AN NCS INTERVIEW: ED WARBY (HAIL OF BULLETS, THE 11TH HOUR, AYREON)

 Interviews  6 Responses »
Mar 032014
 

(In this post our friend and well-known Eli Manning apologist KevinP interviews Ed Warby, who’s a fixture in a plethora of strong bands, including The 11th Hour, Demiurg, Ayreon, and Hail of Bullets — whose most recent album we reviewed here.)

 

K:  Now that we are about 5 months post release of Hail of Bullets’ third album, III: The Rommel Chronicles, and you’ve had some time to reflect, how do you feel about it?

E:  To be honest I haven’t listened to it in a while, but I feel good about it. It’s as good an album as we could make. Reviews were great again, the “best album yet” far outweighed any “not as good as the debut”, so that’s fine with me. When I look back I see three slightly different albums that form a cohesive body of work, pretty much the way we envisioned it when we started.

 

K:  So has the recording process changed since the last album?

E:  Dan Swanö did visit the studio this time to help set up the drum mics.  But otherwise it was done just like On Divine Winds: recorded at my place, mixed by Dan (in Germany, he’s moved).  The mixing took a few weeks and we’re constantly in touch about every detail.

 

K:  Was there any consideration of NOT using Dan this time around, just to be different?

E:  None. He did an early test mix for one song and it was dead on, so there was no reason to try something else. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ED WARBY (THE 11TH HOUR, HAIL OF BULLETS, GOREFEST)

 Interviews  3 Responses »
Mar 162012
 

(Guest writer KevinP recently conducted an interview of Dutch multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/songwriter Ed Warby, who is a member of multiple active bands, including The 11th Hour, whose 2012 album Lacrima Mortis was reviewed by Kevin here.)

Everyone knows you from Gorefest and Hail of Bullets. Tell us how The 11th Hour came to be. What was your inspiration and how long did you have this planned (if at all) before it became a reality?

I met Rogga [Johansson] on the Global Domination forums and he asked me if I’d be interested in making some doom together. Somehow this mutated into me joining Demiurg instead, but I liked the idea and started writing on my own. First song I wrote was “One Last Smoke”, which was my take on the ultimate Candlemass type riff and I was quite pleased with the result so I continued, trying different moods and ideas until I had a complete album on my hands. In the meantime I’d seen Krux live for the first time and enjoyed it so much I became even more convinced I had to pursue my doom aspirations. At that point I asked Rogga if he was still interested in participating and the rest as they say is history.
 

Was there something you felt that you needed to express, that you were not able to do with Hail of Bullets (and your other projects)?

It’s taken a while to admit this to myself, but I guess me starting The 11th Hour had a lot to do with the writing/recording of the last Gorefest album. I wrote about 3/4 of the album, but for some reason this was not to be admitted in interviews and my role was so severely downplayed I got more and more frustrated. It’s not necessary to be praised in each interview or review, but I do believe in credit where credit’s due. So if anything, I wanted to prove to myself that I could in fact write, arrange and record an entire album on my own.

Musically, I wanted to further explore my melancholy side. I sneak a sad melody into a HoB song from time to time, but too much and the other guys will hit the brakes (and rightfully so, brutality and aggression should always be the main focus for the Bullets). In doom, I’m free to write a 9-minute song with elaborate melodic sections to counter the heavy riffage and I really enjoy taking these journeys, letting the song unfurl without any restrictions. Continue reading »

THE 11TH HOUR: “LACRIMA MORTIS”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Feb 072012
 

(Today, NCS reader/commenter KevinP review Lacrima Mortis, the new album by The 11th Hour, which is being released today in the U.S. The album was written, performed, and produced by Ed Warby (Gorefest, Hail of Bullets), with harsh vocals provided by Pim Blankenstein of Officium Triste.)

I’ll admit to being a Warby Weenie.  I love Gorefest as well as Hail of Bullets, so I followed the production process of this album (via  Facebook) more than any other album before.  I was naturally excited for its release, but also a bit worried, as I had hyped it up in my mind.  Most albums never quite match my expectations and they seem like a letdown initially.  I’m happy to say this is one of those rare instances where the hype was exceeded.

What you get here is 52 minutes of doomy death metal across 7 tracks, filled with clean and harsh vocals, soulful piano melodies, along with some (dare I say) uplifting guitar riffs.  It does everything the first album did and improves upon it 10-fold.  This is the way you want a band to improve:  Stay true to their sound and keep polishing and refining.  Frankly, this album is so stunning, I have no idea where they go from here.  It will be a daunting task to follow up.

I can’t pinpoint any specific song over the others, as the entire album is so strong, everything about it just works and falls into place.  And if I sound overly “gaga” about this, I AM.  I don’t find many doomy death records you can just put on over and over again and enjoy this much. Continue reading »