Rockezine.com interview with DoomSword on Sep 30, 2003

with Deathmaster on Sep 30, 2003

The Italian epic heavy metal act DoomSword have shredded their aura of mysticism. The band seem ready to conquer the throne of epic heavy metal with the release of their new album “Let Battle Commence”; a dark piece of epic battle music that follows in the footsteps of bands like Bathory, Manilla Road and Candlemass. Songwriter Deathmaster talks about DoomSword and the new album.
		Your third album, “Let Battle Commence”, will be released on September 25th but I’ve been privileged and have heard it already. What strikes me the most is the difference in sound compared to “Resound The Horn”; was this change done on purpose? Behind the lyrics of LBC lies the real story of Ivarr the boneless, king of the Danish, who conquered part of England and got one of the few victories of the Vikings over Christianity. This kind of lyrics has influenced the sound of the album and has given it a more epic feeling and more powerful aggressiveness. The production of the new album is stronger than that of the previous one: the guitar sound is more powerful and deep, the voice is more distant and it sounds colder. Behind the new album there’s a concept and a story which continue from the starting track till the last one. It starts with “Burn Jorvik To The Ground”, which explains the ways of the first heathen assault on York (Jorvik for the Vikings), passing through “The Siege”, which tells about the battleground where the battle was fought and the answer from the English to the Danish attack, and “Blood Eagle”, which describes the end of a defeated king, fallen in Viking hands. The whole concept is completed by “My Name Will Live On...”.
		The album basically continues where its predecessor left off. How does the album differ from “Resound The Horn” and what can the fan expect to hear? The new album is darker than the last one. The music still remains in a mid-tempo rhythm with some doomy slowdowns. We introduced stronger choirs, more majestic and different kinds of drumming. Thanks to the new drummer, Wrathlord, who has a powerful and more complicated way of arranging his parts, the new songs follow perfectly the meaning of the lyrics, which are more brutal and explicit. Anyway, the main difference between DoomSword albums is always the atmosphere. As our first album was quite ‘sad’, and the second a bit more ‘war-like’, this one has still a warrior soul with a ‘cold’ and ‘snowy’ feeling, which can clearly be heard from the first note to the last.
		This time DoomSword didn’t go through an enormous amount of line-up changes, but drummer Grom left nevertheless. Was there a specific reason he left the band? The reason is due to his enormous engagements taken on before and, mostly, after his introduction to DoomSword’s line-up. We tried to maintain a non-stop working relation, but it was not possible. Now he has four or five projects at the same time, and we have chosen to leave each other in friendship.
The greatest shame, I think, was the loss of many albums printed on vinyl.		Wrathlord is his replacement; where did you find him and can you tell a little bit about his background? We have been friends since 1996 and we’ve played in the same band, called Fiurach, which played a sort of technical thrash. So, as you can imagine, his background is in thrash or death metal and even progressive. His personal way to play drums has given even more personality to our songs. I hope he enjoyed it as much as we did. He is also spectacular on stage as many people have already been able to witness!
		Are you satisfied with the current line-up and do you believe that it finally has grown to become a stable band? The core of the band is steady and I want everyone to feel that, both within the album and while seeing us live. Yet, due to his enormous amount of engagements, Guardian Angel II will also leave the band, adding another name to DoomSword list of past members. We assume that the real heart of the band is a 4 piece-combo now, at least until we find the right lead guitarist. We could manage without a second guitarist, but we consider it too important for our live performances.
		There is again a Viking concept behind the album and this time, like you said, you describe the conquest of the city of York (Jorvik) by the Danish army of Ivarr the Boneless. Is there any more information you can give about the story? This concept is meant to show how false the history we know actually is. According to the Christian point of view, the conquest of the city of York was not that glorious, it seems that the Vikings found the city undefended. But nowadays we know of some chronicles that reported the facts in a different way. The truth is definitely in the hands of those who write it. This is sort of a little vengeance upon the Christian point of view, an apology of the Viking triumph, a pagan triumph.
		Different songs describe parts of the story from different points of views. Why did you choose this approach instead of writing everything from the Viking perspective? This choice was due to my opinion on war. I never intended to celebrate war, and I wanted to show how behind a victory there’s always a loser, who probably didn’t fight any less bravely. This is most of all highlighted in the song “Deathbringer – Blood On My Hands”, in which a warrior apologizes to a woman for killing her husband the night before during a battle. The two sides of a coin, you know…
		Lyrically the album is focused on the song “Blood Eagle” which describes the macabre ritual reserved for defeated kings. I’m very interested in knowing more about this ritual; care to give me a few more details? The Blood Eagle is a pagan ritual for defeated kings. The victorious king cuts the skin on the back of the defeated king with a knife, then pulls out the ribs with a little hammer, shaping two wings on the back. Then he pulls what remains of the ribs and makes the heart explode. It’s a sort of warning.
It’s impossible for us to think that it is possible to remain hidden and maintain a mystic aura.		Heavy metal seems to be more popular than ever and a while ago I noticed that Candlemass’s (one of your influences) debut album “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus” was re-released. What kind of influence does this rise in popularity have on DoomSword? Several guys have now started to listen to 80’s metal music thanks to some reunions and some re-released albums which has enabled the new kids to listen to the ‘old’ stuff and to understand how many different kinds of metal have been released in all these years. The greatest shame, I think, was the loss of many albums printed on vinyl.
		You and The Forger are working on a side-project called Aesir. Does this project play the same kind of music as DoomSword or can we expect to hear something totally different? It was a project born before the new DoomSword album, and with this band we wanted to be even more epic and brutal; but when the new DoomSword songs were written, we realized that Let Battle Commence was really close to the Aesir sound. So we have abandoned the project. We took one song already finished for Aesir and put in on Let Battle Commence, that’s “My Name Will Live On”.
		DoomSword has been shrouded in mystery since your debut album “DoomSword” and last time I interviewed you, you said that this mystery would keep on being part of DoomSword. Will this situation stay the same or will we finally see DoomSword tour Europe? At this moment DoomSword has a great distribution and many reviews in magazines and fanzines, so it’s impossible for us to think that it is possible to remain hidden and maintain a mystic aura.
		Thank you for this interview and good luck with the release of “Let Battle Commence”. Is there anything left unsaid? Thank you for the interview Frank, we hope you can appreciate our album, and see us play live! Hail! I thank you all for the interview and I hope we will see you on tour!
		(Frank van de Voorde)