This is an archived post from our old website. Please excuse us if it looks a bit off, we are working through old posts and making sure they look tip top!
Old Corpse Road will headline the Saturday at Valkyrian Festival, Shades (29 Nov – 1st Dec).
The band hail from the North East of England, an area rich with ancient tales and rife with folklore. The line up consists of five members who have played together in various other projects over the last decade, most notably the dark metal band Nemain.
You state that you all write everything together, and have a strong work ethic; what’s your secret to maintaining this over the course of the years? For example, you all use pseudonyms (The Bearer, The Dreamer, The Revenant, The Wanderer and the Watcher ) because you state identities are unimportant compared to what the band produces as a whole – is a cohesive musical output as simple as that, or what other methods/motivations make you a strong unit?
There are a number of reasons I suppose. The key factor is our friendship. Prior to Old Corpse Road forming, all of the members have played with each other in various different bands over many years. This has led to a strong and natural working relationship which has evolved and improved over time, to the point where we all have roughly the same vision.
Add on top of that we all live (and have lived for most of our lives) in the same town and therefore have the ability to get together at least twice a week. None of us get the chance to develop an ego, and we’re all mature enough to handle the complexities of being in a band.
The pseudonyms were chosen in order that the band is not represented by one or two members. We are all as important as one another essentially. We never intended to hide our true identities as anyone who gets close to the band quickly knows us by our real names, we simply aimed to distract listeners from us as individuals (ironically the opposite has happened).
Over the years this working method has stayed strong. Seeing the band receive success does of course help us maintain our focus, realising that all of the hard work we put in is worth the effort!
You’ve released numerous CD’s, the latest being ‘Tis Witching Hour…. As Spectres We Haunt this Kingdom’. Is your set likely to span across all the albums, and can fans expect to hear any new tracks for the first time?
Our set list has always spanned all releases in that we always play at least one song from each. We have on many occasions included new unreleased songs in the set but have kept this to a minimum until they are actually released; it does give existing fans a treat alongside the more well-known songs. It all depends on the type of gig really and how long a set length we have.
Have you visited Valkyrian Festival before? What are your expectations for the weekend?
We’ve not been to Valkyrian Festival before (or for that matter Bridlington) so we are looking forward to playing a new town and meeting new friends. There are some great bands on the line up, some of which we have gigged with before so we are looking forward to checking them out and catching up.
Sadly due to some work commitments we’ll only be there on the Saturday. Our session drummer is playing the night before in the headlining band called Ravenage who I strongly suggest you go and see! On the Saturday there’s Lammergeier and Narcotic Death who I’m particularly looking forward to. For those in attendance on the Sunday I’d recommend Severed Heaven, Andraste, Twilight’s Embrace and Edenfall.
You have a huge interest in, and take inspiration from, folklore. Even your name comes from the mysticism and mythology surrounding the transport of the deceased for burial. Your website features some fantastic folklore resources, which member of the band created that, or has it been a collective effort?
It has been a collective effort; however the majority of the credit must go to our drummer, The Dreamer, for the whole concept in the first place. It also helps that he’s a web designer! Once the templates were in place, everyone chipped in to get some content on there. It’s something directly connected to the band and our own interests and is a great resource. It still needs a lot of work, but something which will get added to from time to time over the years. We openly invite people to sign up to the website and submit articles if they wish. The more people we can get involved in growing the site, the better.
What have you got planned for the coming year?
Next year will of course see more gigs, but we will also be focusing on our next releases. First up will be the already announced split 7″ with fellow UK black metallers, The Infernal Sea. Later in the year should see the release of our second full length album. We can’t really give many more details on that just yet, but it’s all going on in the background and fans should expect more details before too long.
To all who read this, please come and check us out live. Stays tuned for more updates on our new releases and in the meantime check out the links below to some tracks from our current releases (if you’re not already a fan!):
The Cauld Lad of Hylton – Taken from the debut album: ‘Tis Witching Hour… As Spectres we Haunt this Kingdom.
The Witch of Wookey Hole – Taken from the split album: The Bones of this Land are not Speechless.
The Old Corpse Road – Taken from our demo/EP: The Echoes of Tales Once Told.
Website: www.oldcorpseroad.co.uk
www.facebook.com/OldCorpseRoad
Valkyrian Festival takes place at Shades, Bridlington, over the weekend from 29th November to 1st December.
Organised by Valkyrianmusic.com which covers metal, rock, punk, hardcore, alternative, folk, industrial, pop punk and metalcore, the event will feature 27 bands over the 3 days. A charity event in its 3rd year, funds will go to support Rape Crisis. Weekend ticket £5.
