Apocalyptic Blackened Death-Thrashers obsessed with the Occult and the extinction of the human race, The Day Of The Beast had their guitarist Eric Barlow talk to me about the band's current album "Relentless Demonic Intrusion" and history both past, present, and future plans.
1. Where did the band's name The Day of The Beast come from?
Eric: We took the name from the mid-nineties black comedy/horror film of the same name. We thought it made for a pretty tough sounding band name so we decided to use it. I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't seen the movie. I've also heard that its a book too. A western novel if i'm not mistaken. Haven't read that either.
2. What type of band are you?
Eric: Blackened Thrash if you have to have a definite label. That's one that we've found folks attaching to us. We consider ourselves to be a nice blend of thrash, death, and black metal. I think over the years we've drifted towards a more overtly death metal feel, but overall we just try to pay homage to our influences in heavy metal.
3. Tell us the brief history of your band.
Eric: We started in late 2005 or early 2006. I started the band with the original drummer and guitarist. Steve Harris joined in on vocals. Justin Shaw had stopped playing with Arsis so we asked him to join, and he did. Jeremy Bradley replaced Aaron (our original drummer) and has been holdin' it down ever since. Steve Redmond is the newest addition to the band at lead guitar. He replaced Mike Gardner when Mike left to pursue his career as an author. Here we are...about to record album number three.
4. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
Eric: The bulk of the material plays off of the writings of HP Lovecraft. The Cthulhu Mythos and what-not. Throw in a little black magic, the occult, satan, evil, war, anger, etc and there you have it. Heavy Metal 101. We're not reinventing the wheel.
5. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
Eric: Yep. We write every note. Typically myself or the other guitarist starts with an idea and either we teach it to one another at rehearsals, or we track a rough demo at home and give copies to the other band members. Everyone looks over the material and tweeks it until we're all stoked. Then Steve H. takes it over and writes lyrics for it. We take different approaches from time to time, but that's the most common method we use to write. After that, it goes into regular rehearsal rotation and gets put into the live set.
6. Who are your musical influences?
Eric: The answer to this could be sooooo long. I'll try to keep it from being just a list of bands. We're influenced by whatever moves us. Aggressive/extreme metal from the 80's on up. Not any particular genre...just real metal. The five of us have similar taste in music, but at the same time we also have very different tastes if you catch my drift. We like a lot of different metal, from Absu to Zyklon and a lot of stops in between.
7. Where did album title come from and is it a concept release?
Eric: Steve H sends me text messages every so often that contain perspective song titles or lyrics. We'll laugh at the ones that suck and the other ones usually get used. That one kinda just stuck with us. Basically we thought it sounded cool and that was about it. No deep meaning. So, no...the album isn't a concept release. I don't know that we have enough of an attention span to release a concept album. Concept albums usually tend to have some underlying deeper meaning and each song ties into that specific theme. We're just not that style of band. We're too scattershot for that. For right now fans are just gonna get short bursts of aggression mixed with a little commentary about fantastical ways to die. That's a pretty sweet concept, right?
8. How would you describe the overall sound of it?
Eric: The overall sound of the album is basically a beefier sounding album in the same style as the first one. We went into a better studio, so it sounds better. The same "meat and potatoes" approach to writing was still there. We went into the studio to write a heavy album that expresses our influences in thrash, death, and black metal. I think we accomplished what we went for.
9. Does this release differ from your previous releases?
Eric: The approach to songwriting stayed the same. Sonically, Relentless Demonic Intrusion sounds heavier than the debut. In all honesty I wish the self-titled album came out with the same production as Relentless Demonic Intrusion did. RDI is a step forward...a progression, so to speak. Same aim, but we just got closer to hitting the bullseye this time.
10. Can you go into one or two tracks on the album? If so, can you give us the track title and brief description of how the track sounds and how it came about?
Eric: Torch This Place is one that stands out. The lyrics for that came about from playing a particular venue in our hometown that is notorious for dicking bands over. Its just a fast, aggressive tune. Fun to play live. Another stand-out for me is Cult of the Bloody Tongue. It rides more of a death metal line than some of our other material does and is super fun to play live. Its a Lovecraft themed song as far as lyrics go. Its about a cult that worships Elder Gods and kills Christian Missionaries for trying to bring their religion to them...in a nutshell.
11. What are your expectations for this CD?
Eric: We don't really have super high expectations for our material. We're just glad that we've developed a nice fan base and people enjoy what we do. If it sells 500 copies, then that's great. If it sells 5 million, that's super too. At the end of the day its just a very humbling feeling that someone is taking time out of their day to appreciate what we do. Hopefully people that appreciate it will tell others that they think will like it and we'll be able to create metal for a larger group of fans. That's what any band wants.
12. What are your upcoming tour plans and plans for this year?
Eric: Tour plans are up in the air. We're down to play wherever...whenever. Right now theres nothing huge on the books. At the moment the plan is to focus on writing a third cd and get that recorded. We have a new guitarist named Steve Redmond who is also in a band called Cyaegha. We're anxious to see how his writing molds with ours. So far it's been with great results, so we're looking forward to crankin' out new songs. 2013 will see us releasing a third album that trumps our second.
13. Any last words?
Eric: Thanks to Nataliez World, everyone reading this, Canonical Hours Records (www.canonicalhours.com), and fans of true metal everywhere. Contact us at facebook.com/thedayofthebeast. Support local music and art. Have a safe and prosperous 2013. Raise Hell.
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