US based band By Fire and Sword driven by the minds of Jeff and Thomas have been making waves in the past year with their latest debut metal masterpiece “Glory.” Now in 2024 we joined them for an in depth about their origins, the debut album and more!

TheNwothm: Hey there can you please introduce the band and where you are from?

Jeff: Hey! We are By Fire and Sword, headquartered in Boise, Idaho, USA.

TheNwothm: Can tell us how the band initially formed and what memories you have from that period?

Jeff: In spring/summer of 2017 I had been working on a bunch of solo heavy metal music, which would eventually become our EP Freedom Will Flood All Things With Light, and I approached Thomas about helping me fill out a full band. We recruited a couple of other friends and then started by recording the EP and playing some shows around 2018 before the EP got picked by Hoove Child Records in 2019.

Thomas: I remember falling into the religious concept of the band after talking to Jeff about a bunch of different fantasy concepts we could possibly base the band around. At one point he mentioned cults. But he was approaching it with more of a dungeons and dragons aesthetic. (Think wizard robes and hoods) That conversation was a springboard for me that would eventually lead us to the aesthetic choices for BFAS.

TheNwothm: And how did you decide on the direction of your music and your style?

Jeff: The majority of the aesthetic and art direction comes from Thomas. I write 90% of the music and then I pass it off to him to fill in the vocals and lyrics. Initially I set out just to write something in the ballpark of what I like to listen to, which is a lot of power metal, what we call ‘traditional heavy metal’ today, melodic death metal, epic doom, stuff like that. When Thomas had the idea for our ‘heavy metal tent revival’, we put the two ideas together and it just kind of worked without too much massaging.

Thomas: The church stuff makes for a fun live show with a lot of different energies and dimensions to it. That was a big part of my initial thought process when making aesthetic choices about the band..  Also, we use a lot of harmonies and big sing along choruses that I like to think enhance that live experience. The music is built from the ground up to get you singing along and interacting.  

TheNwothm: Heavy metal seems to be pretty big in the States with there being so many quality bands! Who do you take influence from and what bands would you say are ones to watch out for?

Jeff: It’s definitely been a force the last handful of years with the explosion of a lot of great bands! For American bands, we’re big into Visigoth, Greyhawk, Owlbear, Solicitor, Blood Star, Silver Talon, Crypt Sermon, Throne of Iron, Morgul Blade. We have the great fortune to be No Remorse label mates with a handful of those bands. For bands world-wide, definitely keep an eye on Glyph, Gatekeeper, Spell, Smoulder, Tower Hill. All of those bands rock. 

TheNwothm: Are there any specific themes or messages you aim to convey through your lyrics, and how do you approach storytelling in your music?

Thomas: Both our EP and Glory function as sermons given by the most honorable reverend Tim Tom Jones. Who runs a fictional apocalyptic christian cult.  Both can be listened to as concept albums that define and explore the church’s worldview. Glory takes concepts established on the initial EP and expands upon them.

TheNwothm: Let’s talk about Your first EP from 2019 called “Freedom Will Flood All Floods With Light.” What can you tell about the 5 track EP and do you have any favourite songs from that release?

Jeff: My favourite track off the EP is ‘Testify’. I think it’s fun, has a good singalong quality, and it was one of the first songs I wrote for the band. I think they’re all good, but that one is my favourite. The EP was a really great learning experience as far as songwriting and recording and I think it shaped a lot of what we’ve chosen to do moving forward. We downsized the band quite a bit shortly after it came out and the pandemic hit, so it was a bit of a crash course in how to ‘do the damn thing’, as they say. 

Thomas: I’d say a Diligent Hand is my favourite track off the EP. It has a mid tempo swing to it that I really appreciate.

TheNwothm: Outside of creating music what interests do you guys have? Anything unique or unusual?

Jeff: I don’t know if any of it’s unusual, though it’d be more interesting if it was. I read a lot, game occasionally and also split a lot of my time with my other project, Weald & Woe, which is a medieval themed melodic black metal project, which we abbreviate as being ‘castle metal.’ All of that paired with trying to be a good husband and fur dad keeps me pretty busy. 

Thomas: I love love movies and live theatre.  I make most of the video content for BFAS which has been a blast.

TheNwothm: For a bit of fun I would like to know that If heavy metal had its own currency, what would be the face on the highest denomination bill featuring your band?

Jeff: I firmly believe that The Reverend would be the face on all of the bills, just with different expressions. Stern for the $20, cheeky for the $50, proud for the $100. Something like that. He might let Brother Jeffrey be on some of the coinage.

Thomas: Maybe there’s a little brother Jeffrey hidden on some of the smaller bills.

TheNwothm: If you could collaborate with any artist, living or dead, outside of the heavy metal genre, who would it be and why?

Jeff: I would pick Mozart. In high school and early into college when I was first learning music history and theory I was fascinated by Mozart, and still am to a large extent. In my brain, Mozart is the classical music version of Dragonforce. It’s ornate and beautiful and bombastic and it resonates with me. ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’ is a boring choice for a favorite, but it is, and I’m also big into the ‘Requiem’ pieces and the Turkish Rondo. It’s fun! 

Thomas: Phillip Glass comes to mind. Brian Eno is another one.  I’m a real sucker for minimalist and ambient music. It’d be sick to do something with a great doom band like Boris. Something like Scott Walker did with Sun 0))) a few years back.

TheNwothm: Many bands either struggled throughout the pandemic or found it to be a period where they highly productive. How did it affect the band?

Jeff: The pandemic was initially a big bummer because it canceled a tour for us and a festival appearance and some other things we had lined up, so none of that was any fun. We also downsized the band down to Thomas and myself as the creative force, so that was also uncomfortable for a little bit. But, this was also when No Remorse approached us to join the label and I wrote pretty much the entirety of the music for Glory between March and June in 2020. I really used that time to buckle down and just write and record demos. It was a lot of work but we were all stuck at home anyways.

Thomas: it really slowed me down, having to write and record in essential isolation.  It definitely work better creating in a group.

TheNwothm: Your debut album “Glory” came out in September! What can you tell us about the writing and recording process of the record and do you each have any songs that you are particularly fond of?

Jeff: I talked a bit about the writing process above, but after everything was demoed out and the music was written, I sent it all to Thomas and flushed out the themes and lyrics and wrote all of the vocal parts. Those are the best parts of the album, in my opinion. We connected with a dear friend and producer, Jeff Black, to mix the album and work with us throughout the process, which we were thrilled with. Recording the album actually took quite a long time, as we were all working remotely from each other: myself in Boise, Thomas in Kansas City and Jeff up in Vancouver.

I recorded all the instruments in Boise during June/July of 2021 and then Thomas worked on his end for about a year, and we had final mixes for No Remorse in October of 2022. It took a long time, a lot of back and forth, but we learned a lot and having Jeff to keep us on track and provide his opinions and expertise were invaluable to us. My favorite songs off the album are “Glory, Love and Light” and “The Flood”. I didn’t really intend to put a ‘ballad’ on the album (if you can call it that) but once we heard the first mixes with all of Thomas’ vocals, I was sold on that song completely.

TheNwothm: What is the story behind the albums artwork and who created it for the band?

Jeff: The painting for the cover was done by a Polish artist, Andrzej Masianis, and he absolutely nailed it. It was not anything like I had envisioned for the album, but he really captured that “standing in the awesome face of glory and knowledge” vibe.

TheNwothm: Looking back at 2023 how do you feel about the last 12 months?

Jeff: This year was a lot of anticipation as far as waiting for the album to get announced and then actually come out, but it was all worth it! The response to the album has been overwhelming and tremendous and we are so grateful to everyone who has shared a kind word with us or picked up a copy. It’s so cool to see so many people be interested in our weird little band.

Thomas: it’s been fun interacting with so many people who listened to us for the first time.  It feels like we’ve been beefing up our little community which is wonderful.

TheNwothm: And looking forward do you have any plans to tour in 2024?

Jeff: We’d like to get out and do some dates, but there aren’t any current plans to tour at the moment.

TheNwothm: Where can fans buy your music and merch?

Jeff: Fans can pick up physical copies of ‘Glory’ and merch from us at our Bandcamp page, and anyone who doesn’t want to pay for shipping from the U.S. can order directly from No Remorse via their website!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BFASboise

TheNwothm: Anything else you would like to mention?

Jeff: Blessings of glory, love and light to you all!