London’s very own soldiers of heavy metal Stuka Squadron are making waves with their unique take on metal blending themes of war and horror! Pyre with input from the band delivered this top notch and in-depth interview for the site! See for yourselves!

TheNwothm: Hey there Stuka Squadron! It is a pleasure to be interviewing you! So tell us, who is in the band and where are you guys from?

Pyre: At the moment we consist Captain Strange (vocals), Klauss Von Orlok (Lead Guitar), Generalissimo Strix (Lead Guitar), Maximilian Flieger (drums) and of course The World Famous Lord Pyre on bass guitar.  

TheNwothm: You formed all the way back in 2007! Can you tell us about those early days.

Pyre: Well technically we formed in 1936…. but in terms of how we came to celebrate ourselves through the medium of Heavy Metal? 

Even the mundane story sounds exotic. I was working as a military contractor and had planned to spend some time in a studio belonging to Paul Miles from The Nefilim, a long-term friend. I was just going to do some Cult covers but then remembered a song called ‘We Drink Blood’ which I had written for an earlier project with Duke Fang, the old Stuka Squadron singer and Shoi Sen from Di Profundis. 

Fang and I recorded ‘We Drink Blood’ and it was on the radio within a couple of weeks … that was the genesis. Then Fang and I finished off the first EP and put a band together to start gigging, which we did in late 2008. 

TheNwothm: How did you choose the name Stuka Squadron, it sounds pretty epic? 

Pyre: Actually it shows the serious dearth of imagination that we Undead habitually suffer from. We all flew together in a Stuka squadron in World War II, so we chose the name as a commemoration of ourselves and our tremendous courage and sacrifice.

Still, Geoff Barton called it ‘possibly the greatest name of any Heavy Metal band ever’ in Metal Hammer, so maybe it is better than we thought? 

TheNwothm: And how would you say history has influenced you as a band?

Pyre: The question is not so much ‘how has history influenced us as a band’. It is more ‘how has the band influenced history? 

Indeed the ‘Zeppelin’ album was intended to explain our vitally important role in world events, which has been cruelly and wrongly excised from the historical record by various jealous parties and malicious individuals in a conspiracy of silence. It is a grave unjustice we seek to right with every record.  The answer is:  ‘We influenced it considerably. Using an airship’.

TheNwothm: Where did you get inspiration from for your outfits? It is certainly a very unique look to go for!

Pyre: Oh these old things? Those are actually just the uniforms we were issued when we were in the Geheime Abteilung fürUntote Der Luftwaffe(GAUL) in World War II.

We thought about wearing something a bit more original like, say, Heavy Metal t-shirts with denim jeans, or maybe leather jackets with tassels on, but what can we say? We find it hard to think of clever stuff like that.Anyway what’s better than a smart shirt and tie with some highly polished boots and a leather trenchcoat by Hugo Boss? 

The uniform maketh the undead warrior as Dr Johnson would have said with better information.

TheNwothm: You guys are from good old London! For our international readers what can you tell them about the British trad metal scene? And what bands would you suggest for people to look out for?

Pyre: London has always been our stronghold, and it’s historically where we used to gig most of the time. We had an effective residency at The Unicorn in London. Unfortunately it closed down during Covid and never re-opened. However like all true cockerneys (for such we are, guv’nor) our lairs and crypts are all now on the South Coast, except for Strix, who still infests Limehouse like a good ‘un. 

London bands that are always hanging around? The likes of Orange Goblin. Personally I used to hang out with guys from The Nefilim and The Darkness. Hey, that’s London. These people are always out and about in Camden in particular.

The bands we are more likely to go and see though are ones with former Stuka members like Sanguinem (George Stergiou also of Angel Nation, Five and a hundred others) and Lethal Evil (Ern Nogara). We might go to Metalworks on a Sunday at the Camden Underworld. Meltem who duets with Strange on ‘Zeppelin’ on ‘The Weeper’ is doing a few shows down there at the moment. She’s worth a watch. There are always good acts out there doing things.

Other bands to look out for? Maiden … I used to fence with Bruce occasionally. Last show we played Nicko McBrain Jr was in the headline band. We’ve had Adrian Smith in the next studio along rehearsing and of course we are playing at one of Steve Harris’s  favourite haunts, the Cart and Horses, shortly. More on that later though!

TheNwothm: What is your favourite drinking hole to go in London?

Pyre: The Dev, personally. Good place to play as well. Predictable but I have spent an unseemly amount of time there and seen a lot of good bands in there. I prefer the Underworld to play, but they are a stone’s throw from each other anyway.  

TheNwothm: And thinking to live music what was the best concert you have ever seen?

Pyre: Kind of hard to choose one! One that does spring to mind is Monster Magnet at the Milton Keynes Bowl. They had the crowd going “Half an hour is bullshit”, refused to leave the stage and set light to the PA! That’s how you do it! Dave Wyndorf is the only person I have ever seen properly smash a guitar as well. 

Tightest performance ever? Oddly enough Backyard Babies. Best festival line-up? Iron Maiden, Marilyn Manson, The Stooges. Best spectacle? Rammstein. You can go on and on….

The show I personally enjoyed the most? Stuka (from the stage) at Scruffy Murphys in Birmingham on the March Across England tour. Devastating! 

TheNwothm: You have had a few breaks over the years and one period you were under the name of “Iron Knights.” Can you tell us a little more about this?

Pyre: Nobody in this line-up was in Iron Plights. That was a successor band to Stuka Squadron. They recorded the ‘New Sound Of War’ album, which originally went out as a Stuka Squadron album. They had Duke Fang and Gravedigger from the original band, but after a while they became disenchanted and returned to Stuka, so it was just the drummer Larry Paterson from the Metalbox era and a revolving cast of ne’er do wells. 

I didn’t follow their later career in the same way that Fang did, but I know that they went into a kind of kamikaze death spiral in which their audience became far more ‘selective’ and they ended up giving away their last album for free.  

TheNwothm: So musically and outside of your music what or whom has been your biggest influences?

Pyre: It is theoretically possible that we may have heard an Iron Maiden record at some point, and potentially even absorbed some of the musical lessons thereof. Ditto Bruce’s stuff of course. I see people online helpfully are pointing parts they think we have stolen from other bands such as Manowar (not guilty!) and Maiden (Uhhh).

Our label diagnoses our influences as being ‘Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, Iron Maiden, Demons & Wizards, Hell and Savatage’. Who we to deny or disagree?

TheNwothm: I have got to ask! How did you come up with you stage names?

Captain Strange: Stage…name? Well as far as I’m aware, that’s my actual name! I earned my rank through fearless acts during the Battle of Bloodworth Hill. Granted, we lost the battle as I was attending a rather important mustache wax related emergency, but that’s besides the point

Pyre: Indeed that IS a very strange question. Why are you called ‘Rob B’, if that is your real name? 

My father was of course the fourth Lord of Pyre Manor, a title pertaining to a holding near Gravesend which sank into the Thames some centuries back. Hence I hold the simple title Lord Pyre (fifth and last).

Our titles are the same. Generalissimo Strix was previously dictator of a small Third World country. He was awarded the title in honour of the tremendous love and gratitude felt by his people for his benign rule, by himself.

Our names are just … y’know … what we are called. 

TheNwothm: Let us talk about the music! The 4 track EP “We Drink Blood” came out all the way back in 2008! What do you remember from putting that very first release together and would you have done anything differently if you could go back in time?

Pyre: On ‘We Drink Blood’ it was just me and Fang. We didn’t have a band. Paul Miles played the guitars on the album and of course we used programmed drums. Because I was working in Iraq, and composing from there (the RAF flew me out a bass guitar, to my total amazement) we were pretty constrained in what we could do. What would we do differently? Nothing! It had to be that way! 

‘We Drink Blood’ was a stepping stone to get the ball rolling. As such it did it’s job. It also got me out of Iraq. I went to a goth club and ‘We Drink Blood’ was requested by these goth girls who all ran straight onto the dance floor. I immediately reevaluated my priorities. 

TheNwothm: Speaking of time, if you could go back in time which period would you go back to?

Pyre: It is easy to feel nostalgic for the things we remember, but hard to pick any one time. I do recall having a very nice time in Castile in, oh I don’t know when, but it was early in the year. We used to swim in the sea and eat peaches, and I looted some nice emeralds from a chalice in a chapel in Rioja. 

Would have been 1367 or so. That was nice, but there are so many other choices. Not Flanders. Nor indeed Russia. I don’t recall ever having a good time in either place.  

TheNwothm: And are there any historical figures that you would want to shakes hands or eat dinner with?

Pyre: We have met many, many individuals now considered historical figures, have shaken some using their hands and have indeed eaten some for dinner, if that was your meaning? 

The two albums ‘Tales of The Ost’ and ‘Zeppelin’ detail our dealings with Aleister Crowley, H P Lovecraft, Montague Summers and Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin. My memory of the ‘lost’ album which was released by ‘Iron Knights’ as ‘New Sound of War’ is hazy, but I recall that it added Erwin Rommel and at least one pharaoh. 

If you mean historical figures that we, for some reason, failed to encounter in our travels and travails … why … there is a wide choice as it basically encompasses every being ever to walk the Earth.

T. E. Lawrence springs to mind. An incredible individual who it would have been fascinating to meet … but you know … so would Egil Skallagrimmson or Harald Hardrada, or the Emperor Caligula, or Lemmy or Jesus. Ok maybe not so much Jesus…. 

TheNwothm: “Tales of The Ost” was released in 2011 and was your first full length album! What kind of themes did the album explore and lyrically what kind of stories did it tell?

Pyre: ‘Tales of The Ost’ explores similar themes to ‘Zeppelin’. War. Horror. Our dealings with the undead. Battles with Russians, werewolves and Russian werewolves, and our arch-nemesis (and former guitar player Zabulon!

Where ‘Zeppelin’ deals with our trials and tribulations after going forwards in time to the First World War (it’s complicated) ‘Tales of The Ost’ is more about our role in losing the Second World War. 

TheNwothm: Usually when an album is released the members take influence from events or things going on around them! What that the case for this album? Did your draw inspiration from anything personal going on in your lives?

Pyre: Indeed when I started writing the ‘Zeppelin’ album my girlfriend was a gigantic breast model from Iceland … so maybe there was something subconsciously Zeppelin-y going on … 

Just to be clear ‘Zeppelin’ is about a band of vampires travelling to the North Pole by Zeppelin to defeat Rasputin. It’s hard to imagine how one’s mundane mortal life could inspire that. 

Then again, I don’t recall actively devising any part of it, and yet still these madcap ideas took lyrical form and became an album. This inspiration must be coming from somewhere, right? 

I’ll put that down as a ‘maybe’.

TheNwothm: Ok, so who are the collectors in the band?Who has the biggest collection of instruments and can you name of some of the models etc that you own?

Pyre: Prepare for the geek-out …. 

Orlok: I wouldn’t call myself a collector but I use Ibanez Guitars as I have found they are astounding instruments and have always impressed me, giving me the exact tone and playability I require from a guitar. currently I own 5 RGs, an S and 2 Acoustics. I tend to only acquire guitars I’m going to use for a project as I don’t have enough wall space to show them all off and would feel bad for the ones left in their cases. My main performing guitars at present are an RGT 6 EX and an RG 631 ALF, named Bahamut and Shiva. Running through my Blackstar S1 6L6 paired with a Boss GT1000, they are a force to be reckoned with.

Pyre: The geek-out is complete …. 

I use Rickenbacker basses mainly. I used to use and endorse the Demonator by Dean, and in fact Stuka Squadron were all Dean ambassadors. However Dean seem no longer to be active in the UK. Maybe that’s because they gave out too many endorsement deals to absolutely anybody? 

I also use Darkglass pedals. 

TheNwothm: Online it says that you have been with both Iron Crown Records and Metal On metal Records! How did they help the band to progress and get you to where you are now?

Pyre: Iron Crown was a label set up specifically to promote Stuka Squadron and the ‘Tales of the Ost’ album. It helped in that it meant that we could release that album.

‘Tales’ was later re-released by Metalbox Recordings. Getting involved with Metalbox was a career error of epic proportions. 

We signed to them because demand for Stuka Squadron was so high that we couldn’t manage it ourselves any longer. Unfortunately it was the sort of horror story you read in music magazines and assume will never happen to you. 

The good part was that they arranged tours for us. The bad part was that a band that was doing pretty well financially to suddenly never saw another penny. It later became clear that the act was basically being run for the personal benefit of the drummer, who was in a relationship with the manager. We missed opportunities such as supporting Judas Priest … that kind of thing.

In the end I got fired, along with about everybody else. They released the ‘New Sound of War’ album which rightly bombed and the whole thing died a chronic, hopelessly mismanaged death.

We signed to Metal On Metal Records late in 2023 for the release of ‘Zeppelin’.
This experience has been very different. They are a small label but are switched on and well connected, particularly on the Continent. 

They contributed the fabulous album sleeve and the final version of the cover, have designed the shirts and so on. We are hoping to do a Metal On Metal Records tour later this year with our label mates Arkham Witch and some others. We’ll see how that goes, but so far all good. 

TheNwothm: So last year you put out your latest released under the banner of “Zeppelin.”Can you give us a bit of background on the album and a brief overview of the tracks?

Captain Strange: Well naturally, being immortal beings we’ve experienced many exciting times and historical events – the most interesting are of course the ones that are 100% accurate and 100% untold to the greater public. In this case, we felt it important to tell the story of that time we were sent back to the battlefields of World War One to fight the evil Necromancer, Rasputin (who himself is really just an avatar for Nyarlathotep). We were sent knee deep into the fray without our trusty aircraft, so we of course commandeered the best flight technology available – the Zeppelin!

Pyre: That’s the nub of it. The main thrust of ‘Zeppelin’ is the First World War story, but with a few tracks which could be classed as ‘side adventures’.

TheNwothm: Do you each have any personal favourites from the album?

Captain Strange: There was that time that I got to say the word ‘Hydrogen’, that was pretty fabulous. Oh, whole songs you mean? Well, I always rather enjoyed ‘Pit of Fire’ myself as it does allow me to practice the vocal gymnastics somewhat. This being said, ‘One Man Blitzkrieg’ is a tour de force that cannot be ignored!

Pyre: For me a couple of personal favourites are by coincidence our two duets. ‘The Weeper’ is a labour of love that I spent a long, long time composing and is a dark, brooding, pseudo- folk tale. It was originally written for our Lost Album. Luckily the Iron Blights didn’t like it, or they would no doubt have mangled it like they did my other work on there. It is good to see it finally released. A London-based Metal singer called Meltem sung the female part, and she really gave it some venom! It’s a dark joy. 

The other is ‘Our Bloody Ragnarok’, which we wrote last of all to finish off the ‘Zeppelin’ storyline. I won’t reveal what happens, but we had Moog from Rapscallion on it and he is terrific as Rasputin. The track itself was deliberately written with a bit of a Wolfsbane vibe and took no time at all, unlike ‘The Weeper’, but adding Moog made it just so very music hall! The album is in a very sombre mood at that point. So it goes from the two darkest tracks, into a very sudden upbeat kickaround. The timing is just perfect and it keeps everything the right side of fun for the listener. 

TheNwothm:  And in comparison to your previous releases how did you approach the writing and recording this time around?

Pyre: ‘Zeppelin’ was totally different to ‘Tales of The Ost’. During ‘Tales’ we were gigging relentlessly so recording was piecemeal. Some of the songs were written in rehearsals, but we didn’t demo them or anything. We would stroll into the studio, starting with nothing and wing our way through it. ‘On The Volga Bridge’, (Song of the Year in Classic Magazine, 2011), for example, was written in one rehearsal then recorded in a day.    

‘Zeppelin’ was far more planned and measured. We planned what we wanted to do, then recorded it piece by piece after demoing and rehearsing up all of the songs. A lot more time went into production and the songs were messed about and perfected. I think the difference in quality shows. 

‘Tales of The Ost’ maybe has a bit more spontaneity, but with things like the actual story it is all far better rounded out on ‘Zeppelin’.

TheNwothm: And what can you tell us about the beast of an artwork your have for the album cover!

Pyre: Old Von Blitzen there? He was actually created by a Ukrainian gentlemen called Oleg Zebielin (seriously, his surname is almost ‘Zeppelin’ – talk about fate). Unfortunately he is proving somewhat elusive at present. I had a look for his address on Google Earth and his town is either in one of the Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine or very close to the front line. Hopefully he’s ok!

Anyway he invented the character, although by coincidence there is a similar one on the cover of ‘Tales’, but in silhouette. The rest of it was kind of a collaboration between Dead Head Merchandise of London and Jowita Kaminska-Peruzzi of Metal-On-Metal Records who did the final edit. Von Blitzen is standing in front of the aforementioned Zeppelin, wreathed in flame.

That character will be back… Hopefully Mr Zebielin will be alright, but if we can’t find him I am sure Jowita will do the honours. 

TheNwothm: Looking forward to the rest of 2024 what live plans do you have? It is understood you have a show at the Cart & Horses in London on May 5th! Are you also excited about that?

Pyre: Yeah we will be at the Cart & Horses, Stratford on the 5^th May along with Bengal Tigers all the way from Australia and Overdrive which is a band containing members from some of my favourite NWOBHM bands such as Witchfynde. That should be a Hell of a night. We’ll be debuting at least one new track from ‘Zeppelin’ at that one. Perhaps even more importantly, Strange will be debuting his Pickelhaube…

Excited? Of course! Always for the live show, and it is our first time at the Cart and Horses. We’ll be treading a stage Steve Harris sold out for a week very really indeed. Nothing unexciting about it. 

Who knows? Maybe the Cart and Horses will be the new Unicorn?

TheNwothm: And what other plans does the band have for the rest of the year?

One we are particularly looking forward to is the Balls of Street Warhorns in Wakefield on 22^nd June along with Hellripper, Wolfbastard et al. I was really envious of bands doing Warhorns before, so it is great to be able to do something with them this year.

Then we will be back in London and Southampton in July and hopefully will have the Metal On Metal Records tour in November. There are also dark hints of a European festival in summer. We’ll see!

TheNwothm: Where can fans buy your music and merch?

In the UK you can equip yourself from The Armoury at www.stukasquadron.com including getting Von Blitzen on a shirt! He’s very popular! 

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

If you are reading on The Continent it is probably easier to import direct from our label at https://metalonmetalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/stuka-squadron-zeppelin or from https://metalonmetalrecords.com/shop/. 

TheNwothm: Anything else you would Like to mention?

Well, we are of course VAMPIRES. Did we mention that?

That seems sufficient detail. Cheerio!