Since their appearance on the original Bong Hits From the Astral Basement, Austin's Destroyer of Light have slowly and steadily, in true zombie fashion, overrun the underground metal scene. Blending Candlemass wail with well placed death growls, Destroyer of Light bridge the gap between traditional metal and the more extreme sub genres, while wisely never going full cookie monster. I spoke with Steve (guitar/vox/mastermind) about the lineup changes, touring plans, and their new video, which makes its world premier at the bottom of this page.
Justin- Can you tell me about the lineup change? Have you found a new bassist?
Steve- Well, the line-up changed happened because we didn't see eye to eye in what it is to be a touring musician. This is a business to us as we want to get to the point that we can make money on tour and invest a lot into this band. Nothing against Mark, he is a great bassist and hope he continues to play music in other projects, we are still his friends. However, we are entering our second year as a band, and want to take things further than we did since our inception in 2012. As far as a new bassist, we have tried out a couple of guys, and while we haven't made any confirmation on a new bass player, the search has been going well. And I expect that we will be back playing shows by February.
J- Tell me about the new EP. How do you compare it to the previous release?
S- Bizarre Tales Vol. 2 was recorded at the same studio as the Self-Titled, Yellow Dog Studios in Austin, TX. The engineer, Matt Meli, really liked working with us on the first EP, and he wanted to record us again. This time though, we were able to take more time to make sure that we got everything to sound the way we wanted. Some of these songs we wrote way back when we first started, and then a couple of the songs were written right before we decided to record in the studio. On this album too, it features more material that was written more so by Keegan, and then there is a song that was also written by Mark. Where on the first record, I wrote most of the material. So, it's cool because this EP shows how diverse we can be as a band, and presents a different side to us than the S/T. Most of the lyrics are still the same, as they are fictional tales of horror, sci-fi, and the Greeks.
J- The video is cool as hell, who did the animation and put it all together?
S- Thanks! Well, the guy who made the video is Erik Bredthauer, and we posted on our Facebook page looking for someone to do animation for us to promote our new single. He contacted me, and said that he had never done this for a band, but does these kind of projects for work. And as a fan of the band, he wanted to help us out and have fun with the project. So, it was really cool that he wanted to take time out of his day to help us get a pretty cool animation to go along with this song. What we were looking for was a Tales From the Crypt comic style kind of animation. As most of my lyrics delve into horror, and this song is about Zombies, we thought it would be perfect to do that kind of match. I am really happy with it, and can't wait to premiere "Forbidden Zombi Ritual" to the world. The record has been done since October; so, it'll be great to get this out.
J- What are your touring plans and how soon before you get on the road?
S- As of right now, we are discussing when we will be back on the road, but we are going to shoot for early April. First, we need to solidify our new line-up, practice through our new setlist, and another thing we are really looking to do before we tour is release our new EP on vinyl. So, we will be trying to find ways to put out this vinyl because the artwork is fantastic and it would look really good. Plus, the more mercy we can sell on the road, the better.
J- Anything else you want to add?
S- Lastly, I would like to thank everybody for the support so far, we don't plan on stopping anytime soon. If anything, we plan on coming through your town more and more, and have plans for more releases, etc. I hope you enjoy the new song, "Forbidden Zombi Ritual." You can find us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/destroyeroflight), Twitter (dolaustindoom), Instagram, and band camp (www.destroyeroflight.bandcamp.com). Thank you again, and we will see you soon in your town! Cheers!
And now that you are up to speed on the happenings in the Destroyer of Light camp, please enjoy the premier of their new video, "Forbidden Zombi Ritual". Duuuude.
