Ah, it pays to have a friend in Deathdoom. Without Lukey-boy I would never have found out about Opinicus when I did... and they would never have answered these questions...

Lou: Hi - thanks for agreeing to this interview!
How long has the band been together and who is in the band?

Adam: We've been around as a full band for about 2 and half years now but me (Adam) and Jesse, started the idea about 3 years ago.

After a couple of months we auditioned our original drummer Po (AKA Robert Dawson) he turned up with his mate Tom who just so happened to have his guitar and amp in the back of his car so we invited him to jam with us. We all seemed to impress each other in some way and Tom's playing wowed us so we invited him to Join and Jesse decided to switch to bass. After that we got Mike on board following a few auditions for vocalists.
More recently in Feb this year we parted ways with Po and luckily after only a couple of weeks of looking we managed to get in touch with James who incidentally me, Tom and Jesse have all played with in the past and after an audition he completed the band again.

Lou: Where does the name Opinicus come from?

Adam: It?s a word that has two meanings, to call some one an Opinicus is a really old word for some one of strong beliefs or opinions. The other meaning is a giant mythical beast, not to dissimilar to a griffin apparently.

Lou: What made you choose it for your name?

Adam: Because it sounds like "Up 'er knickers!" err no, I originally wanted an unusual but catchy sounding name and for some reason that led to the idea of looking at names of giant mythical beasts. Opinicus was just one of the few names I stumbled across on Wikipedia that I'd never read or heard before. Everyone else liked it so it quickly stuck.

Lou: I've listened to the tracks on your MySpace and they?re bloody good! Do you have any plans for any E.Ps or albums?

Adam: Ta very much! The 3 new tracks (The End is Nigh, Causatum and From the Ashes) will be on sale in the new year as an EP. We would like to do an album at some point in the future as this is our second EP/demo and we're getting our heads down to write a load more new tunes at the moment so we'll see what happens.

Lou: I love the little horror/comic characters you have on your myspace profile to represent each band member. Are you big horror fans yourselves?

Adam: Definitely I love horror novels and cheesy horror movies, especially early Peter Jackson stuff. Jesse loves his b-movie/budget horror stuff like Troma etc. By the way Jesse has actually made a couple of short horror films that feature me, Tom and Po doing that was a lot of fun.

Lou: Are you trying to convey any particular message with your music?

Adam: If we are its definitely not that deliberate, I think that messages just get lost in music or misinterpreted. We do have certain themes in our music about, destruction, death, apocalyptic/post apocalyptic themes etc but we just try and keep that in line with the feel of the music and help keep an epic/dramatic feel to what we do but really its just about the music for us.

Lou: I know you play many gigs in Sheffield. Do you have any plans to come to London any time soon?

Adam: We've not actually gigged in London yet but it's definitely something we want to do. Maybe we'll try and sort something out in April when we're planning a few out of town gigs, that?s all dependant on Tom's recovery as he's just had surgery to repair part of his shoulder.

Lou: Do you ever slip any cover versions into your sets?

Adam: That's something we've never done and I can't see it happening to be honest we've toyed around with the idea before though. I always think its better when bands just play original material.

Lou: Have you ever had any "Spinal Tap" moments? Any undersized Stonehenge models?

Adam: Not really, we've tried our best to avoid theatrics and such. We did once walk on stage to the theme music from Conan that was hilarious but pretty cool. Apart from that the nearest thing we have to Stonehenge is Mike's beard.

Lou: Which are your favourite tracks to play live?

Adam: That would probably be either From the Ashes or Defiance, we always tend to and a gig with Defiance its probably the most moshable song we've done too, we always go mental for that one.

Lou: What is your favourite Opinicus track ever? (Well, so far!)

Adam: Probably either Berserker or From the Ashes, Ashes at a push if I had to choose just one.

Lou: What has been your favourite album of this year?

Adam: Hmmm tricky one, there?s been loads of good stuff this year. The new Nile album "Ithyphallic" really stands out for me, "Bleed the Fifth" by Divine Heresy and "Ziltoid the Omniscient" by Devin Townsend are doing it for me to at the moment too.

Lou: What was the first album you ever bought?

Adam: And Justice for all by Metallica, what a guitar sound...

Lou: Vinyl vs. CD vs. MP3. Which is better and why?

Adam: MP3s if I'm on the move, CDs at home and Vinyl for old stuff like "Kill em All" by Metallica and "Killers" by Iron Maiden are amazing on vinyl.

Lou: What is the most embarrassing album in your collection? Be honest!

Adam: It's a toss up between a really dire Stevie Ray Vaughan album or possibly ELO.

Lou: Do you have any albums or merchandise available? If so, where can we buy it from?

Adam: Yes we have T-shirts galore, CDs in the new year. And stuff on www.cafepress.com/opinicus. We've always got stuff at gigs too.

Lou: How long have you each been playing your respective instruments?

Adam: For me about 12 years, I'm guessing about the same for Tom and probably a bit longer for Jesse as he's from a musical family. And James is too so I'm sure he's been drumming for years.

Lou: Which bands have really inspired you?

Adam: Mostly a mixure of metal and death metal bands like Classic Metallica, Himsa, Deicide, Strapping Young Lad, Machine Head, Opeth, Carcass and At the Gates. Really brutal stuff with an epic feel to it and preferably a lot of flashy guitar solos :)

Lou: What made you want to start / join a band like Opinicus?

Adam: The monotony of office work and just wanting to start a this kind of metal band for a while so it was a no brainer after I got to know Jesse and realising he wanted to do that too. Also just for the love of writing and playing this kind of music.

Lou: What are the long-term goals for Opinicus? What?s the next step for you?

Adam: We aim to take things as far as they'll go but for the immediate future more gigging further a field while looking to get signed to finance an album or a tour or a lear jet, a transit van would do just fine at the moment ;)


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