Band: Leper Lord
Genre: Black Metal
Location:Winchester, VA
Influences: Bathory, Watain, Sargeist , Gorgoroth, Behexen
Website:
Interview with: Vermin (lead vocals)
Interview Through Email:
Not a lot of people really listen to Black Metal, so if some one is trying to start listening to Black Metal what advice would you give them? "Black Metal has become a pretty wide spectrum over the years. Some people like one sub-genre over another and some like certain eras. You really have to just read up on the genre's history and legacy and find the bands and albums that do it for you, y'know. I personally can be a bit picky when it comes to Black Metal, I can really name only 15 bands that I feel got it right in both a musical and atmospheric sense. But that's just me. There are, sadly, a fuck-ton of posers in this genre too, and some of them have been quite successful with what they do. But I guess everyone has to have some cake to eat."
When you went to record Altar of Embers, what was the mind set of the band and what was the bands goal with Altar of Embers? "Well, originally the EP was supposed to be a rough demo and Leper Lord was just going to be a short-lived side project. We actually had no intentions of playing a lot of shows or even making a follow up to "Altar of Embers" (Which is actually what we are working on currently). It was just going to be this one time only thing. But over time we started writing more songs, started to understand the genre at an even deeper level, started playing some shows and realized that we enjoyed it all too much for it to be as short-lived as we had originally planned. When we went into the studio to record this, we just wanted to make the best CD we could. A CD that WE would listen to. We don't care if some critic says "Oh this isn't mixed right" or "Why aren't there any keyboards". Erm... Where you there? Are you in the band? Did you write any of the music? We do this for ourselves and for the people who support it, and we think "Altar of Embers" came out pretty good."
In Forbidden Magazine the writer gave you guys and pretty positive review. How does that make you feel that some one actually likes and supports you music? "That was a pretty positive review. Whenever I hear that someone understands, supports, and appreciates what we are doing, I feel very humbled. I have seen many goals realized within this band, and that review was definitely one of them."
In a comment at the bottom of the review in Forbidden Magazine someone posted "Catch Leper Lord now before they start selling out" What is you response to that comment? "Funny story actually, that was written by a close friend of mine who was just kinda kidding around. She's even listed on the "Thank You" section of the CD booklet. But that aside, we have gotten some negative feedback before. Not for the CD, but for a show we played at in Harrisonburg, December of 2010. That was probably the most negative response we ever got. We received about 3 or 4 messages from people who attended the show trying to "convert us to Christianity"... yea we all laughed hysterically at that. From what I hear people down there STILL rant about that show. Not sure how much truth is behind those statements, but hey, any press is good press I suppose. I mean any "negative" feedback we just kinda shrug off. We don't really care if someone doesn't like what we do. That's fine with us. Means we are doing our job right."
How did you come up with you name? "Our guitar player, Heathen, came up with the name for the band and originally he wanted to call it Hellghost. He said the name (Leper Lord) just kinda came to him. It wasn't until later when we found out there was an avant-garde acoustic troupe named Death in June who had a song called "Leper Lord", and a Mayhem song called "Impious Devious Leper Lord". But he really did not get the name from those songs. The glove just kind of... fit."
When you play at a show do you play all original songs or do you play a few covers? If so what overs? "We play mostly originals, but we have played a handful of covers. At our second and third shows we played two Misfits songs, "Halloween" and "Death Comes Ripping" and we honestly BUTCHERED those songs, especially "Death Comes Ripping"... Sounded more like "Death Comes Crashing Down the Stairs". There is a video recording of that awful rendition somewhere. Hope no one sees it. Anyway, recently we've had Mayhem's Deathcrush as our main closing song for our sets, and on occasion we'll play Freezing Moon (also from Mayhem). We have talked about playing some other covers like Slayer's "Antichrist" or Watain's "Serpents Chalice" and a handful of others, but we try to focus on playing original material in our sets."
If some one buys your album what should they expect to hear? "They should expect to hear Leper Lord. An honest translation of the dark energies that hide dormant within the four fleshy vessels named Heathen (guitar), Vermin (vocals), Bastard (bass), and Corpse (drums)."
What are your goals for this band since the band was going to be a one time thing? "I'm not sure you could truly call us a goal driven band. I mean when we started in June of 2010 we wanted to be a one time thing, but this beast has a mind of it's own and we are just grabbing onto the tail and holding on tight... and feeding it when it needs food too. What some people don't understand about us is, we really do this for ourselves and our own expression. We aren't doing this to get a Roll Royce!"
How did you get into Metal? "Well, I can't speak for everyone in the band, but, I got into metal through my aunt's record collection and the first "metal" record that I ever listened to was Ratt's self-titled EP from 1983. I remember hearing the drums at the beginning of "Sweet Cheater", then came this raunchy guitar riff and then came Stephen Pearcy and his shrill snarly voice. I must have played that album back to front 10 times that night, I was hooked! I was like, 10 or 11 years old, and even though some people would say that this next sentence isn't very "metal" of me, that album is one of the most important albums of my life. Sure it's not the heaviest thing out there, and it really isn't, but that's the album that popped my metal cherry."
What inspires the music for this band? "Satan... Yep, I pulled a Ghaal. Satan is one of the main influences in this band, as well as the unseen fifth member. Heathen is truly in a trance when these riffs are written, and they just... flow out. Like they where meant to be. Same thing with our new drummer, Corpse. He hasn't been playing the drums for very long, matter of fact, he's only been playing for a few months, and he sounds like a machine! It's gotta come from somewhere. Call it whatever you want, but there are some dark energies projected in the room when we play. Many people have told us that you can almost smell it. The music and the stage's atmosphere have to link together in our world. We do not play with out our carrion's and totems. If we just went up there in baggy clothes, swoopy hair and eye-liner like every other band out there, it wouldn't be Leper Lord. Violent Black Metal has to have the violent showcase."
We would like to thank Leper Lord of doing this interview with us. We hope these guys keep doing what the are doing for a long time.
Forbidden Magazine Review: http://forbidden-magazine.com/2012/02/leper-lord-altar-of-embers/
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