Interviews

Battlecross – Interview

Published

8 years ago

May 8, 2016

Ron

Hailing from the bitter northern wasteland of Detroit, Battlecross embodies the term “Blue Collar Thrash”. They have taken their blend of technical, fist pumping thrash and integrated it with the aggression and brutality of modern death metal to make old school feel new again. Maybe it’s something in the water that makes Battelcross so relentless in their pursuit of the perfect blend of head pounding rhythms and ear piercing solos. Whatever the cause, Battlecross is prepared to take over the metal world on every continent and beyond.

EMPIRE: How is the tour so far getting to play with Soulfly and Suffocation?
Gumby: It’s a good first week everything is going smooth you know good venues so far no cluster fucks.

EMPIRE: Excited about it though getting to play with icons like Soulfly and Suffocation?
Gumby: Ya, I can’t remember if I used my McDonald’s paycheck to buy Roots or sold drugs for it.

EMPIRE: Probably a mixture of both?
Gumby: I probably used the McDonald’s money to buy drugs to sell, then bought the album (laughs).

EMPIRE: So you guys are from the Michigan area? How does the metal scene compared to the East Coast/West Coast
Gumby: Yeah, and it fucking sucks man! In Michigan you have to come up and out of the way. You have to travel 3 hours to get out of anywhere, but we clawed our way out of it. We had some help from Dahlia Murder we manage to get around. (Not get around) Michigan use to be real rich now it’s real poor, they can’t even have clean water.

EMPIRE: If you describe to anyone who hasn’t heard of Battlecross before?
G: We are thrash metal with melodic death metal, death metal vocals and high energy. That’s it.

E: With all that brutality, what’s the craziest thing that ever happened at a show?
G: (starts to tell about people getting blowjobs in the dressing room)

E: (laughing) No, no… I meant more like at the show like crowd wise?
G: We played Delaware once, it was nuts at some shitty ass club but it was packed in. It was like old hardcore show kids flying over each other, everybody knowing the words to our songs. It was just crazy! That was really cool.

E: If you had a Time machine and can go back to see any band what band would you go see and what year?
G: Hank Sr. in like the 20s, I think. I want to go to like Oklahoma with the honky tonks and the swing halls. That be fuckin’ sick. That’s what I was raised on.

E: If you had a dream team, you can chose your band with any 3 bands to do a world tour, who would you choose?
G: Metallica, Killswitch Engage and Pantera. I just love me some Killswitch

E: Any plans on new CD or material?
G: I think we are due out sometime next winter or spring. Probably after we get back from Europe start working on new stuff.

E: I always ask every death metal band … Carebears or My little Pony?
G: Carebears.. Dark heart man.. Dark Heart…

E: Anything else you would like to tell the fans?
G: Come out and see Battlecross. Bang your head, don’t be a lazy prick! I’ll sweat for every cent you pay to get into the door.

E: I’m excited to see you guys again. I first seen you at Mayhem Fest all the way back in the lawn so this will be awesome to see you in small club. Thanks for taking the time to chat man..
G: Appreciate it..

Interview & Photos by Ron S.

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Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH MERCURY OF PRIEST

Published

2 days ago

April 23, 2024

Ron

Empire Extreme got to sit down and talk to Mercury of Priest when the band came into PA at LoveDrafts.

The show was amazing all the bands that we seen put on a great show for the fans. Vampires Everywhere killed it once again. Last time we seen Priest we only got to see them open for Powerman5000 and got like 6 songs, this time Priest was headlining and we got to see much more which I was excited to see.

Priest played a good mix of old and new and even a few songs off the album “Dark Pulse” which is out in May. We got to see 13 songs played and even Mercury come out into the crowd a few times and when they played “Obey” even blessed some of the crowd. It was great hearing songs like “BlackListed”, “Signal in the Noise”, “History in Black” and “Vaudeville”. It was such a great night of music and a great conversation with Mercury. If you get a chance to see this band play in ur town, it’s a must

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Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE

Published

2 months ago

March 4, 2024

Ron

Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.

How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.

How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!

If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.

Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.

What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!

If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!

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Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE

Published

2 months ago

February 16, 2024

Ron

Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?

We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell.

What’s your favorite horror movie?

That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.

Favorite Non Horror Movie?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…

What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?

We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything.

If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?

We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs.

If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?

The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.

What has been your Favorite Tour so far?

The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.

You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?

It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters.

What was it like Touring with Danzig?

Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with.

How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?

Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.

What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?

We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music.

Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?

No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan.

Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?

No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know… but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”. Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.