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Interview with Joe Kurland
from Armoury
May 2008 by Metal Mark |
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Armory are a power metal band from
Massachusetts. They have an interesting story about their album “The
Dawn of Enlightenment”. I recently got to interview guitarist Joe
Kurland and find out about their history, their album and their
plans for the future.
Tell us a little about your band?
We are a metal band from Massachusetts, USA and formed in the summer
of 2001. We have released one album (two versions) called “The Dawn
Of Enlightenment”. We have a unique metal style that sounds similar
to melodic Euro-power metal bands, such as Helloween and Edguy,
traditional metal bands, such as Iron Maiden and Manowar, and at
times like thrash bands, such as Megadeth, and progressive metal
bands, such as Pagan’s Mind.
Your album “The Dawn of Enlightenment” was
actually first released in 2004. Then you decided to re-record it
and that’s the version that came out recently. Why did you decide to
re-record it? How is the new version different?
The opportunity arose for us to be recorded by past acquaintance
Pete Rutcho. We knew he could get us excellent sound quality and we
wanted to professionally press and package the whole thing this
time. The new version has many revised parts, new vocal melodies, a
professional album cover, booklet, and pressing, two new bonus
tracks, real keyboards, and much better sound quality. In addition,
while re-recording the album, Pete also officially joined the band
as Armory’s keyboardist.
How long did it take to re-do the album?
Two and a half years. I recorded the drums in early July, 2005 if
you can believe it. It took half a year to record the guitars, half
a year for the bass, half a year for the vocals, and then almost a
full year for the keys, editing, mixing, mastering, and putting
together the album booklet. The reason it took so long was because
we could only record when Pete and us had time in our busy
schedules. Everyone was and is also working full time outside of the
band. On average this restricted us to only being able to record for
two to five times per month for only a few hours each time. The next
album should be recorded much quicker as I am going to basically
replace Pete as engineer at least for the guitars, bass, and vocal
recordings. I am currently taking graduate classes but do not have a
job outside of that.
Are you satisfied with the way the second
version of your album turned out? Was it worth the time and effort?
Yes, it was totally worth the time and effort. We have made
something from nothing; a metal album that will hopefully be around
long after we are gone. There is almost no better way to spend one’s
time. We improved every aspect of “The Dawn Of Enlightenment” since
the original recording and now the songs sound as we always
envisioned them. We vastly improved the production and packaging.
The vocals and keyboards sound much better. We can now market our
album and feel totally confident about it. |
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Were any of you in any other bands or projects
while you were re-recording “The Dawn of Enlightenment”?
Yes. Pete is in a solo metal band called Vomitron (specializing in
Nintendo covers), Graveheart (old-school thrash and death metal),
and Frozen (progressive death and core metal). Both Tom’s are in a
band together called Soul Remnants (progressive death and thrash).
Chad, Adam, and I are only in Armory.
It looks like your CD is being sold by a
number of retailers. What has been the feedback so far? Do you how
well it is selling so far?
Besides our own band store, our album is being sold by 14 other
distributors from the US, Germany, Japan, and Greece. “The Dawn Of
Enlightenment” has been reviewed by almost 100 metal review webzines
and magazines so far and has been given many great reviews. We’ve
been named “Album of the Month” on a few occasions and been given
perfect reviews here and there. We are also being played on dozens
of radio stations around the world. You can go to our official site
or myspace page to read up on all of the great feedback so far. We
keep track of all our sales. It has been selling decently. The only
thing we can compare it to is how the original recording of “The
Dawn Of Enlightenment” sold and already we’ve sold about 20 times as
many CDs in one-tenth the amount of time.
Have you had any interest from any record
labels yet?
We have had some interest from labels. We would rather not go into
too much detail at this time about specifics though.
Considering you just released a very
professional sounding album on your own. How much does it mean to
you to get signed?
Honestly, after re-recording “The Dawn Of Enlightenment”, pressing
and promoting it all by ourselves, I would say that getting a record
deal has lost a lot of its appeal. With the help of the internet
we’ve been able to reach fans through myspace, radio, review sites,
magazines, and distributors. My house acts as our recording studio
and business headquarters for selling our CDs and shirts through our
official website store. All things considered, I think we’ve done
well for ourselves as an unsigned band. I consider us on par with
any signed metal band. Of course if we had a record deal we could
get a lot of help planning a tour, which now is impossible, as we do
not have the connections or money to do so.
Did you write any other songs in between when
the first release of your album in 2004 and re-recording it in 2007?
Yes indeed. We began composing material for our second album back in
2004. We worked on composing whenever we were not actively revising
or re-recording “The Dawn Of Enlightenment”. Right now there are
nine songs which are each 90% to 100% written. I am scheduled to
record the drums for our second album in only a few weeks.
Everything will be done by us once again. We have matured as players
and song writers. Fans can expect an album of monumental
proportions.
What is the metal scene like in your area?
The true-metal scene (meaning 80’s classic metal, thrash, power and
progressive metal) is not very popular, although there are some
die-hard fans, such as all of us in Armory. Death and black metal is
a little more popular here. Hardcore and metalcore are even more
popular; however, we really don’t like that style of music and don’t
even consider it to truly be metal.
What do you think about metal in general in
this decade? Do you think the overall metal scene is getting
stronger or not?
I think that metal in the early to mid 2000’s was really strong with
releases like “The Metal Opera” parts I and II by Avantasia, “The
Savage Poetry”, “Mandrake”, and “Hellfire Club” by Edguy, “The House
of Atreus act II” by Virgin Steele, “V” by Symphony X, “Sunrise In
Riverland” by Insania, “Silence” by Sonata Arctica, “Wishmaster” by
Nightwish, “Infinite” by Stratovarius, “Awakening the World” and “A
Flame to the Ground Beneath” by Lost Horizon, “Infinity Divine” and
“Celestial Entrance” by Pagan’s Mind, “Sign of the Winner” and “Dust
to Dust” by Heavenly, “Follow the Reaper” by Children of Bodom, “The
Hall of the Olden Dreams” and “The Gates of Oblivion” by Dark Moor,
“Dawn of Victory” by Rhapsody, “Of Wars in Osyhria” by Fairyland,
“Rebirth” and “Temple of Shadows” by Angra, and “Defying the Rules”
by Hibria.
However, from 2005 to the present I believe that metal has been in a
huge rut. Too many bands are getting carried away with adding female
vocalists or growling elements, sounding poppy, and basically just
losing a metal edge. In the past couple of years the best releases
have been slightly above mediocre. I am pretty confident that we
will eventually get out of the rut and metal will thrive once again.
If not anyone else, we will certainly stay true! We had a metal rut
in the mid-nineties that lasted a few years but we broke out of that
with the appearance of some new great metal bands, such as
Hammerfall, Rhapsody, Edguy, Children of Bodom, and Nightwish to
name a few. The seasoned bands have released bad to decent albums
but I have no hope for them to reclaim their glory days of writing,
as it has never once happened before. We can only hope for new bands
to take their place. You can bet that Armory is one of them. |
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Who
did the artwork for your album cover?
A professional artist from Texas that we met online named Steve Goad
did our album cover.
We really like his painting and it fits very well with our album’s
image and concept. It is surprising that it fits so well because he
had already painted it and then we contacted him about using it for
our album cover.
What do you hope to accomplish in 2008?
Many things! Record our second album, continue to promote our first
album by sending it to more review webzines, magazines, radio
stations, and distributors, play many shows, improve and constantly
update our websites.
Pick the band from the following pair that you
prefer and tell why you picked that band. |
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Gamma Ray or Helloween
Helloween, as they are my second favorite band. I’ve been listening
to the two Keeper albums for over a decade now and they are among my
favorite albums of all time. In my mind, Helloween invented power
metal. The Keeper albums displayed all of the elements of modern day
power metal bands, such as double-bass drumming, soaring vocals, and
guitar interlude harmonies. “Walls of Jericho” is my third favorite
Helloween album. Gamma Ray is actually also one of my favorite
bands. I prefer “Somewhere out in Space”, followed by “Land of the
Free” and “Powerplant”. Kai Hansen is the king of power metal.
Fates Warning or Meliah Rage
Fates Warning, as I am not too familiar with Meliah Rage’s
discography, even though they are from my home state. “No Exit”
rules. Fates Warning was one of the founders of progressive metal.
The stuff I’ve heard of Meliah Rage I do remember liking.
Dragonforce or Hammerfall
"Certainly Hammerfall. I’ve been listening to both since the late
nineties when Hammerfall had only released “Glory to the Brave” and
Dragonforce was still called Dragonheart. I love “Glory to the
Brave” and “Legacy of Kings”. They were both huge inspirations for
“The Dawn Of Enlightenment”, especially in “Riding The Cosmic
Winds”, “Warrior Forlorn”, and “Forever Triumphant”. Dragonforce, on
the other hand, I don’t particularly care for. I liked “Valley of
the Damned” when it was only a five-song demo and they were still
called Dragonheart. I just don’t feel that there is much substance
in their music any more."
Iron Maiden or Judas Priest
Iron Maiden, as they are my favorite band ever. “Somewhere In Time”
is my favorite album of all time. In descending order I really like
“Powerslave”, Piece of Mind”, “The Number of the Beast”, “Seventh
Son of a Seventh Son”, and “Killers”. They are another big influence
for our style. Judas Priest is also one of my favorite bands. I
prefer “Defenders of the Faith”, followed by “Painkiller”, “Turbo”,
and “Screaming for Vengeance”.
Is there anything else that you would like to
say about your band or your music?
I want to thank you Mark for doing this interview with us. Thanks to
all of our fans. Let the Armoroids unite!!!
www.myspace.com/armorymetal |
www.faithinsteel.com |
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