THE NWOTHM: For those who do not know who you are, can you tell us your band name, who is in the band and where you are from?

A.B: The band is called ACID BLADE. My name is Luke Lethal and I’m the guitarist, our singer is Klay Mensana, our bassist is Sci-Man, our other guitarist is Alvin Goreman and – at least temporarily – our drummer is Jonny Astus. We are based in Dresden, Germany, but our singer lives in Lübeck and our guitarist lives in Halle (Saale), so we are spread across quite a big distance.

THE NWOTHM: How did the band form and is there any interesting story surrounding its formation?

A.B: ACID BLADE is the continuation of Klay’s, Jonny’s and my project Angel Blade, which was released via Dying Victims Productions and was part of a Split with Venator. Originally we didn’t plan to continue working together after recording the Angel Blade songs, because Klay moved to Lübeck, which is seven hours away from Dresden. We both soon started missing making music with each other though, so we decided to give it a try and find bandmates for a full line-up. Sadly Jonny couldn’t join us back then, so we decided to change the name of the band. We got together late 2020/early 2021 and quickly recorded a demo in May 2021, before playing our first shows in that summer and recording our debut album in February of 2022. It was released digitally and on tape on 12th August 2022, on CD on 2nd December and on vinyl on 13th January 2023.

THE NWOTHM: Since the bands formation what big milestones have you achieved? 

A.B: None, haha. We recorded and released the album POWER DIVE to good reception, which certainly is a big thing for us. We also played a small European tour across five countries last October, together with Polish band AQUILLA. Apart from that we were part of a show on the Kings of the Underground tour by Ambush, Evil Invaders and Enforcer when we joined them (among others) for the show in Hamburg in May 2022.

THE NWOTHM: Can you tell us any fun/ interesting facts about the members of the band?

A.B: Well, of course – like in any other band – all of us have their quirks and strange characteristics, but I wouldn’t dare to name any of them here. Jonny has already played with several other bands from our area, including Steelclad, Prowler and most recently Tension, now called Firmament. Sci-Man is a descendant from a Sorbian family (a minority residing in Eastern Germany/Czech Republic) and while their culture is very Catholic, he was part of the only Sorbian Black Metal band that has existed until now.

THE NWOTHM: What bands and artists have influenced you and helped you to carve your sound?

A.B: Well, my three favourite bands are Maiden, Megadeth and Mercyful Fate and I think that’s obvious in several moments on the album. Also NWOBHM legends Satan are THE reference for our sound, which is NWOBHM-like, but a bit more aggressive.

THE NWOTHM: Can you tell us about your most recent release(s) and any background information to the music? How did the songs come about?

A.B: As mentioned, POWER DIVE was our debut album. I had the tracklist for the album in my mind since before we were founded, because I wrote parts of the songs while not having a band at all. So until now it was the most efficient way to just build on my ideas, because they were cohesive enough to build an album out of them. I usually have a “song skeleton” in my mind when we start working on a certain song, which means that I have all the riffs, the arrangement and roughly what I want each part to sound like in my head (fast drums or laid-back drums, straight bass lines or melodic bass lines etc – everyone takes care of his own parts within that certain frame though). We usually just learn the song as it is and over time everyone starts throwing in ideas where we could do variations or change arrangements. For some songs, Klay has writing credits as well, which usually means he wrote the chorus (f.e. in Ablaze at Midnight and Power Dive). Other than that, he comes up with all the vocal lines. There will be a shift in the coming years though, since all of us write songs that fit the sound of our band and we don’t have as much inner pressure to release something anymore.

THE NWOTHM: What shows have you got coming up for 2023? Any major performances you would like to highlight?

A.B: We will be playing at Heavy Metal Thunder in Pisek, CZ on 11th March. The line-up is incredible! Then we have one gig each month up until October, including one at my very favorite festival in August. But since that’s not official yet, I don’t wanna say the name.

THE NWOTHM: Any other plans for 2023? With it being a new year, what do you hope to achieve in the upcoming months?

A.B: We will record an EP in April, though I don’t think that’ll be released before early 2024 then. Also, we wanna go on tour again for a week in October. Everything else will come as we go. 

Streaming of the album is free for the first few listens, we have our merch there and upcoming gigs. Other than that, we are on Facebook and soon we’ll hopefully have control over our Instagram account again.

THE NWOTHM: is there anything else you would like to mention?

A.B: Thanks for your interest and your effort! And thanks to everyone reading and checking us out! Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, see you soon!

THE NWOTHM: Thanks again for your time and all the very best for 2023!

A.B: Thanks, the same to you!

Links:

Bandcamp: acidblade.bandcamp.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/acidblade.rock

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efad0e8pKcs&t=21s (full album)

Acid Blade – Ablaze at Midnight (Lyric Video) – YouTube 

Acid Blade – Into The Light (Official Track) – YouTube