Interviews

No Zodiac Interview with Rolo

Published

7 years ago

June 15, 2017

Interview with Rolo from No Zodiac

Interviewed By: George Archibald

Metal band No Zodiac has been churning songs out 2009. Since forming, the band has gone through several lineup changes and even moving its base of operations to Arizona. The band just released its newest album Alters of Impurity and hit the road supporting Oceano, Slaughter to Prevail, and Aversions Crown. I got to talk to vocalist Rolo, to learn more about No Zodiac, and how the band has evolved since its beginnings.

GA: Let’s start off with a little background on the band, I seen the band was originally Chicago based and now have moved to Arizona.
RO: Yes, our members are from all over; one from Chicago, one from Los Angeles, and one is from Wisconsin. Everyone lives in Arizona now, so we can be together. We started off playing only hardcore shows up to a year ago when we toured with Fit for an Autopsy. Then we branched more into the metal scene. Our new album Alters of Impurity just dropped 2 weeks ago, with Siege Music from the UK. We went the direction of doing more death metal, so that we could do the metal tours as well. We are looking to broaden our range to get out to more people. To add, we are going to be in Europe after this tour for a month with Malevolence.

GA: Being you just dropped an album, most bands mention the importance of album sales. How much does albums sale, and the numbers game effect your band?
RO: Honestly, I don’t know. Out of every album we have dropped, I don’t think we have ever known as far as album sales are going. We let the label handle that part. It’s cool because they pay us, and send us checks for our music. I don’t think we will ever really know how many albums we actually moved.

GA: The band has been around for several years since 2009, how have you kept it together all this time?
RO: Our drummer Erik, is the only original member of No Zodiac. He is the reason this has kept going. I am their 3^rd vocalist, and I have been in the band for 2 years now. We try to look at the band more as a business now. It’s still fun, and we do this for fun, but when you decide to travel the world together you must have the right mentality for it. We like to be able to play the music we want to and travel, and hang out with our friends, so it has worked out for us. We just want to party all over the world, that is what we are trying to do.

GA: What is one of those touring essentials for you, a must every time you go out on the road?
RO: You have to have baby wipes, because everybody fucking smells. So, you use baby wipes, and wipe your ass and your balls, so you can smell good so all your friends don’t tell you, you smell like shit.

GA: Since you are out supporting a new album, any favorite stops for the band when touring?
RO: Ohio is crazy! Ohio has always done really good for us. East coast… we played an off show in Albany, NY and the kids there are insane! We played and people just beat the shit out of each other. The smallest kid will be out there pitting so hard, it will blow your fucking mind. New York, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, that whole area is insane for us. Shout out to Unit 731!

GA: Talking about the hardcore scene, how do you like the Boston area?
RO: Oh, it’s fucking insane. People think they know violent, and people think they see violent on tours like this, they have never seen violent till you go there. I’m a big guy, and I go, “I’m just going to chill back here and watch.” The east coast is insane.

GA: What is some of the equipment the band uses?
RO: My guitar player is using a Randall amp for this tour. We use Peavey cabinets. My bass player is using Ampeg. Our drummer is sponsored by Spaun Drums, so he has been using their brand kit. I use Shure microphones, I bring my own mic because fuck getting everyone’s spit in my mouth.

GA: You touched upon going to Europe after this tour, is there anything else in the works?
RO: We are writing a new album right now. I know we just dropped one, but that was just a taste of what we are trying to do. This next album we are taking our time, and work on it. Then we are going to go to Will Putney from Fit for an Autopsy and he is going to record this new record. We are hoping to have it out by spring of next year.

I want to thank Rolo for his time, I wish you well on tour, and looking forward to hearing that new album when it drops next year. You can keep up with the band through their Facebook Page for all updates. Make sure you check out a copy of Alters of Impurity in music stores near you and streaming online.

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George Archibald

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH MERCURY OF PRIEST

Published

3 weeks ago

April 23, 2024

Ron

Empire Extreme got to sit down and talk to Mercury of Priest when the band came into PA at LoveDrafts.

The show was amazing all the bands that we seen put on a great show for the fans. Vampires Everywhere killed it once again. Last time we seen Priest we only got to see them open for Powerman5000 and got like 6 songs, this time Priest was headlining and we got to see much more which I was excited to see.

Priest played a good mix of old and new and even a few songs off the album “Dark Pulse” which is out in May. We got to see 13 songs played and even Mercury come out into the crowd a few times and when they played “Obey” even blessed some of the crowd. It was great hearing songs like “BlackListed”, “Signal in the Noise”, “History in Black” and “Vaudeville”. It was such a great night of music and a great conversation with Mercury. If you get a chance to see this band play in ur town, it’s a must

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 OF VIRTUE

Published

2 months ago

March 4, 2024

Ron

Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.

How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.

How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!

If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.

Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.

What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!

If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!

About Author

Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE

Published

3 months ago

February 16, 2024

Ron

Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?

We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell.

What’s your favorite horror movie?

That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.

Favorite Non Horror Movie?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…

What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?

We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything.

If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?

We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs.

If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?

The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.

What has been your Favorite Tour so far?

The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.

You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?

It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters.

What was it like Touring with Danzig?

Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with.

How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?

Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.

What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?

We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music.

Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?

No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan.

Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?

No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know… but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”. Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.