FROM HELL – The Horror Show Storytellers

1. Please introduce the band to the readers of Skylight Webzine.

Greetings! We are FROM HELL. And we are here to tell you a horror story.

2. Which is the meaning behind the name of the band?

It means we’re from Hell.

3. You have a new coming out entitled RATS & RAVENS, please let us know all the details about the recordings and influences for the album.

That could be years in the writing and a book all by itself. First off, I have some new people in the lineup from the previous album. On this album, I have Wes Anderson on drums, who in my opinion, more than filled the shoes of Paul Bostaph and even squeezing out of the edges of the shoes a bit. I love how Wes chooses to play his parts. On bass, replacing Damien Sisson is Stephen Paul Goodwin, who toured for many years with Vicious Rumors. He is an amazing bass player and a road dog! He comes up with some of the best ways to tie the guitar parts to the drums. Both Stephen and Wes have musical backgrounds that extend beyond metal and it comes through in their playing and just adds a whole new element than just “tak-a-tak-a-tak-a” on drums and the bass following the guitars. Returning on guitar is Steve Smyth from Nevermore, Testament, Forbidden, also from Vicious Rumors, Dragonlord and One Machine. This time around, Steve was here for rehearsals prior to recording and added some very interesting guitar lines to many of the parts. Steve is a guitar player who can complement what you are playing in awesome ways. I always think the parts I write for the songs are good (most of them) but then, he’ll come along and just add something magical that I never conceived. And the end result is so much better than I thought possible.

Some details about the influences of the album: The first influence will always be King Diamond. King is my god in the metal world. FROM HELL may never have been conceived if not from listening to King Diamond albums. My next influences for this album would be Behemoth and At the Gates, maybe some Krisiun. Honestly, I don’t really listen to a whole lot of metal while I am writing because I want the music to come more from me and what is inside me versus what I am currently listening to. Whereas, that influence is okay, I don’t always feel like it is necessarily me. I actually listen to mostly horror movie soundtracks while I work and write. I like it because it’s like classical music without all the happy sappy bullshit you hear on the radio. That shit sucks to listen to. It’s too happy. And I’m not a normal sap like other people who might like classical music. I like the dark moody ominous atmospheres that come along with horror movies. There are some classical pieces like horror movies that I love, like the Requiems and Pavanne for a Dead Princess. Those are great pieces. Of course, they were written for dead people, so they are not going to be very upbeat pieces. The sound fills the air without distracting my train of thought and puts me in the headspace of where my story might take place. Scores like The Omen and Damien: The Omen II by Jerry Goldsmith, Hellraiser by Christopher Young, Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Wolcjek Kilar. Danny Elfman is a great composer who did Beetlejuice, Corpse Bride, Nightmare before Christmas and the Batman soundtracks. Batman isn’t horror, but those are some dark scores. And Elliot Goldenthal who did interview with a vampire. When you have listened to enough metal for the day and you just need something different that doesn’t suck, horror movie soundtracks are a great alternative.

4. Which is the concept of the lyrics?

The horror story on this album is about a witch, who lived somewhere not far from you, who steals children from the village and reanimates their corpses with rats. She sends them back to terrorize the villages and take more children. Each child she takes, she makes them her own and calls them “Lilium”.

5. How do you adjust your activities to the Covid-19 situation, any Plan B?

Well, we just don’t play right now. No real word on when we will be able to at the moment. Tours and shows were being planned, but all of that is now on hold. For the moment, it allows me to focus on letting people know about the album. Although, playing a live show would be the preferred way of letting people know about the album. Plan B is to try to find work where there is work and when things start going again, we will get back together again and play this album.

6. You recorded your album with Greg Wilkinson (High on Fire, Necrot, Autopsy), what did you learn from this collaboration?

What did I learn? Well, there’s always little things you learn with every recording, but that is pretty subjective on a minute scale I think and wouldn’t mean much to most people except anal retentive engineers and guitar players. I learned how cool some people are like Greg. I guess I could say, I learned some new and interesting ways of recording and delivering vocal lines.

7. Would you change anything (musically speaking) in your new album?

Nope.

8. Are you going to release the album in both physical and digital format?

Yes, we are.

9. Which is your opinion about the streaming services such as Spotify, Tidal, etc.?

I think the paychecks to the CEOs and upper management could be smaller and the payouts to the artists could be larger. There is plenty of money to pay artists a fair rate, but there does not appear to be any incentive for them to share. Artists just want to play and be heard and we get fractions of a penny on the dollar for our work. Overall, I appreciate that the services exist. Otherwise, how would people necessarily hear about new music. It’s just a modern version of the radio. I think Bandcamp is great! They seem to really care about the artists.

10.  What about your plans in the near future?

If things stay slow for the summer, I plan to take a small break hopefully and even start writing the concept for the next album. That’s about it for now. Thank you so much.

Band info: http://fromhell.net/