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Transcending Mortality
 Playing here a couple of times last year, Sydney power metal quintet, Transcending Mortality, will soon be treating us to a third visit when they come over to take part in a show that'll also feature a few other power metal outfits: locals Skintilla and The Loving Tongue, as well as Melbourne's Anarion.
While he confesses to not being familiar with two of those groups - Skintilla and Anarion - guitarist Jonathan Talan informs me he's a big fan of The Loving Tongue, who his group have also performed with on each of the previous occasions they've come to Adelaide. "I really, really like them," he enthuses. "I've got their album ['Distant Dreams']; the stuff on it's really good; it sounds a bit like Rainbow in places. You can tell there's a huge '70s influence, which I really love."
The last time they were here, Transcending Mortality were supporting Seattle's Nevermore, who they toured the country with. "Being a part of that tour was very helpful for us," Talan reflects. "We'd never done anything like it before. It was great to play to as many people as we did, especially over here in Sydney; we got a really big turnout. Overall, though, it was just a good opportunity to play to a lot of people who wouldn't normally see us. As for Nevermore, they were really nice guys. They were pretty quiet - they kept to themselves a lot - but we'd say hello when we passed them backstage and have a bit of a chat."
When they come over this time, the band will no doubt be bringing many copies of their debut full-length album, 'The Last Horizon'. Just out, it features seven songs, three taken from a demo (long since sold out) that so far comprises the group's only other release. "The demo songs are called Into The Light, The Spiral and The Dawn Of Defeat," Talan tells me. "We basically re-recorded them, changing a couple of things. I think we only pressed a couple of hundred copies of the original demo; we'd sell it at gigs and send a few out here and there. Once the stocks ran out, we just discontinued it."
One interesting thing about the new album is the fact that the (quite haunting) artwork was created by a French girl called Ingrid Houtcieff. "Our singer, Mike [Zoias], arranged that," Talan explains. "He contacted her via the Internet and talked to her quite a lot. He told her what we were going for and she came up with a design. We were really impressed when we saw it; we really liked the way it looked. Given where she lives, we've never actually met her."
Getting back to the band's upcoming show, Talan tells me it'll be one of the first they'll be doing after taking a couple of months' break. "Usually, we'll do a show over here every couple of months," he states. "We try not to play too often because that can end up being a bad thing. We travel occasionally as well. We play a lot in Wollongong and places like that where it's only an hour or so's drive away; those kinds of places are pretty easy to get to. We've played in Melbourne a couple of times too. The first time we went there, one of the other members completely freaked out when he saw all the trams about the place; he didn't really know what to do! I was lucky, myself; I got down there around two in the morning, so the trams had finished for the day by then! It was the whole hook turn thing on the roads there - right turn from the left lane or whatever - that got me; I really couldn't get my head around that. We also had a run-in with a couple of rough characters who didn't seem to like the whole longhaired metalhead thing and had a few things to say about it. Then again, we got that in Adelaide one time too!"
Really? "Yeah," he affirms. "We'd been to a pub and were waiting outside for a cab afterwards when this bunch of guys went past in a car and yelled out, 'You Pantera freaks, get a haircut!' which was funny because none of us actually had a Pantera shirt on; we had a bit of a laugh about it afterwards!"
Transcending Mortality play at the Enigma Bar on Sat 10 March with The Loving Tongue, Skintilla and Anarion
'The Last Horizon' is out now independently
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