Interview with Tales Of The Tomb done by Patrick
{Answered by Corey S.}
1.Hello how are things going in Canada this week? Please introduce yourself to the readers?
Things are going good the weather is changing, however! About to start getting really cold. Good for writing metal! We are Tales of the Tomb from Edmonton, Alberta Canada! We write about how reality is scarier then fiction and our song contents range from serial killers, aliens and conspiracy theories.
2. Tales Of The Tomb was started in 2013 when did you first meet the other members of the band?How did you all choose Tales Of The Tomb as the name of the band?
How I met the dude I started the band with, the original vocalist, was from a mutual friend inviting him to party and drink with us. The original vocalist got way too drunk and he passed out on my couch. Not knowing him too well at the time I was not letting some goofball I barely knew sleep on my couch! So the mutual friend and decided to carry his drunk ass back to his place since he only lived a couple of blocks away thankfully!
How I met Trez the current lead guitar player was from working at the same music store here in Edmonton called Axe Music. I was working in sales when he started as a guitar teacher. I actually had him join a different band I was in at the time called These Colours Don’t Run(Tales wasn't a thing yet). So when Tales needed another guitar player he was the first homie I called on since we had worked in TCDR together.
We choose the name Tales of the Tomb because we wanted something that represented what our songs were going to be about. Tales of the Tomb represented this perfectly. The stories we are retelling are those from people who have passed by extreme means. Thus we are trying to in some case bring their stories back from the grave or keep them from being forgotten.
3.Who would you say are the bands biggest influences and for the readers who have never heard the band how would you best describe the musical style?
The band's biggest influence has been the murder metal band Macabre. Tales started from Me and the original vocalist wanting to start writing metal songs for fun when we would hang out. We were listening to a lot of Macabre at the time so when we were thinking of what to write lyrics about we choose serial killers. We thought its more interesting to write about real-life situation then try to come up with fanatical extreme situations off the top of our heads. So we tried to stick to real-life or with this EP allegedly real things to write about. We like to try and be diverse with our songs and style. We mostly do have a death metal sound. There are a lot of elements of thrash in our music as well. Since Trez joined the band he has also brought an awesome tech sound to the band which is present in Dyatlov Pass Incident and The Nightmare Hall. Which were the first songs Trez contributed too since the other songs we actually have written a while back some alongside the songs of our first EP.
4.Volume Two:Mendacium is the bands newest EP.how long did it take the band to write the music for the new release? How long would you say it usually takes to complete one song?
It took us a long time to finish everything for the EP. As mentioned in the last response songs like Faul, Mermaid in a manhole, 911, and Sinful Messiah were written early on when the band started. Before we even decided to have a conspiracy based EP. We decided to write Dyatlov Pass and Nightmare after thinking of a common theme for the songs we had which we were conspiracy theories and wanted to write a couple more songs based on that to have a longer EP for this release.
Every song is different some songs come together quickly and others take what seems like forever to finish. The intro and outro riff on Mermaid in a Manhole, the EP bonus track, was actually a riff we had for a while, months or maybe even like a year before we finally stuck with other riffs we came up with to go along with that one riff. 911 we finished quite quickly though. We were invited to play the final show of a local thrash band in Edmonton called Villinizer. They were a “terrorist metal” group that had songs about such matters. So we wanted to have a more thrash song to play for that show and since Villinizer had songs like “Twin Tower Two-Step” so we thought 911 would be a good topic for the song we were working on for that show.
5.Who usually handles writing the lyrics for the music and what are some of the subjects written about on Volume Two:Mendacium ? Which usually comes first the music or the lyrics?
The music will usually come first. Every member of the band has had some influence or say on the lyrics we write. I would probably say that there still isn’t just one person only working on the lyrics. Trez and I being guitar players we will usually write guitar riffs ourselves then bring them to practice and try to mash them together. The same goes for lyrics but I find that we usually have to push ourselves to sit down to write lyrics being guitar players after all.
The overall theme of this new Ep is conspiracy theories. That is why we choose the Latin word Mendacium for the title. Which translates from Latin to falsehood or to be told an untruth or lie. Some of the songs on the Ep range from standoffs between cult leaders and the ATF, the terrorist attack on New York (911), and even the rumor that Paul Macartney died in the ’60s and was replaced with a look-alike.
6.Besides the Volume Two:Mendacium release are the bands previous releases still available to purchase? Other then physical releases does the band have any other merchandise available for the readers if yes what is available and where can the readers buy it?
Yes our first ep Volume One: Morpas is available for digital download on our band camp. We have no physicals left for that one atm. We do have a range of other merchandise people can purchase off our band camp from shirts, patches, posters, pins, and stickers. We also released a guitar tab book for the new EP which you can order off the Bandcamp.
https://talesofthetomb.bandcamp.com/
7.Does the band get to play live very often or do you prefer working in the studio?What have been some of the bands most memorable shows over the years?
Not so much anymore as we only have two members. It's a long term goal to find members and start playing again. So right now we are just a studio band or “internet” band for lack of a better term.
The most memorable show for the band would have to be opening for the band that started it all. We were lucky enough to open for Macabre in one of the best venues in the city called The Starlite Room. That was an epic night for us.
8.Are their any tours or shows planned in support of the new release? If yes where will the band be playing and who are some bands you will be sharing the stage with?
No tours planned sadly. We do have an album release show going on Nov 30 in our home town of Edmonton. We are doing a dual CD release show with another awesome band from Calgary called Third Chamber. The headliner for the show is the massive death metal entity Eye of Horus from Edmonton, as well as some other local heavy hitters Bram Stem(Edmonton) and Murk(Calgary).
9.What does Underground Metal mean to you?
Underground metal is our life! Thats, why I work in a music store here in Edmonton. Trez is also a guitar teacher in Camerose where he lives. Music is our life and Trez and I have worked hard to make sure that our lives are constantly enveloped in music. We both have tried to choose career paths that will allow us to focus on music with the amount of attention when want to give it. It's hard to justify to your boss taking 2 weeks off to tour when your work for Safeway or BMO lol. So to answer that question underground metal is everything to us. I couldn’t imagine what we would be doing if we didn’t pick up guitars.
10. Tales Of The Tomb comes out of the Canadian death metal scene what is your opinion of the death metal scene in Canada over the years?
Canada has a great metal scene. Especially here in Alberta, there are tons of awesome diverse bands that are all full of awesome people. Which can kinda make it hard to find players who are not currently in 4 bands to get to join your band!
11.Who are your all-time favorite bands coming out of the Canadian metal scene? And are their any new bands you feel the readers should check out soon?
Some of the awesome bands from our local that the readers should check out are Protosequence, Valyria, Culled, Begrime Exemious, Idoltry, Eye of Horus and Infinitee to name a few. Some of the bands that we don’t share a hometown with that we really enjoy are Resurgence, Becomes Astral, Afterearth, Dayone. There's really too many to name them all!
12.When you need to take a break from working on new music or band business what do you like to do in your free time?
I'm pretty into shredding video games, I'm a huge fan of the games Borderlands and Bloodborne. If anyone reading this knows the image and theme of that game is metal as fuck! When Trez isn’t shredding his fretboard off or learning some Japanese or weird-ass guitar scale he works on RC cars tweaking them so they shred rubber on the road.
13.Besides working in Tales Of The Tomb do any of the members currently play in any other bands or solo projects? If yes please tell the readers a little about them?
Yes, Trez has a really cool electronic Dent project called Infinitee where he rips some 8 string guitar madness. Do check it out!
https://www.facebook.com/InfiniteeBand/
14.Thank you for taking the time to fill this interview out do you have any final comments for the readers?
Thanks for the interview and thanks for reading and checking out our band! To keep updated with us, follow us on facebook or Instagram!
Band Contacts
https://www.facebook.com/talesofthetomb/
https://talesofthetomb.bandcamp.com/releases
https://twitter.com/talesofthetomb
https://www.instagram.com/talesofthetomb/
