Interviews

Interview with Army of the Universe

Published

7 years ago

June 19, 2017

Ron

June 16th 2017

Baltimore SoundStage

BOOZE..BOOBS..CROTCH GRABBING SUPERSTITIONS.. BAD ITALIAN TEXAN ACCENTS.

Italian 80s Sci-Fi infused Rockers Army of The Universe came into Baltimore During the Under Your Spell Tour with fellow bands Sumo Cyco and Headline act The Birthday Massacre.

Empire Extreme got to drink and shoot the shit with the band before they hit the stage that night to entertain the masses. When I got into the bands room right away singer Lord K offered me a drink, he asked “ A beer, jack Daniels, a coke” I then replied “coke” . He then said “ we need some jack in that” which I couldn’t turn down, I do love me some bourbon.

Empire: How’s the Tour going so far?
Lord K: It’s really good. It’s always a pleasure to be back in the states. This is our second time in Baltimore and I can’t wait to play.
Empire: Good crowd response?
Lord K: Yes, and I can say it’s a good mesh of bands we been touring with.
Albert: It’s a great match. Very sweet people, I mean we have a pretty bad tour manager but…(everyone in the room starts to laugh, the tour manager was in the room with us)
Empire: How did the band name come to be? (Albert and Lord K discuss on who created the name and then decide that Albert was right)
Albert: It was 2010 and we liked the army idea in general, but we wanted to make it big. Epic.
Lord K: I remember we were talking about masters of the universe mostly the cartoon. It’s like retro SciFi movies like Blade Runner, Escape from NY, melting with The Warriors and John Carpenter.
Albert: I would say The Matrix 1 is the end line from our period. And Army of the Universe was matching what our inspirations were from, so we went with it. And it was my idea.
Empire: You guys are from Milan Italy how is the music scene?
Lord K: There’s no more music scene, it use to be maybe…
Empire : I know Lacuna Coil is from Milan.
Albert: They are the exception.
Lord K: They are a very good band, different style. They have sold a lot of records. We are friends with them.
Albert: They represent the exception, the music scene in Milan and Italy in general is very commercial. It’s a lot of EDM, the dark underground subculture disappeared, even the metal is weaker in the last 10 years. But we can see something coming back, hopefully.
Lord K: in Italy there are two waves. 1st is Hiphop in Italian which really makes me want to puke and kill people. The 2nd wave are the strange YouTube, Instagram phantoms, they go viral for saying a swear word and that’s another thing that makes me want to kill people.
Albert: We are bigger in Germany, Scandinavia.
Lord K: I love playing the states, my favorite place.
Albert: the good thing in states, you don’t have Italian rap. ( everyone bust out in laughter again)
Empire: How was is like working with Chris Vrenna?
Albert: It was a really good experience. We worked with Chris on the first two albums. We met kids randomly cause of a common friend, and he liked what we were doing. We landed on the Industrial side without trying, and Chris helped blend and mold the sound. He was very talented and very skilled. Sweet guy and very humble.
Empire: How do you guys like being compared to bands like NIN and Ministry?
Albert: it’s a big compliment. And in a way we are less industrial, we are a little more modern. With a combination of electric and meta, with big guitar riffs and strong electronic element.
Lord K: I agree
Albert: Thank you very much. (Laughs) Yes we have an industrial influence but we’re not trying to be more diverse. It’s not we do a bit of everything, if you listen to our stuff there’s a lot of consistency.
Lord K: But I can say Albert excuse me if I interrupt you
Albert: Please
Lord K: The last album is more in your face. Even more than the first two.
Albert: Very True
Empire: How was it shooting the 1999 video?
Albert: oh that was fun. Please Lord
Lord K: There were many different girls. We got to play and perform which was fun. And our course there were all these girls in Latex, there was a girl from Sicily, our drummer Joe from Sicily. This girl was wearing a latex suit, super tight, but she was soo big breasted that at some point she exploded and broke the suit.
Albert: That was pretty impressive. That tells you how much fun it was.
Empire: Anything you want to say to the fans?
Albert: There is one more thing, I would like to compliment our guitar player Dave, because his hair is so beautiful. The reason why I’m saying this is bet between Dave and our drummer Joe. Everyday we get people complimenting Dave’s hair and Joe couldn’t believe that, and he said that it happens at every show I’m going to pay for a big dinner at the end of the tour. And I wanted to say it today just so he loses the bet. There it’s recorded.
Joe: it already happened the girl at breakfast.
Lord K: We Italians are very superstitious, so when you say a compliment to us we have to do this ( he then gives out the devil horns and grabs his crotch) kinda like knock on wood in America, but we touch balls. It’s not good to see.
Albert: The reason is someone says like you have nice hair and you don’t want to lose it.

When Army of the Universe hit the stage, Lord K demanded the audiences attention. With his look resembling Billy Idol he took the stage by storm. Playing mostly from the Latest album “1999 and the after show” this band was not just fun to photograph and interview but also just to watch. Good fun without all the rock and roll pretentious bullshit. I can’t wait until they come back around again.

About Author

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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Related Topics:Army of the Universe Baltimore Empire Extreme Lord K Soundstage

Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE

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1 month ago

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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!

About Author

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.