Interviews

Occultist – Interview

Published

8 years ago

August 23, 2016

Ron

Occultist – Interview with singer Kerry Zylstra and guitarist Kent Jung

By Ron Senyo

On a hot and scorching day at GWAR B-Q outside Richmond Virginia we stumbled across a band that we were hearing rumblings about in the underground. We were told a few weeks prior to the show to make sure we checked out Occultist when we were there. As luck would have it we were able to hook up with singer Kerry Zylstra and guitarist Kent Jung and share their brand of punk rock infused metal with the masses.

Empire Extreme: How’s it going today here at the GWAR B-Q?
Kerry Zylstra: Hot….
Kent Jung: Yes very hot! Another sweaty GWAR BBQ.

Empire Extreme: This is your guys’ 3rd or 4th GWAR BBQ. How is it being sort of like the veterans here?
Kent Jung: It’s good. I feel that they always work hard to get continually, not just big bands, but more interesting and diverse acts.
Kerry Zylstra: Yeah, it’s cool. I remember the first time we played at The National. They kind of looked at us like, “What the fuck?” Now people know who we are and there are people waiting to see us.

Empire Extreme: You are from Richmond, how’s that scene? A lot of big bands have come out of there.
Kent Zylstra: It’s awesome! Whether it’s heavy or underground music, it’s thriving. We have a lot of good venues here, from big clubs to small venues.

Empire Extreme: Where did the name Occultist come from?
Kent Jung: Our other guitarist Jim Reed, he kind of came up with it. I don’t really know where it spawned from. I know it touches on the occult theme with the lyrics and stuff. I’m not sure if that’s a real word.
Kerry Zylstra: It sounds cool.

Empire Extreme: For those who have never had the opportunity to hear you, how would you describe your music?

Kent Jung: If you’re talking about as an emotion, aggressive would be a word that comes to mind. It does have some melodic qualities to it at times. It’s a mixture of punk and metal and all the genres in between.
Kerry Zylstra: Metal/punk , yeah individually we definitely take to different genres. All of our influences are combined, there are traces of punk, metal and black metal; like Scandinavian Japanese hardcore.

Empire Extreme: [To Kerry Zylstra] Do you write all the lyrics?
Kerry Zylstra: Yeah mostly. I have a friend I like to collaborate with named Justin Ryan. We work very well together. Everybody comes up with the ideas, sometimes Jim comes up with something.
Kent Jung: If I read about something that’s cool, that’s a dark subject matter, I get the ideas and I’ll pitch it.

Empire Extreme: Is the band working on any new material?
Kent Jung: Yes, we are hard at work with a new full length album. We have been cracking away with that, hopefully we should have it out by the first two months of next year. I feel this is some of our strongest material yet. It’s got more of a thump to it.
Kerry Zylstra: I feel like our sound is a lot more polished, but still hard as fuck.

Empire Extreme: If you had the opportunity to play any festival, which would you like?
Kerry Zylstra: DeathFest. Maryland DeathFest.
Kent Jung: Hellfest would be cool. I would love to do a tour in Europe. I feel that we would blow up more in those areas.

Empire Extreme : Any shows big coming up?
Kerry Zylstra: On November 11th, it’s going to be a house show.

Empire Extreme: Anything you want add or say to your fans?
Kerry Zylstra: We love you guys.
Kent Jung: We really do. It’s so surreal to me. I’ve always been in bands that had little to no reaction at all and I stuck with them for years. So it’s weird being in a band that people enjoy and fans that want our autographs. We can’t say thanks enough to the GWAR guys. They have done a lot for us.

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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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

About Author

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!

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.