Emerging from the cultural crossroads of Metz, France, Crystal Throne have forged a sound rooted in passion, discipline and a deep connection to heavy metal’s legacy. In this new interview, the band reflect on their journey, their environment and the momentum behind their next chapter.

Interview

TheNwothm:  To start us off, would you like to introduce yourselves, who plays what in the band, and where in Metz you each call home?

T: I am terry,  I am the singer and Max is the guitar player and we formed the band in  late 2019. Soon after Jeff brand joined as our bassist, then John as the second guitar and Will RAM on the drums. Besides John who is from Belgium, the whole band is from Metz or the surrounding region, in the north east of France very close to the German border.

TheNwothm: How did the five of you first cross paths and realise you wanted to create music together?

T: Max and myself were always big fans of classic heavy metal stuff . We met around 2018. At the time I was singing in the Belgian heavy metal band Horacle. We were kind of at the forefront of the NWOTHM movement around 2010 when the whole wave exploded, while Max was in a hard rock band called Drenalize. Towards the end of these projects for the both of us we were a bit frustrated and felt that the enthusiasm was getting lost. So we started working on songs together and it developed into this band. 

Soon we had to find other members, Jeff was a very good friend of mine who I had already collaborated with in a past project called Darkimya. John,  I ran into a couple times for the last 10 years or so.  For example I was singing in a Judas Priest cover band at the time , and John was also playing there with his Scorpions cover band and I thought both of them would be a very good fit for the band.  Then Will got in touch with Max, therefore our lineup was complete and ready to go.

TheNwothm: What drew you to the name Crystal Throne and what does it represent for you now that the band has grown?

T: I instinctively came up with the name as it was what the music inspired me. I didn’t really think too much and looking back , that gut feeling was a good inspiration. The word Crystal came to my mind because of some of the melodies and the clean tones that Max used on some of the songs, it connects pretty well with the progressive elements of the music, while the throne represents a bit more of the heavy metal aspect so to speak. Overall I believe it is both majestic and kickass at the same time.

TheNwothm: When people first discover Crystal Throne, what do you hope they understand about who you are as a band?

T: I’m not sure it really matters what they understand about the band, if they connect on some emotional level or get inspired by what we do, that is all that matters. All I personally care about is to bring some positive in anybody’s lives.

TheNwothm: Metz has a distinct character, both historically and culturally. In what ways has living and creating music in Grand Est shaped your sound or the way you approach your themes?

T: That’s a very good question, and it is a bit hard to answer… The city surely has a grandiose architecture that is a mixture of Gothic and Roman style, Both Germanic and French. Living in Europe is definitely a blessing and in some way it might have influenced our music, as culture probably always sips into your artistic creation.

TheNwothm: France has a strong underground metal scene with its own identity. How connected do you feel to the wider French metal landscape?

T: We are friends with most of the coming bands such as Furies, Star Rider , Animalize, Electric Shock and others. It is a rather small underground but tight scene at the moment but it’s growing, and I guess we all share at least a little bit of the influences of the French scene from the 1980s with bands like Sortilege or Blaspheme and such.

TheNwothm: Your self‑titled album “Crystal Throne” arrived in 2021 and introduced listeners to your blend of heavy metal and other styles. When you look back at that period, what were the ideas or ambitions driving the record?

T: Oddly enough we started pretty humbly to say the least haha! Both Max and myself were a bit bummed out that our respective bands were falling apart, and we just basically said “hey let’s write some music” Pretty quickly it became more and more serious to the point where we ended up with the first album , which was homemade by the way.

TheNwothm: The album leans heavily into science fiction, mythology and epic storytelling. Was there a particular narrative or world that sparked the writing of tracks like “Crystal Throne” or others on the record?

T: Although there isn’t really a story or a concept on the first album, there is some kind of an ode to heroic and epic themes as a common thread throughout the album. There are songs about aviation, Norse mythology, Samurais, time travel ( even though actually it speaks more about the unavoidable march of time ) , crusaders , ancient Egypt, dystopian Futures and some more personal topics, nothing too revolutionary in terms of heavy metal standards but for a first album , we didn’t try to reinvent the wheel so to speak. The song Crystal warrior is a tribute to Mark Shelton from Manilla Road , but it is also a metaphor for the love of music and even more generally absolute consummate passion.

TheNwothm: The musicianship on the album is intricate without losing that classic heavy metal punch. How did you approach arranging the songs so that the progressive elements supported the story rather than overshadowing it?

T: You’ll have to ask Max for most of the instrumental parts but I have seen him write, and I can say that it was rather instinctive for him , and the same can be said about my melodies. We share a lot of common musical backgrounds from the classic Heavy Metal, to the prog or the neo-classical elements so it came pretty naturally to us. We tend to think that some more complex elements can get thrown in as a means to give a slightly original flavour as long as it serves melodies rather than suffocate it with non-stop show offs. But a bit is fun for sure! 

Max speaking: the melodies and riffs were actually coming pretty naturally. At first it was challenging because we’ve been writing songs in front of people watching us during livestreams on YouTube, and we weren’t really used to it. But we’ve been writing songs for decades so we weren’t strangers to the task either, and in the end all this stress pushed us to finish what we had to do.

TheNwothm: You recently appeared on the compilation “Rétribution et Châtiment”. What made you want to be part of that project and how did the track you contributed come together?

T: It was actually Niels from Animalize who approached us as he was putting together the metal Lourd compilation with Charlie from star Rider ( kudos to the both of them! ) They wanted an exclusive song, sung in French, and as we were on the completion of our second album, we said ” Hey why not ? This would be fun! ” I thought about a topic that would be epic and very French, and thought that the story of The count of Monte Cristo would be just perfect.  It is dark and scornful , just perfect for a heavy metal song!  Oddly enough, they released a new movie adaptation in the cinemas while I was finishing working on the lyrics!