1) Hi Duncan how are you? We stumbled into Venomwolf by chance, the mighty Costa from Iron Pegasus gave us a copy of the “Storm Riding Power” album as a bonus of package that was sent as present for Zan’s graduation,it was a good surprise and one hell of a record, so tell us more about the origin of this project,and how you devoted your life to the black\speed cult! Also how does it feel to be in the same record label of Sabbat,Metalucifer and Desaster?
Hails! I'm surviving about as well as I can in this plague-stricken world... Glad you like the record!Venomwolf started as a last-minute recording project. A band I was playing in kind of fell apart a few days before going into the studio, so I wrote the first EP in an evening just to not waste the studio time. I didn't plan on it being a super serious project, but then Cacophonous Records wanted to release the EP on tape, I got asked to play some gigs, those turned into more gigs and some bigger support slots, then as I was thinking of doing an album Iron Pegasus got in touch!As for being on the same label, I still can't quite believe it, haha! When Costa first emailed me I tried to remember where I knew the name from... then realised I knew it from my Desaster – Tyrants of the Netherworld CD, which never left my car! It's seriously cool to be on a label with such legendary bands, and to be connected in some small way to so many amazing records... It's a real honour to be a part of it. Aside from the big legendary names, there's some absolutely killer smaller bands also on the label. Eurynomos are probably my favourites, killer old sounding evil metal with the legendary Okkulto returning to the scene! Megatherion share a guitarist and bassist – they have Carnivore from Cruel Force on vocals and sound like Hellhammer, so what's not to like? Infernal Assault are killer, and Magnesium are another excellent Japanese band.
2) Venomwolf is a one man band,it seems that one single head is more focused in one musical direction and I think of acts such as Toxic Holocaust,Enforcer,Midnight,Sabire and of course the almighty Bathory,what made you choose the path of the solitary musicianship?
I never really set out to do everything myself, back when I was starting out! I started on the drums, then got myself a bass a few months later, and then a guitar a short while after that. I guess I've just never really been satisfied doing one thing – I love playing all the different instruments, all for different reasons, and they all lead me to be creative in different ways. I mostly write on the guitar, but I've written plenty of riffs on the bass, or had a drum beat in mind that I make ideas around.
It then became a neccessity for the first Venomwolf recording session, and I've just continued on like that. It makes things a lot easier for organising writing and recordings, that's for sure! I'm a sound engineer by trade, so I do all the recording myself as well – which makes things even easier to organise, haha!
Part of it as well is just not finding the right people. There's not many people into this kind of music around, especially in Scotland, and there's even less of them that play an instrument, who are interested in being a band, who have the time to commit, all that kind of thing. The two guys I have in the live band now are from the London and Newcastle areas, so it's not really a situation where we can practice together regularly, but it still works out. I send them all the songs and tabs, they learn them, we come together and it all fits!
3) Your music give us punky feelings (you know all that D-beat and feedback noise) and this is a zine with one foot into the punk universe and the othe into the metal hell! We got the mandatory punk question,do you like this kind of music? Is it an influence you? Metal archives says you played in a band called Sheer Ignorance.
I love punk. Specifically the d-beat and crust, I find a lot of earlier “traditional” punk pretty dull. For me, punk's all about being angry, and nothing captures that vibe better than d-beats! So naturally, it's a huge influence on me – mostly the UK82 bands like Discharge, The Varukers, GBH, and Chaos UK. Sacrilege and English Dogs need a special mention, as they've been a massive influence on the more recent stuff I've been writing.
Most of the metal bands that inspire me have a large punk influence anyway, and it just fits with how I play and write music. To me, the d-beat has always been the most energetic drum pattern – way more so than the more “metal” things like blastbeats or whatever. Simple parts played as fast and hard as possible, that's what it's all about!
4) And from the ramming speed let’s go into the
abysmal slowness,it seems you played in bunch of doom metal bands (Atragon,Nest
of Vipers), Doom Metal is often labeled as genre of its own,but we think is the
root of the heavy metal genre and bands like Pentagram and St.Vitus shaped the
sound in a very distintive way,what’s you vision about it?
That's going back a few years, haha! I got my start in bands playing doom, along with those bands you mentioned I've had a few other projects over the years that never made it out the practice room. I got kind of burned out on the doom scene a few years ago, there was a bit of a wave in the UK of very generic sounding doom bands for a while. I'm fully aware that's a bit hypocritical, given that I'll listen to any Discharge/Motörhead/Bathory clone, but at least their songs are over quickly...
That's going back a few years, haha! I got my start in bands playing doom, along with those bands you mentioned I've had a few other projects over the years that never made it out the practice room. I got kind of burned out on the doom scene a few years ago, there was a bit of a wave in the UK of very generic sounding doom bands for a while. I'm fully aware that's a bit hypocritical, given that I'll listen to any Discharge/Motörhead/Bathory clone, but at least their songs are over quickly...
5) Give us 5 (or as many as you want) records that are mandatory for the Venomwolf sound! Please give a brief description for each one.
Bathory – Bathory
To the surprise of absolutely no-one, this has to be my first pick. The most evil and creepy atmosphere, the too-fast tempos and playing, and Quorthon's possessed vocals, this album just rules in every way. The ultimate proof that it's not about the sound, the playing, or the technical nature of anything, it's about energy and conviction. I've been listening to this album for so many years now, and it still makes me want to raise hell and destroy everything when it comes on. Sacrifice is the best song ever.
Venom – Black Metal/Welcome to Hell
I can never pick a favourite between these two, so they're both here. Just absolutely unreal sounds on these records. I have to give a special mention to the Bloodlust single as well, that was actually the first Venom track I ever heard! Venom are the reason I like to release singles, it's good fun to work on smaller projects in between albums.
Bludwulf – Cryptic Revelations
A killer record from a criminally underrated band. The ultimate MPDS attitude and atmosphere! I can't recommend this album enough, if anyone is into the metalpunk sound at all this should be required listening.
Discharge – Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing
What can I even say about this? It's one of the greatest albums of all time. For such a basic concept it's got so much going on, the sound is just collossal, and the energy is unmatched, even all these years later. Essential.
Sacrilege – Behind the Realms of Madness
The perfect combination of metal riffs and punk energy. Some of the best riffs ever, furious vocals, and an overall sound of just absolute destruction. A huge influence on me. The main riff from The Closing Irony is the best riff of all time.
Darkthrone – Circle the Wagons
I'm including this as a sixth record because it changed everything for me – it was the first time I'd heard anything metalpunk! I was 16 when it came out, and I'd never heard anything like it. I already knew some black metal, and I'd heard some Darkthrone, but I didn't know about their more recent material bringing in the punk and speed metal elements. Needless to say, it ripped my face off when I first heard it!
6) We notice that few days ago,you blacked out your avatar for the blackout tuedasy in solidary with the protestor (adding maybe the most lovely hashtag ever #ACAB), is it not very common in the metal community to take a stand on this kind of topics you also donate part of your bandcamp income to the cause,kudos to you,does this stance gave you problems with you fanbase or similar?
I've not had any problems from my fanbase at all. Hopefully that's because they're all sensible people that acknowledge and oppose the problems in our society...
It's quite frustrating that this isn't a very common thing in the metal scene. There's been some movement towards making it more prominent recently, which is very encouraging, but it's still a problem. There's too much tolerance and enabling of hateful and disciminatory attitudes and behaviours in the scene. Black metal in particular is terrible for this. It's another reason why I like punk so much – as much as that scene's still not perfect, at least they tell Nazis where they can go... With black metal, you have the actual Nazis and racists, and then too many people who just look past it, because “it's just about the riffs” (also how come most of the Nazi bands don't even have any good riffs?), or “I can separate the artist from the art” or “I just leave politics out of it.” And these same people will then lose their minds when a black metal band has left-wing or antifascist themes, or dares to speak out about it. It's pretty disgusting how accepted this is, and how many bands get a pass for super shady behaviour and associations (one super popular band being the backing band for an NSBM project springs to mind...).
7) Stormriding power feature a fast as lighting Jaguar cover (which also released and interview in this blog) why did you choose this particular tune? NWOBHM had a wide range of different sounding band, from the melodic one to the most speedy ones? Which one are you favourites in this field? There is some forgotten gem from Scotland?
Quite simply, I chose it because it's an amazing song! The main riff is very punky as it is, so I thought it'd be fun to give it some d-beats and make it a bit rougher. I also had to solo more than I ever had before, so it was a nice challenge as well.
When it comes to NWOBHM, my favourite would probably be Cloven Hoof. The self-titled and A Sultan's Ransom are two of my favourites, absolutely killer stuff. Satan are amazing, definitely the best comeback of any of that scene! I love some of the early Tokyo Blade and Demon records. Ritual – Widow is another really cool album. Black Axe had a great single, Virtue were really good. Then there's the bands that were kind of outliers on the scene for being a bit nastier – Tank, Warfare, and of course VENOM!
I'm not too sure on the forgotten gems from Scotland – our main NWOBHM band would be the excellent Holocaust. I know there were others, but I've not heard enough! Our main forgotten gem here would probably be Iron Claw, but they predate the NWOBHM by a few years – they're well worth checking out though, total early Sabbath worship (I believe one of those guys is responsible for the earliest recording of Sabbath, a bootleg from when they were still called Earth)!
8) How about the lyrics,Tyrant’s Curse give us some distinct Howard\Lovecraft vibes are you into this kind of novels? What are your non musical influences? (let’s also talk about the wonderful artwork from the single Bring down the axe).
Howard is definitely an influence – Bring Down the Axe is roughly based off Conan the Barbarian, as are some of the new tracks I'm working on.
My influences are mostly in the realms of dark fantasy/sci-fi. Quite a few songs from Stormriding Power are based off parts of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Conan the Barbarian is a big influence. Mad Max is one, of course – see Chasing Bullets for that! There's also some more general stuff, like the obvious Lord of the Rings kind of thing (probably where the sword/weaponry obsession comes from...), Highlander, pretty much anything with swords and bloody war will do it for me! Witches, rituals, and magic are always there too, that's just the kind of stuff I like! The new album's got more songs about Conan the Barbarian, more Malazan, some Greek mythology, and some Warhammer Fantasy/40k things as well.
The artwork for Bring Down the Axe was done by Daniel Artgrinder, he's a killer tattoo artist based in Finland who does excellent metalpunk work. I got in touch, explained what I wanted, and he nailed it straight away.
Check him out here:
https://www.facebook.com/DanielArtgrinder/
https://www.instagram.com/danielkaosss/
9) Can you give us a overview on the Scottish scene and on bands that are worth to be mentioned!(if you want to throw some international bands are welcome too).
I'll keep this more to UK bands – I travel around the country a lot, so that lets me hear a lot of the bands from further away, and I just don't hear as many Scottish ones these days!
Grave Altar – we toured with these guys back in November. Totally ballistic nekrothrash, these guys are pretty much the UK's answer to Deathhammer/Aura Noir/Antichrist! Absolutely killer stuff, anyone who likes the old style of thrash needs to hear this band!
Dungeon – this is my live drummer Chris's main band. Filthy speed metal with a punked-up attitude. Their EP Purifying Fire is one of my favourite records. They're an absolute powerhouse live as well, touring with them is a great time!
Skyryder – my live bassist Andy plays drums for these guys (somehow I've ended up with three drummers in my band...). These guys play NWOBHM style heavy metal, it's fast, they shred, they rule.
Aggressive Perfector – speed/heavy metal with a total horror movie vibe. These guys are one of the best in the UK by a long shot, devastating live, and phenomenal on record. Everyone should check them out.
Inhuman Nature – thrash/hardcore from London. Like Iron Age but a bit more metal. They're great on record, but they're even better live, just absolutely crushing riffs.
The Vexed – drunken chaos metalpunk from York. They don't do that much, but they should, because they're great fun. Absolute maniacs!
Live Burial – my favourite current death metal band. I've been into these guys since their first demo, and they've just kept getting better through the years. Their new album Unending Futility is absolutely killer, it's everything you could want from death metal!
Night Fighter – a relatively new band from Glasgow, one-man black/speed metal. Inkulto and I have been in a few bands together over the years, I drummed for his d-beat band Göatshit, and he was the first live bassist for Venomwolf. Needless to say, he knows his stuff, and Night Fighter is the best thing he's done.
As for international bands...
Eurynomos – labelmates on Iron Pegasus, featuring the mighty Okkulto (ex-Desaster)! They've got a full album coming out at the end of August, which I'm very excited about. They kill the old way!
Ewig Frost – true wasteland warriors from Vienna, I've been a fan of these guys for a long time. Mötorpunk with a bit of a crusty black metal edge, they've got a new album coming, and I can't wait to hear it!
10) How did you shaped the Venomwolf sound? The flyier speaks about “non triggered drums” what kinds of equipment and production did you used? Joel Grind did an excellent work with the sound.
Haha, this is something I can go on about all day...
I want the sound of Venomwolf to be as real and genuine as possible. I don't use any digital or virtual amps, I don't trigger any drums or use machines, and I don't make any edits that change what I actually played. So many of my favourite albums have small mistakes (or large ones, like Bathory...) and imperfections that make them sound more human and real, and I don't want to take that away from my own music. If I'm going to be making old-school sounding records, it should sound old-school! It's also important that every instrument is played for real on the records. I could just use a drum machine, but they never sound as good, and I find it really takes away from the feel of the old sound.
As for more specific equipment, it's all pretty straightforward. I've got a cheap old Pearl drum kit, and I've taken off the resonant heads for the 80s box sound. I use Paiste Alpha cymbals, and a Pearl Sensitone snare. For the bass, it's a Fender Jazz into a Hartke amp and cab. I get my bass distortion from a Boss DF-2 pedal, which I believe is from 1983. My guitar setup has changed a little over the years, I borrowed quite a lot of gear for the Stormriding Power record. Now though, it's a BC Rich Warlock with Dimarzio Super Distortions, which runs through a Turbo Tubescreamer into my Marshall JCM2000. I've got a Boss Chorus Ensemble and an EHX Cathedral in the effects loop – the chorus is always on live. That all goes into a 1991 Marshall 4x12 cab. For all the recordings so far, and live shows, my vocals go through my SM58.
For the Buried Alive cover on the Bring Down the Axe single, I used an effects pedal that used to belong to Mantas himself! My pal that drives us on tour is a family friend of Mantas, and happens to own one of his old pedals, which still has all his settings saved, and he was kind enough to let me use it for the Venom cover!
As for production, I take a very old-school approach. I try to mix everything as organically as possible, I try not to spend too much time on things, and I generally want to keep everything feeling as real and old-school as possible. So, loud guitars, bulldozer bass, boxy drums, and vocals with a ton of delay on them! I hate the attitude that is very common these days where people will work on a mix for a single song for weeks or months on end, constantly making minute adjustments, and agonising over every tiny little detail. How many classic albums were recorded and mixed in the shortest time possible?
Joel Grind was the natural choice for mastering the record, because who else knows this kind of music that well? He's a great dude, super easy to work with.
11) Ok, the torture’s over. Free-space!
Thanks for the questions, and thanks to anyone who's actually read this far! Hopefully this will have been interesting, I know I tend to ramble on a bit...
PHOTO CREDITS:
Facci sapere cosa pensi / Voice your opinion