Friday 13 May 2011

Old Corpse Road - Interview


Thanks for speaking with UNITED KINGDOM EXTREME METAL, how are things with you?
Very well thanks. We’ve been busy the last couple of months playing up and down the country and it’s nice to have a small break from the gigging over the end of May, beginning of June.

For those unfamiliar with you guys, tell us more about the band?


Old Corpse Road is a UK black metal band with a lyrical theme based around UK folklore. Musically we play a blend of fast and intense death/ black metal, haunting passages, doom laden breaks and ambient music. Vocals range from harsh black metal screams, deathly growls, spoken passages and multiple voice chants.
We currently have two releases available which is the demo “The Echoes of Tales Once Told” and the split CD “The Bones of this Land are not Speechless”.
The band has also toured extensively over the UK over 2009, 2010 and 2011.


Would it be fair to say that folklore and history play an important role within OCR?

History plays a very important role within our music, although we have avoided any specific historical period by focusing on the folkloric aspect of our countries history. Folklore is essentially timeless and is passed from generation to generation, this allows a lot of freedom in how our songs can be experienced.  A key role in our music is the atmosphere created by these tales thus all of our songs are based on specific UK folk tales and legends.

  You guys released a split with WOS. How was this received at the time?


The split was original planned with the Worms of Sabnock, however it later developed into a split with The Meads of Asphodel (who feature two members from the WOS). The split came out around April 2010 and was received very well. I think it was great for us to share the split with one the UK’s leading black metal bands and gave us exposure to many new people and media across the world.


What releases do you have planned for the future?

In between gigs we have been focusing on our debut full length. The songs are all written and we are currently putting finishing touches to them with a view to record in the near future. All being well we would hope to have the album ready for release before the year is out. We are also planning a vinyl split with another band, but this is so early in the planning stages I can’t reveal any more at present.


How would you guys describe your sound?

It’s quite hard to describe our sound. In its basic form, our music is black metal. To this we add many different layers and styles to our music so you will also find death metal, doom, classic metal, ambient and folk music. It is important to us to try to keep a very British sound to the music. You can hear many of our British inspirations in our songs from the likes of early Cradle of Filth through to Iron Maiden.


The extreme metal scene in the north east of England seems quite healthy at the moment, with bands like WINDS OF GENOCIDE, THE OBSCENE, TODAY THE SUN DIES etc and yourselves. What are your thoughts of the local scene?
There are certainly more good bands coming out of the woodwork recently. I still feel the gig scene in the north east is a bit stale and we barely ever play up here. It would be nice to build on the live scene and try to bring more extreme bands up here.
Lyrics are an important aspect of extreme metal, where do you draw influence from and what are the lyrical themes?

As previously mentioned all of our lyrics are rooted in British folklore. With this there is also a tie to anything dark and mysterious, occultism and witchcraft and also a strong link to nature and history. These themes are very important to us as a band and as individuals we feel a strong kinship to the old tales.


Thanks once again for speaking with us. Any last words you wish to share with our readers?

Thanks to UKEM for taking time to ask us these questions. Please check us out at www.oldcorpseroad.co.uk. Here you can find song samples, videos, news, live dates and all that is Old Corpse Road!
Hails and regards, The Bearer,OCR


What should we expect from the band in the near future?

In November we will also be playing a mini tour entitled “The Great Exhibition”. So far the mini tour has 4 dates in Derby, Sheffield, London and Wakefield and we will be playing alongside Victorian black metallers Eibon La Furies, progressive folksters Northern Oak and classic UK death/doom band The Prophecy.



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