INTERVIEW: LORD VOLTURE (NETHERLANDS)

The heavy metal electricity runs high in the Netherlands as Lord Volture delivery a charge that will definitely leave you smoking!

TheNwothm: Greetings Lord Volture! Can you please introduce us to the band and where you are from?

Paul Marcelis (guitarist): We are a no-frills Dutch heavy metal band rooted in the style of the 80s, without being dogmatic: anything goes if we like it. It is David (Marcelis, singer) who does almost all of the songwriting, which does give it a certain consistency. In terms of playing live, we are big believers in keeping it dynamic. For us that means guitar sounds that aren’t actually too high in gain and that leave ample room for the bass, as well as not playing on a click-track so that we are always free to play our songs as we feel fit on that day.

David Marcelis (singer): To give the readers of TheNwothm who haven’t yet heard of us an idea or our musical direction, we play classic metal in a way that you might describe as a blend between US power metal in the line of Jag Panzer, Iced Earth and Vicious Rumors and British influences such as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Saxon. 

TheNwothm: You have been around since 2010! Do you guys remember how you formed?

Paul: It was David’s brainchild from the start. He involved me, being his brother, early on, even before there was a complete band. Between 2006-2009, we spent a lot of time recording all the guitars and bass for the first album, Beast of Thunder, in our home studio, before forming a complete band and finishing the record in the Final Focus studio. 

David: Then, towards late 2009 when the debut album was nearly mixed and ready for release, I started looking for musicians to form a live band. Paul, being involved in the studio recordings already, was an obvious choice for guitars. On bass guitar I soon recruited Simon Geurts as he was already in our scope since Paul and Simon played together in Mercyful Fake (a tribute to Mercyful Fate). The band was then completed by guitarist Leon Hermans and drummer Frank Wintermans. In 2022 Leon and Frank were followed up by respectively Laurent Schijns on guitars and Erik Verheij on drums.

TheNwothm: And where did the did the idea of the name come from?

David: Prior to Lord Volture I had been in several other bands for over 10 years. Finding a suitable and, moreover, available and unique band name has always been s challenge, as many thousands of metal bands exist or have existed already and many of the obvious words in the English language are already in use. By deliberately misspelling ‘vulture’ as ‘volture’ I wanted to increase the uniqueness of the band’s name. In addition, blending in the syllable ‘volt’, derived of ‘voltage’, I wanted to create the thematic depiction of a gigantic savaging bird charged with electricity, thereby linking to the title of our debut album, ‘Beast of Thunder’. Finally, as Lord Volture has started off kind of as a solo project and wishing to add some more majesty to the band’s name in the vein of ‘King Diamond’, I felt it right to add the word ‘Lord’ and thus was born ‘Lord Volture’.

TheNwothm: What kind of themes did you have for your music in the early days and is it the same now? 

David: Lyrically, I have been influenced by similar topics throughout our three studio albums Beast of Thunder (2010), Never Cry Wolf (2011) and Will to Power (2014). The themes usually fit into one of the four categories history/warfare, science fiction, nature/landscapes or life’s struggles. This has not changed and was also true for the lyrics that I wrote on Black Knight’s 2020 album ‘Road to Victory’. No doubt, the next Lord Volture studio album will contain similar themes.

TheNwothm: You guys are from The Netherlands! Can you tell our readers more about the place(s) you are from and what the metal scene is like there?

Erik Verheij (drummer): I am from Maastricht, which is almost the most southern point of the Netherlands…very close to the Belgian border. There always were places like heavy metal bars where people with a passion for the music got together. And I think the south had something to offer in terms of music, especially hardcore (e.g. Born From Pain and Backfire). But hardly any traditional heavy metal, unfortunately. But lately, metal music is coming alive more and more with venues booking cool bands and festivals popping up. 

David: Paul is based in the area of Amsterdam, while Simon is based in Eindhoven. I live near Nijmegen and Arnhem in the centre/east of the country. So we live 1-3 hours driving apart from one another. That is one of the reasons why we only rehearse occasionally. Our base of operations, so to say, has always been around the cities of Tilburg and Eindhoven. These are also areas with a particular strong metal scene due to several local venues (013, Effenaar, Dynamo, Little Devil, etc.), festivals (Dynamo Open Air) and promotors operating there. Since a few years, Eindhoven also hosts the first educational institution for metal musicians called the Metal Factory.

TheNwothm: In 2010 and 2011 you were very productive releasing two albums “Beast of Thunder” and “Never Cry Wolf.” What can you us about those albums and how they came together? Are they similar in direction?

David: In those early years of the band we were really on fire and full of energy. Also we all had quite some spare time as most of us were still studying. In addition, during the multi-year recording process for Beast of Thunder, I had written much of the music for the sophomore release Never Cry Wolf already. 

Musically, the two albums are similar in style. But I believe that on Never Cry Wolf the songs are much more mature and we also learned a lot during the production of Beast of Thunder that we could apply while recording Never Cry Wolf. The same can be said again of our third release Will to Power.

TheNwothm: And do you have any favourite tracks from those albums?

Paul: I’m always bad at picking favourites, and they change over time. But if I had to choose now, from Beast of Thunder I’d say Reign of Fire is a favourite, as it stands out with its dark and majestic chorus and pushing double bass parts. From Never Cry Wolf, currently I’d say the title track: the combination of build-up and variety is something I still like a lot. 

Erik: I always liked the song Wendigo from Never Cry Wolf – even long before I joined the band. That was the song that stood out for me. Not sure why – I think it is because of the chorus: the riff, with the driving double bass just go hand in hand perfectly…and it’s an easy one for the audience to sing along with.

TheNwothm: Thinking about the towns/cities/countries you have been to, what would you say your favourite place has been to perform live?

Paul: There are so many places to choose from, and shows can be great for a variety of reasons. But when forced to choose, I’d pick Blatná in the Czech Republic, our home away from home, where we have had a bunch of kick-ass shows (even on a Tuesday just traveling through to Slovakia!).

David: I concur with Paul that Blatná in Czechia is definitely one of my favourite places. But a few other places to come to mind that I absolutely loved were Tartu in Estonia, Belfast in Northern Ireland and Ponferrada in Spain. Very different places but they all received us with heartfelt hospitality and energising enthusiasm. We have been lucky to play hundreds of such towns and venues across a score of places in Europe.

TheNwothm: And when you’re not performing live or making music what do you like to do in your spare time? What are your hobbies?

Erik: I like outdoor sports like kayaking, mountain biking and hiking. But also a bit more lazy activities such as Formula 1, video games and BBQ.  

Paul: The outdoors are very important to me as well, including traveling through them on my motorbike. I like to document those trips both in pictures and on video, and preferably write some music to accompany those videos (though I’m always behind on those projects, haha).

David: I share a love for the outdoors and for travelling with Erik and Paul. In addition, I’m a huge history buff (hence the song themes) and read a lot. I also collect and play historical board wargames.

TheNwothm: Not too long after “Never Cry Wolf” the album “Will to Power” followed in 2014. What memories do you have from that period, writing and recording the album?

David: Although I am very proud of the song material on Never Cry Wolf and I think that album holds some of Lord Volture’s eternal gems, the songs generally are quite long and contain a huge amount of structure. On Will to Power I deliberately tried to make the songs more compact and effective without losing the epic touch that has become characteristic for Lord Volture since Never Cry Wolf. I believe I succeeded in that.

Paul: I think we always keep growing as musicians, as well as a band. So for this third album we were better prepared when entering the studio, which I think you can hear in terms of dynamics and coherence. 

TheNwothm: Throughout your career, what challenges have you faced along the way and how have you managed to overcome them?

Erik: Of course, being a fairly new member of Lord Volture, I haven’t faced as many challenges in the band as these other guys. But my residency in the band started with a small challenge called COVID-19. I got the call if I would be interested to play drums in Lord Volture just before the lockdowns got into effect. So it took months before I had the chance to actually come in for audition, because all the rehearsal rooms were closed.

Laurent (who joined as a guitar player at the same time) and me got together nearly every week during the COVID-months in a friend’s rehearsal space. Luckily, he didn’t mind that there were lockdowns in effect, haha…and this was a welcome change of pace from sitting at home. So, although I look back fondly to this prep-time, it also kind of sucked, because you just want to do the audition and go play live, you know?

And the second LV-challenge for me is the one we are in right now. Laurent, who I’ve just mentioned had to quit the band because of work-related things. So we have to found a suitable replacement, which is not easy. He left quite big shoes to fill.

Paul: Being together as a band for as long as we have, you inevitably run into some trouble along the way. Whether it is being stranded alongside the highway in Poland (and the UK later on..) with your 30+ year old band van, or because you are the designated driver herding a bunch of end-of-tour-drunks into said van and subsequently the hotel, not every moment is that easy. But I think those moments also cement your relationships, and make you feel like brothers (not just David and I). 

We’ve been very fortunate to have been able to hold the original line-up together for as long as 10 years, and even more fortunate to then be able to find such great guys and musicians in Erik and Laurent to fill in the gaps when Frank and Leon did leave. I guess, as Erik said, there must be some hubris in there causing us to have to look for a replacement for Laurent now. But even during that process we were able to do some great come-back-after-the-pandemic shows with different stand-ins, including our old mate Leon.

TheNwothm: And looking back to the pandemic, how did that affect the band?

Paul: It created the situation in which Leon and Frank decided to call it quits. I guess the band having come to a stand-still, gave them pause to think and to decide to take other steps. We are all always dealing with the scarcity of our time, and for them the moment had come to step away. 

David: I felt the pandemic was a particularly uninspiring period. Although I had lot’s of time because of the lockdowns, working from home and lack of events, I did not find inspiration to write new music, other than a few riffs here and there. With the future and how the music scene would look like post-covid being so very uncertain I did not at all feel motivated to work on new material. Contrary, I wrote the songs for Will to Power back in 2012-2013 while we were promoting Never Cry Wolf live with over 40 shows annually. Somehow playing live and traveling to all sorts of places pushed me to write more and better music, while the lack of band activities in 2020-2022 did the opposite. 

TheNwothm: It seems you guys were inactive for a while before bouncing back in 2023 with two new singles and a live album! Was that professional decision for the long break?

Paul: It was partially a conscious decision after three years of intensive touring in support of Will to Power, while unintentionally prolonged by the pandemic. In addition, David joined Black Knight in 2017 and later in the same year Thorium, with whom he released several albums and played many shows and tours since. That must also have restricted David’s time and focus for Lord Volture to some degree.

TheNwothm: In your opinion who would you say are the best nwothm to watching out for right now? Any favourites?

Erik: I never know how new bands actually are. I guess all NWOTH-bands are new, compared to Angel Witch, Motörhead and Saxon haha. But some of my favourites are Skull Fist, Striker and Enforcer. 

David: Some of the NWOTH-bands that I came to know in recent years and much appreciate are Shocker from Belgium, Iron Echo from Germany and Darker Half from Australia. Check ‘em out!

TheNwothm: So as mentioned this year the band saw an increase in activity! What can you tell us about the new singles and live album? What made you choose to go for a live album instead of a full length?

Paul: The live album was in the works for a while. We had some decent recordings from some of the live shows we had done in 2014-2016 when we promoted Will to Power, which we felt would make for a good live-album. This made sense to us, as very often people come up to us stating that they love our live performance and energy, so we hoped to capture that in a release. Again though, the pandemic happened which made it nonsensical to release it then, as we would not be able to support it with shows. So it got postponed, this year, marking our return to the stages. While we play live again in support of Live ‘m Up!, we will be working on new material so that the next release will be a – long overdue! – studio release. 

David: As Paul mentioned, Live ‘em Up! was actually scheduled for release in 2020, to coincide with our 10^th anniversary. We planned to do a festival tour around it but COVID-19 disrupted all our plans. In terms of singles, we released two digital singles in advance of the Live ‘em Up! album. The first single was Line ’em Up!, which obviously is the song that inspired the album’s title. Since it’s original release on Will to Power in 2014 it has ever been one of our encore songs and we love it’s high energy. That made it an obvious candidate for a single. We also released a video along with it on Youtube. The second single was Taiga which is the only track on the album recorded at SOS Festival in Manchester. We’ve played that festival several times and feel somewhat of a special connection with it. In addition, Taiga is a favourite track for all of us so that ranked it as the best choice for the second single.

TheNwothm: Looking forward to 2024 what are your giving and musical plans?

David: Next week we have a second round of auditions with two guitarists who both seem to be suitable candidates. So we hope to have a complete line-up again soon. We will use 2024 to play a number of live shows to help the new guitarist get into the ropes as well as to continue to promote Live ‘em Up!. In the meanwhile, we will work on the songs for our long overdue fourth studio album. The first song is almost ready and I’ve got the outlines for a few more. With everything I’ve learned during the first 14 years in Lord Volture as well as my experiences in Thorium and Black Knight and with fresh band members in our ranks, I am confident that the next album will see Lord Volture soar to new heights!

TheNwothm: Where can fans buy your music and merch?

Paul: Everything is available at our website, www.lordvolture.com, which is the best place to buy if you want to directly support us. We ship to every country in the world! Of course, we are also on all streaming platforms, if that is your preferred way of consuming music.

TheNwothm: Is there anything else you would like to mention?

David: Many thanks for the opportunity to present Lord Volture to the readers of TheNwothm! Keep up the good work and keep the metal alive!