In our future of doom feature you're the only band in it that hail from the genre's birthplace of Birmingham - how do you feel about your hometown and are you proud it spawned the music you love?
Yeah we come from the surrounding areas of Birmingham and can safely say that we all love the area and are huge fans of the music it has given birth to - especially a certain band from Aston! I have always been proud of our musical heritage but the recent Home of Metal events that were held in and around the area really drove home to me just how proud I am of being in a band from the Midlands, not just Birmingham but the whole area. In fact, we get asked very often by bands coming over from different countries to show them around Aston!
How do you feel being hailed by Terrorizer as the future of doom? Is this something you are proud of and who do you consider your contemporary peers?
Yeah its pretty cool for you guys to refer to us as being the future of doom. Like I say, doom is only one element of our sound but it is a pretty big element and one that pushes us to explore various styles within the doom spectrum. Bands who we consider to be our contemporary peers include Trippy Wicked & The Cosmic Children of the Knight, General, Stubb, Serpent Venom, Sigiriya and Gringo. There are many many more though, too many to mention here.
Do you agree that there is something about Birmingham that lends itself to doom? Even now, when it's been drastically regenerated?
Its been pretty well documented that Birmingham inspired Black Sabbath to play the way they did, along with Tony's accident, but nowadays its a totally different city and I feel more inspired standing in the middle of a field than I do standing in the middle of Birmingham. Also, doom is only one facet of what we do, we find inspiration in many areas. I think if Birmingham lent itself to doom that much, there would be a lot more doom bands coming from the area and unfortunately there is hardly any.
You've been heavily touring recently, are you happiest on the road or in the studio?
If I had to choose I would say that I prefer being on the road but I love being in the studio laying down months of hard work. It's always great to hear the new material taking shape and coming together. Being on the road is freedom, breaking from the daily grind, doing what you love, meeting new people, visiting new places and having dirty hair! We've just signed with Big Bad Mothers House booking agency so we're looking at having a lot more shows and tours in the coming year.
You've got a new album, tell us about that?
Yeah we're just about to record the new album which we're recording again with Greg Chandler but this time mixing and mastering with Tony Reed from Stone Axe / Mos Generator who has just recorded the new St. Vitus album. We'll be releasing it around Summer time with PsycheDOOMelic Records and looking to tour in September. We haven't spent as long writing as we did for "Call of Avernus" and as a result have focused more on the direction we want to take, we think it is a much more rounded album.