Plagues Interview

1.Can you tell us a little bit about this project for those that have never heard of you before?

 Scott : It’s a 2 man black metal project, me and Sean, that started as 2 friends who had alot of anger and hate in our lives at the time and have always been into black metal and wanted to create this music as an outlet for the turmoil of everyday life.Sean is on guitars, bass and vocals. I am on drums and vocals.

2. How would you describe your musical sound for those that have not heard the music?

Scott: Raw old school style inspired black metal of the first 2 or even 3 waves with a bit of our other influences like thrash and heavy metal. We play what feels right in make sure its in the context of what feels like black metal to us.

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

Sean :  Death , Anger, Hate, Betrayal and I am very much into Masochism myself which I will be incorporating into much more of the lyrics. The darker sides of life for me and Scott is what drives the lyrics. Scott is a talented lyric writer, he has a great way to intertwine his feelings of betrayal and anger into almost dream like sequences of revenge and viciousness. I am more straight forward , but it works and we compromise well.

4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the bands name?

Scott : The feeling that we have, based on the simplicity of the name PLAGUES, is that in many ways the world we live in is not far from the Black Death that we all have heard of in the history books. The world is fucked , people are fucked and this is our outlet, our voice.

5. Currently there are only 2 members in the band, are you planning on expanding the line up in the future or do you choose to remain a duo?

Sean: We are very happy as a two piece. It makes the creative process and overall vibe for creating music easier to deal with. We have upwards to 15 songs already demoed. For someone else to come in would slow the process down. With that said, we are not for or against live performances. We would probably welcome a bass player if the right opportunity presented itself, but we aren’t trying to go play a bunch of shows with a bunch of bands that we don’t relate to on a musical level, personal level or for some sort of bullshit scene.

6. According to the facebook page, the demo is getting released on Yersinia Pestis, can you tell us a little bit more about this label?

Scott : Well unfortunately we will not be releasing the demo through Yersinia pestis at this time. Josh of Yersinia Pestis is a great guy and a friend. About a year ago Josh was going to put the demo out but he became quite busy in his personal life and instead of waiting, we just released it on our own digitally. We may make some cassette copies in time, but right now we are focusing on new music and perhaps putting it out with Josh or someone else in the future. We are taking serious inquiries from anyone interested in putting out our music.

7. On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black metal?

Sean: Well we have not pushed PLAGUES much, we do this very much for ourselves, but we are glad that it has reached a few people. We have made a few fans from europe which is great because they have a greater appreciation for this type of music in my opinion. We have had positive feedback from people that have heard the demo and we feel it may soon be time to start pushing more to have our music and message heard.

8. Are there any other musical projects besides this one or is this full time?

Sean: As a matter of fact me and Scott are also in a traditional heavy metal band together called INVADUR. Scott is also in a Stoner/Doom band called SUMMONER. And I am vocalist in a thrash band that is in its infancy. But PLAGUES is always a priority, black metal is a passion for both and we have much more to do with it.

Invadur –

 invadur.bandcamp.com

www.facebook.com/invadurmetal

9. What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?

Scott: On the first demo, they were really just the first 4 songs we ever  wrote. We recorded drums on a handheld voice recorder and dumped it into a muti-track recorder. Then we overdubbed bass, guitar and vocals. We will continue this process for our next few demos, but in time would like to try an analog approach for a full length. We are very pleased with the new material and want it to come across as heavy and powerful as we feel the material is, yet raw and not over produced. As far as the music is concerned, it  hasn’t changed much. We will always have varied style songs because we have many different black metal influences. We just let the music take its own shape.

10. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Sean: I have many influences but a few that come to mind are Early Bathory, early Mayhem, Gorgoroth, Satanic Warmaster, Horna, Taake, Drudkh, Sargeist and so many more. I have been listening to a lot of Pagan Hellfire, Ragnarok, Pest from Germany, Goatmoon from Finland lately which also may influence some of my riffs. Hoest of Taake is such a great composer and I have always been a huge fan of Infernus from Gorgoroths guitar playing. I could go on forever man, im always exploring new or old bands to check out.

Scott: For me, Celtic Frost have always been an influence.  But darkthrone really sparked an interested with me because of their being a 2 man project for such a long time, but also their fuck everything attitude. They have always done whatever they wanted and that’s always been inspiring. But modern bands like Leviathan and Craft are bands that I find extremely interesting and important as far as approach and style in black metal.

11. Does Satanism or Occultism play any role in the music?

Sean: Me and Scott are not religious people of any sort. I have done a lot of reading on many types of satanisms and paganisms and  it is all very interesting to me and important to me personally. But when it is all said and done I have no interest in following any religion.I follow what I know and  how I feel, and the music is written with that angst and pain in mind. I try to convey what I am feeling into riffs. Anger, sadness, depression, hate are all things I truly know and feel and have not let me down. Plagues is how we get these feelings across. I know Scott feels the same way.

12. Outside of music what are some of your interests?

Scott: Weed and motorcycles

Sean: Scotch,women, horse crops, hand cuffs, knives, and video games mostly. Not in that order.

13. Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?

Sean: thanks for the interview and the great review of the darkness reigns demo. We are looking forward to recording new music very soon for you to hear. But in the mean time download the

 PLAGUES “Darkness Reigns” demo FREE at –

 plagues1.bandcamp.com

www.facebook.com/666plagues666