Ares Kingdom on “Incendiary”

Kansas City death thrashers, Ares Kingdom recently unleashed their long awaited sophomore album, Incendiary, through Nuclear War Now Productions.

Beyond the Dark Horizon: Hails Alex & Chuck! What is presently going on with the band? I see you have a new album, “Incendiary”! Are you satisfied with the result?

Alex: We’re very satisfied with the results we got on our 2nd album, “Incendiary”! This one is a lot more ambitious and varied in its sound, scope, and presentation than “Return to Dust”.

Beyond the Dark Horizon: How much time did you spend arranging and recording it?

Chuck: I had sketched an outline for the music on “Incendiary” even before “Return to Dust” came out in May 2006. I spent the next 2 1/2 years writing material and the band working through it all and putting up with my Kubrickian insanity.

Alex: We recorded, mixed, and mastered it in our own Very Metal Sound studio in six months, Feb 2009 to Aug 2009.  We spent 18 months on the first album, so this is lightning fast for us!  Having your own studio is both a blessing and a curse, because you can spend as much time on an album as you want.  Spend not enough time on it, and you’ll fuck it up.  Spend too much time on it, and you’ll fuck it up! (laughs)

Beyond the Dark Horizon: What’s the main concept of “Incendiary”? And why did you choose this title?

Chuck: “Incendiary” isn’t a concept album in the traditional sense, but there are common themes between a few songs. It’s usually an anti-complacency message, framed in or inspired by historical examples. We don’t normally name releases after specific songs, unless the release is a single, but this time we thought there was great power in using a single word that evokes any number of visions.

Alex: It’s the name of the title track, which is also the shortest and to the point track on the album.  It’s simple, strong, and pure, just like Ares Kingdom!

Beyond the Dark Horizon: I personally just fucking love the artwork for “Incendiary”. Who made the artwork and what does it represent?

Chuck: Thanks. It’s called “That Liberty Shall Not Perish From the Earth” by Joseph Pennell (American, 1857-1926), and dates back to 1918, the final year of the First World War. It was used as a poster for the Fourth Liberty Loan in the USA. At the time the First World War was called “The Great War for Civilization,” and Pennell’s terrifying vision of New York City in flames, under attack from air and sea, was meant to shake Americans out of their complacency to defend civilization against those that threatened the peace of the world. We resurrect it here for a similar anti-complacency statement. The lyrics for the song “Incendiary” examine the twisted mind of an Islamic terrorist, the kind that committed the atrocity of 9/11 and transformed New York into a real-life version of this artwork. If you look closely at Pennell’s work, you see Liberty’s face blasted away, and her torch arm – holding the ‘light of liberty,’ broken and laying by the shore. Very stark, and here almost 100 years later the metaphor is as relevant as ever.

Beyond the Dark Horizon: How would you describe Ares Kingdom to someone who’s never heard your music before?

Chuck: Ares Kingdom is a band for those frustrated by the fact Slaughter Lord, Mefisto and Poison never recorded proper albums.

Alex: Ares Kingdom is the audio equivalent of an unstoppable, rust covered war machine.  If you like early Venom and Voivod, try it out!

Beyond the Dark Horizon: Ares Kingdom really kicks ass! Musically, your style is very much old school and some of your riffs display a feeling few current bands are able to express. When you compose music, do you voluntary try to sound old school, or is it natural?

Chuck: I compose music and lyrics the very same way I did in 1987, so if that’s old school, I guess its natural, ha ha.

Alex: Chuck involuntarily writes old school sounding music.  He just can’t help it!  Heh.  The curmudgeonly bastard can’t even listen to anything that came out after 1991!

Beyond the Dark Horizon: Nice! Who has written the music and lyrics? How important are the lyrics in Ares Kingdom and where do you derive the influences for them?

Chuck: I write all the music and lyrics. As the band learns the songs we may extend or shorten a riff here and there, or in the case of vocals, skip or add a line or word in order to keep the timing in line with the music, but my original words appear in the lyric sheet. For me our lyrics are as important as the music. The subject matter is either what I think or deal with things that interest me, usually with a historical perspective or origin. My writing style is influenced – or at least inspired by brilliant lyricists like Quorthon, Tom G. Warrior, Fish, Steve Hogarth, Kate Bush, and Vorphalack.

Beyond the Dark Horizon: Your 2003 EP “Chaosmongers Alive” was released on Agonia Records, but after Ares Kingdom signed with Nuclear War Now Productions. How did you get in contact with Yosuk and make the switch?

Chuck: I don’t remember how we got in contact with Yosuke, but NWN gives its bands unprecedented freedom in the creative process and backs us to the hilt by giving us the ability/responsibility to come up with the best, strongest release we can, limited only by our own imaginations. I know of no other label that gives a band such freedom.

Alex: I had met Yosuke at least twice in Chicago, during the Metalucifer and Sabbat US tours.  We released a 7″ EP on Agonia, but were never really signed to them, but had no hard feelings or problems with them either.  NWN is a great label for us!  Wait till you see the vinyl version of “Incendiary”, and tell me NWN doesn’t put out the greatest vinyl releases on earth!!!

Beyond the Dark Horizon: You have released so far 2 albums and 3 EP’s. “Return to Dust”, “Incendiary”, “Chaosmongers Alive”, “Firestorm Redemption”, “Failsafe”.
Can you tell us more about them? Are you pleased with them? What about the reactions they have received?

Chuck: We’ve had complete control over everything we’ve released so far, so we’re well pleased. Reactions are consistently positive, the strength depending on the musical frame of reference of the reviewer or commentator.

Alex: Ares Kingdom is either really appreciated or completely ignored.  There’s really no other reaction.  We’re not satanic, not a clone band, and not a gimmick band, so our appeal will always be limited, and based on our music alone.  (We also have released our “Firestorms & Chaos” CD compilation, which contains all recorded AK music that isn’t on our 2 albums.)

Beyond the Dark Horizon: How would you describe your other bands “Order From Chaos”, “Blasphemic Cruelty”?

Chuck: Order From Chaos – an enigma that is still not very well understood.

Alex: Blasphemic Cruelty – Apocalyptic satanic speed metal, retched from the rotten brain of Gene Palubicki.

Beyond the Dark Horizon: When you play live, do you try to stay close to the studio version or do you like to change things up?

Chuck: There are subtleties in studio recordings that are not reproduced live, and that’s part of the charm. If you want to hear the album at 110 db, get a louder stereo. If you want to see an hour of total chaos and mayhem, come see Ares Kingdom.

Alex: We ‘try’ to stay close to the studio version! Heh.  Effortless execution and technical perfection is not really what we’re going for here, not the point of things.  Also, one of the new songs on Incendiary (Descent of Man) has so many guitar parts in one spot, we’d need 3 or 4 guitarists to do it live!

Beyond the Dark Horizon: Which songs do you like most performing live?

Chuck: Solis Lacus, Lamentations, Firestorm Redemption, A Dream of Armageddon, Ironclad, Descent of Man, Ashen Glory, Abandon in Place, Incendiary…

Alex: The new stuff mostly right now.  But then we stop playing old songs for a while, and they become new again as well!

Beyond the Dark Horizon: How is the metal scene in Kansas City? Are there any new bands you can point out as interesting? How are your connections with other bands?

Chuck: It’s more active than ever. There are several bands from around here, usually your standard issue black metal or gore/grind nonsense, but at least there is finally a club that books a lot of metal, and even AK has increased its Chaosmonger ranks here at home…a feat OFC never really managed.

Alex: There are places to play, and local shows sometimes bring close to 100 on weekends.  Back in the OFC days, this would be unheard of.  AK continues the OFC tradition of developing in a complete vacuum and having no relations with any other local bands.

Beyond the Dark Horizon: A lot of things changed in black/death/thrash metal.. The music became overall very different from the origins. A lot of bands went different directions. What is your view on today’s black/death/thrash metal scene and overall metal scene? Any special favorite albums or bands?

Alex: I can count on my hands the number of bands that are doing anything original currently.  Everyone seems satisfied with clone bands that just copy/mix one or two classic albums/styles.  Not sure why you’d bother with them, why not just listen to the originals.  The subgenre fragmentation of all the scenes is pretty ridiculous as well.  Back in the old days, metalheads and punkers both liked Venom, Hellhammer, & Voivod.  That’s the spirit Ares Kingdom is trying to recapture, and we’ve actually gotten some good reception from the punk/crust types as well!  I’d like to mention 2 bands, one old as hell and one relatively new.  Destructor from Ohio, who put out their debut in 1985, and just put out the crushing “Forever in Leather” in 2007 are amazing live, older than us if you can believe it, and a vision of Ares Kingdom’s future: still doing their own thing untouched by anything going on around them, and musically and live wise just fucking intimidating!  And Negative Plane from New York, who put out the incredible “Et In Saecula Saeculorum” in 2006, and are working their 2nd album.  Younger guys in their 20s who’ve put out the most original thing I’ve heard in a decade, and who’s album should sit besides your Nifelheim & Sabbat albums as real “black metal”!

Beyond the Dark Horizon: When did you first get into metal? Which bands have influenced your musical taste the most?

Chuck: Must have been sometime in late 1982 when I saw Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills” video at a friend’s house, who also happened to have Maiden, Priest and Thin Lizzy albums. That was when the heavens opened for me. Bands that have influenced or inspired me in one way or another: Judas Priest, Maiden, Dio, Bathory, Slaughter Lord, Sodom, Celtic Frost, Mefisto, Marillion, Kate Bush, Metallica, Candlemass, Helloween, Gamma Ray, Voi Vod, plus guitarists like Yngwie Malmsteen, George Lynch, Warren DiMartini, Ross Robinson, Quorthon, Omar Ahmet, Vivian Campbell, John Sykes, Scott Gorham, Tipton/Downing, Murray/Smith, Hansen/Weikath, Steve Rothery, Tommy Baron, Piggy, Hanneman/King…and MANTAS.

Alex: Inheriting Black Sabbath albums when I was 14, then in high school with some likeminded guys, then meeting OFC when I was 16, and hanging out with them weekly for 6 years afterwards.  That’s when my metal education really began! Heh.  As a musician, my biggest influences are Cronos, Pete Helmkamp, & Rok.  If I can channel and mix together all 3 on stage, then I’m doing it right!

Beyond the Dark Horizon: If you could choose anyone, which bands would you like to tour with?

Chuck: Destructor, Samael, Sigh, Sodom.

Alex: Sabbat (Japan)

Beyond the Dark Horizon: What can you tell us about in the near future of Ares Kingdom, as well as of the side band you have going on?

Chuck: Ares Kingdom is my only band. Mike and I have a few dates with Order From Chaos coming up, but it’s not a permanent arrangement and there will be no new music.

Alex: It’s full steam ahead with Ares Kingdom!  We’re waiting to let this new album soak in, and looking for show and small tour opportunities.  Blasphemic Cruelty is on ice while Gene works on his Perdition Temple & Apocalypse Command projects.

Beyond the Dark Horizon: All right, thanks once again for the interview, Alex & Chuck! I appreciate it as always! All final words are yours, let it burn!

Chuck: Watch our websites www.areskingdom.com and www.myspace.com/areskingdom for up-to-the-minute news. You will also find live videos from several recent shows linked from our sites on You Tube. For downloaders, “Return to Dust” is available at www.cdbaby.com through the http://www.cdbaby.com/Search/YXJlcyBraW5nZG9t/0 link. “Incendiary” is posted there as well. We have a few “Firestorms and Chaos” shirts left, and of course “Return to Dust” CD/LPs, “Firestorm Redemption” 12” Eps.. Check it out!

Alex: Die Hard!  (Oh, and always ask yourself WWBSD – What Would Bon Scott Do?)