Thera Roya Interview

1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording of the new album?

-RYAN (drum/vox)::

We recorded Stone & Skin January 2016. Within the year we played a bunch of local shows in NYC and NJ and toured in Oct 2016 with our friends in the killer band Savagist for a week or two. During that we recorded with our friend Jake Davis at his studio in Charlotte for our next EP, Masterful Universe. The rest of the year I went to Budapest Hungary to live so we took a break from playing, but Jake and I keep mixing the new EP. It's sounding awesome and it's super weird. This past month we've played a good amount together, are writing more and playing some shows, also figuring out a tour for April 2017.

2.You have a new album coming out in February, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?

- CHRIS (guitar) ::

I feel this release is definitely the most cohesive thing we’ve written together. With our earlier releases we would record a song or two at a time that we would write in our practice space. That usually happens in the midst of or at the end of a tour with a friend of our’s studio. We did that for a little bit. While that way of recording songs is really fun & convenient, it can be hectic & sometimes feel rushed. But this time around we decided to rent a cabin out in the middle of the woods, buckled down to see what we could write, & this full length is, for the most part, the songs we ended up with. We recorded these songs with our good friend Scot Moriarty at Backroom Studios in New Jersey in a live setting. I think we also prefer to record live. We believe it's the best way to capture the true essence or feeling of what we want to capture with our music without sounding too sterile or over-produced. It captures every little nuance & mistakes that give, in my opinion, the songs charm. They’re perfectly imperfect.

- JONNY (bass) ::

This release has a lot of meaning for me because of how it was written. I've always admired bands that have written fire albums in isolation. The whole experience in that cabin was one I'm sure we'll all never forget. Also stone and skin involved some new and unfamiliar territory for us with writing shorter songs and being able to get what we wanted to across in less time which was super interesting .


3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the newer music?

-RYAN ::

On Stone & Skin the ideas focus a lot around ideas of particle physics and how at the root everything is created from the same energy. The title eludes to that, and also my spin on it in the first song Saffron is how incredible the world is already, without god. God is a middle man in the equation, like :: Incredible world, God, our perception. I say the higher power confuses and complicates things, lets just keep it Incredible world, perception. For me its a humanitarian view, if we don't incorporate gratitude, commandments etc from god, we are forced to acknowledge and respect each other and the world for what all it is, in and of itself. It deserve reverence, respect and love already. It's enough.

I only wrote words for Saffron and the rest of the album is improvised live while we record. I incorporate Glossolalia a lot, bands like Cocteau Twins and Obituary do it, where it sounds like words but it's improvised nonsense. This style evokes a meaninglessness in a songs statement, like its all been said before. It attracts a more primal energy, like before language how did we communicate. I love lyrics, but the whole idea why I started singing in Thera Roya was to add another melodic element to our 3 piece, because I hear a lot of melodies and how better to do it behind the kit. I like how abstract it is, though I might write more lyrics in the future.

4.Originally the band was known as 'The Badeda Ladies', what was the decision behind the name change and also the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Thera Roya'?

RYAN ::

We changed it because when we added Chris in 2012, the band felt different and we wanted to have a more mysterious name than a funny, ironic one. Nothing wrong with that, Jonny and I might still do some shit as a two piece with Badeda. I picked Thera Roya because my friend Eric described our sound after a show like "Lava flowing down a mountain". We were searching for a name at that point and I really liked his description. I love old, rarely heard words, so I took Thera from the volcanic island in Greece which erupted 3,000 years ago and really fucked up the entire atmosphere on earth. Roya is a river in France to illicit the flowing part of the description. Later when my friend Anne looked up meanings, she found that Thera also was the scientific term for a type of snail.. and Roya the term for a moth. So our name means moth snail too unintentionally hah, but we embraced it and did a shirt design with Miriam Carothers using the moth snail combo.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?

CHRIS ::

One show that comes to mind is when we played the 529 in Atlanta, GA with our friends in Savagist a couple winters ago. So many great things happened that night that it’s hard to pick a favorite moment. The 529 is a great sounding venue with an incredible staff & the lineup was killer. A lot of people came out, it was jam packed, & an Orange representative just so happened to be at the show. He posted a photo of Jonny playing through his Orange head on social media that same night. That was cool on it’s own but then Andre 3000 showed up the show! We stood around shooting the shit with him for a while & we gave him a bunch of merch, it was wild! He was a super cool dude. As far as our stage performance, I think we all float away when we play live. I know for me it’s my therapy time. This is the time when it’s most easy to forget about my shitty day at work or my day to day issues. Everything except my guitar is out of focus, true concentration. We put a lot of emotion into what we’re doing on stage, especially Ryan. Some people go to church but we choose to play our songs. Very loudly to complete strangers!

6.Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released?

RYAN ::

We're having a release show February 18th at Clash bar in Clifton NJ with a bunch of our friends killer bands. We're playing with Pilgrim in march and booking an east coast tour in April. We'll probably release the new Ep in the summer, and than do a bigger national tour in the fall.

7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?

RYAN ::

We've released a tape on our friend Tohm's label Forced Abandonment Records last year, besides that no serious interest from labels... until a couple days ago. We are waiting for the proposal, but are totally stoked to finally be talking with one, and see what we could accomplish together. We tour a lot and sell out merch, I tell labels this, the fools don't listen !!

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of sludge, doom and post metal?

RYAN ::

We're pretty unknown, but we've gotten some nice reviews and fan love from around the world. We've mostly toured in the south USA.. we receive a lot of love there and have so many friends by now, it's hard to go anywhere else. I think people who like us enjoy how multi-directional we are, and what we lack in consistency sometimes we make up for in flavor. While some die-hard metal fans enjoy us, I think people can sense we like to incorporate a lot of musical styles. Listeners who enjoy a lot of genres, like us, might pick up on that.

9.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?

RYAN ::

Chris has Sunrot, Cowardice and Skin Pop the former being two killer sludge bands and the latter being a noise project 2 piece with our best dude Lex from Sunrot. I have another sludge band Mountain God releasing a sick album a month later in March, and also my solo project Crusasis. My solo project is like blusey, folky, sometimes punk groovy ness... I write a ton so most of it goes into that. Jonny jams with me in Crusasis sometimes, besides that he has a solo project called Mustard where he drinks a gallon of ketchup on stage.

10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

JONNY ::

To be honest, I'm not really sure I know what's ahead for certain. I know it'll likely be something different. There are bands who start out sounding one way but ended up sounding totally different. I think it could all get chalked up to being the maturing process of a band and what they're interests are. What I would like to see for thera roya in the future would be more of this constant flow of inspiration we keep having.... And to maybe have a cool walk-out song hahaha.


11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

RYAN ::

We all grew up loving Neurosis, Isis, Pelican, Mastodon, Cave In,  Opeth & Clutch (more so Jonny and I), Russian Circles, Godspeed You! etc. that branched out into more later on like Harvey Milk, Jesu, Boris, Melvins etc.
As we started touring more, I pretty much stopped listening to popular metal because our friends were making such good shit like Dutchguts, Foe Hammer, Rebel Scum (now Negative Graves), Savagist, US Christmas, Generation of Vipers, Umbra, Pig Mountain, Omotai.. so many more, all of these are incredible. These smaller acts influence us a lot, and  old school rock or trip-hop electric stuff we all like.

We each have a favorite old school band: Jonny - CCR , Chris - Fleetwood Mac , Ryan - The Band (Levon is king)

12.What are some of your non musical interests?

Ryan: Making shit (pottery, jewelry, carpentry), outdoors, women, reading, traveling. I'm 5'7'', 14 lbs. single ready to mingle.

Chris: Drinking coffee and later beer, screen printing (HIRE ME!!!)

Jonny: Ice cream, horror movies, clown

We like laughing constantly, cigarettes and tour

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Chris ::
We’ll have some more new music coming out in 2017 & we’ll be doing some touring in the Spring & Fall. Thanks so much for this interview!

Et Moriemur/Ex Nihilio In Nihilum/Minotauro Records/2016 CD Review

  Et  Moriemur  are  a  band  from  the  Czech  Republic  that  plays  a  mixture  of  doom  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2016  album  "Ex  Nihilio  In  Nihilum"  which  was  released  by  Monotauro  Records.

  Acoustic  guitar  playing  starts  off  the  album  before  going  into  more  of  a  heavy  direction  as  well  as  introducing  melodic  guitar  leads  onto  the  recording  and  they  also  mix  the  clean  and  heavy  parts  together  and  after  awhile  grim  whispers  are  added  into  the  music  and  spoken  word  parts  are  also  utilized  at  times.

  All  of  the  musical  instruments  on  the  recording  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  while  some  of  the  tracks  are  very  long  and  epic  in  length  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  amount  of  death  metal  growls  along  with  a  few  screams  that h ave  a  touch  of  black  metal  to  them  and  melodic  chanting  can  also  be  heard  in  the  background  at  times  and  keyboards  along  with  violins  are  also  added  on  some  of  the  tracks  and  there  are  also  a  couple  of  brief  ambient  instrumentals  and  all  of  the  songs  stick  to  a  very  slow  musical  direction.

  Et  Moriemur  plays  a  musical  style  that  takes  a  very  atmospheric  and  experimental  form  of  doom  metal  and  mixes it  in  with  the  heaviness  of  death  metal  and  a touch  of  black  metal  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  solitude,  grief  and  darkness  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Et  Moriemur  are  a  very  great  sounding  atmospheric  mixture  of  doom  and  death  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Sea  Of  Trees"  "Norwegian  Mist"  and  "Black  Mountain".  8  out  of  10.

Thera Roya/Stone And Skin/2017 Full Length Review

 

 Thera  Roya  are  a  band  from New York  that  plays  a  mixture  of  sludge  and  post  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2017  album  "Stone  And  Skin"  which  will  be  released  in  February.

  Atmospheric  soundscapes  start  off  the  album  and  after awhile  clean  playing  is  added  onto  the  recording  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  after  awhile  melodic  vocals  are  added  onto  the  recording  and  the  guitar  solos  and  leads  bring  in  a  more  post  metal  style  to  the  recording.

  When  the  riffs  get  heavy  they  bring  in  the  heaviness  of  sludge  and  doom  metal  while  also  utilizing  a  decent  amount  of  melody  and  the  vocals  also  bring  in  aggressive  screams  and  death  metal  growls  at  times  along  with  a  decent  portion  of  the  tracks  being  very  long  and  epic  in  length  and  there  is  also  a  brief  use  of  spoken  word  samples  as  the  album  progresses  and  all  of  the  tracks  stick  to  either  a  slow  or  mid  paced  musical  direction  and  one  of  the  tracks  is  all  instrumental.

  Thera  Roya  plays  a  musical  style t hat  takes  sludge  and  doom  metal  and  mixes  it  in  with  the  more  progressive  side  of  post  metal  along  with  a  touch  of  death  metal  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  for  being  a  self  released  recording  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark  and  mythological  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Thera  Roya  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  sludge  and  post  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Egypt's  Light"  Solitude"  and  "Phaedrus'.  8  out  of  10. 

Grim Ravine/The Light Is From Below/Black Bow Records/2017 CD Review

 

 Grim  Ravine  are  a  band  from  the  United  Kingdom  that  plays  an  atmospheric  form  of  sludge  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2017  album  "The  Light  Is  From  Below"  which  will  be  released  in  February by  Black  Bow  Records.

  A  very  dark  yet  heavy  doom  metal  sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  death  metal  growls  a  few  seconds  later  which  also  leads  up  to  high  pitched  sludge  screams  being  added  onto  the  recording  and  clean  playing  can  also  be  heard  at  times  along  with  most of  the  tracks  being  very  long  and  epic  in  length.

  When  guitar  solos  and  leads  are  utilized  they  are  done  in  a  very  dark  yet  melodic  fashion  and  after  awhile  the  music  starts  incorporating  more  atmospheric  elements  as  well  as  adding  in  a  brief  instrumental  before  returning  back  to  a  heavier  direction  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  all  of  the  songs  stick  to  a  very  slow  musical  direction.

  Grim  Ravine  plays  a  musical  style  that  takes  atmospheric  doom  metal  and  sludge  and  mixes  them  together  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  dark  and  heavy  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Grim  Ravine  are  a  very  great  sounding  atmospheric  sludge  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Shrine  of  Misery"  and  "Vacant  Mass".  8  out  of  10. 

Desert Kingdom/Self Titled/Black Bow Records/2017 CD Review

 

  Desert  Kingdom  are  a  band  from  Australia  that  plays  a  mixture  of  stoner,  sludge,  and  doom  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  titled  2017  album  which  will  be  released  in  February  by  Black  Bow  Records.

  A  very  hard  and  heavy  stoner  rock  sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  70's  style  metal  vocals  a  few  seconds  later  while  also  having  their  aggressive  moments  and  the  music  starts  adding  more  doom  and  sludge  into  the  heaviness  side  of  the  music  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.

  When  guitar  solos  and  leads  are  utilized  they  are  done  in  a  very  retro  rock/classic  metal  style  and  synths  are  added  onto  one  of  the  tracks  along  with  a  brief  use  of  spoken  word  parts  and  the  growls  and  screams  add  in  a  touch  of  death  metal  and  blast  beats  can  also  be  heard  briefly while  the  music  sticks  to  mostly  a  slow  or  mid  paced  direction.

  Desert  Kingdom  plays  a  musical  style  that  takes  stoner  rock,  doom,  sludge  and  groove  metal  and  mixes  them  together  with  a  touch  of  death  metal  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  drinking  and  real  life  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Desert  Kingdom  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  stoner  and  doom  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "You'll  Burn"  "7  Years"  and  "Whiskey".  8  out  of  10.  

 

Friendship/I & II/Sentient Ruin Laboratories/2017 Cassette Compilation Review

  Friendship  are  a  band  from  Japan  that  plays  a  mixture  of  power  violence,  grindcore,  doom  metal  and  sludge  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2017  compilation  album which  will  be  released  in  February  by  Sentient  Ruin  Laboratories  and  consists  of  their  first  2  ep's.

  A  very  fast  and  brutal  sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  and  power  violence  elements  and  the  vocals  are  mostly  growls  and  the  faster  sections  of  the  songs  are  heavily  influenced  by  grindcore  and  when  the  music  slows  down  it  brings  in  more  of  a  sludge  and  doom  metal  style.

  All  of  the  musical  instruments  on  the  recording  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  while the  amp  sounds  gives  the  songs  of  touch  of  noise  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  also  mixing  in  touches  of  crust  and  d  beat  and  some  of t he  riffs  also  bring  in  a  small  amount  of  melody  and  none  of  the  songs  ever  bring  in  guitar  solos  and  leads  an d the  compilation  always  remains  true  to  a  very  heavy  musical  direction.

  Friendship  creates  a  musical  style  that  takes  the  speed,  aggression  and  brutality  of  grindcore  and  power  violence  and  mixes  it  in  with  the  slower  more  heavier  style  of  sludge  and  doom  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  dark  and  heavy  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark,  violent  and  angry  themes.

  in  my  opinion  Friendship  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  grindcore,  power  violence,  sludge  and  doom  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "T.R.O.Y"  "Bill  Evans"  "Slaughterhouse"  and  "El Chapo".  8  out  of  10.

   

Witchapter/Spellcaster/Black Bow Records/2017 EP Review

 

 Witchapter  are  a  band  from  the  United  Kingdom  that  plays  a  mixture  of  sludge  and  doom  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2017  ep  "Spellcaster"  which  will  be  released  in  April  by  Black  Bow  Records.

  A  very  distorted  sound  starts  off  the  ep  along  with  some  heavy  and  melodic  riffing  a  few  seconds  later  and  a  few  seconds  later  high  pitched  sludge  style  screams  are  added  onto  the  recording  and  the  riffs  bring  in  a  great  amount  of  doom  metal  elements  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.

  Death  metal  growls  are  also  utilized  at  times  and  when  clean  guitars  are  utilized  they  give  the  music  more  of  a  70's  influence  while  the  heaviness  takes  the  songs  into  a  more  modern  direction   and  when  guitar  leads  are  utilized  they  are  done  in  a  very  melodic  fashion  and  all  of  the  songs  stick  to  a  slow  musical  direction  and  the  last  track  is  very  long  and  epic  in  length.

  Witchapter  plays  a  musical  style  that  mixes  sludge  and  doom  metal  together  along  with  a  touch  of  death  metal  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  Occultism  and  Witchcraft  from  the  medieval  era.

  In  my  opinion  Witchapter  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  sludge  and  doom  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACK  "Veiled  Aggressor".  8  out  of  10.