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Old Corpse Road Interview
By Steve Earles October 2009 |
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Old Corpse Road have completely blown me away
with what has to be the best demo of the year! I arranged a meeting
with Old Corpse Road’s label owner, the legendary Crin of Godreah
fame. Crin brings me to a meeting with the band. Its precise
location must remain a secret, but suffice it to say, it took place
within a medieval castle. Therein it’s banqueting hall, I saw many
strange things. Mobile phones would give no signal, my digital watch
informed me that the year was 1410, and great revelry abounded.
Whole pigs were being roasted, ale and mead were being served by
diverse strumpets, consumed, by many revellers. It is as though we
have entered a dimension and time unlike our own. That is as it
should be. I ask Crin what drew him to Old Corpse Road. Crin tells
me: “Old Corpse Road carry on the exclusive English Black Metal
traditions woven into lore by the early works of Cradle of Filth and
Sabbat. This band are a dynamic fusion of blasting symphonic
precision and raw folk rhythmic metal.” And of course they are very
much a band. “Indeed, Steve, in a scene where the one-man-band
infests the medium with one-dimensional egotism, it is always
refreshing to see a working unit of individuals with the ability to
take it our on the road.” We are interrupted by the appearance of a
group of individuals wearing armour. It is whispered by the
revellers that these are The Meads Of Asphodel. At their head, a
figure with glowing red eyes, in a monk’s cowl, salutes us wryly,
then exits in a haze of smoke, with a strumpet on one arm and a
barrel of mead beneath the other. It is whispered that he is the
legendary Metatron. As they depart, the babble of talk in the
banqueting hall rises again, and Crin concludes. “Old Corpse Road
are without doubt one of the most vibrant and exciting bands to claw
from the English underground slime since Anaal Nathrakh.” Crin then
introduces me to Old Corpse Road. They are, The Bearer on guitar and
vocals. The Revenant also on guitar and vocals. The Dreamer on
percussion and ambience. The Wanderer on bass and spoken word, and
finally, The Watcher on keyboards and vocals.
I begin my journey along the Old Corpse Road by enquiring as to how
the band came to be. The Bearer explains. “The band was conceived
when myself and The Dreamer (drums) went on an annual excursion to
the English Lake District in 2007. We were seeking a band name and
on a visit to Haweswater, we discovered a footpath called the Old
Corpse Road.” The Dreamer adds. “The time was right, the ingredients
and concept were there and Old Corpse Road was born. At first a few
riffs were jammed with eventually turned into the Old Corpse Road
track and the rest just followed swiftly from there. It was fate.”
The Bearer concludes. “The members of the band have all been friends
with each other for the last decade or more and have played in
numerous other metal projects together and separately. So the
process of working together and consolidating the line-up was a
comfortable process.”The name, Old
Corpse Road, instantly lodges in the mind of the listener, and of
course, it is the title track of your fine demo The Echoes of Tales
Once Told…what is an Old Corpse Road? The Dreamer is happy to
provide enlightenment. “The Old Corpse Road is very specific to
Haweswater, travelling from Mardale to Shap. In a more general
sense, a corpse road is a track or pathway leading from a small
church with no burial capacity to a larger church with a cemetery. A
lot of superstition was attached to these roads with hauntings and
wicked spirits. Corpse roads tended to follow straight lines as
people believed it would keep them safe as spirits could not pass
over them. Straying from the path was believed to be disastrous.
Corpse candles were regularly seen near corpse roads. Most corpse
roads have no been lost and only a few remain.” |
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That is incredible, I was not aware of such a
thing. Thank you for enlightening us. Now, what are Old Corpse
Road’s major influences musically? The Bearer answers. “As a band we
are not heavy influenced, rather we are inspired by our musical
forefather. These inspirations mainly draw from the early UK black
metal scene, such as, “Principle/Vempire”-era Cradle of Filth, Bal-Sagoth’s
“Starfire”, Hectate Enthroned. But we cannot deny there is still a
large influence from non-UK black metal such as Emperor’s
“Nightside” and Abigor’s “Orkblut”. The Dreamer sees Old Corpse
Road’s influences as wider still. “The band also has a passion for
the early doom scene, bands such as My Dying Bride and Paradise
Lost, as well as traditional heavy metal such as Iron Maiden. The
ambient music scene also provides stimulus such as Arcana, Raison
D’Etre, Endura and Dead Can Dance. There is a very strong bond
between ambient music, such as Cold Meat Industries, and black
metal, they both successfully conjure very similar feelings whilst
being world’s apart musically. Folk bands such as In Extremo, Corvus
Corvax, Menhir and Storm also play an interesting role; not a direct
musical influence but by invoking atmospheres that will shape out
music.” The Wanderer emphasises though that. “Not all of the band
are deep followers of the black metal scene; although they still
understand the feeling and passion of the music.” That is as it
should be, what of your lyrical inspirations? The Dreamer replies.
“We use stories that evoke a uniquely British feeling, where you can
understand how our ancestors felt, wandering through woodlands and
forests encountering things they could not explain. It’s a hard
feeling to describe, but if you walk corpse roads, view ruined
abbeys and visit these timeless places, you’ll know it.” Indeed I
do, it is always inspiring to visit such places. “Anywhere where
nature and our ancestors have met, in any country, has a similar
feeling, we just have a stronger bond with the British aspect. These
stories feel comfortable and natural to us, much like old friends.”
What about philosophically? The Dreamer ponders. “This is an
interesting question and one we’ve struggled to answer. We don’t
really pinpoint an exact influence, apart from life itself. As a
band the closest thing we have to a philosophy is keeping things
simple, enjoy the experience, and good work ethic. We apply this
philosophy to all our work and it seems to work for us.” The Bearer
concludes. “As individuals we all have our own varying ideals which
have been shaped by many different things. We all chose not to bring
our personal biases into the band and therefore there is no defined
philosophy in the band.”
To my mind, while Old Corpse Road have a refreshingly original
sound, two influences I detect are The Meads Of Asphodel and Sabbat.
The Meads Of Asphodel are a truly unique force in British metal, few
bands, save for the likes of Bathory, can be said to exist simply to
create music in the same fashion. While Sabbat should have become
one of metals greatest bands…would you agree? The Bearer considers.
“I can definitely see how the Meads Of Asphodel influences are
apparent to the listener. I believe this for a number of reasons
such as the avant-garde nature of the music and also the somewhat
English sound the band has. The Meads have always wanted to create
original and obscure music while retaining that classic black metal
bias and we feel that Old Corpse Road are similar in this respect,
trying to create something that stands out and not being afraid to
make bold and strong music whilst still keeping with the black metal
genre. The Sabbat influence is also an intriguing one, although on
thought, it’s also obvious! Sabbat’s “History of a Time To Come” is
one of my favourite metal albums and I am proud to take inspiration
from it. The blend of Martin’s lyrics and vocals and Andy Sneap’s
guitar playing simply just works. An extremely underrated band. I
can’t speak for the rest of Old Corpse Road as they don’t seem to
share my views! They clearly are all infidel Neanderthals! Well put,
if anyone reading this does not know the majesty and sincerity of
both the Meads of Asphodel and Sabbat, I advise you to invest in
their music forthwith, you will not regret it, this I promise you! A
better investment than a bank in this new financial dark age we live
in.
Now, I note that Old Corpse Road’s members use titles rather than
their given names. Is this to create a feeling of mystery? The
Dreamer explains. “The reason for using pseudonyms was to make the
individual members of the band unimportant and allow people to focus
on Old Corpse Road as a whole. People do not need to know who we
are, they need to know who Old Corpse Road are.” The Bearer adds.
“This in turn does add an element of mystique, though not
deliberately. I like to think that we are storytellers or
characters, hence our birth names are not fitting.”
With three members of Old Corpse Road handling vocals, and one on
spoken word, I imagine there is none of the ‘cult of personality’
that we see in bands like Cradle of Filth. The Bearer confirms this.
“Cult personalities are like car crash television. It’s interesting
to watch, but ultimately disastrous for most bands. With all of the
vocalists in the band playing an instrument as well, there is no
‘frontman’ as such and thus egos are not really given the chance to
blossom. We prefer the band to be seen as a collective, playing as
one, rather than the singer and his backing band.” The Watcher
concludes humourlessly. “Any ego which arises in the band is quickly
subdued by ritual humiliation.”
Now, you are clearly inspired by folk tales, history and myth. I am
familiar with The Wild Hunt, as it is a common tale in both Ireland
and England. Since you have written a song bearing the same title,
would you care to explain the Wild Hunt for the benefit of the
readers? The Bearers says. “When the band was conceived. We all sat
down and talked about our lyrical approach. We saw no reason talking
about religion or the current state of the world as that would only
make us bitter and spiteful. Some of the best music is lyrically
rooted in storytelling and as folklore and nature are interests of
the members of Old Corpse Road we took this approach.” The Dreamer
expands on this theme. “The Wild Hunt is a story told all over
Europe. It is the tale of a spectral hunt which was said to appear
before an impending disaster or death. This spectral hunt consisted
of the huntsmen and his baying hounds. If you were unlucky to
witness or get caught up in the hunt, your soul was swept away to
remain with them. The story has appeared in many guises with the
huntsmen being Odin, Sir Francis Drake, Gabriel, King Arthur and
many other ancient deities and folk heroes. It is one of the most
enduring and widespread folk beliefs. In our song we focused on the
hunt as a whole. In the future we would like to focus on a more
specific aspect such as Durham’s Gabriel’s Ratchets. |
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I am not familiar with the subject matter of
your track The Oakmen Of Naddle Forest? The Dreamer warms to his
story-telling. “The Oakmen Of Naddle Forest is an amalgamation of
two concepts. The first being Oakmen, little-known woodland fairies
more common in Germanic folklore, however, also tied to the North of
England. They were heavily connected to oak trees and were said to
spring up when oaks were felled. They are particularly fond of
bluebells and will protect them from humans. The second aspect is
Naddle Forest, a large oak woodland close to the Old Corpse Road,
which is heavily laden with bluebells and seemed a perfect refuge
for our Oakmen story.” A lot of black
metal is marred by misanthropy and other unsavoury beliefs, but
those who travel the Old Corpse Road will experience a musical
journey that is both inspiring and uplifting. The Wanderer is
pleased with this effect. “We’re glad that our music inspires people
in such a way and evokes the emotions we receive when we create the
music. We are happy that we can show that black metal does not have
to be negative and can be a positive force. The music is designed to
be passionate and inspirational unlike a lot of modern metal music
which is drenched in self-pity, ego, and misery.” The Watcher
concludes. “It’s good sometimes to listen to music that has a more
nihilistic and misanthropic nature, but it has to be work within the
context of the music. If it’s just being angry for anger’s sake,
sometimes you feel it just misses the point.”
Many bands include acoustic passages in a mindless way. It’s what
metal bands feel they should do, rather than growing organically as
part of the song itself. I feel those of Old Corpse Road are
authentic and appropriate to the music, like those of say, Led
Zeppelin or Skyclad. Would you agree? The Revenant does. “The
acoustic passages are used when it feels right in the song. They
tend to just happen organically with the mood of the tune. We find
that our songs can be played almost entirely acoustically and still
sound and feel the same which is an interesting aspect of our
music.” The Wanderer concurs that. “The rhythms and chord structures
used translate well into an acoustic environment.”
Old Corpse Road have great live potential. Do you plan on touring
much into the future? The Bearer says. “We are a live act, in that
we practice regularly and all of our songs can be performed in full
by the band. We have however, not yet played live as we have
committed so much time to writing and recording. It wasn’t long
after the release of our demo that we were approached to record our
split EP. Now that the recording is complete we are focusing a lot
of time to live practice in order that we may take our set to the
masses. We have a couple of local shows lined up and other shows in
the pipeline for the future. We’re also in talks with the Worms of
Sabnock to get some shows together to promote the release of the new
EP.”
Who would you ideal touring partners be? The Dreamer jokes. “Michael
Jackson!” The Watcher, once he has recovered, adds. “Rolf
Harris…Iron Maiden!” Only The Bearer takes the question seriously.
“Ideally, an all-UK black metal line-up would be great. Bands like
Hectate Enthroned, Bal-Sagoth and the like. Also playing with
Primordial would be an amazing experience. A gig with the Meads of
Asphodel would be fantastic, should they ever decide to play live.
That would be an amazing show.” The Wanderer concludes with. “Summer
festivals! It would great to play the likes of Wacken, Graspop, and
Bloodstock. The festival experience is a great way of seeing lots of
good bands both old and new, and it would be a great way to spread
our message.”
What can anyone going to Old Corpse Road live expect? The Dreamer
enthuses. “Intensity and a magical journey through British
landscapes and stories from the past.” The Bearer states. “The set
will vary from slower more moody and epic numbers to faster and more
aggressive songs.” The Wanderer concludes. “You can also expect a
lot of hair flying around.” |
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did your deal with Godreah Records come about? The Bearer reveals.
“We sent out our demo to just about every magazine, fanzine and
webzine we could find. I had been in touch with just about every
magazine, fanzine and webzine we could find. I had been in touch
with Quintus from Worms of Sabnock via the UK Legions of Black Metal
zine and he gave us an excellent review. Along with this he
approached us about doing a split EP which would be released on
Godreah Records. We gladly agreed and soon enough we received
contact from Crin and things just moved on from there.” Indeed, Crin
is a unique driving force in the Underground, if only we had more
like him. “Couldn’t agree more. From the original Godreah zine back
in the 90s, to the sterling releases on Godreah/Firestrom Records,
his work for Live4Metal and of course the distribution. Crin is one
of the few individuals in the UK who has not forgotten that the UK
has produced some truly amazing metal music, something the rest of
the world seems to forget from time-to-time. Without people like him
the UK underground would not be the same.” The Dreamer adds. “We are
relatively new to the music industry on this level, in that we are
only starting to establish contacts and it is great to have someone
like Crin supporting us. The enthusiasm in the music industry has
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surprised us and so far, thankfully, we
have not encountered the greed and industry, which a lot of bands
slate.”
What tracks will appear on your split EP with Worms of Sabnock, a
very worthy band in their own right. “The first track will be Hob
Headless Rises. This song is in the same vein as The Old Corpse
Road, plenty of fast-paced blackened metal, church organs, and
notable sing-along. Lyrically it is based on a country spirit that
haunts the road between the villages of Hurworth and Neasham (local
to our home town of Darlington) and was eventually laid to rest
under a magical stone.”
“The second track is The Devil’s Footprints. Another epic song
similar to Naddle Forest, but with a majestic element to it, one of
Old Corpse Road’s favourites to date. The song is based on the
discovery of mysterious cloven tracks found in the snow one morning
that local townspeople claimed were those of the Devil.”
“Finally, there is The Witch of Wookey Hole. This song seems to be
lining up to be a firm favourite judging from the reaction we’ve had
so far from our family and friends. Another quick-paced song with a
very catchy chorus and our first attempt at a Gregorian song
passage! This track, based in the dark ages, is a story of a
betrayed young woman who sold her soul to the Devil in exchange for
dark magical powers and caused havoc and mayhem until she was
eventually petrified.
The Bearer concludes. “With regards to the split, we could not wish
to share it with a more worthy band, nor on a more worthy label.
Though both bands convey different messages, hopefully together we
can spread the word that UK black metal is very much alive.”
What are your plans for your debut album. The Watcher says.
“Although an album is in our thoughts, it is not at the forefront of
our minds. After the release of the EP we will be focusing mainly on
live performances.” The Revenant agrees. “Live performances are
definitely the next port of call. It is now important for us to get
out there, to promote ourselves, and prove that we can perform
music.” The Bearer also adds. “At the same time, we are always
writing new material. Writing music is one of my favourite parts of
being in Old Corpse Road. Taking an idea, no matter how small, and
building and nurturing that idea into song format is one of the most
exciting and fulfilling moments to me.” The Dreamer concludes.
“there are too many stories that we would like to cover, therefore a
concept albums would be too limiting at this point. A concept or
theme is definitely something we could see happening with Old Corpse
Road in the future.” |
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What do you think of the sorry state of the
world today, is there any coming back from the abyss? The Dreamer
says. “From a personal perspective our current society is locked in
a downward spiral and I’m not convinced that we stand much chance,
which maybe is not a bad thing. The major problem as I see it is
everything is now approached from a Big Picture aspect. Everything
you do is governed according to large establishments, be it
government, religions, or corporations. Individuality has been
replaced with drone mentality. If you don’t conform to their
policies, it’s almost impossible to lead any sort of quality life,
therefore we all keep playing along. This is where Old Corpse Road
comes in as a place where we can dream…Unfortunately the focus of
existence seems to revolve around money which is simply wrong. It is
very difficult to step away from all these things and focus on what
should be everybody’s main goal…enjoying the time and experience
we’ve got.”
How would you sum up Old Corpse Road’s goals and aspirations. Would
you see yourselves still making music a decade down the line? The
Bearer says. “Our goal is to write and play the music which we all
enjoy and to share it with likeminded souls both on recordings and
live. We’ve already achieved more than we could have hoped for and
we shall just take each day as it comes.” The Wanderer adds. “It’s
hard to think that far into the future but we would hope to still be
doing this in ten years time, as long as we all still have the same
passion and drive for the music.” The Dreamer concludes firmly. “As
a band we are highly motivated and believe strongly in what we do.
So, if we’re honest, minor commercial success would be a great thing
for us. Not because we have any delusions about leading a rock star
lifestyle. In our genre of music, that’s never going to happen, but
simply to enable us to share our music with more people and to fund
future Old Corpse Road projects.”
And on that note, what do you think of the plethora of reformations
we are currently inundated with? The Bearer ponders. “Reformations
can be a double-edged sword. If a band reforms that you didn’t get a
chance to see live in their original formation then it can be a
great opportunity for fans and also for younger people to see some
amazing shows, take Carcass for example. On the other hand,
sometimes a band should stay in the past where they belong.” The
Watcher concludes. “It really depends on the band’s motives and
whether or not they were a good band in the first place.”
Finally, anything you would personally like to add? “We would like
to thank Crin and Godreah, JD and Sunil and Worms Of Sabnock, and
all of the many individuals who have shown their support thus far.
There are too many to mention, but you know who you are! A big
thanks to you, Steve, for this opportunity. We look forward to the
future of Old Corpse Road and sharing our music with our fans.”
www.oldcorpseroad.co.uk
www.myspace.com/oldcorpseroad
www.nemain.co.uk
www.godreah.com/index2.php |
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