THE DARK HORDE take the 80's as their genre of choice, mixing heavy metal and rock to create their own style. Releasing three single's and an album, with newer material in the works with other creations also in the works. The band talks about their music, plans, and much more below.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Hello and thank you for having us! It’s Brewin here to answer your questions, incorporating answers from Hanny and Logan that created The Calling - a heavy metal horror concept album with me.
The Dark Horde is a collective of internationally recognised musicians, vocalists and actors from Melbourne, Australia. Together they have created The Calling, a concept album written and directed by Andrew “Brewin” Drage.
The Calling is a musical narrative experience featuring a supernatural horror story set to an "eighties heavy metal" soundtrack. It is the prequel to my award-winning horror novel The Dark Horde, set in south-eastern Australia in 1989.
I’ve worked on this concept album with various musicians, singers and actors since 2000, spawning many versions over the years, but only now has the final version been released. Hanny Mohamed (lead guitarist for power metal band “Black Majesty”) has been involved in the project since 2006 and is the main composer of the music which he wrote with Logan Jacobs. Main vocals are performed by Danny Cecati (singer for hard rock band “Wicked Smile”, ex-heavy metal bands Pegazus and Eyefear), and demonic vocals are performed by Shaun Farrugia (singer/guitarist for thrash metal band “In Malice’s Wake”). Guest tracks are performed by Chris Kane (lead guitarist for death metal band “Eye of the Enemy”) and James Lowe. Narration is performed by Kevin Powe, and guest acting performances are by Dexter Seamus, Jane Brewin and Andrew Carolane. Aldo “Valgorth” Requena (Hammerblaze) is the Argentine-based artist for the project, and it was mixed by Ricardo Borges and mastered by Jens Bogren (both of Swedish-based Fascination Street Studios).
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
The Dark Horde is both the name of the artistic collective behind the concept album, and the title of the supernatural horror novel that is written by me (published 2012) and follows this album. The Dark Horde in the story of the album and book are evil entities from another dimension, alien to this world and with malignant intent…
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
Melbourne is renown for its live music scene, and I certainly know and am friends with many great metal bands here, including bands I’ve been honored to have had the pleasure to work with on this album – Black Majesty, Eye of the Enemy, Wicked Smile and In Malice’s Wake – but there are so many others. The last couple of years has put a dampener on the live scene of course, but Melbourne’s metal spirit will endure!
4. How would you describe your style?
Given that the story told in the album, and the related book, are both set in 1989, we wanted the music to reflect the heavy metal sounds of that time. And so Hanny and Logan created music reminiscent of late eighties Judas Priest in particular, but also Iron Maiden and Alice Cooper among others, interlaced with horror-movie soundscapes in the vein of composers such as John Carpenter and Giorgio Moroder.
Conceptually the biggest influences on the album are Jeff Wayne (in terms of the execution of the concept album), and the creative works of writers such as H.P.Lovecraft, Clive Barker and H.G.Wells.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
We have released three digital singles and the digital album this year (album released Oct 29), with physical CD copies and merch to follow shortly.
What awaits the listener is a heavy metal horror odyssey, a compelling story of supernatural horror with narration, actors, sound-effects, sung sections and music, performed by an assembly of experts in their craft. If you’re familiar with Jeff Wayne’s musical version of War of the Worlds from the late seventies, then think of this album as executed like that, only heavy metal and based on a supernatural horror novel instead.
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
All of the musicians involved in this project certainly do. Myself I’m a writer primarily, but yes I’m always working on new creations too.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
Given this project is a studio project, with some sixteen total members (at last count), this isn’t something that is easy for us to manage, especially when you consider the number of bands and creatives involved. But there has been discussion on this and some ideas we’d love to do one day, so we’ll see…
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
As a “band”, it’s hard to say. At the moment we’re focused on growing awareness for this project because we believe that it’s deserves to be heard (and critics so far have been unanimous in agreement on this).
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
All of the details, including listen/download/buy links, YouTube links, artwork and reviews can be found here:
https://thebrewin.com/works/the-calling
And the Facebook page where news is more frequently posted is here:
https://www.facebook.com/TheDarkHorde/
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
Set aside 50 minutes where you can be comfortable and immerse yourself in the journey. The full headphones experience is one way to do it, but I’ve also put together a lyric video playlist of the entire album which you can watch on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqBA2W0pJD9Q50Vh1jTRwO9xIIZ6ZoHL7
Hope you enjoy and thanks for your time!
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