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 »

SUNDAY SINGLES: THE 11TH HOUR, SEAR BLISS, AND MORDAX

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 082012
 

The last couple of days brought new singles from three bands that made an impression on my ear holes, so I’m collecting them here for your ear holes.

THE 11TH HOUR

I’m new to this band, but warming up to them quickly. The 11th Hour began as a Dutch/Swedish doom-metal collaboration between two dudes who were better known for their work in death metal: Ed Warby, the drummer for Gorefest, Hail of Bullets, and Ayreon/Star One, and Rogga Johansson, the man behind bands such as Paganizer, Ribspreader, The Grotesquery, and Demiurg (another Johansson/Warby collaboration). Their 2009 debut album, Burden of Grief, was a concept album about the last days of a man dying from a lung disease.

The 11th Hour now have a second album due for release by Napalm Records on January 27 (February 7 in the U.S.). It’s called Lacrima Mortis. As with Burden of Grief, Ed Warby played all the instruments on the recording and also provided the soaring clean vocals. Unfortunately, Rogga Johansson had to pull out of the recording work on this album due to a prolonged illness, but the band’s live vocalist Pim Blankenstein stepped in. Rogga is a tough act to replace, but based on what I’ve heard of the album so far, Blankenstein’s roars are fucking bottomless.

A day or two ago, Napalm released a single from Lacrima Mortis called “Bury Me”, and even better, they’ve made it available for free download at this location. It’s a fucken great song (and an Exception to the Rule around here, because it’s a mix of clean and un-clean vocals). Have a listen right after the jump (and thanks to KevinP for the tip on this one). Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 38: THE 11TH HOUR, SACRAMENT OV IMPURITY, AND ÖXXÖ XÖÖX

 Exceptions to the Rule, MISCELLANY  3 Responses »
Oct 232011
 

I know regular readers must get tired of me explaining what this MISCELLANY game is about, but amazingly, the traffic on our site continues to increase, providing further proof that there are many confused people in the world. For the benefit of new readers, therefore, I continue to explain:

We keep an ever-growing list of bands whose music we’ve never heard. The names come from many sources, including the bands themselves. Every now and then, when time permits, I randomly grab some names off the list and listen to a song or two from each one. I then babble about what I heard in these MISCELLANY posts and play the songs for you, because no one could possibly be so confused that they would just take my word for something without listening for themselves.

For this post, the names I chose were The 11th Hour (The Netherlands), Sacrament Ov Impurity (U.S.-Washington), and Öxxö Xööx (France).  Here we go:

THE 11TH HOUR

I heard about this band via an e-mail from NCS curmudgeon reader Kevin. This wasn’t quite the stab in the dark that most of my MISCELLANY picks are, because every tip Kevin has given me so far has turned out to be a winner. Also, this band has an impressive pedigree. The main man is Ed Warby, whose name you may recognize from Hail of Bullets, Demiurge, Gorefest, and many other past projects. He handles all the instruments on the recorded songs, as well as clean vox. Harsh vocals were provided on the band’s sole album by Rogga Johansson (Demiurge, Bone Gnawer, Ribspreader, and many more). So, I figured the odds were good that I was going to warm up to this music.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »