As I have got every reason firmly to believe, each from you self-respected underground Metalheads should be at least a little bit aware of now already disbanded ORDER FROM CHAOS, hailing from Kansas City, I think I’ll just pass a history lecture for them voluntarily now. Also VULPECULA, Chuck Keller’s next innovative incarnation from ORDER FROM CHAOS (with Chris Overton), should be a relatively known name for many of us who have been following Chuck’s comings and going during these past 7 or 9 years, so I’ll skip them, too. ARES KINGDOM, however, is the most recent musical incarnation of the two ex – ORDER FROM CHAOS – fames, Chuck Keller (guitar) and Mike Miller (drums), which as I believe, hasn’t become that familiar to many of us yet, but in order that you could learn a thing or two from them as well, you have some home lessons to do. Namely I just recently made an interview with the main songwriter of the band, Chuck Keller, and he tells you all about the steps he has been taking on his way to put ARES KINGDOM on feet piece by piece. Your only task will just be to read this interview through and pick up all the essential pieces for this unique puzzle called ARES KINGDOM. Once you have done so, be sure to stop by their website (www.ares-kingdom.com) for free samples, etc. – and if possible, please go and comment their songs to the band’s guest book, too. Let our main man Chuck be unleashed now…
First off, would you tell to our readers what’s going on with ARES KINGDOM. As far as I’m aware of your recent happenings, you have been writing slowly, but determinedly songs for the first ever ARES KINGDOM full-length album titled "A Dream Of Armageddon". Do you already have all songs ready for it and when you are supposed to start recording the songs for the album?
"All songs for "Armageddon" are written and ready for recording, which will begin next month. Truth must be told I have a lot more written than just what is slated for the album, but the rest will appear in good time. Since it’s been a while since I’ve done any real studio work, I’m easing back into ‘the process’ by recording vocals and solos (as well as lyrics and title) for the upcoming BARBATOS mini-LP "Fury And Fear, Flesh And Bone." After that I’ll take a couple of days to assemble the final VULPECULA mini-LP "In Dusk Apparition," and then bring in ARES KINGDOM for the deeds of darkness…"
What I have been wondering a bit why the news concerning "A Dream Of Armageddon" has been taken away from your site? Even the album cover was revealed there for some months ago? What has exactly happened with it?
"Some things about the album changed over time, which is why some information has been removed. The cover art is still what you remember, but we work so slowly that it seemed like ‘jumping the gun’ to post album artwork so far ahead."
For those poor people who haven’t seen the album cover for "A Dream Of Armageddon" yet, would you kindly tell something about the actual cover artwork for it? Do you think that piece of art quite nicely reflects both the album title and also the songs that will be featured for the album?
"When Halley’s Comet returned in 1910, a (then) relatively new scientific instrument called the spectroscope indicated the presence of the poisonous compound cyanide in the comet’s tail, and people began to speculate on the possible devastating effects of a brush with a comet, and the artwork, painted during the era, plays up on the imagined destructive possibilities of such an encounter. The scene of total destruction fits the overall theme and emotion of the album…"
Could you next reveal us the whole content for the album song by song (if it’s not too much trouble for you) what type of songs there will be on "A Dream Of Armageddon" structure-wise and would you let us know a bit about the lyrical concepts behind the songs as well?
"A Dream Of Armageddon" features a few different lyrical topics, but the entire scope is quite consistent. The album will open with a ripping corpse attack called ‘Failsafe’, with Kubrick – style nuclear war lyrics. ‘Solis Lacus’ from the demo then appears, followed by the new track ‘Fear Itself’, which kicks off a series of songs written during and dealing with a rather traumatic time I had in the late ’90s. ‘Lamentations’ continues the rant with imagery that takes its inspiration from the horrors of the trenches of the First World War. ‘None Escape’ is an instrumental in the vein of ‘Blue Harvest’. ‘Firestorm Redemption’ was the last track I wrote for the LP, and along side the title track ‘A Dream Of Armageddon’ deal with the struggle and final victory. ‘Ironclad’ ends the series and album with an epic tone and triumphant message – showing the emergence of ‘one’s strength frozen in steel.’"
Do you already have your favorite track (or tracks) off of this forthcoming ARES KINGDOM album and would you let us know what makes it (them) so special for you at the moment?
"It’s hard to pick a favorite because they’re all so different (to my mind, anyway). ‘Firestorm Redemption’ is an absolute steamhammer of fury, while ‘Ironclad’ is the perfect bombenhagel album closer."
ARES KINGDOM was started in 1996 by you and Mike Miller (previously a drummer in ORDER FROM CHAOS) after both ORDER FROM CHAOS and VULPECULA ceased to exist. Pretty soon, however, the line-up was completed by Doug Overbay (on bass) and Alex Blume (on vocals, ex-NEPENTHE). I guess you consider both of these two fellows as very easy working guys as they happen to be your close friends, too. However, how much do you allow your bandmates contribute the song writing for ARES KINGDOM indeed? I already know that you are the one who have always had kind of a major role in it; the same thing goes for the ARES KINGDOM lyrics as it’s your mind and pencil from start to end that give a final touch to the ARES KINGDOM lyrics eventually.
"I am blessed / cursed with the responsibility of writing all our material. I’ve even taken on a few other projects lately, having written a song requested by PENTACLE, and currently am helping Wes Blackwulf (ex – DEKAPITATOR) get his new speed metal band BLACKWULF going with a couple of tracks. After all those years writing in the narrow confines of ORDER FROM CHAOS, I felt exhausted. VULPECULA gave me a break and desperately needed chance to work in a different direction. As far as ARES KINGDOM is concerned, I always write the song completely for guitar, bass, and vocals, and have a good idea for drums before presenting it to the guys. But I’ve always counted on Mike’s creativity to "flesh-out" the percussion parts in ways only he can do. I’m fortunate that Mike isn’t the average Death Metal drummer with only a limited number of formulas and drum beats in his bag of tricks. He has always come at Thrash Metal from a rather orthodox Heavy Metal background, and it adds a lot to our music. The same with Alex; I count on his input for some of the intricate details of the vocal parts."
As long as I can remember, you have always been a big fan of astronomy and have been greatly inspired by it through a large part of your lyrics for all of your bands, especially for VULPECULA. You can take the following as flattering words from me or whatever you want, but in my opinion you have always been one of the most intelligent and genius lyric writers ever as far as metal musicians’ ability to write original and totally unique lyrics are concerned. So I need to ask from you, do you honestly feel writing lyrics as some sort of a real pain-in-the-ass – thing as you obviously seem to have this huge need to drive yourself toward some kind of perfection with your lyrics? Or it’s just me who is making a big ‘issue’ out of this all…?
"Lyric writing is definitely a pain – but only because I pour nearly as much into that as I do writing music. The astronomical lyrics started appearing in ORDER FROM CHAOS back in 1989 and culminated in VULPECULA. ARES KINGDOM will be resurrecting an unreleased VULPECULA track as well as ‘Fons Immortalis’ in the near future, but that’s about as close as I see ARES KINGDOM coming to all-astronomy related songs. ORDER FROM CHAOS pushed lyrical boundaries far beyond most people’s expectations and imaginations. The three of us were very different individuals, yet Pete was able to take a philosophy we all share (‘Conqueror Of Fear’), focus it, and give it a voice through lyrics in a way that I do not believe can be equaled by anyone. Apart from my science related lyrics, I wrote songs like ‘There Lies Your Lord! Father of Victories!’ that summarized the edda Richard Wagner based his "Der Ring der Nibelungen" opera cycle upon. The libretto fit the ‘Conqueror Of Fear’ philosophy perfectly and offered a bit of artistic variety to our lyrics. ARES KINGDOM plans on being around a long time, so we are not confining ourselves to such a limited number of topics. Some of my lyrics deal with personal experiences and show how well the ORDER FROM CHAOS philosophy has fared in my life. It’s one thing to be clever on paper; but entirely another to practice what you preach."
As it has already become quite evident, astronomy is where you draw your huge inspiration for your lyrics from, but are there actually some other sources that work out for you as true inspirations if we strictly restrict this question to your lyric writing?
"Like I said earlier, the influence of astronomy on my lyrics was pretty much left to VULPECULA. A lot of the inspiration for the imagery I use in lyrics has come from my position at an international auction house where I authenticate historical militaria, artifacts and other aspects of history for the private collector market. I’ve seen some pretty horrendous things as well as some works of real beauty. These things and everything in between have some sort of effect on me I’m sure."
What’s been most demanding and time consuming thing to get the songs done for your forth-coming debut album anyway? Have you ever been any scared during the song writing process how perfectionist you have become toward your own stuff, kind of striving yourself constantly toward one dark corner where nothing seems to please you well enough and kind of pushing yourself to write better and better songs (even if they all would sound good enough for the ears of other guys!) for the band if you know what I’m trying to say here?
"Writing can be very frustrating. I’m not a very patient person, but I’ve rarely been able to force myself to write anything of value. I never get scared when I’m writing…just frustrated. But it always has a happy ending…sometimes it just takes a few days…or weeks."
When you have, from your own point of view, written nearly a perfect song, what kind of those inner signals out of yourself, are kind of telling you that: "There it is… do not change a single thing from it or you ruin it!!". How do they appear and what kind of circumstances indeed?
"That has never happened. My music writing evolves more than it assembles. Some songs come together faster and ‘easier’ than others, but all evolve in small ways right up to when it’s recorded. And I’m talking about the guitar parts; the rest of the band usually ‘locks in’ their parts fairly early on, though there are exceptions."
Do you still rehearse as a band at the basement of your house as you used to do like 3 years ago? How can your other family cope with it anyway as I believe a 4-piece band can raise a noise level ‘a bit’ higher than what some soap operas in TV can ever produce, heh!
"Yeah, we’re still down there these days; but we’re not fans of TV, so the band’s extreme volume isn’t a problem. We have moved around a couple of times in the last few years, though. We spent some time at Mike’s place around the time my daughter was born in 2002, and then we moved to Alex’s place late ’02, and then back here last summer. Funny enough, over the last year a religious cult of ‘young adults’ has moved into my neighborhood from around the country – with their acoustic guitars, sandals, baggy clothes and communal hippie leftist social ideals. All of my more traditional Christian and non-religious neighbors LOVE the fact that we’re here to scare these spiritual automatons so much they never come outside except to quickly hop into their cars and drive away to their ‘healing sessions’ or whatever prayer bead mumbo-jumbo they get up to in their converted supermarket church."
When rehearsing with the band, do you still occasionally jam some old ORDER FROM CHAOS (or VULPECULA) songs as I bet it’s still fun to play some of them? What kind of memories does playing them still awake in you?
"Of course ORDER FROM CHAOS stuff has been resurrected. Obviously ‘Of Death And Dying’ appeared on the "Chaosmongers Alive" 7" EP last year, and we do ‘The Scourge’ from the "Inhumanities" demo, ‘Dawn Bringer Invictus’ and ‘Plateau Of Invincibility" from "An Ending In Fire". After speaking with a few fans at our Chicago show earlier this year, I learned how important it is that we incorporate ‘Stillbirth Machine’ into our set, hahaha! So that’s next. We also do an unreleased VULPECULA song, and will be resurrecting ‘Fons Immortalis’."
For those who have previously been aware of how two of your previous bands, ORDER FROM CHAOS and VULPECULA sounded like musically, but have never heard any ARES KINGDOM stuff before, would you Chuck enlighten them a little what bands are nearest to the sound of ARES KINGDOM and what’s basically ARES KINGDOM’s musical concept in the first place? I guess it’s not too wrong to say that ARES KINGDOM’s stuff overall relies pretty heavily on the oldschool sounds of both blackened Thrash – and Death Metal that is spiced with a touch of the NWOBHM – sound. Does that touch the truth at least partly?
"ARES KINGDOM is essentially picking up where ORDER FROM CHAOS left off. Stepping back and looking at the ARES KINGDOM material objectively, it doesn’t take much imagination to see how songs like ‘Failsafe’ are not very far removed from "An Ending In Fire’ or ‘Ironclad’ from ‘There Lies Your Lord! Father of Victories!’ The biggest difference is that the ARES KINGDOM material has the benefit of my personal progression through the last ten years (all ORDER FROM CHAOS material was written by 1994). But this kind of extreme Metal is what I am most comfortable and satisfied playing, and those are the most important aspects to maintaining endurance and longevity in this music."
You have also kept a rather low profile about ARES KINGDOM at least in my opinion, not keeping as much noise about the band as some other bands of the same caliber have been doing for the last past, let’s say 12 months or so. I mean, I haven’t read too many interviews about ARES KINGDOM for a while, so could you explain whether you have wanted to keep ARES KINGDOM more or less as a ‘property’ of a small circle of the underground people only or would you rather like to say that it’s just you who may have been a bit lazy concerning promotional and such type of things?
"There hasn’t been much point making noise about the band since the hubbub around the release of the 7" was over last year. Our attention is focused on recording the album. All the same, it’s not like there’s a market for what we do beyond the underground. We’re an old-fashioned Thrash Metal band. We will not have a slick sounding record, and certainly no radio or video ready songs, so there’s no sense pitching ourselves to the DIMMU BORGIR / CRADLE OF FILTH mainstream extreme Metal crowd. We exist for the guys out there who are still frustrated that SLAUGHTER LORD, MEFISTO and POISON never recorded official albums."
The Italian label Agonia Records released a 7" E.P. of ARES KINGDOM last year titled "Chaosmongers Alive" which was basically recorded live at Alex’s home. How do you feel about that particular E.P. nowadays since it’s been out a few months already? Do you think it still represents quite well what ARES KINGDOM is all about musically even today?
"We’re very satisfied with the live EP, definitely. The "new" song on there, ‘Lamentations’, will be re-recorded for the album. Just as much as ORDER FROM CHAOS, ARES KINGDOM’s material is anti-formula, so it’s hard to say ‘Lamentations’ represents any more about the album than itself. Let’s just say that the diversity of the demo will be maintained on the album."
Were they also interested in signing ARES KINGDOM for some other releases from you and releasing even "A Dream Of Armageddon" on their label as well?
"Yeah, very interested. We still plan to work with them again on a mini-CD or the like. Time will tell. Agonia Records has a bright future."
As for ORDER FROM CHAOS goes, both you and Mike were collecting some rare and unreleased ORDER FROM CHAOS demo, – live – and rehearsal stuff for a massive 2 CD / 4 LP set called "Imperium: The Apocalyptic Visions" that was supposed to come out on German Merciless Records by the end of 2003. I haven’t seen it anywhere yet, so what happened with that one?
"It is still being worked on. They have the master tape, artwork and elements of the layout, but are very slow at getting things done. It’s going to happen for sure, and is frustrating that it’s all there and ready to go – but just hasn’t happened yet!"
Have you had any talk with people in Merciless Records if they could even re-issue some other ORDER FROM CHAOS releases in the future as they seem to be pretty damn items to hunt down nowadays? I bet you have received quite a few requests for them from the ORDER FROM CHAOS – fans all around the world, haven’t you?
"That idea is being pushed around right now, but the fact is most ORDER FROM CHAOS albums / CDs are readily available on eBay or amazon.com for reasonable prices, so I can’t see where it would be worth reprinting any CDs quite yet."
The French Osmose Productions re-issued your two first albums some years ago, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I remember you running into some conflicts with them and Pete as you weren’t personally informed about them in advance at all. Also, the layout for both of them looked quite cheap and not that well thought-out at all
"The conflict was more with Pete than with Osmose. He re-arranged the track order to suit his personal taste rather than leave it as we all agreed originally, and then remastered "An Ending In Fire" at Morrisound for some mysterious reason. Not that it changed the sound of my production overall. I wrote to Osmose a couple of times myself and all I got back were letters of nonsensical French-fried English gibberish. They read like the album descriptions in their catalogs, "GEEEAAANT!" What?"
How do you still feel about your first ever full-length debut album titled "Stillbirth Machine" which was released on Wild Rags Records in 1992?
"It’s a delicate question. For some fans that album sits in their pantheon of all-time greats, so I have to be careful how I talk about the thing. To this day I love all the songs dearly. The production makes me cringe. We were working in a big ‘professional’ studio, and unfortunately I listened a little too much to the ‘more experienced’ owners and producer than I should have. In the studio it sounded phenomenal, but when we took tapes home we learned the bitter lesson other musicians out there will be nodding to like bobble-head dolls – that it usually doesn’t sound that good at home. Oh well, "Stillbirth Machine" is our "Obsessed By Cruelty"."
Did Richard Campos (the owner of Wild Rags) keep his word by not ripping you off the way he did many of his other bands on the label? Did you ever have any serious fights going on with him about some royalty issues and stuff?
"I guess the Wild Rags controversy will never go away. We really didn’t have any fights with Richard; just a confrontation after he had delayed the release for the millionth time and decided not to press vinyl (though it was still listed in his catalog). He offered to release us from our contract – which we readily accepted. Little did we know he didn’t really mean what he offered. But it’s all water under the bridge now. The Wild Rags version still rules…"
In 1993 you signed a deal with Holland’s Shivadarshana Records who released a 10" E.P. with you that was called "Plateau Of Invicibility", a 7" E.P. titled "Jericho Trumpet" and finally your long-awaited second album titled "Dawn Bringer" that many consider the best ORDER FROM CHAOS release to date. As far as I have understood, that deal with them was probably most successful out of all these deals ORDER FROM CHAOS ever had with any of these record companies, am I right?
"We worked with 5 or 6 labels through our career, but Shivadarshana was a good label for us, yeah. They did good work and delivered pretty much on time. They did not do "Jericho Trumpet" though; we released it ourselves."
Without a slightest doubt, ORDER FROM CHAOS was the most known and probably even most respected and admired Metal band coming out from Kansas City. Now if you can look back again to those most glorious and successful times of ORDER FROM CHAOS, how do you feel about the fact that ORDER FROM CHAOS gained a kind of flattering status amongst the underground Metalheads as one of the most honest and let’s even say ‘truest’ forces what the U.S. Metal scene has ever produced to this world? I guess you still must feel pretty good about it
"True, our impact is still being felt – except here at home. A couple of weeks ago I noticed a copy of our rare "Will To Power" EP close on eBay for over $100. It’s humbling to realize some people are willing to fork over so much of their hard-earned cash for a piece of your work. The great irony though is how much ORDER FROM CHAOS was HATED in Kansas City. Fortunately we realized as far back as 1987 that the local scene was not worth messing with. At that time there was only one other band in the area that played Thrash with any legitimacy (and brilliance), and they were called VAE VICTIS. Unfortunately by 1988 they had caught a serious mental disease / disorder I call "Soundgarden," changed their sound accordingly – and promptly disintegrated. Although Kansas City is a great city to live in and raise a family, it is total crap for true Metal. ARES KINGDOM thought things might have changed since the ORDER FROM CHAOS days and started playing a few local shows at clubs reputed to support Metal bands. Two of the three venues promptly BANNED us (and a few of our local die-hard fans) for being too extreme, and the third has never called back. So things have indeed changed – they’ve gotten worse. But we have always seen our rejection by the local scene as confirmation that we’re doing it right!"
When you were making an impact on people with the band activities of ORDER FROM CHAOS, you also became friends with some famous dudes from the Metal scene back in the day, like for example becoming friends with Quorthon of BATHORY and Dan Swanö of EDGE OF SANITY – just to name these two names kind of out of the hat. Also, I can only remember that you have visited Dan’s home at the end of the ’90s, but have you ever met Quorthon in flesh and blood? Are you still able to remember how you created your first contacts to these two particular gentlemen? And when have you been in contact with them last time? I’m just a bit curious (and jealous, heh!) – that’s all…
"Quorthon has been the longest of the band-era friendships I’ve had, but living half a world away, it has been tough to meet face to face. We’ve talked on the phone, but it’s more convenient to write letters and now emails. I started writing to Q around the time of "Under The Sign…" I think. We had a couple of lapses; a couple of years in the early ’90s and another couple in the early ’00s, but email has corrected that now. I honestly can’t remember how I got in touch with Dan Swano, but I know what brought us together was our allegiance to MARILLION. My wife and I spent some time with him and his wife at their Orebro home in ’96. It was a great time, and Dan is an immensely talented man."
Quorthon even thanked you in the "Thank You" list of BATHORY’s "Hammerheart" album for ‘inspiration’?! Did you offer him some lyrical support for the lyrics on the "Hammerheart" album or what’s the reason for him to thank you for the inspiration? Again, ‘curiosity killed the cat as always…’, he!
"Actually the ‘merchants of inspiration’ reference was for someone else, mine was "Brother by blood through thunder" or something like that. I recall an episode with Q in 1989 when we released our "Crushed Infamy" demo. Seems he had been working on a song called ‘Blood And Thunder’, but unknowingly I beat him to the punch with the title. Didn’t matter though, he simply reworked his title into ‘Through Blood By Thunder’ and released it on "Twilight Of The Gods." We had another close call around the "Twilight…" era when he mentioned to me he was reworking a motif by Gustav Holst into his new album – which was exactly what I had just done with Holst’s "Mars: Bringer Of War" in ‘Angry Red Planet’ – but not released on an album yet. I was relieved when the "Twilight Of The Gods" came out using the "Jupiter" motif in the closing song ‘Hammerheart’. So technically he’s never paid me back for ‘stealing his thunder,’ ha ha ha!"
The Metal scene has overall been changing quite a lot for the last 10 years or so; some for better, some for worse. As far as I have understood, for you there are even less new Metal bands on offer in the global Metal scene that you find interesting and unique these days any longer. What does the Metal scene lack mostly in your honest opinion?
"Mystique and individuality. To my mind, there is very little to separate bands anymore. Today’s hyper-technical studios are able to make nearly any band sound super-slick and polished… and rob most of them of any sort of personality or atmosphere. Not only do most bands sound the same, they look the same. Tattoos, piercings, and sometimes (even still!) corpse paint. It has become difficult for me to not dismiss a band before I actually hear them if they look a certain way or record in certain places."
If you had got the time to do even one more ORDER FROM CHAOS album, with completely new songs on it, would give at least some thought to it?
"Absolutely not. ORDER FROM CHAOS belongs to the ages. I strongly believe whatever we would try to add to the ORDER FROM CHAOS legacy would only diminish what is already there."
If there ever was an ORDER FROM CHAOS tribute album, what bands would you like to contribute to it if you got all the power to make decisions for it?
"Apart from DAWN OF AZAZEL who have already done a stunning cover of ‘Plateau Of Invincibility’, I have no idea. I would like to see a variety of bands interpret our songs, but I wouldn’t presume to name any I’d like to see on it."
What’s your relationship with Pete Helmkamp who used to be the vocalist and bassist of ORDER FROM CHAOS? According to some interviews I have read since he formed ANGEL CORPSE after the split up of ORDER FROM CHAOS, there seemed to be lots of bad blood between you and him. I guess that particular situation has hardly changed drastically for the better between the two of you…
"This is the saddest aspect of the end of ORDER FROM CHAOS. His attitude towards Mike and I has been nothing less than spiteful since the band ended in 1995. I thought I was seeing a thaw in relations – until in 1998 when we found out how he changed the layouts and song order on the Osmose "An Ending In Fire" and "Stillbirth Machine / Crushed Infamy" releases without consulting us – and then gloated about it when confronted. So relations collapsed again. A couple of years ago Michel of Shivadarshana floated the idea of a couple of reunion shows in Europe and America, and Pete was ‘surprised’ (and extremely angry for some reason) that Mike and I weren’t interested in working with him…"
How did you honestly like their very old-school POSSESSED / early MORBID ANGEL type of sound? Have you managed to hear his later bands REVENGE or TERROR ORGAN?
"I didn’t care for ANGEL CORPSE mainly because I already had far superior MORBID ANGEL albums in my collection, and I haven’t heard enough REVENGE to know what to think. Someone sent me a tape of TERROR ORGAN at one point, and I remember one "track" consisted of Pete playing bass with some sort of effect, but it was cool because it reminded me of our earliest days when he would make tapes of himself practicing new bass parts and doing vocals in his room. But I’m probably the only person that could see it that way, ha ha!"
Now returning back to ARES KINGDOM for the last couple of questions… As you have also been a married man for some years already, having a lovely wife (Hi Lotte!) and a daughter and some crazy pets running around your home, I was wondering how they are showing their understanding towards your band activities? I happen to know that your wife has a background in Metal music, too as she has been digging the same bands for years as you have, so I have my strong reasons to believe that at least she has never had any hard times to cope with ‘hobbies’ with your bands, correct?
"True, my wife’s background in Metal is considerable. For years she was a photographer for the Danish magazine Metalized and consequently has seen more shows than I probably will in my lifetime… and she has the pictures to prove it. My favorite story of hers was how she was the only one in her group of friends that was into BLASPHEMY when they toured Europe in ’93. She said things weren’t really the same between her and her friends after that. The dogs don’t like the band at all, but I’m told my daughter goes over to the vents where the sound comes up from downstairs and bangs her little head. She could be the next Lynda Simpson!"
As for doing gigs, are you also able to tour with ARES KINGDOM or do you prefer doing single-off gigs? You haven’t played too many gigs with the band yet, so I was wondering what kind of expectations you overall have concerning your live presence?
"As our February gig in Chicago proved, nothing has changed in our approach. We still aim for total destruction, and as the reviews showed, we still deliver the most infernal thrashing madness. As Alex says, in ORDER FROM CHAOS we were young and crazy. ARES KINGDOM is older and crazier."
Is there or are there actually some band (-s) you personally would like to share the same stage some day? Like, let’s say, SODOM or VENOM as quite tempting examples…?
"It’s tough to say. I wouldn’t want to play with the bands you mentioned because I’d rather focus on being the fan I am and not have to worry about saving energy for our show. That said, we blasted away with SCEPTER up in Chicago last February, and I’d be GLAD to do that again anytime; those guys rule. Of course CIANIDE should be added to the next bill… I’ve seen PENTACLE, so playing with them would be great… STARGAZER and NECRODEATH are two others I’d like to play with."
So, what can we realistically expect from ARES KINGDOM in 2004?
"A few shows (out-of-town, of course) and an advance tape / CDR of a few songs from the new album to begin making the rounds…"
How would you like ARES KINGDOM to be remembered amongst the Metalheads when the band ceased to exist?
"That we carried the torch of ORDER FROM CHAOS forward and lived the great ideal once expressed by RAZOR; "I’ll be thrashing at 103, you’ll see!""
Well, I think that was it Chuck. I wanna sincerely thank YOU Chuck for precious your time with my questions and hopefully you find this interview worth answering and you possibly even had some fun doing it. If you still have those ‘famous last words’ that you’d like say to the readers of Voices From The Darkside, then here’s your opportunity just for that. Go ahead my ol’ friend…!! 😉
"Keep an eye on www.ares-kingdom.com for the latest news on all our projects. As PENTACLE says, "don’t forget the ancient spirit, it still rules!" We are the undying fire!"
Luxi Lahtinen