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 AWAKENING OF ATLANTISWounded Kings stands for the purest of doom metal, and ones that holds the banner of traditional doom metal high above. Their doom metal can’t pass unnoticed, their expression is hard as stone, their concept is colorful, eerie and dreadful, full of twists, unexpected moves and unique…Steve Mills, main-man behind the Wounded Kings was in charge to answer on all of our questions. Enjoy!
Wounded Kings are hailing from UK, and you have two full-lengths behind you, how good ‘’The Shadow Over Atlantis’’ was adopted by fans and media? So far it’s been very well received, for the most part the reviews have been awesome! we seem to be gaining momentum, a lot of people are begininning to turn on to us. We kinda fell under the radar with the first album, the label ceased to function so there was no one continuing the promotion, we weren’t able to do any shows to support it either, but this time everything is in place, the music is really strong, I hate Records are fully behind us and we are playing live with a full line-up so alls good mate! In your sound influences from bands like Manila Road, Saint Vitus and Candlemass can be found, what you can say about that? I suppose you can’t help being influenced to some degree by the bands you listened to growing up, but personally it’s never been a conscious thing with us, put it this way when I’m writing I don’t really listen to much doom, mainly classical music, soundtracks, Serge Gainsbourg and early Pink Floyd! In what kind of surrounding and mood have album been recorded, it possess both melancholy and strength… This may seem kinda strange, given that the album is as black and as bleak as it comes, but the recording moods have always been pretty upbeat, I can’t do shit if I’m depressed, some of my most melancholy moments musically come from a realxing day hiking out on the open moor with my wife and son, and the recording sessions with George are a blast! Your approach is pretty much old school, loosened of any other influences like black and death metal, that are pretty much represented in doom expression of younger bands, what you think about that…Do you stand for the natural and primal in doom, or are you open for outside influences and such? To be honest, anything goes with us, it just happens that the songs I write happen to fall into that old school sound, but really the only criteria is that it has to fit the vibe of the song and it has to have some kinda direction whether it’s an ambient drone keyboard or full on mind altering riffs, it’s gotta be taking you somewhere.  What I really liked about ‘’The Shadow Over Atlantis’’ are does swirling vocals and tone of guitars that really creates feeling like you’re somewhere on the sea, surrounded by all the grimness and splendor, wrapped in darkness of ancient times…How you managed to create such experience and that guitar tone that sounds like vortex? Also, keyboards usage gives really eerie feeling to the record…would you still use them in the future? The idea with our music is to take the listener on some kind of journey, so to make that journey convincing you’ve got to spend time getting the sound right, I spent ages getting the guitar tones , coaxing everything I could outta this old battered Laney, I think I overlayed about 4 guitars all playing very minute variances on the same theme. With the keyboards, I really experimented sending the signals through valve amps adding tremelo to a pipe organ etc.., yeh keyboards are integral part to our sound, it wouldn’t be right without them. On our new split LP with Cough we’ve got a mellotron on it, which for me is a major fuckin highlight to my musical output to date! Cover artwork is very good, totally old school, hand painted, who’s designer, and was this your idea, for cover like this? Yeh the artwork is fuckin fantastic, it’s been done by a very gifted artist from Ireland, Elaine (sgraffito) she’s done stuff for Procession, Seamount, Moss and others, all I did was give a few ideas and she came up with the finished concept which just blew me away! Where do you seek for inspiration as you’re much relating your topics to horror and ancient based stories? Inspiration can come from anywhere really, the deep rolling and bleak moors are areal catalyst for some heavy riffs, but it’s mainly books, the likes of Clarke Ashton Smith,Lovecraft of course, but also Alverez who wrote a book called The Study of Suicide, Idrias Shah’s The Secret Lore of Magic, The pan book of Horror series Do you believe that Antlantis really existed, some scientists are saying that Atlantis was pure fiction, what you think? I think the jury is out on that one, I’d like to believe it, who wouldn’t like to believe that humans existed for a while in some kind of utopian golden age, an existence of perfect spiritual balance, although it all fucked it all up it still gives people hope. Do you like bands like Cirith Ungol, Deep Purple (old) and Captain Beyond, and what kind of music you like to listen? Somehow, your guitar possess much vibe from Ritchie Blackmore’s style, I must admit. Yeh, love all three of those bands, Deep Purples in Rock and Fireball are just total classics, and the concept album feel of the first Captain Beyond is fuckin superb I’ve always loved Ritchie Blackmores relaxed guitar style especially on the solos, that melodic eastern influence is something we try to go for ourseleves, not quite as awesome as Ritchie though he’s one of a kind! I listen to mainly late 60’s early 70’s prog and heavy pysch and hard rock bands like May Blitz, Museo Rosenbach, King Crimson, Night Sun, Sir Lord Baltimore, Steel Mill etc.. Did you sow movie ‘’2012’’, and do you think it’s possible such way of survival? I’m afraid I haven’t seen it so I can’t comment, except I have seen the movie trailer and to be honest I’m a bit tired of all this biblical destruction shit, our demise will be slightly more subtle than that I think, we almost had it a while ago with the near economic crash, now if that had happened it would have plunged the world into chaos far worse than here one minute gone the next kind of wrath of god thing! Are you into the happenings on today’s metal scene and what you think of the today’s situation in metal? Not Really, we live in the middle of nowhere and are therefore not really part of a doom scene, we have a few friends, some killer bands doing great things like Cough, Pombagira, witchsorrow, generally though we keep to ourselves! What’s the latest albums you have bought? Amon Duul – Yeti 2 lp vinyl, Hight Tide- Sea Shanties vinyl and Rosemary’s Baby – Soundtrack Where did you came up with the name? Some novel, movie? I went travelling for a year with my wife and while we were in Australia we really got into doing Tarot, specifically with the Arthurian Tarot Deck, there was this card THE WOUNDED KING that kept coming up time and time again in my spreads, relating to healing an inner wound, to become whole again, quite accurate for me as one of the reasons we left our country was to find who we were again. So the name springs from that time, sat in a camper van in the middle of the outback with only candles for a light and a tarot deck! What are the next plans for Wounded Kings? Lots and lots of shows!! Roadburn, Hells Pleasure, Gaudalest 2010 to name a few and the release of our split 12” with Cough, then into the studio to record a split lp with Pombagira – so pretty busy! This would be all for this time, any words for the end of this interview? Thanks for your time, and all the best. Just a big thanks to everyone for turning onto us, buying our records, wearing our shit and coming to our shows. You guys are keeping the band alive and we appreciate it! Cheers Vlad and take care mate! Interview by Vladimir Petković |
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