Metal Messiah Radio - Interviews

INTERVIEW - Hammer King

Hammer King

Titan Fox of Hammer King interview by Powerslave

Epic and True Metal embodies Hammer King’s most recent release 2018’s album “Poseidon Will Carry us Home”. It is a 12 track masterpiece that took a lot of guts and glory to make. Toby caught up with the former Ross the Boss vocalist Titan Fox V to dish about Hammer King. He is passionate and entertaining and it was a great time!

POWERSLAVES "Hammer King" what is the story behind the name?

TITAN Bonjour Metal Messiah Radio, this is Titan Fox, vocalist and guitarist of Hammer King. It is a pleasure being with you. well, the band Hammer King apparently is named after thy Majesty, the Hammer King. Like Bon Jovi who are named after Jon Bon Jovi, or Van Halen who are named after the Van Halen brothers – only that in this case, the name-giver is not playing in the band himself.

POWERSLAVES Tell us a brief history of your band?

TITAN The band was founded in 1978 by thy Majesty, the Hammer King. He then put the band on hiatus right thereafter and revived it in 2014, when He had handpicked us to play His songs. We are namely Dolph Aidan Macallan from Scotland on drums, K.K. Basement from out of nowhere on the bass, Gino Wilde from Kleveland, Norway, on the guitar and of course me, Titan Fox, on vocals and guitar. We started working out the first set of kingly tunes in 2014 and released "Kingdom Of The Hammer King" in 2015. "King Is Rising" followed in 2016 and now, "Poseidon Will Carry Us Home" is released. We have been with Cruz Del Sur Music ever since and we are very grateful being with them!

POWERSLAVES How long have you all known each other? How did you meet?

TITAN We have known each other for a bloody long time and our paths have crossed for at least 20 years. It all has been a good preparation for being in Hammer King now – we are a very strong band in the original meaning. I have played with Gino Wilde for 20 years now, exactly this month. I have to congratulate him later at the rehearsal, thank you for reminding me!

Hammer King Album Cover POWERSLAVES Tell us about your new album "Poseidon Will Carry Us Home"

TITAN The third is gonna make it or break it! So they say. I believe that "Poseidon" has already made it for us. We have way more press reaction than before, the reviews are around 7/10, 8/10, 9/10 and even 10/10. Of course we have been tarred and feathered by some guys as well. But there is no victory without opponents, right?
We have a centre-piece, which we named the "Nautical Trilogy", telling of the seafarings of the Hammer King, sailing the ancient Cape Horn route. This route is well-known for its being risky and dangerous, therefore the trilogy’s third track "We Sail Cape Horn" contains the Hammer King's Lord's Prayer: "Thine is the Reich and the kingdom eternally, God bless the King". It's what the sailors prayed when sailing the heaviest of storms, holding on to their very lives.
Musically, we have added some more demanding multi-layered choirs, especially in "Battle of Wars" and "We Sail Cape Horn". Of course, we have a load of twin lead guitars as always.

POWERSLAVES Who writes your songs?

TITAN All music and lyrics are given by thy Majesty, the Hammer King. As we were chosen to play and record these songs, this time the King had us participate in the arranging of the songs for the first time – a huge honour, for sure!

POWERSLAVES Tell us about your song "7 Days and 7 Kings"

TITAN "7 Days and 7 Kings" is a tale in the Hammer King legend. A tale about seven Kings who gather around a round table resembling that of Camelot's once a week. When they get together, they speak ancient verdicts of old and tell worn-out phrases weaving their wicked schemes. Of course, all seven of them are clearly different characters: One is the spokesman, one the ruler of a caravan from a faraway country, one has a prominent nose like Cyrano de Bergerac, while another one is fat and one is a lady's man, one is completely incognito and might be an ever-changing character, while the last member actually is a queen. Of course, even together, they are not as powerful as the Hammer King.

POWERSLAVES What is your outlook on the record industry today?

TITAN All I can say is, if the industry was still what it used to be, we could not only jump, we could perfectly fly! With all the money that used to be involved, it would be amazing how gigantic our steps could be. On the other hand: We are pretty independent, the King owns everything himself. So all in all, it is as it is and we are more than lucky to be able to spread the King's royal music!

titan fox POWERSLAVES As a band what are you dreams and goals?

TITAN The sky is the limit! If you don't try to make your band as big as possible, there's no need to be in a band. Ever since we got the King's call, we knew that we would try and give everything to make it all the way. I believe that the songs and the band can grow with its challenges, so the more and the bigger we can play, the better we will get.

POWERSLAVES What inspires you to do what you do?

TITAN It's the sheer dedication to play thy Majesty's songs to the world! Being on stage is the best time in life, but rehearsing new songs can be even better in a way: There is nothing bigger than the feeling you get when you leave the rehearsal space at Castle Rockfort knowing that you have another killer new song! Creating new music is what keeps a band alive and by playing songs about the King, the King spares our lives.

POWERSLAVES Do you have any hobbies? What do you like to do away from the band?

TITAN I am hardly allowed to do anything else but to serve the Hammer King. In the little time off, I enjoy wandering to keep my lungs trained and to clear my head. But mostly I come home with yet another idea for the band…

POWERSLAVES How would fans get a hold of your merch?

TITAN Our merch can be purchased through our own website's online store – or you can get everything from T-Shirts to coloured vinyl at our shows as well! Of course you can look it up on amazon and eBay as well.

POWERSLAVES Is there anything you would like to add?

TITAN Thank you very much for the great in detail interview and for your support! It was a pleasure talking to you! See you in the future, hopefully on tour.
God bless the King, may the King bless you!

INTERVIEW - Midnite Hellion

Midnite Hellion

Midnite Hellion interview by Powerslave

Midnite Hellion has been a force to be reckoned with since 2011. Supporting Thrash and Death Metal bands on the East Coast, they are promoting their 2 most recent releases on Clawhammer Records. Toby had a chance to catch up with them and ask about their past, present and future and learn more about Midnite Hellion.

POWERSLAVES Welcome to Metal Messiah Radio! Let's start with your band name Midnite Hellion! Whats the story behind the name?

MIDNITE HELLION    Greetings Toby! Thank you for taking the time to do the interview! The name Midnite Hellion doesn’t have a meaning per-se, but was derived from a fairly lengthy naming process to find a band name that was both original and also had never been used before by another band. The word and spelling of Midnite came from the Krokus song, “Midnite Maniac,” and the word “Hellion” was inspired by the WASP song of the same name. The alternate spelling was used because the words stacked better in the logo, keeping each word as seven letters each. Boring answer, we know, so we could also say that it comes from the old wives tale of nothing good happens after midnight, so we always try to perform earlier than that!

POWERSLAVES     Tell us a brief history of your band?

midnite hellion albums MIDNITE HELLION The band officially started on April 4th, 2011 in Trenton, NJ. Starting as a five-piece band with a twin-guitar sound, we took over the NJ/NY/PA region rather quickly; some might say that a Metal Storm was born that year! We started out strong, supporting the likes of Warbringer and Obituary at our early concerts, and started to incorporate a stage show fairly early on. In November, we released our demo cassette, “The Fever,” and were ridiculed for the cassette format, but ironically enough, three pressing were issued and each sold out within weeks. Even more ironically, not even a year later major bands and labels started releasing their albums on cassette again.
Our next release, “Enter The Unknown,” was released in September 2012 and was followed by a tour with Prime Evil that fall. More regional dates followed supporting National Acts such as Artillery, Whiplash, Morbid Saint, Blood Feast, and Deceased, and our legions of Hellions kept growing stronger.

We signed with Witches Brew Records in 2013, and released the “Hour of the Wolf” single on Black Friday 2013. Originally, we were going to follow up rather quickly with a full-length album, but supporting that single ended up taking much more time than we could have ever anticipated. We were invited to Chicago for the Ragnarökkr Metal Apocalypse Festival 2014, which had us sharing the stage with bands such as Grim Reaper, RIOT, Picture, Visigoth, Black Death, and many more. Almost upon landing back in Jersey, we rushed over to St. Vitus in Brooklyn to support Toxik’s first US show since reforming, and the rest of the year was filled with dates supporting Raven, Diamond Head, and Overkill, which brought us to the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ for the first time.

Over time, we scaled back to our current power trio line-up, developing a much heavier sound than we had in our beginnings. Things started happening rather quickly again on the live front during the writing process in 2016, and we had numerous headlining dates and support dates with Anvil, Enforcer, Hatchet, and Jag Panzer, before we put a halt to performing live to focus on the record. We headed into the recording studio with intentions to have an early 2017 release, but we had more offers that we couldn’t refuse. During drum tracking, we escaped from the studio to support Flotsam & Jetsam and Helstar which lead into more live dates. Back out of focus, vocal tracking was interrupted with a return to the Starland Ballroom supporting Dirkschneider, then we found ourselves embarking on a mini-tour in Virginia Beach and a Wilmington, DE date with Tower. Upon completion of the run, we returned again to the Starland Ballroom supporting Yngwie Malmsteen, and a few weeks later made our live debut in Manhattan, which was directly supporting Metalfier at the Gramercy Theatre in NYC.

Midnite Hellion Album Cover We finally finished mixing and mastering the album, and “Condemned To Hell” was released by Witches Brew Records on September 15th, 2017, with a record release concert held at the Starland Ballroom with Exodus and Obituary. The legendary 89.5 FM WSOU, Seton Hall’s Pirate Radio, had selected the album to be part of their New Music Monday’s program.

The recently reformed Combat Records, now operated by David Ellefson of Megadeth and producer Thom Hazaert, had selected our song “Cross The Line” to be part of their Bullets Vol. 1.0 compilation, which saw a worldwide release in April 2018. We embarked on a fairly lengthy run of regional dates in support of “Condemned To Hell,” which brought us to Baltimore twice this year, and we’ve made our return to Brooklyn over at the Brooklyn Bazaar with Combat. Having not performed in NYC in over a year, it was a very welcome return.

Around the time of our concerts with Vicious Circle and Ross the Boss of Manowar, we received unfortunate news that our label, Witches Brew, had folded, so we are currently seeking new label representation.

POWERSLAVES      Tell us about your song "Enter the Nightmare"

MIDNITE HELLION “Enter The Nightmare” was written by our drummer Drew Rizzo musically and by our bassist and singer Rich Kubik lyrically, and fully arranged by the entire band. It is an interesting piece inspired by a dream that Rich had years ago, involving a number of terrifying things happening to him but mainly focused around a vampire and a town being plagued by vampire attacks. It starts off very theatrically with the vampire clawing himself out of his grave, starving after being newly transformed. What follows is the stalking, and attacks on villagers. The second verse switches to more of a view from the villagers perspectives, going from a view of people holding up crosses to try to ward away the demon, to the inevitable lynch mob being created to hunt the vampire down. During the solos, you actually have to listen for it, but there is a scream there. That scream is the vampire being staked, and left to burn in the sun, and as we go to the final chorus and the sun rises, we go back to the intro acoustic, with the bells chiming in the background as the sun rises. From the first and third person perspective, this was one hell of a nightmare, and we invite you to enter it every time you listen to the song.

Midnite Hellion drummer POWERSLAVES   What is your outlook on the record industry today?

MIDNITE HELLION   The record industry is a shrinking ship, but it definitely is not a sinking ship. Many labels have closed their doors, including about half of the majors in the last 20 years, so the options are more limited than ever. It’s become more difficult to break through more than ever since the world is flooded with bands but not with labels, so to have one band get noticed out of the sea of bands is worse than finding a needle in a haystack. Labels and bands have had to get more creative than ever to create buzz, and more financial burden falls on the bands since most labels cannot offer tour support.

POWERSLAVES       How do you promote your band and shows?

MIDNITE HELLION   Every which way possible! We find that the old school methods are still the most effective, such as distributing flyers at concerts and hanging up posters at stores. In addition, online promotion is definitely essential in today’s environment, as well as mailing lists. For releases, we do utilize PR services and have worked with Clawhammer PR on our most recent two releases, “Condemned To Hell” and “Hour of the Wolf.”

POWERSLAVES      How would fans get a hold of your Merch?

MIDNITE HELLION We have our current selection available directly through us at Midnite Hellion Website, Our Big Cartel Store, and Our Band Camp Page We’ve got CDs, cassettes, hats, shirts hoodies, pins, stickers, neck braces…everything you need! More outlets coming soon, too!

Midnite Hellion bass POWERSLAVES    What inspires you to do what you do?

MIDNITE HELLION    Simply put, life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. Heavy Metal is our life, it’s in our blood, and quite frankly, it’s all we know. There’s no greater feeling than looking out into an audience and seeing people enthusiastic about what we’re doing. As it’s our life, Heavy Metal is our love, too, and we will always pursue our dreams in search of eternal happiness. We were born to rock, and we will rock until we die.

POWERSLAVES    Does Midnite Hellion have any tour dates or Venues in the future?

MIDNITE HELLION We have some plans in the works currently, but confirmed and announced concerts include supporting Flotsam & Jetsam again on May 23rd at Dingbatz in Clifton, NJ. Keep an eye out, we’ve got more in store!

POWERSLAVES Is there anything you would like to add?

MIDNITE HELLION Thank you for taking the time to interview us! Keep up to date with Midnite Hellion at http://www.midnitehellion.com, and we’re all over the social networks as well. Find us at Facebook, Our 2nd Facebook , Instagram, twitter, and youtube. More in store coming your way, so keep an eye out! Thanks to everyone for their continued support, and keep the flame of Metal burning strong!

INTERVIEW - Temtris

temtris

Temtris interview by Powerslave

Temtris are a 5 piece metal band with elements of traditional, melodic and thrash styles from Sydney, Australia. Formed in 2000, they are currently working on their 5th album release, “Rapture”, for October 2018. Powerslaves asked Vocalist, Genevieve Rodda to tell us about the band, her thoughts on some interesting questions and about the new single “Run”. Here is what she had to say:

POWERSLAVES What does your band name mean? And what type of heavy metal do you play?

GENEVIEVE Temtris was a name we came up with to try and match the fact that we are female fronted but it did not have a meaning as such. We play traditional metal but also use a lot of different styles, e.g. Thrash, Death etc. depending on the emotion we need to portray in a song.

POWERSLAVES Tell us a brief history of your band?

GENEVIEVE Temtris started around 1999 we self-released our first album Threshold in 2000 and followed through with Masquerade in 2007 which had a worldwide release on Battlegod Productions, this album has now sold out and may be re pressed at a later date. In 2014 Shallow Grave was released and received great reviews worldwide. Temtris also supported Accept in Sydney to a sold out show on the Shallow Grave tour. In 2014 Enter the Asylum was released worldwide and Temtris toured around Australia to an ever growing audience. Rapture our 5th studio album will be released worldwide on November 2nd also through Battlegod and the single Run from this album is grabbing attention from metal heads across the globe.

POWERSLAVES Who writes your songs? and tell us about your song "Run"

GENEVIEVE Everyone contributes. Sometimes a riff idea or a basic song structure will be given to me or one of our guitarists and we will all add our thoughts and pieces in to create the song. As for Run it was written about the metal family we have here in our scene. The words “welcome to my circle you know I have your back, like wolves we run together no fear will hold us back”. Was what I wanted my metal fans to know? Join us and run with us. We will look after each other and we will be family. That goes for any metal head in the audience at a Temtris show. Come hang with us after and have a drink at the bar with us all. The song came together so well I just knew it would be a killer single so we decided to film the clip for it and release it to promote the next album.

temtris rapture cd POWERSLAVES What is your outlook on the record industry today?

GENEVIEVE It is hard work, Temtris did get an offer of signing with a label for this release of Rapture but we have decided to stay with Battlegod productions as we keep our music licensed to us. We can control what we do with our music through our own website. Not saying that record deals are all bad but we have not come across one that had it made it worth our while to hand over the rights to our songs. I think it is pretty sad at the way bands are payed for the creation of music as I see how much time and money goes into it.

POWERSLAVES How do you promote your band and shows?

GENEVIEVE Temtris has a website mailing list we use, we also do promotion on Facebook and the old school fliers, but Temtris is also promoted through major magazines with each album release such as Legacy magazine or Fireworks etc. The support of radio stations makes a huge difference to in reaching a wider audience too with interviews and our music being played.

POWERSLAVES What are you dreams and goals?

GENEVIEVE My original goal when I was just starting out was to be a well-known female metal vocalist in Australia which I think is achievable but now I would love to be able to have Temtris to be invited on some major festivals around the world such as Waken or 70,000 tonnes of metal. To be able to tour fulltime around the world would be amazing

POWERSLAVES What inspires you to do what you do?

GENEVIEVE I have been singing since I was 14 when I started my vocal lessons. I previously had been learning guitar and writing my own songs for fun. I was given the opportunity to join a band and decided to give it a go. Had my first gig at 14 and loved it. Have been singing in bands ever since. I enjoy writing songs and the creation of albums is rewarding not to mention singing to your audience and have them join along singing one of your songs with you.

POWERSLAVES How does music affect you and the world around you?

GENEVIEVE I love music and have always been a fan of hard rock and metal music. It is a daily thing in my life to put a cd on for motivation or just to enjoy singing along to. It has brought me together with some great friends also.

POWERSLAVES Do you have any hobbies? What do you like to do away from the band?

GENEVIEVE I train Krav Maga through the week which keeps me pretty strong and fit. I also like to run on my days off. I have two great kids that love music also and we enjoy going to the beach or doing bushwalks with our 2 blacks pugs in our free time.

POWERSLAVES Anything you would like to add?

GENEVIEVE Our music is available at our website and for t-shirts or patches contact us at our Temtris fb page plus keep up to date on our music and shows. Don’t be shy to say hello and hang out with us at the bar at a show either as we love to grow the Temtris crew. Horns up \m/ Genevieve / Temtris

https://www.facebook.com/Temtris/

http://www.temtris.com/

INTERVIEW - CRUCIBLE STEEL

cruciblesteel

Crucible Steel interview by Danny Chaudoin

Crucible Steel is a one man underground metal project located in central Kentucky that started out in 2016. Jonathan Nesbitt II is the man behind this old school style Death metal project and has two albums released on Apollyon records and is soon to release his third. Here Jonathan gives a bit of insight into his music world.

DANNY First I want to thank you for taking your time to do this interview, can you tell us about some of the background and some history about Crucible Steel? Is there meaning behind the name Crucible Steel?

JONATHAN Thank you for the opportunity! I founded Crucible Steel in January of 2016. It has remained a one man band. I play all instruments and vocals. I currently have two albums out and a third coming soon. Crucible Steel is a type of steel that was used in medieval times by many cultures.

DANNY How about some of the bands or some of the musicians that influenced you, the ones that inspired you to play the guitar and do you play other instruments as well?

JONATHAN I have a lot of inspirations. As far as band's, I would say Black Sabbath, Amon Amarth, and Obituary are among the most influential. There are so many great players. Tony Iommi is my biggest guitar influence. He wrote the book for metal. I play other instruments as well. Bass, drums, and vocals.

DANNY How long have you been writing and playing music and are there other music styles that you play besides death metal?

JONATHAN I got my first guitar when I was five and a few years later I got a Gibson SG copy. I didn't start to learn how to play until I was 13. I joined my first band at 13 and have been playing ever since. I don't limit myself when it comes to playing. You have to know the fundamentals of rock music before you start playing death metal. The blues is a big part of that foundation. It's important to be able to play the classics before jumping into metal.

DANNY You were recently signed to a label. Can you tell us about the label and how things are going now having label support?

JONATHAN I have been signed to Apollyon Entertainment since the summer of 2016. I have a great relationship with that label. The label support has been fantastic. They have worked hard pushing my music and getting it out there so people can have the chance to hear it. They have put Crucible Steel on the map and would have been impossible without their support.

cruciblesteel 2 DANNY Are you still operating Crucible Steel as a one man band or are there other members now? If no, is there the possibility of any other members in the future?

JONATHAN Yes, Crucible Steel is a one man band. If I have live shows lined up in the future then I will recruit some players. But for now I will remain the only member.

DANNY Now onto a bit about your albums, Crucible Steel and Forge the blade both released in 2017, and your third release Dead within, there is a lot of old school sound and atmosphere in your music. Can you tell us a bit about those albums and are you using newer methods of recording, such as digital, or are you recording some of it the old fashioned way?

JONATHAN The first Crucible Steel release came out August 2016. It has ten tracks. Mostly death metal but a few tracks are a death/black metal mix. The second album, Forge the Blade came out fall of 2017. It was another album with ten tracks. This one is a mix of Death and Thrash metal. The third album will be released this year. It's a ten track album called Dead Within. There’s Death metal along with Thrash metal influences mixed with hard rock influences.
I've only recorded analog for Crucible Steel. I've went that route to have a different sound then the rest of the modern metal band's. I've always tried to be original and my recording process is definitely unique.

DANNY I like to throw in at least a question or two of gear talk. Do you have a favorite guitar, piece of gear, or anything special you use to get your Crucible Steel sound? Without giving away any detailed trade secrets of course.

JONATHAN My Jackson Dinky is my favorite guitar. It plays amazing. And my vintage Peavey amps are responsible for the Crucible Steel sound.

DANNY Are you working on any new Crucible steel projects or doing any other projects as well?

JONATHAN I have recorded a few tracks for an upcoming Crucible Steel release. For now my main focus is getting the third album, Dead Within out. I haven't worked on any other projects but I'm always open to.

DANNY Will the next Crucible Steel album follow the same death metal path as its predecessors or will you maybe experiment with a bit of a different musical direction next time?

JONATHAN Each Crucible Steel release has been different. I've incorporated a lot of different elements into the songs. From death, thrash and black metal to hard rock and blues. The new album Dead Within will have a few new surprises. I have expanded even more within Crucible Steel. I try not to have any limitations.

DANNY One final question, where can metal fans and those who may be interested in Crucible Steel find your albums and maybe some information about you?

JONATHAN You can purchase Crucible Steel music at theapollyongroup.bandcamp.com. You can also find my releases on Amazon, spotify, iTunes, Pandora and iheart. I can also be found on Encyclopaedia Metallum. Just search Crucible Steel.

REVERNATION https://www.reverbnation.com/jonathannesbittii
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/cruciblesteel/
YOU TUBE https://www.youtube.com/user/jnesbittmusic

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