: I would definitely say as far as overall Rock ‘n’ Roll guru and big brother I never had, it’s gotta be Alice. He’s taught me not just about music and how to sell a song, he’s taught me how to sort of make a living in the music business as well… even after [I was with] Alice Cooper. I’ll always have his name on my shoulder as one of those guys that I was very proud to jam with and it’s an honour to have played with Alice Cooper and I’ll always have that… but at the same time I’ve been trying my best to make my own legacy and make my own name for myself through the music that I’ve been doing. He’s the one that taught me how to use your own brand and make the most out of what you do, because if you think about it, with Alice there’s so many people that know him from so many different genres – some people know him as a golfer, some people know him as a radio host, some people know him as a 70s rocker, some people know him as a 80s rocker…

Lou: Or even an actor.

Ryan Roxie: Yeah! And an actor! I’m just trying to be known now as a… er… ballet dancer! [laughs] No, I haven’t got into that yet, but I’m a hell of a stripper and hopefully known as one of those guys that always brings out the best in whatever he associated with – whether it’s a band, whether it’s a TV show… y’know, the current TV show that I’m developing out here in Sweden, or whether it’s something completely different. I always want the people that follow me to know that I’m involved in something that’s quality… and I think with the artists and the people who I have played with so far and the things that have done have kept a pretty high standard of quality… and I’m happy about that.

Lou: So what’s the TV show you’re working on?

Ryan Roxie: It’s called “The Big Rock Show with Ryan Roxie” and it’s in development now and we’ve been developing it for a little while. It started off a few years back as a podcast, but then in 2010 I got this really good idea to turn it into a TV show. I didn’t realise how hard it is to actually develop a TV show! [laughs] But I’ve got it all together – I work with a film company, a really good producer, a really good director and we have a concept down and I’m really hoping that in early 2011 it will be premiered and after that we can continue to do it and hopefully start within Sweden and Scandinavia and then spread out through Europe. Then hopefully we can make that jump over to the States and the rest of the world. Think of us as sort of like the Herpes virus, it has to start somewhere! [laughs] But then pretty soon we can catch on all over the world.

Lou: We’ve gone back to being ‘viral’ again now!

Ryan Roxie: See! That’s called a tie-in! And if you’re a stand up comedian everyone knows about a tie-in – you have to bring back that first joke to the end of your set. Wow! I know too much about stand up comedy. [laughs]

Lou: You could always go into stand up comedy later.

Ryan Roxie: Well, I’ve always said that the only job that’s harder than being a musician is being a stand up comic. At least with being a musician, you’re there with 3 or 4 other guys and the whole audience hates you, at least you can look back at the stage and know that you’re all together. But if you’re bombing as a stand up comedian… OUCH!

Lou: Do you have any plans to bring Roxie 77 over to the UK in the near future?

Ryan Roxie: Yeah! Because of the extensive touring I did over the years with Alice, I always felt a very close relationship with the UK. We’ve had a lot of Sick Things people come and help promote Roxie 77. Si Haley, the CEO and the owner of Sick Things UK, has done such a great job with taking Roxie 77 under his wing. Anybody that wants to help out Roxie 77 – I think it’s a worthy band! It’s a band worth helping. I think we have a really good time when we play and a good message to put out to people… and when people see us, I think you always leave satisfied. I sound like a sex cream or something! [laughs] It sounds like some sort of lube!

Lou: Do you have any final thoughts for this interview?

Ryan Roxie: Well, you said that perhaps you’re gonna edit this down to 10 minutes… So my final thoughts are – good luck! And, if you do get one quote or one soundbite in, I want everyone to know that with Roxie 77 you are invited to come into our world, and be a part of our world. It’s not that we want you to like stay in the background and not become involved. We want you to become involved and I think we play music that invites you in. Whether it’s songs like “When You See God” that will hopefully make you think and get you involved in that respect, or there’s other songs like “Go It Alone” or “The Question” or “Choice” that will definitely make you shimmy and shake, move side to side, jump up and down, dance like a white guy or whatever you wanna do! We try to right songs for the waist down – “Give Me Some Groove” is a good example of that. But we want you to be involved, be part of the show and hopefully be part of our world and don’t be afraid to talk to us and get in touch with us. The best way is through Roxie77.com.

Lou: Excellent! Thanks for your time!

Ryan Roxie: Thank you so much for the interview. I wasn’t planning on talking so much, but that’s the problem when people don’t just ask me about my favourite colour. [laughs].. Or “tell us a crazy bus story” or “tell us a crazy road story”. I’m glad there was none of those questions because I really don’t have any crazy road stories or bus stories… and if I did I’d write a book and ruin a bunch of lives and I don’t wanna do that!

roxie77.com

I originally found out about Massive Slavery through a forum called It’s All About Music (please feel free to check it out!) and I soon found myself listening to their album, “Global Enslavement”, over and over again. It seemed only right that I should catch up with the band’s [...]]]>

I originally found out about Massive Slavery through a forum called It’s All About Music (please feel free to check it out!) and I soon found myself listening to their album, “Global Enslavement”, over and over again. It seemed only right that I should catch up with the band’s frontman, Jon “The ProF” St-Pierre and get him to answer a few questions…

Lou: Please can you tell me who is in the band?

Jon: Jon “The ProF” St-Pierre – Vocals
Joel St-Amant – Guitars
Marc-André Barrette – Bass
Pierre-Alexandre Mercier – Drums

Lou: Have there been any line-up changes since you started?

Jon: No, we’re the original line up since the beginning of the band in the winter of 2009.

Lou: Were you in any other bands before Massive Slavery?

Jon: Joel was a member of melodic death metal band Descend Into Nothingness, Marc-André pass a couple of years with Montreal’s Paroxysm and Pierre-Alexandre also share the drum kit with fellow brutal death core band Decrepity.

As for myself, I spend a couple of year in some projects but nothing serious.

Lou: Which bands/musicians have influenced you?

Jon: The most interesting fact about Massive Slavery is that everyone in the band came with a very different background in influence and musical style. I think it helped the band to touch a lot of influences and create an album that can reach a very large range of fans.

For myself, I’m more into the modern Metalcore/Deathcore scene, and right now I’m really down with bands such as Despised Icon, Born Of Osiris, Beneath the Massacre and Parkway Drive.

Lou: How long have you each been playing your respective instruments (or singing)? How long do you practice each day?

Jon: I’ve sung in metal bands for about 6-7 years. The most of the time, I practice in my car when I go to work, it’s a good way to get pumped up!

Lou: Your album, “Global Enslavement”, is fantastic and has been available for people to buy for some time. I understand that the band only formed in the winter of 2009, it seems amazing that such a high quality album was written and recorded in such a short time. What made you want release a full-length album so quickly?

Jon: We were really pumped up when we have hit the studio. The last four months before have been very productive and we wanted to record the album quickly, because the momentum and the intensity was really high. Everyone in the band was ready to make a statement with the first album so the energy was in all the time. We have take a month to track the album with Yannick (January 2010) and 2 months later he was ready to be release. It went really fast!

Lou: What sort of feedback have you received about it so far?

Jon: The feedback has been generally awesome! We got some reviews from around the world in French, English, Spanish, German, Russian and more. I think our album has make a good wave into the metal world and we are very happy with the general comments about “Global Enslavement”.

Lou: Are you pleased with the album? Is there anything you would want to change about it?

Jon: We are very pleased with the final result of Global Enslavement, sure there’s some little details that can have been modified, but in general we think everything went like we wanted.

Lou: What is your favourite track from it and why?

Jon: It’s a tough choice, but my personal favorite track on the album is “Shade of Corruption”. I think this is the most intense and also the most aggressive song of the album. But songs like “Destroy, Rebuild, Repeat” and “Humanity’s Last Hope” came very close to the top song for me.

Lou: The album is a concept album of sorts – What made you want to write about the subjects featured in the album’s lyrics?

Jon: “Global Enslavement” is a semi-concept album about the epic failure of modern society. The whole album can be described as a reflection about some of the worst part of our history, with theme like mass media disinformation, the enslavement created by the explosion of new technology and also the rise and fall of all kind of religion. Each song is a reflection or a social critic about some massive issues of modern civilization.

Lou: How did the deal with Maple Metal Records come about?

Jon: I think it was just a good timing between us and them. At the beginning, we wanted to stay independent and work out our own things. We made a lot of promotion online for our band and also for the independent release of the album with a couple of press kit and stuff like that. John Belrose (MMR’s owner) found our MySpace page one day and contacted us right away to work out a deal. We have agreed on something that is very good for both of us and that’s why we inked with MMR.

Lou: How did you get Yannick St-Amand onboard to produce the record?

Jon: Yannick was an easy choice because he already worked with some of the guys older projects like Descend Into Nothingness and Decrepity. He knows what kind of music we want to put on CD and we have a great relationship with him. Plus, he made an awesome job with bands like Despised Icon and Beneath the Massacre. And he’s an awesome producer so we were very lucky to have the chance to work with this guy.

Lou: Thanks to a number of sites on the Internet (including itsallaboutmusic.net) the band is starting to become known in a variety of countries. Do you have any plans to tour outside of Canada?

Jon: Not right now, we all have day jobs and family. At first, we make music to have fun. We are more focusing on the Canadian market first, for geographical reasons, but also because we won’t stay far away from home for a long time. But we don’t know what’s gonna happen next, we clearly want to tour outside of Canada one day, but right now it’s not one of our objectives.

Lou: Which bands would you like to go on tour with?

Jon: Personally, I’ll love to go on tour with bands like : Hatebreed, All That Remains, In Flames, Born Of Osiris, Trivium and many more!

Lou: What is the metal scene like in Canada? Can you recommend any bands for us to check out?

Jon: Canadian scene is doing great, especially in the province of Quebec, the French speaking province of Canada. The local scene here is very cool and there’s a great friendship between the bands. So we strongly recommend band like: Archons, Cryptik Howling, Decrepity, Abitabyss, Insurrection, Derelict Vortex and there’s so many more.

Lou: I mentioned the Internet very briefly in a previous question, but I’d like to go into a little more depth with it. Do you think that the positive aspects of the Internet (such as being able to get your music out to a larger number of people) outweigh the negative aspects (such as illegal downloading)?

Jon: Without internet, no one would have known about Massive Slavery. 90% of our fans have been reached by internet with stuff like MySpace, Facebook, presskit, online add and a lot more. We try to use internet as a positive method to get us known worldwide. Illegal downloading is a problem but at the same time, if we want to reach new fans, we need to past forward this. So yes the positive effects are way better than the negatives ones.

Lou: What will Massive Slavery be doing next? More writing/recording? Touring?

Jon: Right now we’re working on our first music video. The shooting is going to be made on October 23-24 with producer Chad Archibald from Black Fawn Films (Eyes set to Kill, Arise and Ruins, Farewell to Freeway) and we will release the video at the end of November. We’re also looking for some gigs in Canada to finish the year strong.

Lou: I’d like to thank you again for answering my questions. The final words in this interview are yours! Please feel free to take this opportunity to say anything you like to the readers of Loucifer Speaks – anything at all! Cheers!

Jon: We invite everyone who want more informations on Massive Slavery to visit our Myspace at : myspace.com/massiveslavery and to join our Facebook page at : http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/MassiveSlavery/205503389299

Also, be sure to check out for our first music video for “Humanity’s Last Hope” out in November. The same song will also be available on the Rock Band Network through Rock Gamer Studios by the same time!!

Thanks a lot for your support and interest toward Massive Slavery, we appreciate it a lot!

We raise our horns high to all your readers!!

myspace.com/massiveslavery
facebook.com/#!/pages/MassiveSlavery/205503389299

All kinds of Metal, beer, dark elves, orcs, demons, epic war, ancient books…

Florida is probably best known in the metal world for its Death Metal exports, but Imperial Conquest have proved with both “The Victorious Arise” and “Omnipotence” that Florida also does Black Metal fantastically well.

The band, consisting of [...]]]>

All kinds of Metal, beer, dark elves, orcs, demons, epic war, ancient books…

Florida is probably best known in the metal world for its Death Metal exports, but Imperial Conquest have proved with both “The Victorious Arise” and “Omnipotence” that Florida also does Black Metal fantastically well.

The band, consisting of Titannus on vocals, Lord Tartarus on rhythm guitar, Melkor on lead guitar, Lokust on bass and Cerberus behind the drums, is one of the few lucky bands to have escaped the curse of line-up changes that plagues so many other bands.

“Imperial Conquest has been going full force for about two years now” explains Melkor. “Titannus & Tartarus have been dabbling with the concept for quite some time before that. We’ve been doing a steady stream of shows for over a year now. Unlike a lot of bands, we happen to be one of the fortunate ones to not have line-up issues, as we’re all on the same page and are like brothers to each other. We’ve only had one line-up change, which is when Cerberus came into the band. We needed somebody who could conjure blast beats from the underdark, and well, he fit the bill quite well.”

I recently reviewed the band’s latest release, “Omnipotence”, and I have to admit that I found it relatively difficult to describe the band’s music. Yes, ‘Black Metal’ pretty much covers it if you want a general description, but I think we can go a bit deeper than that. Melkor offered the following description:

“We all like to call it Melodic Black Metal. We’re not as grim as regular black metal, not as symphonic as symphonic metal, not as chaotic as death metal, not as melodic as the Gothenburg-type bands, but we seem to have a nice blend of all of that. This is basically a result of the variety of tastes each of us have, and our contrasts make song-writing pretty fun.

Lord Tartarus came up with the name [Imperial Conquest] long time ago. And everyone felt that it represents the idea behind our music. And that it to conquer all and to leave no prisoners.”

“Omnipotence” is a beast of a record and is now available to buy online. Not only did the record please this particular reviewer, but the band also seem to be pretty happy with it too.

Melkor explained the process of getting the “Omnipotence” recorded to perfection:

“It was long nights of writing keyboards, and long days of recording, recording, recording. Recording is always an awesome experience overall, but the suspense of having to wait for the final product is hard! Overall, the album took longer than planned, but on the other hand, we achieved exactly what we wanted and have no desire to change anything. There are a couple parts we’re already playing faster than how we recorded though.

It seems that we’ve pretty much out did ourselves this time. All we’ve been hearing is how much of an improvement it is over “The Victorious Arise”. We worked our asses off too, so we’re glad people like it. People have been commenting on all sorts of aspects of its sound and they seem to like the diversity of black metal that’s on that album. We’re a Tampa black metal band, which as you very well know, from ’89 on, there was and still is mostly death metal here. So I’d imagine something like “Omnipotence” floating around would catch people’s attention.

We all have our favorites [from “Omnipotence”]. I think the band collectively likes “Omnipotence” and “Reclaim the Throne of the Usurper” the most. “Omnipotence” is just so well done, polished, and sounds so good. Meanwhile, “Reclaim…” is just fucking crazy.”

Both the band’s music and album art seem to work from the same sort of theme. Melkor told me where a band like Imperial Conquest gets its inspiration from:

“All kinds of Metal, beer, dark elves, orcs, demons, epic war, ancient books…”

Vocalist Titannus created the artworks for both records and told me what each one represents:

“Well on “The Victorious Arise” our concept is to incarnate this conqueror that starts to eliminate all his enemies with war, battles and demonic conjurations. That EP ends with our character being the ruler of his world. On “Omnipotence” our guy now wants to exterminate the gods of his worlds and embarks on a cataclysmic campaign. Travelling from dimension to dimension eradicating the gods of those worlds and becoming the ultimate power of the universe.”

The vocals on “Omnipotence” really caught my attention. Its no secret that I wish that I could sing, growl or screech with some degree of skill, so I was keen to find out Titannus’ secret…

“To tell you the truth, for the recording I was drinking beer and honey. The honey worked out awesome plus the mix with the beer will give you a massive buzz.”

The guys in Imperial Conquest have been playing their respective instruments since childhood and the band itself has been existence for around two years. Melkor offered the following advice to any aspiring bands and musicians:

“I could say “practice”, this, and that, like most people. But I personally believe it all comes down to ambition. If playing music is truly what you like to do, everything else will come naturally. You’ll naturally want to play at least an hour a day, endlessly search for music, go to shows, want to join bands, and all of the other things that shape a musician. And of course, study the greats. Listen to a wide variety of music. That last one might be the most important of all. Not all music is technically demanding, but it has to sound interesting, tasteful, and fresh, no matter what.

Well I personally got into metal through Black Sabbath. I got into extreme metal through Slayer, a common gateway drug that leads to a lifelong addiction to all forms of music heavier than thrash. Generic story, I know. Interesting metaphor nonetheless. As for wanting to be in a band, I think every musician fantasizes about doing it. Sharing a common interest with a group of musicians and collectively creating music of your own is the pinnacle of musician-hood. There’s also no denying the desire to stand in the shoes of your idols and do what they do.”

I received my review copy of “Omnipotence” as a collection of MP3 files. However, I don’t know if it’s because they’re nice and shiny, but I’ve got a thing about collecting CDs… so I was over the moon when Titannus told me that “Omnipotence” is available on CD as well…

“Definitely! Feel free to use our PayPal email: imperialconquest@yahoo.com it’s only 8$.

Just pure intensity. Drums hammering the gates of the underworlds, guitars slicing through the crowd’s veins and vocals from the farthest corner of Hades.

The band’s music has a real cinematic theme to it at times, so I asked Melkor which movie Imperial Conquest would like to create the soundtrack to… y’know, if they had the choice!

“It would have to be something dark and epic at the same time. Lord of the Rings would be awesome. Sauron has the tendency to want to achieve Omnipotence. There’s a riff in “Where the Portals Intertwine” that reminds me of Nazguls flying low over Mirkwood for some reason. The timpani’s here and there remind me of laboring orcs. We have a dragon logo. Our music is all about grandiose scope, an epic battle aura, bleakness, and beauty. Lord of the Rings would fit the bill quite nicely.

Not to mention Smeagol had the first black metal voice EVER.”

While it does look like it’s going to be a while before Imperial Conquest comes to the UK and has a couple of pints with me, Melkor is certainly keen to get the band across the pond:

“We’d love to come to England! Europe is a hell of a place. Marduk, Keep of Kalessin, Borknagar, Dagor Dagorath, Carach Angren, Sólstafir & Mar De Grises are going to be touring there. Not to mention those insane festivals you guys get where old bands like Atheist, Cynic, Pestilence, and the like, magically come out of the wood work to play, and end up reforming. A European tour is basically the dream of any U.S. band, us included. As far as what we have planned for Omnipotence, we’re looking to get a Florida tour going with a few other black/death type FL bands.”

In the meantime it us Europeans will need to make do with the two EPs… or go on holiday to Florida. To tempt us even further into booking our flights to Tampa, Melkor went on to describe what an Imperial Conquest gig was like:

“Just pure intensity. Drums hammering the gates of the underworlds, guitars slicing through the crowds veins and vocals from the farthest corner of Hades.

Ha. Every band has their train wrecks. We’ve only had one really bad one so far where we started a song several times and it just fell apart, due to poor stage sound. We’ve also had shows we’ve completely nailed where the stage sound was even worse, like a particular time when the drum monitors were unplugged the entire time, and Cerberus could only hear himself drumming the entire time.

We’re going to be opening up for Keep of Kalessin towards the end of the year, which is like a pseudo-dream. But I must say, and I can speak for the entire band on this matter, that the dream tour would be a world tour with Dissection, Emperor, Abigor, and Limbonic Art. But that’s obviously completely impossible.”

I left the final words in this article/interview to the band to give them a chance to tell us what’s lurking on the horizon…

“Right now we’re doing lots of shows.” explains Melkor. “We’re planning on releasing our first full-length debut album this summer that will feature some news songs as well as a few from our two EPs.”

Titannus adds: “We want to thank Lou for taking the time to interview us. Please keep supporting her for she is pushing a lot of great bands to the people out there. Keep supporting your favorite bands and feel free to stop by our MySpace, Reverbnation and Twitter.

(Note from Lou: I’d like to thank the band for agreeing to this interview, Melkor for answering my questions in such an in-depth way and Titannus for his kind words… and I didn’t even have to bribe him!)

myspace.com/imperialconquestfl
reverbnation.com/imperialconquestfl
twitter.com/omnipotenceIC.