Satriarch are from LA, play Black Metal, have a phenomenal vocalist and like Vesperian Sorrow... What more could you possibly ask for? Thankfully, I did think of a few things to ask and I was fortunate enough to get a couple of members from the band to answer my questions.

Lou: How's it goin' today?

DESTROYER{MICK}: Today is going pretty well, cold as hell. I guess I'm not too grim, since I am freezing my balls off, lol.

Lou: How would you describe your music?

DESTROYER{MICK}: A mix between symphonic black metal and brutal death metal. a vicious live assault that must be seen, rather than heard.

Lou: How long has the band been together? What are your roles within the band?

DESTROYER{MICK}: Satriarch has been together for album a year and a half. I joined in September 06, Rachell Death joined in March 07 and Punisher and Mutilator joined in October 07. This band was the brainchild of keyboardist Esteban Garza (Reaper). Since Reaper, Rachell and myself are the three main heads in the band, we write the material and all.

Lou: I know you probably get this a lot but I feel I should say something on the subject. The vocals on the tracks on your MySpace are phenomenal and made even more so because of the female vocalist. This question is asked specifically to Rachel - When did you discover that you had a talent for extreme vocals?

Rachel: Well thank you! :-). This is actually quite a funny story, as I didn't really start getting into extreme music until I was 16. Then I met Mick and he read some dark poetry I wrote and asked me to try doing vocals to it. To me it sounded absurd as I have never even TRIED singing, and every time I did I sounded like absolute shit. Anyway to make a long story short, what I thought sounded like "shit" sounded more like the demonic howls from hell. I still don't know where I got it, all I know is that it wasn't intentional. Until now, of course.

Lou: Do you have any tips for ladies like myself (and blokes as well!) who really want to develop a good growl but fail abysmally?

Rachel: As I said before, me doing vocals wasn't intentional until I started my first band (Dark Prophecy) with Mick. I get tips asked here and there, the only tip I have is if you suck get professional lessons. I never had one professional lesson in my life, the closest I got was when I played Trombone in Middle School hahahaha. My teacher said to always breathe from your stomach, since Trombone required a good breathing technique. That and watching my idols I just tried to emulate them. I started off with Slayer, At The Gates, Venom, Opeth, all were huge influences early on.

Lou: Do you feel that bands such as Arch Enemy have really opened the doors for women in metal?

Rachel: Yes and no. Yes because Angela in my opinion has what many women fail to have in extreme music, that is attitude, stage presence, and a killer band to back it up. It has worked for her and made "women in metal" definitely more widespread. Many people might disagree with me of course. I mean there have been a good handful of women who have paved the path, but there is MUCH more that needs to be done. I would say that there is 95% of territory that women need to expand on and take over. But yeah, I would say that 90% of women aren't cut for it, just like 90% of guys aren't cut for it. It takes a truly powerful person to get to the top. A lot of "female metal" bands are a fucking joke to me. It feels like these ladies have yet to find a fucking identity, still caught up in the sex image deal, then you have the groupies. It's like women truly have no one to relate to, when society has made it mandatory for women to be a size 2, be 5'9 and have a supermodel body. It's bullshit! Women should be themselves.
Hopefully in the future I can see a female doing what good ole Evil Chuck did for Death, Dimebag did for Pantera, etc. We need more Angela Gossows in Metal.

Lou: What sort of subjects do you tend to write about? Where do you get your inspiration from?

Rachel: For our first demo the subject was definitely anti-religion, free thought, self-discovery, and the apocalypse. Pretty much common subjects in Metal, but where I try to make it different is that I try to make the songs catchy - that is extremely important to me. I want people to be able to sing along at shows and I don't want extremely undecipherable lyrics. That has to do with my vocals as well. That is why I tend to do more "clean growls" as opposed to gutterals. But there is definitely much more territory I want to explore. One thing you will not see from me are silly lyrics. Satriarch will always be a "serious" band in terms of music and lyrics. It has a "spiritual" meaning to all of us.

Lou: The lead guitar tone in your MySpace tracks is beautiful. For me it seems to have a real old school, possibly thrash metal vibe. Was this something that you set out to create from the beginning?

DESTROYER: Sort of, in a way I wanted out solos and harmonies to be Satriarch style ? very epic. I am a tone freak. I always chase a good sound and lead tone.
Just as important is the rhythm, I pride myself that our rhythms are brutal, but have that groove. And that's where I think we differ from bands that we sound like. Most bands try to out-do each other. See who looks more crazy, or is more technical, or who can solo the best. For us, we stay away from that. That's the true essence of Satriarch, we play what we want... So far being our gods has worked in our favour.

Lou: Are you big thrash fans yourselves? Or does most of your music collection lean more towards Black Metal?

DESTROYER: Well I speak for all of us when I say we are not the biggest thrash metal fans. We like some, especially the glory days of it. But, to tell you the truth, there is this stupid thrash revival here in Los Angeles and they just ruin thrash for us. These bands just seem to be in it for being cool, unlike the glory days of say, like Slayer... their image, sound and lyrical content is just amazing. Unlike these new bands, they?re just stupid. No originality, just dumb. But, all in all, our collections consist of a lot of Black Metal and Death.

Lou: What do you think of bands that combine both Black and Thrash metal, such as Necrodeath? Is this something you think Satriarch would do in the future, or would you stick to the more Melodic Black Metal sound that you currently have?

DESTROYER: We'll see, I love the face that Satriarch is a band that doesn't follow trends, and well thrash lately has become a trend. We might use some elements, but overall... Satriarch will always be a heavy, epic, brutal band.

Lou: A lot of people seem to be torn on the idea of keyboards in metal - obviously Satriarch are all for them and, I must say, they sound fantastic. If in the unlikely event there was a real debate about keyboards in metal, how would you defend them?

DESTROYER: All depends on how they use them. Some sounds like shit and should just quit and some do it very well. I'm a firm believer that in the context of our music, we do it quite well. See, people like to be entertained when seeing a band live, so when you hear the bass, drums, guitars, vocals, it's already a vicious live assault, then with keyboards it adds that epic... symphonic feel... and we are all for it!!!

Lou: I've noticed on your MySpace page that you're due to play a show with none other than Rotting Christ, Immolation and Belphagor! That's pretty fucking huge! Will this be the biggest gig you've played so far?

DESTROYER: YES!!! We are so excited to be on that bill. It is our biggest show to date. We did The Gathering of the Bestial Legion 3 with Possessed, Malevolent Creation and The Chasm, Mortem, Acheron and more. And that was our biggest show, but this will be our biggest show to date. We are counting the days!!!

Lou: How did the gig get set up?

DESTROYER: Rachell and myself were at a little show in Walnut, California at the AWS Shop and we spoke to a woman there who works for the Galaxy Theater. To sum all this up, she heard our CD and just loved it. So she turned to me and said "You guys would fit perfectly with Rotting Christ" and well, that's how it came to be.

Lou: Have you prepared your set list for this gig, or will you make it up nearer the time?

DESTROYER: Well, we will do the four songs we have and maybe if we have time... we might unleash one of the new tracks..

Lou: Other than the previously mentioned bands, which other bands do you really look up to?

DESTROYER: Tons of bands, hard to name them all. Here are some...
Krisium, Setherial, Immolation, Cryptopsy, Death, Sothis, Tvangeste, Belphagor, Graveworm, Vesperian Sorrow, Kreator, Suffocation and more?

Lou: Do you feel that any of those bands have influenced your sound massively?

DESTROYER: Yes. I like to be original, most bands nowadays like to mimic their favourite bands. I don't. I like to show influence but add the Satriarch touch to it, ya know? But yes, they do help me achieve the sound that Satriarch have.

Lou: Which other bands would you most like to tour with? Who would be on your ideal tour?

DESTORYER: Well, shit... I'd love to tour with all our favourite bands. Vital Remians, Nile, Anorexia Nervousa, Kreator, etc? But one thing is for sure, and this is just my personal opinion, we need to stop this whole thing about having hardcore, metalcore... and anything core, being on tour with extreme metal bands... I'm sick of that crap.
Pretty much the best tour I have seen ever in my list here in Los Angeles that didn't involve gay bands like those was Art of Noise 2 in 2003... Nile, Kreator, Vader, Amon Amarth and Goatwhore. Now that was the shit!! But a lot of young metal bands have but on big dream ? opening for Slayer!!!

Lou: Do you have any CDs or merchandise available?

DESTROYER: We are working on getting some t-shirts available for the Rotting Christ show and re-release the EP with some of the new tracks on it. But, at the moment, we are sold out of the Satriarch EPs.

Lou: Are you currently working on any new material?

DESTROYER: Yes at the moment I have begun foundations for the new material. I have five sond I have been working on really hard, then we will all get together and arrange them. Hopefully the Satriarch fans around the globe will enjoy.

Lou: What are your plans for 2008? What do you hope to achieve with Satriarch in the long term?

DESTROYER: Like Rachell said to us "This is the year of Satriarch". We will work our asses off to ensure that people know who we are. We will leave our mark on this so-called Los Angeles scene. And well, in the future tour the globe. Two main goals for us are: One: Play at Wacken Open Air Festival and Two: to be a well respected band like the legends before us.

Lou: Thank you for answering my questions!

DESTROYER: Thank you for this interview, I had fun. Thanks to all who have supported Satriarch. Thanks :D


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