Interviews - Live 4 Metal


Interview with D.D.Danger of Conquest of Steel July 2007 by Steve Green

The 25th January 2003. Not a particularly memorable date in history, but it was the day I first got blown away by Conquest of Steel at the Winter Chaos Alldayer at The Peel in Kingston. My opinion that day was that Conquest of Steel were the epitome of what a True Metal band should be and I wished that there were more bands like them... and 4.1/2 years later, my opinion is exactly the same. If you love Metal, then it's time you tasted The Steel for yourselves. Conquest of Steel are a complete throwback to 80s Metal. I’m sure all of you are too young to have witnessed the birth of Metal the first time around, so were you all influenced by your parents and/or siblings taste in music? I was definitely not influenced by my parents taste in music. Although maybe it was years of listening to Neil Diamond and Whitney Houston that made me turn to Metal! We all got into Metal in various ways, some of started of listening to Maiden, Wasp, Kiss etc etc and then progressed onto other forms of Metal, whilst others of us started straight in at the deep end with Death Metal and Thrash and then worked ‘backwards’, as it were to listen to Mercyful Fate, Slough Feg, Manowar, King Diamond etc. We have all been into Metal for 15 years plus (with the exception of new recruit Claymore Clarke who has a bit of catching up to do as he is only 20!), and we all love Metal played the old way. Conquest of Steel was formed to play Metal the way we all love it – Hard, Heavy and Loud!! Which bands first got you into Metal? And do you have any dark secrets lurking in your record collection? For me it was a Christian Metal band called Detritus first got me into Metal. Ironically it was also probably because of Metal that I became a convicted Atheist. I had never heard anything like it before. The heaviest music I had heard before was probably Queen, and when I heard Detritus, I just new that this was gonna be the music for me……everyone else around me thought it was a horrible racket - I thought it was the best thing I had ever heard! As for dark secrets; I extricated any non-metal records from my collection many years ago when I realised that Metal was the only form of music for me. I have no need for any other form of music, when there are so many types and styles of music within Metal. All other forms of music are a pointless waste of time and energy and should be erased with extreme prejudice. What made you decide to form a True Heavy Metal band? It’s in our blood – we were destined to do this. We felt that at the time that there was nobody playing what we considered to be True Heavy Metal in the UK. All the good True Metal bands were to be found in Germany and the rest of Europe and as the UK is the home of Heavy Metal, we felt this country needed a band that could hold aloft the torch for True Heavy Metal. This is still very much the case, despite Metal rising in popularity in the UK recently, nobody is doing what we are doing and we will continue to do it for as long as possible to ensure that the Glory days of 80’s Heavy Metal are not forgotten. Whose idea was it for the band to wear denim waistcoats and the patches? And why haven’t you designed/released your own Conquest of Steel patch? It was purely a natural process for the band. Denim and Leather are synonymous with 80’s Heavy Metal and we felt it essential to preserve this legacy. We have always dressed in a traditional Metal way and will continue to do so as we see no need to change …this is how we will dress for life. As for patches; we had Conquest of Steel patches made a couple of years ago and we are just having 2 new designs pressed up as we speak.

Congratulations on Hammer & Fist. I think it’s your best work so far. Has the endless gigging helped improve you as a band? I feel that Hammer & Fist captures your live energy perfectly. Cheers, I’m glad you enjoyed the album. It is definitely our best work yet. The constant gigging has definitely helped us to become tighter as a band and also helped us to become clearer about what we want to achieve with our songs. We have always aimed to capture our live energy on record and we have definitely taken a huge step towards that with Hammer and Fist. We are confident that the production on the album is a massive improvement on our previous releases, but yet maintains the energy, power and rawness that is an essential part of 80’s Heavy Metal. My personal favourites are the more upbeat numbers such as I Am Legend and Born In Hell. Is it hard writing new material that fits the True Metal spirit? And are you ever likely to sell out and do a St. Anger with absolutely no lead guitars? Ha Ha!. No we will never ‘do a St Anger’. I’ve never been a huge Metallica fan, but what I heard of that album was an absolute
travesty. We have never relied on guitar solo’s and not all our songs have them, but they are definitely an integral part of the band and Diesel Dave excelled himself in the studio when he laid down the solo’s on Hammer and Fist. I am sure however that his replacement James ‘Claymore’ Clarke will carry on the high standard of lead work that his predecessor Diesel Dave began. When the True Metal Spirit courses through your veins, it is not hard to write great Heavy Metal, all it takes is that spirit combined with hard graft and perseverance. I’ve noticed that on most of your live dates, you are the headliners. How difficult is it for an underground band to get decent support slots in the UK? Over the last couple of years we have had the privilege of sharing the stage with amongst others: 3 Inches of Blood, Gwar, Sabbat, Entombed, Pungent Stench, Akercocke and many more great bands. We are constantly trying to gain more support slots with bigger bands to further increase our profile. We are supporting Municipal Waste later this month and are hoping to land a few more high profile supports for later in the year. Although we do often headline gigs we try to avoid it as often as possible, ‘cos going on earlier means we have less waiting around and can finish playing earlier and then we have more time to get pissed after the gig! How have you been received by the mainstream press? Do they get “The Steel”, or are you too Metal for them? I can’t imagine Conquest of Steel on either Kerrang or Scuzz. The mainstream metal press have been surprisingly positive about Conquest of Steel. We have had great reviews in Kerrang! for all our releases and live shows and Metal Hammer gave us a 2 page spread after the release of our debut album. This is a constant source of shock and amusement for us – we never thought that the trendy mags would give a shit about True Metal – I guess they maybe have a couple of writers who know what the words Heavy Metal actually mean. The downside of it is that we seem to have been lumped in with all this Battle Metal shit – whatever the fuck Battle Metal is! Not that there is anything wrong with some of the bands that play this type of music – but we are a Traditional Heavy Metal band - end of story. You’ve now got, I think, at least 2 Europeans tours under your belts. How different is it to play on mainland Europe than in the UK and does your English sense of humour translate well overseas? Playing abroad is fantastic. We’ve had a great time on the 3 European tours and sporadic festival dates we have played. The highlight was definitely the most recent 2 week tour of Europe. We played some great gigs, met a lot of very cool Metal people and drank a lot of beer. After 13 dates we just wanted it to continue, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. We will however be returning as soon as possible. I have to say that the crowds we get in Europe are just as good as the crowds here at home if not better. It’s great for a British True Metal band to be able to play Metal in Europe alongside all the great European bands that we have had the joy of sharing the stage with on our tours. I see a big European Festival as the perfect stage for you to play on. What has been your biggest gig so far and what ambitions do you still have to fulfil? Supporting Iron Maiden maybe? Supporting Maiden would indeed be a dream come true. We would be a much better and more suited support act than the shit bands they often take out on the road with them like Funeral for a Friend and the horrible nepotism that is going on when Steve Harris takes his daughter Lauren along to support them. Our biggest gig would probably have to be Bloodstock 2005, playing to 500 screaming Metalheads. Damnation Fest was also a great surprise later the same year - we weren’t expecting to play to a few hundred rabid metal fans! The small European festivals have also been great. Playing festivals is fantastic fun, the atmosphere is always great – people are drunk and having a great time watching their favourite bands and enjoying being surrounded by hundreds or thousands of fellow Metallers. We have plans to make an assault on the European festival circuit over the next few years, and expect our next few summers to be booked up with various festival dates, sandwiched in between all the rest of our gigging.



First it was Vic Victory’s collarbone, now drummer Chris ‘The Destroyer’ Mills has broken his wrist whilst partaking in pissed wrestling while you were in Ireland. What injury have you got planned next, or is this Conquest of Steel trying to outdo Spinal Tap? We thought it was bad enough when Vic bust his collarbone, but we couldn’t believe it when The Destroyer fucked his wrist as well! Let’s hope this is the end of injuries for Conquest of Steel. Despite these 2 injuries in quick succession, we have managed to continue gigging without cancelling a single gig. The show must go on, and we are grateful to John Savage for standing in on drums at such short notice. He only had 2 rehearsals prior to getting on the road with us throughout July and continues to do a fantastic job. He will continue to perform drum duties until The Destroyer is able to take his Drum throne again later in the year. I don’t think we could outdo Spinal tap even if we tried, although as any Metal band on the road will tell you, Spinal tap is so close to the reality of playing in a Metal band it’s untrue! As you guys are so Metal, here are a few questions on the subject: As you epitomise what a metal band should be, apart from Conquest of Steel, who are the most Metal band around? There are no others. As you rightly said we are the epitome of Heavy Metal and none can stand aside us. Who would win a fight between Saxon, Iron Maiden and Manowar? Mmmm, Manowar would like to think that they would win, and I reckon on a musical level it would be a close fought thing between them and Maiden. However as Iron Maiden now have too many members they could probably sacrifice one member by using them as bait and reeling Manowar in and thrashing them within an inch of their lives with Eddie’s head. Saxon would never have made it through the heats. For any fan just discovering Metal, what are the five most essential albums and what is the most Metal song of all time? Picking 5 albums out of a whole genre of music is nigh on impossible. However I shall endeavour to point the young and frivolous in the right direction: Dio – Holy Diver Judas Priest – Painkiller Iron Maiden – Powerslave Manowar – Sign of the Hammer King Diamond – Abigail The most Metal song would probably be ‘You Can’t Stop the Metal’, as a statement about how Metal will never die, and it is of course one of our own fine tunes! If you could create your all time favourite band, who would it consist of? Dio on vocals (with backing vocals by King Diamond) Steve Harris – Bass Randy Roads – Guitar Andy Laroque - Guitar Rhino - Drums And finally, if you could turn Donington back into the proper Monsters of Rock, what would be your ultimate line-up? Maiden Manowar Sabbath (both Ozzy and Dio line-ups) Wasp Dio Mercyful Fate Budgie 3 Inches of Blood Slough Feg Conquest of Steel (naturally) Thanks for your time. Please plug away to your hearts’ content. Cheers for the Interview, and keep up the good work with Live4Metal. Our brand new album ‘Hammer and Fist’ is available in all good record stores and through our label at www.nofacerecords.co.uk Both the debut album and Priests of Metal EP are also still available. We also have loads of shirts, plectrums and posters and will have some new patches in stock very soon. Check out the website at www.conquestofsteel.co.uk and the myspace at www.myspace.com/conquestofsteel Keep it Metal D.D.Danger