Hell Spawn

Greetings guys, you've been around for a while (2008) and just released your third album, for most European you are quite a new band, SO could you give us a little introduction to the band?

Danny: Sure! And before we start, I just want to say we are honored to be included in Rock Tribune and HELL SPAWN. You all kick ass! But anyway, Sean, Keith, and I actually got our start around 2006 in a previous band called Joust that had a more classic metal feel to it (think Maiden and Megadeth), but we were already mixing different subgenres back then as we explored our sound. The band only lasted a couple years, but the three of us wanted to get more heavy and progressive being very influenced by Symphony X and Into Eternity at the time. It took some years for us to really develop our sound and solidify the lineup, but we're really proud that Europe gets to hear the best version of Sorizon with "Thanatos Rising"!

 

Before Thanatos Rising, you released 2 cd's and 2 ep's  self financed, I guess these are only released in the US, didn't you try and promote them overseas? How did these do?

Danny: We've always focused very much on the quality of the songs, our recording production, and putting on a high energy live show. It turns out that a lot more promotion and online presence is needed to get attention overseas, haha! These releases did well in our local area, but we just never focused enough on promotion to make a bigger impact with them.

 

Your new album Thanatos Rising, is your first European release through (dutch label) NO Dust, how did you come in contact, what's the deal, will the other albums get released here aswell etc...

Danny: It has been awesome working with No Dust Records and Henk Van Delden! We first heard from Joe Paciolla at Animated Insanity Records in New York who is also super rad. He connected us with Henk, and the rest is history! Later we learned that Nico De Vreese of HELL SPAWN was the first to discover us and share with Henk. Massive thanks, Nico!! It only takes a minute of talking to any of these guys to realize that they are true metalhead warriors keeping the genre alive by believing in up and coming bands like us. We're super grateful to all of them. The No Dust deal is primarily for European CD distribution, but Henk is awesome about pushing for more global promotion and sales to get "Thanatos Rising" out there as much as possible. No Dust should be carrying some of our past releases soon as well, in limited quantities because we don't have many previous CDs left!

 

What are your expectations, now that you made your first steps into Europe?

Kevin: I would love to think that our expectations for finally making it to Europe, are that we find the audience that will really appreciate what the fuck we are doing. We are not the average band, and we take that really seriously. Every note and rhythm we play is strategically thought out - probably way too much. But in the end we always come up with a super rad combination of off-beat, but really listenable music. Sometimes it's hard to find the beauty in super brutal riffs and heavy vocals, but we learned how to hone it in to what we think is a great mix of everything. In reality we just want you to invite us there so people can sing along to our guitar solos like you fucking awesome folks do!! That's not really a thing in the states, and I would love for Danny and Tim to experience that. And in the future we can figure out the worst bass solo sing-along for me!!! It will be terribly awesome!!

 

You guys are kinda the US answer to Arch Enemy but with an US metal touch (but there is quite a lot happening progressive, thrash, ), what do you think of this comparison? You like to keep your genre wide and diverse, no limitations?)

Tim: Let me just start off by saying that each one of us LOVES metal, obviously. But we love all different types of metal. Sure, we all dig classic Maiden and Metallica and all of that obvious stuff, but there are so many different types of metal out there these days, and a lot of it is freakin rad. I'm super into really melodic and progressive power metal as well as all the melodic death metal and folky shit that comes out of Europe. Rhapsody and Wintersun come to mind. In the past several years, Danny has been really getting into the progressive and raw groove and tone from bands like Mastodon and Baroness. Kevin's favorite metal band is Gwar (that's all you need to know, haha). There is an awesome variety of stuff we like, and while that may be common with a lot of metal bands, most don't incorporate all that into their own music. We do. Personally, for example, I am down for death metal, but I don't want to go to a show that is strictly death metal for 3 hours. We'll give you a touch of death metal in our music throughout the album, but not without throwing in some groovy riffs, power-driven clean vocals, melodic guitar solos, rad guitar and vocal harmonies, tasteful double kick and occasional blast beats, and shit that's heavy, thrashy, doomy, powery, rock, and, just classic metal. Why? Because we can! And it freakin rules.

Danny: Hahaha, Tim is right that we really do love all types of metal between the five of us. And Arch Enemy has definitely been an influence for us, so we're honored by the comparison! We try not to limit ourselves because it allows us to make a new sound that is exciting to us. To me, the whole point of writing original music is to BE ORIGINAL and honest with our personal taste and voice. Why would we want to sound JUST like Arch Enemy when Arch Enemy already exists and does it best?

 

Can you tell us anymore about the title and the insane/ amazing artwork to go with it?

Danny: I wrote the majority of the guitar parts instrumentally to get each song started, and I had a whole story in mind for each song and the flow of the album instrumentally before vocals were added. In short, the overall concept follows the experience of facing the darkest, most difficult shit in life (including facing death itself), and then gradually coming out of it and growing from it all. This related to some of my personal experiences in the past few years. After this story was mapped out and Keith having written the lyrics and song title for "Thanatos Rising," I thought of artwork that featured Thanatos (Greek personification of death) and a Phoenix to symbolize renewal and hope since it is born out of its own ashes. "Thanatos Rising" then sort of took on an additional meaning to me because you can imagine either Thanatos or the Phoenix doing the rising. I pitched the idea to the band, and with the biggest surprise to me, everyone liked it without debate (this never happens in our band!). We knew we wanted the best for this album, and we took the plunge to invest in the best artist we could find, Eliran Kantor. Being a relatively unknown band, he said that he needs to like our art concept before agreeing to work with us. He also loved the idea and made artwork that was more amazing than we could have ever imagined! We didn't ask for any revisions to the artwork (this also never happens with our band!). All in all, I felt like the album title and artwork process was unusually smooth, and I'm incredibly proud of the result.

 

Who is the main composer and what topics do you guys like to write about?

Danny: Like I mentioned, I'm the main composer for guitar parts and getting songs started, but Keith writes all the vocal melodies and lyrics. He absolutely crushed it on this album! I'll let him comment on his lyrics.

Keith: I like to write about whatever is inspiring or interesting to me at that particular time. Our second full length album was a concept album focusing all around sleep/dreams etc. With this album it was very refreshing to not have boundaries and be able to freely write about anything. We have songs on Thanatos ranging from Death to the rise of technology and some more personal topics.

 

Your singer blew us away, what a voice, did he play in other bands before, who inspired him...

Keith: Thank you! I have played in other bands previously, but Sorizon has been my main focus over the years. I actually started out in music playing guitar at about 3rd grade. I started singing in around 5-6th grade because we could never find a singer that fit our band. I would say my biggest inspirations vocally are Russell Allen (Symphony X) and Dio. Lately, I can't get enough of Soilwork and Bjorn Strid's other stuff. I've always loved singers with range AND grit and all of them have it along with melody and heaviness.

 

After all this covid shit is done, would you guys be interested into coming over to tour Europe?

Danny: We would love that! Will you promise to sing our guitar solos like Kevin said you would?? HAHA.

 

By the way, how did you pass your time during these crazy times?

Sean: The mixing of the Thanatos Rising album took over 6 months starting around March 2020. I mixed the album at home; the whole band had a lot of input into the process with many revisions. We have also done over 20 livestreams with the full band and guests from other bands on various platforms.

Danny: When Sean says many revisions, he's not kidding at all! He put up with us with over 100 revisions dialing in all the songs. THANK YOU, SEAN. But for me, I got into hobbies that mostly centered around Sorizon. I took some online courses in music business, promotion, advertising, and social media that really helped us finally grow a consistent presence online. It was a little hectic because I felt like I was working an extra job, but I think it paid off. We released 8 singles in 2020 leading up to the album release, and we gained some more attention with each track from fans, fellow musicians, and other pros in the scene. I also did online courses in video production and geared up to create the majority of our music videos for the new tracks. I was having more fun with video and photography than music for a while to be honest! Other than that, my wife and I spent a lot of time just going on walks, hiking, and singing to our cat haha!

 

You guys hail from California, how well known is the band over there? DO you have a good live reputation?

Tim: Funny you ask about this specifically, haha. Our live reputation really is one of our strong points. I'm probably about to sound like a conceited ass, but I'm just telling the truth man. I can't believe the amount of times that people have come up to us after a show, saying something like, "Dude it's so awesome how much fun you guys are to watch. Like, you look like you're having a super fun time up there. You're all partying!" We as a band, really believe that a live performance should be just as powerful as the music itself, and we do our best to deliver that. Yeah, we'll headbang and look heavy and brutal, but more than that, you see freakin smiles galore on our faces. Wacky, stupid, but hilarious shit like Danny doing a "pick toss" in the air and catching it on stage (similar to a drummer doing a drumstick toss), to exciting shit like our physical stacking of band-members during a guitar lead section in a song. We look like we're playing a freakin game of Twister lol. This stunt has been dubbed by our fans as the "Sorizon Pyramid." As for the popularity of our band, I really wish I could give an up-to-date answer. We haven't played a show in well over a year because of COVID, so it's kind of unclear. I mean, yeah, there's always a crowd of people at our shows. I will say that the sales of our new album, especially the pre-sales, have been super good. Hopefully that means that our future live turnout will be epic! We are thrilled that so many people want to support us and purchase a physical or digital copy of the album. It's so easy to stream music online for free these days, so we really are grateful for that support. I'll get back to you about our popularity in a few months when we start playing live again, haha.

Danny: Totally, Tim. I'll just add that Kevin, Tim, and I all do backup vocals too, so we take a stab at some of Keith's crazy 4-part harmonies live!

 

What more can we expect from you guys?

Danny: Like every band right now, we're itching to get back on stage and connect with our audience the good old-fashioned way. I do think we'll continue everything we learned in the past year with our online presence including livestreams and treasure everyone around the world who wants to be a part of our journey. Musically, we will keep pushing ourselves and refining the magic we have between the five of us. We're all committed to the band as evidenced by the good years we've already spent together.

 

Anything left to add?

Danny: Just another huge thank you to everyone involved in this interview. To the readers, thank you for making it this far! If you like anything we do, please follow us and share online - it really helps an underground band like us!

http://www.sorizon.net/

 

WEDSTRIJD/ COMPETITION time!!!

We kregen van No Dust 3 cd's van de band hun kersverse album "Thanatos Rising" die we mits een wedstrijdje mochten wegschenken!

Geef ons de titel van de band hun drie langspelers en stuur je antwoord (en je adres) naar [email protected]

Veel succes!!!!

 

Here's the link to the "Thanatos rising" video!

 

https://youtu.be/6ddojgLriXI