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Hails! Thank you for taking
the time to
fill out this
interview. Please introduce yourself to the readers.
My name is Lawrence Wallace, I’m 27 years old, I live in southeastern PA,
and I have always been a huge metal fan ever since I was a young kid. I
first started playing the guitar when I was 16 back in 2001, and I
progressed very quickly. I was in a few different rock and metal bands
throughout the past decade and I have met a few famous people, studied under
some great teachers and played onstage with some great musicians. Music has
always been my passion ever since I was little. Other than that I’m pretty
calm but I enjoy listening to local acts and hanging out/drinking with cool
people from the local metal scene every once in a while. I also love art and
graphic design. I hope to get really good at it one day.
When did you first discover
metal? Who were some of the first bands you listened to? Who are some of
your current favorite bands?
I
first started listening to heavy metal when I was about 11 years old and
some of the bands I liked to listen to were Metallica, Ozzy, Testament,
Slayer and similar 80’s thrash related stuff. I still love that old stuff
and I use it in my playing even now days but after the years I gravitated
toward more extreme genres like black metal/death metal. I don’t really have
any actual favorite bands right now but some of the bands I listen to now
are bands like Emperor, Watain, Wolves in The Throne Room, and still a lot
of old thrash metal, and also a lot of ambient, soundtrack and electronic
stuff.
When did you and the other
members of shadows in the crypt meet? What is the "current" line-up of the
band? For the readers who have never heard the band how would you describe
the music?
How we all met goes back about 7 years or so. My friend Chris knew Stephen
Corridean, who became a close friend of mine, and about year after meeting
him I found myself in a local death metal band called “Improper Burial”
where we recruited Jesse Beahler. Then about 4 years later Steve introduced
me to Josiah, and we all got along very well with the same musical
interests. Then after some disagreements happened there were some changes to
the lineup. Chris Simms left the band, then Steve called up George Loveland
(aka Necrodemuius Hammhorde - Dale) and asked him to check out our material,
and he later became the new vocalist. Jesse also had to step away from the
band after the last album “Cryptic Communications” was made because he was
very busy with work and his 6 other musical projects. He was very busy. I
can describe our music by stating that it is a black metal band with a lot
of thrash elements and guitar solos. It is very dark, occult and raw. The
music on the recordings are polished but not overproduced, the riffs are
used with heavy distortion, atmospheric lead guitar riffs with delay and a
decent amount of guitar solos. Also there is mostly screaming but there is
also some clean vocals once in a while on the second CD. The first CD was
basically all screaming. Most black metal fans have given us very good
feedback.
 The
band recently released it's second cd "cryptic communications" through
Horror, Pain, Gore, Death Prod. How did the band come in contact with the
label? Are you all happy with the job they have done so far?
George was friends with Steve Corridean ages ago, before I even knew how to
play guitar. They are both a generation older than I am so back in their
day, they used to do tape trading with local bands and friends that they had
in the area. They knew Mike Juliano, who is the owner of HPGD Productions
from back years ago. George still kept in contact with him from time to time
because he had his other project “Decieverion” out playing live gigs where
some of his old friends would come out and hear them. George showed Mike
Juliano the album we recorded and he offered to sign us, so we jumped to it.
We actually met up with him first thing in the morning after a night of
heavy drinking to sign the contract and put the CD out. That was a very
memorable day. Hahaha.
How long did it take to
write and record the songs for Cryptic Communications? Which usually comes
first the music or the lyrics? What are some subject/topics the bands writes
about?
When we recorded the album, we took our time. We used my logic program so
during the recording for the guitars we just brought the equipment over to
our friend’s houses and tracked it there as we got drunk and goofed off. The
drums took a while, we tracked them over Justin Dipinto’s house (one of
Malevolent Creation’s old drummer’s). That was a pain in the ass because the
computer kept acting up and it was the middle of the summer of 2011 with no
air conditioning. We are pretty happy with the turn out of the album. The
production is very raw but it fits perfectly well in with the black metal
genre. To me the music comes first because I am a guitar player but the
lyrics are important also. I’d be pretty mad if George started writing songs
about a rainy day, or how he dropped his lollypop on the dirty ground
outside. He is in charge of the lyrics but I trust him to keep it metal. The
topics have been the typical anti-religion, suicide, and war content so far
but I am not sure what he has planned for our newer stuff yet.
How has the response been
from the press and the fans?
The response has been great! I have seen about 16 or 17 reviews on the
internet so far for our CDs and there has only been 2 of them that says our
music is just “OK” or about a 5/10. The rest, which is almost all of the
reviews say that it is one of the better black metal projects they have
heard, which is great to hear. The fans at the shows usually always show us
a lot of attention after playing live. We have been very successful at
selling CDs that way also.
Does the band play live
very often or do you prefer to work in the studio? Who are some bands you
have played with?
We don’t play live very often. We play about once or twice a month on
average, and when we are in the studio, we usually step away from live gigs
for a little while. I personally like to play live as much as possible, but
unfortunately it’s hard to do that when everyone in the band is on a
different schedule. It can be hard to work things out. We always find ways
to make it work though. We have played with some great bands in our area
like Crucifier, Sapremia, Haethen, Hollenlarm. We also played with some
bands from out of state like Vex, Abigail Williams, The Lurking Corpses, we
had a show where we were going to open for Horna but it didn’t happen.
Does the band have any
upcoming tours/shows in support of cryptic communications? Where are some
places you will play? If you set up a "dream" tour/show who are some bands
{past or present} you would like to play with?
We don’t have any tours or shows directly showcasing the new album but we do
announce that it is being sold at every show we play. If I were to set up a
dream show, it would be on a stage with the capacity of tens of thousands of
people with lawn seats like when Jimmi Hendrix played
Woodstock. It would be Dimmi
Borgir, Slayer, Testament, and Metallica, and we would headline the show
with a huge 35 foot banner with our logo behind us as we play. That’s what I
would call a dream show. … Oh yeah and the president will have to be there
also.
Everyone has their own
ideas/opinions on what "black metal" means to them. So I was curious what
does black mean to you?
Honestly, it means raw album production, a lot of alternate picking,
screaming and blast beats. That pretty much sums it up for me. Also there
must be a few dark sounding key changes to make it legitimate black metal,
as far as the music goes. As far as the lyrics are concerned, just evil
church burning stuff is good and anti-theistic themes are good enough.
Do you or any of the other
members of Shadows In The Crypt, have side bands or projects
you are currently working/playing with?
George has a side project called “Decieverion”. They have been out since
2001 and they have recorded a few demos and EP’s throughout the time they
have been around. They are about to go into the studio to record their first
full length CD in about a month from now. They have a typical black metal
sound based on the last EP they released. It is pretty good. You can
download their stuff on www.bandcamp.com. Other than that, no one else has
any side projects yet. Both George and I helped out our old bass player with
his solo project called “Serpent ov Old”, but he is just recruiting new
people as he goes along rather than keeping a solid line up. We volunteered
to track with him because we are his friends. You can also find his CD on
HPGD Productions when that comes out this November.
What is your opinion of the
black metal scene here in the u.s? Who are some of your all-time favorite
bands? Are their any new, unknown bands you think the readers should check
out?
I
have no problem with the black metal scene in the U.S. I like some bands in
the states like Wolves In The Throne Room, Black Funeral, Absu. There aren’t
any U.S. black metal band that I can say are true favorites of mine but they
are definitely good. Some new/unknown bands I would recommend checking out
are Fisthammer (death metal), Haethen, Decieverion, Serpent ov Old,
Crucifier (They been around for a while), and Nightfire (Tech death).
You handle the guitars for
the band at what age did you start playing guitars? Are you self-taught or
did you take lessons in the beginning?
I
started playing guitar when I was 16. At first I thought I wouldn’t amount
to much but I ended up learning pretty fast. I took lessons from a few
different instructors. I was taught by Ernie Carletti (Former Iced Earth
guitarist) before he got the gig with Iced Earth. I was taught a little bit
by Greg Howe (Shrapnel Records) and also I learned a lot from Chris Gordon
(director of the grand school of music in Wilmington). I learned a lot from
each of them. I stopped taking lessons after I have been playing for about 6
years. I just didn’t have the money or time to keep going. I would if I
could though. No one ever stops learning.
Who are some of your
influences/favorite guitarist? Do you play any other instruments?
I
am very influenced by Yngwie Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore, Michael Angelo Batio,
and other shredders from the 80’s and early 90’s. Some of my favorite
guitarists are Andy James, John Petrucci, Paul Gilbert. I also like Alexi
Laiho from Children of Bodom, but more than anything it’s his guitar tone
that grabs my attention. I don’t play anything else really. I can play some
rock beats on the drums and I can put together some synth stuff on the
keyboard but I don’t have any real technical skill with those instruments.
Well
Lawrence we
have reached the end of the interview thank you for doing this interview. Do
you have any final comments for the readers?
I would like to thank everyone for reading this
interview, our music from the first CD and the promotional demo “Baphomental
Affliction” is currently free for download on
www.bandcamp.com. My YOUTUBE channel is “LawrencePAPHL”
for those of you who are interested in checking out our band’s channel along
with my instrumental solo album that I have posted up there. Also we are on
facebook @
https://www.facebook.com/shadowsinthecrypt
for those of you interested in checking out our page and lastly, the new CD
is available on the site also @
http://hpgd.comoj.com/store/hpgd048.html
for those interested in a physical copy. Thanks once again to all of our
fans and friends for their support, and thanks to you Patrick for the
interview. Hails from S. Philadelphia PA! \m/
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