The new Knight logo shirt is available now click on the image to buy!!!

I am pleased to announce recording of the album Return of a King is now officially finished!!!!

I would like to thank Lasse Lammert for the effort he has put in to the album & for giving me the opportunity to work with him.The past few days have been one of the best experiences ive ever had in a studio & look forward to working with Lasse again in the near future.

The album is now in its final mix down & will be be ready for mastering in the next few days.

I'd like to thank everyone who has shown their support through all the bullshit of the past year & hope to see some of you on the road in 2010.

Have a great xmas & new year!!!

James.

Traveling to the UK for one off gigs/festival slots/support slots has never been easier for the Steel!!!  

Those lovely people at Ireland west airport have a great selection of flights from practically our own doorstep to over 8 cities in the UK.

This means we can keep travel costs way down, save ourselves & you a lot of money*

Here's a list of cities covered by Ireland west airport.

# Birmingham
# Bristol
# East Midlands (Nottingham, Derby, Leicester)
# Leeds Bradford
# Liverpool
# London
# Manchester

If you can supply the band with a full backline* we could be tearing down a venue near you sooner than you think!!!

Now you have no excuses go book the band if you think you're hard enough  

Contact steeltormentorband@hotmail.com for details etc.

The limited edition package for the new album is currently a work in progress.Heres a sample pic of where we're at.....

Check out the new patch design.

CLICK HERE!!!

If you are involved with the metal scene as a band, promoter, label, magazine or just as a metal fan then by all means add us.

If you aren't any of the above would you kindly please FUCK OFF.

We have no time for the shit brigade ie. indie rock, pop, R&B or any of that bullshit.

From now on friend requests from  the shit brigade  will be reported as spam.

The band.

Interview with Graig for rockontheweb.co.uk

I’ll start with a couple of pretty generic questions. First of all, could you please introduce yourself and the band to our readers?

My name is James Kelly vocalist/guitarist & founding member of Irish traditional metal band steel tormentor


What were your primary influences when forming Steel Tormentor and have they changed or developed over the years?

The first time I saw Iron Maiden live!!! I was a big Maiden fan anyway but seeing them live for the first time (on the X Factor tour) it just made something click with me. The very next day I started searching for band mates. I have a passion for traditional heavy metal & its stronger now than it ever was. The song writing & musicianship is much better these days every member of ST can play that’s for sure. I've worked allot on the vocal side of things over the years to & these days we are tuned down to C# instead of a standard tuning .It has helped my voice but it has also given the band a much heavier low end sound.


Obviously quite a bit of time passed between you forming the band in 1996 and the release of the debut album in 2004. Can you talk us through the early days of the band and the differences (if any) between then and now in terms of style or approach? Has the band always been your project or did it start as a group of friends?

ST has always been my project right from day one.

From ’96 to about 2003 the band was a 3 piece playing local pubs myself on guitar & vocals John Hanly on bass & Ian Ferguson on drums. Myself & John were best mates & Ian was a cousin .Our set list was made up of classic rock & metal numbers we just did it for fun really.

A lot of time & money has gone into ST since the early days so we take it a bit more seriously these days.



Recording albums with your own money is obviously not the cheapest of businesses to be in, but are there any other reasons that it's taken nearly 5 years since the release of the debut to have your second album ready?

We did gig a lot between 2004 & 2007 toured the UK played Bloodstock, Up the Hammers festival in Athens etc so we kept ourselves busy. Line up problems was the main reason we couldn’t get into a studio to record. Paul Donnellan the drummer spent most of his time in Dublin at college so that meant our time as a band in the rehearsal room was very limited. After the trip to Athens I knew we had to move on & bring in a new drummer. Paul was a great drummer but he just couldn’t give us 100%. Little did I know it would take a year to find a decent replacement in the shape of Kevin Ryder. We did audition a lot of drummers but Kevin was a different class & a sound bloke it was worth the wait it in the end.


Melodic metal bands formed in Ireland in the mid-90s are as rare as hens’ teeth. How difficult was it getting Steel Tormentor off the ground in the early days, and were there any problems getting opportunities in that sort of environment?

Well surprisingly once Unleashed was released we started getting some great reviews which led to decent support & festival slots. The hub of the Irish scene was based around Dublin & Belfast so being stuck on the west coast we were able to develop away from the spotlight so to speak. By the time Unleashed was released we had a solid album under our belts which caught everyone in the scene off guard.



Traditional and power metal are finally creeping back onto the unsigned scene here in Glasgow and other parts of the UK. In terms of the metal scene in Ireland, or your part of it at least, have you witnessed any sort of improvement (from the traditionalist’s point of view) in your years as part of it?

There’s probably only 3 bands I can think of that you could call traditional metal that are doing good things. There's a few younger bands about but they are still in the early stages give them another year or 2 & they may come out with something special. The majority of the scene is still made up of extreme bands.


Now some questions about the upcoming second album Return of a King. Firstly, what was the recording process, and how different was it to the recording of Unleashed?

Unleashed was enjoyable a walk in the park ROAK on the other hand has been a pain in the arse ha ha. In June 2008 we were suppose to go to Remaster studio in Italy but Norman was in an accident which ruled him out of action for weeks. Then John left the band so we had to cancel the first recording session. Once Norman was fit to travel we rescheduled & over a 2 week period spread over a week in August & a week in October we managed to record the album with Nick Savio at the helm. We drafted in Paul Newell to do the bass parts & he’s been with the band since. The recording process itself was good, Nick is a good producer it was great working with him.


I understand you had some issues with the recording of the album and almost came to the stage of re-recording it completely. What were the issues specifically and how satisfied are you with the final product?

I wasn't happy with the vocals & some guitar parts. We did come close to re-recording the whole thing but once we redid the vocals & a few other parts it all started to come together. I think we have recorded a good album definitely miles ahead of Unleashed in both song writing & production. I think a lot of people will be surprised by it & hopefully it will raise the band to the next level.


Do you think the band have progressed or otherwise changed musically in the time since the debut album or are the songs in the same vein as those on Unleashed?

Its definitely a bit heavier & more aggressive in places there’s also a hint of doom in there. We now have a twin guitar set up Norman has brought his own playing style to the band & so to has Kevin on drums a hell of a lot more double kick going on there. It just sounds more like a band rather than James & a few hired hands each member has put their own stamp on it. The song writing retains that NWOBHM style some fast stuff like Evil Coming & some epic metal stuff like the 13+ minute title track Return of a King. It’s a very mixed batch of songs the album doesn’t just run through at the same pace for 40+ minutes.


The first album was written entirely by yourself - was it the same process this time around or have the band members who have came and went since contributed anything to the writing of the second album?

I have written all the tracks bar the middle section on a track called Into the Black, I have to give Norman credit for that part. I usually tend to write on my own & then let the lads loose on the tracks just to see what they come up with. Sometimes when you jam out the tracks in rehearsals you will end up changing parts because they sound better.


When do you plan to release Return of a King? Are you looking for a label or distribution company to make the album available or is the plan to do it all yourselves?

We want to get a label on board for this one so fingers crossed someone will give us a decent deal. We have had some interest but we'll wait till the promos are out & see what the reaction is like before we decide on what to do. If no label picks the album up then we will release it ourselves via the net.


Have you thrown everything you’ve got at this album or are there more songs in the store that you decided to leave off?

There is a concept running through ROAK so the songs that didn’t make it were a bit too different to the feel we wanted to capture on this album. I'm always writing songs its just something that comes very naturally to me I've already enough songs demoed for a 3rd album!!! So the short answers is yes there’s a bottomless pit of songs there just waiting to be recorded.


The cover artist, Kris Verwimp, is a pretty well respected figure, doing artwork for Suidakra amongst others – how did you come to choosing him to do the Return of a King cover painting?

He did the recent Waylander Honour Amongst Chaos cover I was familiar with that & liked it so I checked out some of his other stuff. When I asked him if he would do the artwork for the ST album he was more than happy to work on it. I wanted decent artwork on this album none of your Photoshop crap but a real painting & Kris is probably one of the best out there at this moment in time.


Are there any things you have done with Steel Tormentor over the years that you regret or wish you could go back and change?

HA HA HA short answer yes but you learn from your mistakes no one is perfect. I don't think I would change anything to be honest because I believe things happen for a reason. When things go wrong you just got to dust yourself off & get on with it. As long as no one dies it will all be grand & work out in the end.


The biography page on your website tells us you went for over a year without a drummer before you found Kevin Ryder. Is there such a genuine dearth of talent in your local area or were there other issues that prevented you finding someone suitable?

The musicians are there but most if not all of them play in cover bands & are making good money doing that. There’s no money in metal so its near impossible to get someone to join an original metal band unless they are prepared to do it just for the love of it. We were very lucky to find Kevin in the end.


Paul Newell, who played bass on Unleashed, was originally only supposed to play on the new album as a guest musician as I remember. Did it take a bit of persuading to get him on board full time?

Not really myself & Norman have been mates with Paul for years so he was the natural choice really whether he liked it or not ha ha. He is without doubt one of the best bass guitarists in Ireland & we push him to his limits in ST & he enjoys that. He also has great stage presence & does backing vocals so it’s all good.


Steel Tormentor have been in the game for a long time with, I hope you don’t mind me saying, quite slow progress. Have you ever considered anything drastic like relocating to try and force a break for yourselves?

I think Primordial is a great example of this they never saw the need to move abroad  & are doing just fine. The internet has made it very easy for a band to reach a massive audience with a few clicks of a mouse. At the end of the day it’s all about good PR & there’s plenty of affordable options about when it comes to that these days.


Where do Steel Tormentor go from here? What are your plans for the band following the release of Return of a King?

I think the current line up is the strongest ever & has the potential to go on & do good things if we can keep it together. I would like to see the band do some tours maybe festival bills in support of the album. But if we can't get a label on board then it will be difficult to keep the wheels turning.

The artwork for the new album is finally finished & we would like to thank Kris Verwimp for doing a great job on the painting.Another huge thank you to Paul McCarroll at unhinged art for all his work with the albums design & layout.