SCARS OF ARMAGEDDON are band spanking new to me but nevertheless I felt an urge to interview them. Anders Ekdahl ©2017

A: The bands name is very important. Its the identity and branding of the band. You want that name to be intriguing enough for people to take a listen to it. I don’t think it has to exactly shout out what kind of music you play, but you want to try and come up with something memorable.

A: Ever since I was little and saw my uncles guitars I was drawn to that and wanted to play them. As I got older and got more into music, going to shows, and actually started playing, that’s all I’ve wanted to do. After my last band split, this gave me the opportunity to start from scratch, but this time play in the style that I wanted to. I put out an ad and that’s how I found our original guitarist and drummer Jason. The rest of the guys just organically fell into place over the course of a few years. Dave got recommended to us from some friends, and Pauly used to be in a band with Jason yeas ago. We’ve been lucky that everyone in the band has the same goals because it is hard to find people that are as committed to do this as more than just a hobby.

A: Oh yea, the classification in metal has become almost ridiculous. I might as well tell people we’re in an Atmospheric Progressive Pre- Jazz Tree Forest Metal band. It seems you have to pigeonhole it that specific now. In all seriousness, the backbone of the band is power metal, but there are elements of thrash, death, and even a little prog evident from time to time. We pretty much just write whatever we want, regardless of whether it correlates to the genre or not.

A: Usually someone will bring a part, or a few riffs strung together to everyone, and the song will naturally grow from there. Very rarely does someone come to practice with the whole song written. As for arranging on the record. It’s all calculated around flow. You want there to be peaks and valleys and enough variation to keep the listeners attention for the duration.

A: My inspiration to write usually strikes me at 3am when I should be sleeping, The great thing about the band is that between all of us, our influences are all over the place. Of course they peek through from time to time, but that’s what gives the band it’s sound. Everyones influences mashed together. I host a weekly internet radio show on Asgard Radio, and so I’m constantly on the lookout for new music. Hearing so much music for me I think, helps keep things fresh.

A: I’d argue that the graphic side of the band is just as important as the music inside it. It’s the first thing that people are going to see before they even listen to the music. Album artwork, logo, Its all part of the branding and you definitely want that to say something. I’m a big fan of the older album covers. I like to see hand drawn or painted art, or at least have an illustrative property about it. I lucked out, one of my good friends in college, Lucas Durham has helped the band out with all of our artwork. He actually designed our first cover for Never Sleep Again back then. He had an assignment and we came up with the concept for it and created Little Gracie. I’m a big fan of bands that had a distinctive character, such as Edddie, Set Abominae, Vic Rattlehead, etc. on their covers, so It seemed like a great idea to do something that’s kind of a throwback like that. He knocked our new album cover out of the park as well. We sent him the lyrics to a few songs and he came up with a great concept.

A: No, the album is definitely not as important as the album used to be. When digital music became a thing, instead of just making it easier and cheaper to buy an album, they set a price on individual songs and let you buy just those. I think that streaming is more to blame than anything. With radio play its always been about the singles anyway so I’m not surprised that casual listeners just gravitate towards those.

A: I don’t know if its killing it. Change just naturally happens, so you have to roll with the punches and change with the times. The positive of digital is that since theres such oversaturation of the market, it makes it easier to reach people than ever before. Shipping can be very expensive so digital media really helps in that regards. There is still a market though for people who want physical copies. So yeah, the fan is definitely changing to more of a casual listener, but as long as people show up for shows, theres still a demand for full albums.

A: I ‘d like to think so. I know that our style is predominately more popular in Europe, but theres a growing underground of fantastic Power Metal out there, especially in the US. So its definitely good to see the uptake in the number of people interested in playing the style. The nice thing about having so many influences is that we can fit in with even thrash and death bands and have a great time.

What does the future hold?
A: We just take things steps at a time. Going to get some more shows and touring under our belt in support of the new record. We’d all love to get over to Europe and play some festivals one day. Our writing of album 3 is coming along great, so hopefully just keep moving onward and upward.

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