GET TO THE POINT: LIAM MILLWARD (THEOKTONY) — AND A FULL STREAM OF “LOSS”

 

(KevinP puts five questions to Liam Millward, composer/guitarist/bassist/mandolin-player/backing-vocalist of Theoktony from the UK, whose new album you can stream in full at the end of this post.)

K:  Cliff notes history lesson:  You started as Pulverized in 2001, released one album in 2002, changed the band’s name to Theoktony in 2005, released a debut album in 2008.  It’s now 2015 and you are about to release your sophomore effort, Loss, via Dissected Records.  Tell us about it.

L:  Loss was actually written a couple of years ago, its just taken a while to pull together and record. Musically, I tried to keep with the original modus operandi of Theoktony, to just write and see where it took me. I try not to restrict myself to a genre.  Lyrically, I took inspiration from recent history and tried to stay on point, deal with ‘Loss’ in general, whether that be of faith, sanity, or life.

 

K:  Who’s responsible for what on this album? (Writing, playing, producing, etc,)

L:  On vocals we have Anthony Jody Myers; drums were played by Anil Carrier; guitars, bass, mandolin and samples were all by myself.  As far as writing is concerned, all music and lyrics were written by myself, with the exception of the drums for the songs “Apostate” and “Eritrea”, which were written by Anil.  I also produced the album, so if you hate it, I guess I’m to blame.  Haha!

 

 

K:  Quite the contrary actually.  If I had to describe the album in one word, it would be PUNISHING.  If I had to describe the production, it would be JUICY.

L:  Not two words you often hear together!  But it’s quite a compliment, thank you.  It’s supposed to be relentless, it’s how extreme music should be.

 

K:  I guess this is modern-sounding death metal, which normally blows chunks, but you have somehow made me a believer.  Most of the songs also have at least a few of those HSTA moments (Holy shit, that’s awesome).  And the track, “Apostate”, which people can hear below, clearly demonstrates this.

L:  The HSTA moments are exactly what I listen to extreme music for! Those moments that make you gurn uncontrollably! I suppose I wanted to have as many of those moments as possible, but still retain some structure in the writing. Being a fan of, dare I say it, music other than metal, it’s nice to have a song and not a collection of riffs copied and pasted together for 4 mins.

 

K:  Do you realize we threw that pansy-ass tea crap in the Boston Harbor cause we like BEER here in the US of A?  Stuff that requires 5 fingers to drink with our pinkies firmly planted on the bottle/can!

L:  You couldn’t just pay your taxes could you? If anything it’s the worst atrocity America has ever committed…..ahem…..Anyway, your beer is weaker than our tea!

And we drink it in pints, not tiny cans or slim lady bottles — pints!

 

Loss will be released on June 1, 2015. Pre-order here:

http://theoktony.bandcamp.com/album/loss-2
https://www.facebook.com/pages/THEOKTONY/21570043546?fref=ts