Interviews

Interview with Ryan Morgan of Misery Signals

Published

6 years ago

August 7, 2020

Since 2002 Misery Signals have been at the forefront of metalcore. 2004’s Of Malice and the Magnum Heart is still a staple to every metalcore listener to this day. The band has seen its ups and downs over the years but still tried and true the band is back with a new album, Ultraviolet releasing on August 7^th. The band has also released a video alongside the single for the song ‘River King’, which is our first glimpse of the forthcoming album. I was fortunate to speak with founding member and lead guitarist Ryan Morgan to learn more about the album, and what the band has been doing in the Covid-19 world.

GA: It has been 7 years since Absent Light was released, and now the band is set to debut your newest album Utraviolet on August 7th. What was the process behind making the album? It must be exciting to have everyone back together for this album.

RM: We are super excited to have the old crew back, it is the same group from our very first record. We have not been in a situation that we have writing stuff together since that first record, so it’s kind of a homecoming for the band. We are super stoked to have put the album together. It has been a bit of a long process in the amount time it has taken to come out with since our last album, but that was an outcome of where everyone is now in life, and the dynamic of the group. We are all a bit older; we have more responsibilities now; the guys are dividing their time between musical projects and their daily jobs now. Its kind of a new look with the old team, but it is an awesome thing.

GA: Can you tell what your writing process was behind writing and working into creating an album? I am a fellow guitar player, and you have some killer grooves on the album, especially on ‘River King’ and ‘Through Vales of Fire.’

RM: I always start with a guitar in my hands, as that is my thinking instrument. It helps me to follow ideas better because I can follow along in real time. The process for me is trying out what feels good in my hands when I am riffing, and that will be the starting point as for guitar riffs. I am looking for things that make me respond; emotionally or move me physically. So, it is a good sign when riffing if I can feel my body rocking. I try to pay attention to stuff that gives me that sensation, that I can move along to this. It helps me to stand up and turn an amp up when I am in that phase, I am just going from zero to a riff. I will go through a bunch of riffs when writing and video tape myself playing it so I can come back to it. I can go through and point out the things I was excited about when playing, and if I am still excited about it when I come back to it then its worth flushing out. Sometimes it will feel like I am on to something, a riff or progression, and when I come back to it, it does not hold up. So, the criteria for me is it has to stay exciting to me on reflection not just on the initial. Once I have a couple of those parts, we will start jamming on them as a band and deciding what we want to do with those. That is kind of how it all works with us and song writing.

GA: I watched a few older interviews of the band in preparing for our interview. In one, you were talking about being hands on and producing parts of your last album. How hands on were you this time on Ultraviolet outside of performing?

RM: Much less this time around, I still recorded some of the guitars on my own in my studio. The vast majority of the album was done with other producers, and I am really glad that we did it that way. It put me in a different seat mentally as far as creating the record. It is cool to produce your own stuff, but there are so many considerations and decisions being made at different times, that it takes a lot of bandwidth to do writing and recording and producing. It was nice to have a bunch of badasspeople doing those jobs along with me this time.

GA: Who else did you work with to put together the album?

RM: There were several producers who were involved: we had Tim Creviston who is kind of a up and coming producer out of Vancouver BC. He worked with us on the guitars and bass, he has produced for a bunch of Vancouver bands. I kind of forecast him to be the ‘man’ soon that everyone is going to want to go to, to work with. Look for Tim Creviston because he is awesome! We worked with Devin Townsend a tiny bit; we have recorded with him in the past. We worked with him on the vocals mostly. He has fully produced two of our records, and he is also amazing. Our schedules unfortunately did not line up, so we did not get to work with him more. We also worked with Pat Bayless out of Seattle, who is a classic producer who has done things for many years. He has worked with Isis, Minus the Bear, Obituary, and Botch; he came up in the hey day of grunge and worked with a lot of Seattle bands back in the day, he evenassisted on a few Pearl Jam albums. We recorded our drums at Stone Gossard, Pearl Jam’s guitarists studio which was really cool. We also had my good friend Greg Thomas from Silver Bullet Studios, who was a member of Misery Signals on the last album and helped produce Absent Light. He helped us finish out the record, finishing up on vocals and mixing which he did with his partner Teddy. It was a long cast of characters, but it was a lot of talented people who all added their own little bits to Ultraviolet. I do not know if that is the right way to go about things, but there were all these people we were excited about to include in the process. It pulled us in a lot of directions, and I am unsure if we would do another record like this, but it made for some really cool results.

GA: What gear are you currently using?

RM: I have always been a 5150 guy at heart, so my Peavey amps have always been the basis of my live playing. There are a bunch of amps I like for studio tones, but live I keep falling back to the Peavey. I have a couple different guitars I am excited about right now. I have been with PRS (Paul Reed Smith) as an endorsee for awhile now, they make some of the most awesome crafted guitars out there. I cannot say enough good things about the company, my custom 24 PRS is like the perfect instrument. I am excited about a new guitar I just got. I used one of their guitars for recording a little bit on the album. It is a guitar from Mobius Guitars, they are a small company out of San Francisco. They make a lot of 7 and 8 string fan fret guitars, which are sweet, but I am more of a traditional player. I happen to be friends with the guy that runs the company and he made me a 6 string that was a little more laid back. It is an amazing piece of craftsmanship. It has some wild pickups in it, they are Oil City Pickups boutique pickups made in the UK. I can get some interesting sounds out of them; you can make them really aggressive and over the top if you really push them. Oil City Pickups are worth looking into and listening to.

GA: What are your thoughts on the current state of music in the Covid – 19 world? I am loving that bands are being creative and are releasing new material, but I am jonesingfor some shows.

RM: It definitely presents a challenge for artists to do interesting things. Since we cannot play shows I have seen a lot of people putting out live streams, and videos. Some of the video content they are putting out is split screen, so that you can see all the members of the band and see all the layers performing at the same time have been really cool. It is kind of nice to see people are shifting and adapting to that challenge, but it is hard to fill that void of a live performances. Without live performances it has been tough, especially economically for bands. It is tough to replace that stream of income becausetouring is an essential part of being able to make any money as a musician. It is interesting to see how we reboot back from all of this. There is a part of me that is a little happy to stay home, because I would be on tour right now if we weren’t shut down. It is bittersweet, I love touring, but it is a lot of work. I would be out there putting pressure on myself because we would have to be touring since we put all this time into the new record; but I am kind of dodging that since we can’t tour. I hope people don’t take this the wrong way when they hear me say this: I want to play songs but it is a little bit of a relief to put aside the things about touring that are difficult, and that are increasing difficult as an adult right now. I get to have a little time after the album dropping to regroup and be ready for when we get the green light to hit the road again, and I am looking forward to it when it gets here.

GA: Misery Signals have been a band since 2002, as one of the tenured metal core bands, what are your thoughts of where the genre is now, and what do you think could be the next evolution?

RM: I am not sure, and to be fair I am not up on all of what the genre is doing currently, as I was when I was touring with all the bands. This is because I got to meet everyone and see everyone while playing live. We would be at festivals and get to see every sick band that is out, and I am just not right now; we have Covid, on top of we are touring less these days, regardless if touring was a thing going on right now. I would be remiss if I thought I was a good person to gauge what is going on in the genre right now. I do hear bands that are exciting all the time. I really like the ease of how a cool sounding album can now be produced currently. I think it opens up a lot of creativity for people, because they don’t have to have a big budget to make a cool sounding record. You don’t have to have a big budget to get music released either. So, it is cool to see that there are some of the economic barriers being taken out of the mix.

GA: Your band and my band both share a dynamic: the fact that you play with your brother in the band, my band has a set of brothers in it as well. What is it like for you to continue working with Branden and creating music after all these years? It has to be somewhat surreal after all this time.

RM: It has been the best. I love playing with Branden, he is a super dedicated musician. I am inspired by him all the time; he puts so much time into his craft, it is humbling. The fact that he is my literal brother and I grew up making noise with him all my formative musical endeavors are with him. I could only imagine doing a band without him, because playing with him is all I have ever done, and it just seems right. I know some people have difficult relationships with their brother/s, but he and I are so easy going that we don’t have that complex of a relationship, it is all just good vibes. So, it is the best.

GA: What are the future plans for Misery Signals, have you guys thought about planning out a late 2020 or even 2021 schedule yet?

RM: All our touring plans that were for the release of the album have been pushed back to the end of this year. They are still scheduled for that, but there are some thoughts about if touring will be back by that point or if we will have to move them again. Tentatively we are set to tour at the end of this year, and if not, we will be touring once we can. Outside of that it is kind of hard to say, we are a couple weeks out from the album release at the time of this interview, and it has been impossible to see the peak of that mountain. It feels like I have been climbing this mountain for a very long time, so I am excited for the album to be out there in the world. I am excited to be releasing the record and super stoked to be playing these songs out live because I think it is going to be a rewarding experience.

Be sure to check out Misery Signals new album Ultraviolet when it drops on Friday August 7^th. It will be available on all major streaming platforms. For more news on the band please follow them on Facebook and Instagram for all updates to touring scheduling and promotional drops.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiserySignals/

Instagram: @miserysignals

Twitter: @miserysignals

About Author

George Archibald

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Interviews

EIHWAR COME TO BALTIMORE TO BRING THE VIKING WAR TRANCE

Published

6 days ago

August 20, 2026

Ron

IVE BEEN SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THE UPCOMING TOUR FOR EIHWAR. I FOUND THEM ON THE INTERNET AND THEY BLEW ME AWAY WITH THEIR VIKING/FOLK/PAGAN MUSIC MIXED WITH ELECTRONIC. EIHWAR WILL BE COMING TO THE RECHER IN TOWNSON MARYLAND ON AUGUST 30TH. EMPIRE EXTREME GOT TO ASK THE DUO A FEW QUESTIONS BEFORE THE SHOW.

ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT DOING YOUR FIRST AMERICAN TOUR? ANY AMERICAN THINGS OR PLACES YOU WANT TO EXPLORE?

ASRUNN: For now, I have to admit I’m still completely stunned. I’m not excited or imagining it yet at all. Right now, I feel like I’m about to go to a country that only exists in TV shows, so I’m still kind of wading through disbelief.

Once I’m actually there, though, I’ll probably start talking way too fast and way too loud, and I’ll want to go way too everywhere.

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN VIKING WAR TRANCE AS A GENRE OF MUSIC?

MARK: Viking War Trance is basically what happens when you mix Nordic folk influences, tribal rhythms, electronic music and something much more primitive and aggressive. We wanted music that makes you want to dance, fight and enter some kind of trance at the same time. So instead of trying to fit into an existing genre, we just called it Viking War Trance. And about the word “war”: it’s not a war against others, but a war against ourselves. Against our rigidity, our limiting beliefs, our fears. Victory is letting go.

WHAT CAN FANS EXPECT WHEN SEEING THE BAND LIVE?

MARK: Our concerts are much more physical than people sometimes expect from listening to the albums. We want people to dance, scream, jump, crowd surf and completely lose themselves for an hour. It’s somewhere between a concert, a rave and a pagan ritual, but with a lot of joy. “Joyful chaos” is the word that Asrunn often use.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE PLAYING HELLFEST AND WACKEN?

ASRUNN: It’s basically spending an entire hour on stage thinking, “Seriously, what the hell am I doing here? This makes absolutely no sense,” and then, the second it’s over, thinking, “Fuck, that was WAY TOO SHORT!”, hahahahaha!

In reality, it’s a mix of intense concentration and this explosion of joy inside when we manage to bring such a huge crowd into our madness with us. It’s as if, all of a sudden, we’re no longer men and women, but one human tribe, united by joy and raw energy.

HOW DO YOU FEEL THAT YOUR STYLE OF VIKING MUSIC AND IMAGE DIFFERS FROM OTHER VIKING AND FOLK METAL?

MARK: What sets us apart from folk metal is simply that we’re not metal. We don’t use distorted guitars or acoustic drums. As for pagan folk, I think the differences are pretty obvious too. Most pagan bands take a fairly ceremonial approach, resulting in atmospheric, ambient music. Some of them are even very serious. From our point of view, seriousness is a symptom of bad digestion. We prefer to fool around.

As for the peace you find in atmospheric ritual music, we don’t know much about it. Asrunn, our leader, is nothing like a priestess in a linen dress singing with butterflies in the forest. She’s living anger. Our music is joyful and brutal, primitive techno made to dance to until the end of the night.

The biggest difference is also, and perhaps above all, harmonic, in the musicological sense. With ancient instruments, it’s difficult to modulate frequently or to play every note in every octave. We use machines, and that gives us much more freedom to create melodies and chord progressions that evolve constantly and are far more pop-oriented than ancient instruments would normally allow.

DREAM TOUR: YOU CAN GO ON TOUR WITH ANY 2 OTHER BANDS, WHO DO YOU CHOOSE?

ASRUNN: MmmmdzgebhfugzFDBZueisfg that’s WAY too hard to choooooose HAAAAA! I’d say……….. NIN and… well, Sofia Isella, lately. She’s tooooooo good to be true.

MARK: The Prodigy and Peter Gabriel

FAVORITE GAME OF THRONES CHARACTER?

MARK: Don’t know, but I like the soundtrack.

ASRUNN: Bree Van De Kamp.

IF YOU COULD RESURRECT ONE HISTORIC VIKING WHO WOULD IT BE?

MARK: Honestly, my memories from that time aren’t clear enough for me to really know. But I was very fond of the monk Eadwig of Durham, and I’d be curious — and happy — to see him again.

ASRUNN: Lagertha, to prove to Mark that he’s wrong when he says she had bigger boobs than me.

IF YOU HAVEN’T BOUGHT UR TICKETS YET GET THEM HERE

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH KURT DEIMER

Published

4 months ago

May 8, 2026

Ron

EMPIRE EXTREME GOT TO INTERVIEW KURT DEIMER ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM “A GROG IS BORN” HIM WORKING WITH GEOFF TATE AND JOSH TODD AND BEING KILLED BY MICHAEL MEYERS AND HORROR MOVIES

About Author

Ron

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Empire Interviews

Inferious—Interview

Published

4 months ago

May 5, 2026

Josh Drespling

by Josh Drespling

I was at Preserving Underground to cover Filth and Resistor. I was all set with my photo pass and cameras at the ready. And then this young band exploded onto the stage. No grand entrance, no intro music, no flashy lights—just a wall of noise from the first guitar chord and a guttural growl that seemed to come from somewhere below the floorboards. I was blown away. Thoroughly impressed.

This band was Inferious, out of Dayton, Ohio. If you look up the word “inferious,” most dictionaries will tell you it means something low-status, submissive, or fit for sacrifice. But this Ohio metalcore outfit Inferious has spent the last several years proving that definition couldn’t be more wrong. Tonight in the basement of a converted church, Inferious delivered raw, sweat-soaked fury to all who were smart enough to show up early.

Before their set was even half over, I made up my mind that I had to talk to them and let our readers know about this band. Here is how it went:

Empire: This was the first time I have ever seen you guys. I’ve heard your name before but never had the chance to listen. The show tonight was freaking awesome. I loved it from the first few notes. The vocals and the guitar tone just hit ya right in the chest.

Since I am a new fan, can you give me the nickel tour of how you came together and I understand you are from Dayton, Ohio.

Shaun O’Shaughnessy – Guitarist: I live in Dayton, and the original band members all formed in Dayton, but it was kind of a collage of multiple band folks. People from the southwest Ohio area. Gabe [McQueen – vocals] and I were there at the beginning, and then through some line-up changes, this is our current and most solid touring line-up so far with Cody and Kyle. They also are from the area and have been in several bands. So they were always in the same circles, at the same shows, talking to the same people. It all worked out one day.

Empire: Given that, it seems like there is a healthy music scene in Dayton. Are there any good clubs, any fields to play in?

Shaun: It’s hard to say Dayton, Ohio, specifically so much as just southwest Ohio because of the way that Dayton, Columbus, and Cincinnati form like a little triangle. You’re only an hour apart from each other. So we can get into that larger music scene pretty easily. So Dayton itself has venues, but the whole collective area has stuff. There’s some house venues, like Gnome House, there’s Bob’s, but then Cincinnati has Madison Live, and Design Collective [DSGN CLLCTV] was doing shows for a while, but I think they got in trouble.
Cody: Yeah, it some code stuff.

Empire: I think there are a couple decent places in Akron, and even across the border is Huntington, WV?

Shaun: Yeah, that area still does have sick stuff. It’s just farther away from our personal local scene. Cleveland is kind of separate from us too.

Cody: That’s not necessarily our scene, but there is such a good underground local scene from the Huntington / Athens / Charleston area. Shout to Feverwar.

Shaun: We were just at the Grog Shop [outside Cleveland].

Cody: We were at the New Foundry not too long ago.

Empire: Oh, yeah, like upstairs?

Shaun: No, it is Foundry’s new location.

Empire: I’ve not been there.

Shaun: It looks basically like the old one, but it’s new.

Empire: You mentioned the Grog Shop. Were you guys there with Filth and Resistor?

Shaun: Yeah, we’ve been on tour with Filth and Resistor. The first half of the tour had Two-Piece on it; we missed them, but now Mono’s [Monochromatic Black] on for the second half, and they’re homies.

Gabe and I toured with them in Inferious a couple years ago with band called AMTAE, and Monochromatic Black. So, those are long-time homies as well. So, we’ve known Tanya [Elizabeth (Beickert) – Vocals] and Eddie [DeCesare – Drums] for a long time, and Pierce [Akers – Guitar] is our new best friend as well.

Empire: So, it’s just like a big hang for you guys.

Shaun: Yeah, all the homies are back. We’ve toured with Filth before too; we were out with them on the Oceano tour, and then actually a year ago, I think like right now, like today a year ago, we toured with Filth also. So, it’s Filth and Oceano, and then Filth again.

So, it’s been fun to have a full circle of friend hangs, and every night’s been sick. The show turnouts have been amazing, and then just hanging out with all our friends has been amazing.

Empire: That’s part of what makes it fun. Whether you have 50 people or 1000, you have that camaraderie and shared experience.

Empire: So do you currently have an album out? Where do you guys stand with that?

Gabe: We have music out everywhere, on all music platforms: Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and YouTube Music. Shit, if you even got to rip that shit, YouTube to MP4, do it, man!

Shaun: We got your back. We got three full lengths and an EP. We are working on a new EP with a label we’re signed to that we’ll announce here soon, but that’s going to be really exciting stuff, and just stoked to be able to get that out soon.

Empire: Cool. So don’t say the label name, but your deal is in place, and then the new album in the fall, winter, spring?

Shaun: Yeah, the EP should be coming out sometime this year, if all the schedules align and everything, but that’s in the works.

Empire: Cool. Filth tour, what’s after that?

Shaun: Finishing up the EP. Record release cycle, and then hopefully touring in support of that. Whether it’s co-headlining with somebody or doing some more support stuff, we’re down for whatever. Hopefully we can fill up the rest of the year.

You know, touring is hard financially, so while we’re able to still make ends meet on the road, it’s hard to pay all the bills, so we’ve got to go home, stack our bread back up, and then be ready to go back out again.

Empire: I understand. Is this your first time in Pittsburgh?

Shaun: We’ve actually played Preserving. This is at least the fifth time.

We played the DIY room, we played this room, this orientation, we played this room when it was facing the other direction. AJ, the owner, has been good to us. He is a rad dude.

Empire: AJ is great.

Shaun: The record shop and merch store upstairs is sick, I just bought a shirt, a Never Ending Game shirt, because we have to do a laundry soon, and I bought a shirt to extend one more day to get through.

Empire: Anything you guys want to add, anything going on? Shameless plugs?

Shaun: This has been a kind of sick tour, because I think we’ve all got to see family members. Gabe’s dad dropped him off, so we got to see Gabe’s dad. We got to go get breakfast with my mom and some family, I saw my aunt. Cody’s mom let us stay at her crib, and we got to hang out with her and his family. Kyle’s family came out last night and hung out, and that was pretty sick, so it’s been a good time.

Empire: Kyle hasn’t said anything, so tell me about your family coming out and seeing the show.

Kyle: I mean, it was my sister’s first time seeing us live.

Empire: What did she have to say? I mean, I’m sure she knew the style.

Kyle: Oh, yeah, she’s conditioned to it.

Empire: She’s not like a Britney Spears fan at a hardcore show?

Kyle: No, no, she’s by far not a normie, but close to it.

Empire: Thank you, gentlemen. That’s all I have today. Appreciate it, and thanks for the show. It was great; loved it.

Shaun: See you next time.

Before that night at Preserving Underground, I’ll be honest: Inferious was just a name on a show flyer. Another opening band before the acts I actually came to see.

That’s the thing about this level of heavy music. The headliners get the lights, the longer set, and the crowd that’s already warmed up. But the openers? They get twenty-five minutes, a soundcheck that barely counts, and a room full of people who are mostly looking at their phones. Inferious didn’t just overcome that. They incinerated it.

What struck me most, sitting down with Shaun, Gabe, Cody, and Kyle after the show, was how unpretentious they were. No egos. No rock-star posturing. Just four guys from southwest Ohio who’ve been grinding in the same circles, playing the same basement venues, and slowly building something real. They talked about the small venues with the same reverence other bands reserve for stadiums. They shouted out Feverwar. They bought merch from the shop upstairs to make it through one more day on the road.

That’s the part you don’t see from the crowd. The financial grind. The van trouble. The “stack our bread back up” reality of modern touring. And yet, here they were—genuinely stoked to have seen family members at shows, genuinely grateful for AJ at Preserving keeping the doors open for underground bands, and genuinely excited about an upcoming EP they couldn’t even name the label for yet.

Inferious may have a name that suggests something low-status, something sacrificial. But after watching them level a converted church in New Kensington, and after listening to them talk about their scene with the easy confidence of people who have nothing to prove, I think the definition needs an update.

Check them out on all the streaming platforms. Catch them when they roll through your town on the next tour. And for the love of God, show up early.

You never know which opening band is going to blow your doors off.

About Author

Josh Drespling

Josh is the Publisher and creator of Empire Extreme and it’s sister publication Kingdom Extreme Magazine. He is an accomplished writer, photographer and graphic designer. He is always conjuring up new ideas and has a amazing passion for the music industry and all the things that surround it.

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