|
|
 |
|
The Dropkick Murphys
This Easter will see the return of massive outdoor metal festival Metalstock to Scone, a town in New South Wales. Given how far away it'll be, many people here obviously won't be able to attend it, but by way of compensation three of the bands on its bill - Dubai's Nervecell, Perth's The Furor and Aeturnus Dominion, who come from the Central Coast of NSW - will be embarking upon a short tour beforehand, with support at each port of call from one or two local bands who'll also be playing at the main event.
"Rob, the vocalist and bass player of a group called Vaticide, organises Metalstock," Aeturnus Dominion guitarist Demented tells me. "It's held on his family's farm; he put the first one on in 2005 and we got offered a slot on the gig. I actually did the PA system for that one. It went down pretty well, although it was mainly just people in bands who rocked up to it. Last year, though, we got double the numbers and I have a feeling that this year's going to be even bigger again. It's just a full weekend of metal, camping and catching up with people; it's like a massive party."
Aeturnus Dominion, who have appeared at both of the previous Metalstocks, have been around since early 2003 and play a style of music that combines pretty much everything that has ever fallen under the label of 'metal'.
"I'm into all metal, from glam right through to black metal," Demented says. "It's just got to be good. As long as it is, as long as it gets my head going when I'm listening to it, that's all I'm interested in. Our stuff is pretty much a mishmash of everything; taking the best of everything, putting it together and making our own style is an approach that seems to have worked for us so far."
Aeturnus Dominion have two releases to their name so far: 'Semper Tyranis' (which came out in 2004 and was actually nominated for an Oz Music Award in the Best Unsigned Metal Band category that year) and 'Psychotic' (which came out last year). Later re-released by Grindhead Records, both were originally recorded in a home studio, something Demented informs me was a purely economic decision.
"We just can't afford to get a really good studio," he admits. "We'd love to - to get that better drum sound, better guitar sound and so on - but we just don't have those kinds of funds at the moment. When it first came out, 'Semper Tyranis' was only on a CD-R with printed artwork and stuff like that."
Demented was responsible for all of the lyrics for both of the band's existing releases, I am informed, and is also writing many of the lyrics for their next release 'Annihilation Process' which he says should be out towards the end of the year.
All of the lyrics revolve around the sorts of negative topics much beloved of heavy metal bands; as he explains, "I'm just interested in the dark side of life, I suppose. For example, one of the songs on 'Annihilation Process' will be called 37 Stab Wounds and it will be about Katherine Knight, a woman who murdered her husband in Aberdeen [a town which, interestingly enough, lies just down the road from Scone]. Life can be a pretty negative thing sometimes; from the day you are born to the day you die, you've just go to take the positives out of it."
Demented can certainly speak from experience about the negative side of life, having suffered a nasty workplace accident some years back.
"I lost the fingers on my right hand, which was pretty devastating for me," he explains. "I was a carpenter at the time and lost them in a machine - just shaved them off."
Moving back onto happier subjects, Demented reveals that he's looking forward to the upcoming tour.
"I think we got on that because of our performance at Metalstock last year," he speculates. "When we went on stage there was pretty much no-one watching the bands but we managed to pack the area in front of the stage during our set; the promoters just couldn't believe how many people we managed to pull out of the camping area; it was bloody awesome. The promoter of the tour is into our music as well, so that helps."
Aeturnus Dominion play at the Lizard Lounge on Sat 31 March with Nervecell, The Furor and Mythyca
|
|
The latest issue
available now!
|
