A very cool review of the Steel Hook Prothesis , Awen , Wolfcult Choir show last month in METRO magazine

Of Wolves and Woe

To be a crusty old fart and still crave things that are the province of the younger generation is a huge pain in the ass. Take my stunted love of music as an example. I should not at my advanced years, give a fat, flying flip about the latest Motorhead release. I should be like others in my demographic; content with whatever happens to be playing over the phone while I’m waiting on hold to pay my water bill. I don’t follow sports, which are ageless, and I refuse to work on projects in the shed. So that leaves plenty of brain space for music trivia, collecting, digging, trading, and of course concerts.

Now I skate that razor thin line between digging the music and becoming, “Creepy Old Guy at the Show”. This magazine gives me a great excuse to go to all the shows I want with barely a raised eyebrow.

Not long ago, I got the chance to check out AWEN and Wolfcult Choir. Both have a folk meets something or other bent to them with the “other” parts as divergent as east and west.

AWEN is a three piece that look like Teutonic R.O.T.C. circa 1941 if Tim Burton designed their uniforms. The music pulses and throbs forth with a mystical tone and drone. It was Volk over folk actually. Through it all, tribal war drums and percussion swell, thump and feeling more like cadence than a beat. The Cairn at the Crossing, Unter Den Linden and The Bear and the Breaker were invocations just as much as battle chants. They have no chance commercially and to cement this they’re releasing a vinyl LP instead of a CD, MP3 or whatever.

Wolfcult Choir veritably exploded from the stage after AWEN in a whirling clusterfuck of energy and calculated cunning that, if properly marketed, could turn a Goth’s head so far around as to snap it off and boot it past the confines of the necropolis. Wolfcult Choir is folk done as if likes of Boyd Rice knew some jazz fundamentals and wasn’t afraid to embrace some good old fashioned rock n’ roll.  Vocalist, alpha male, Lex Ronin, stalks across the stage channeling an Ian Curtis intensity while managing to strike Mick Ronson guitar poses is a feat in itself. Saint (bass) and Kurtz (drums) thunder back and forth in roiling peals like a distant storm while Miss Cin (church organ, vocals & drop dead sex appeal) adds the final dimension to this wily pack.

They should have a few gigs over the next couple of months. In the meantime, check out the sounds posted -http://www.myspace.com/hourofthewolf

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go hide in the corner while I check out some other bands.

Words and photos-Mike Wilshin (www.myspace.com/old_man_mike)

So we have cut the raw demos and have now settled on doing proper recording at Crystal Clear studios in Dallas in late January. While I still think it is lame for bands to spend MONTHS in the studio , we are certainly going to take the time and money that we were not able to in the past. "Wolfsblood Rising" was recorded in a studio/methlab , the "What Was Shall Always Be" 6/6/06 single was recorded in a good friends home studio , "Beneath the Sign of Mars" was in a studio that was famous for recording Clay Aiken and not rock bands , hence the thin sound and the "Wolf unto Man" rough demo was in a very laid back studio in the sticks that I loved but was not really geared toward recording on the scale that we envisoned for this project. This is some of the best songwriting (or rewriting in the case of 'lex talionis') and we want to do it justice.  The tenative track listing is as follows.

- Discipline

- Mourning Hymn

- Delihla

- The Shift

- Lex Talionis

 We plan to have a short run of actual physical CDs available and perhaps a limited run on vinyl but the real emphasis will be on online distribution. It sucks , I know...i miss the venerable old record store days too but times change. One day we will all be reminising about "good old Mp3 players"....

hope to see you at the release party!!!

                                                                          -Lex Ronin

playing mobsters is fun and I am throughly touched that some of yall want to hug and kiss us and make us pets...we get down like that sometimes too...but apps tend to slow down loading time and since this is a band page we need it to flow as quickly as possible.  SO THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for thinking of us....the nice emails we get from time to time make our day and despite how autonomous we think we are , getting feedback from you really gives us the strength to continue swimming against the current of shit that is music in 2008. We will and will never use the word "fan"....we prefer "friend " or "ally" because thats how we feel about our so called "fans",,,,they are our freinds and allies.

SO , please dont get offended when we dont accept apps....its nothing personal...myspace is just slow enough as it is...

                                                                          -Lex Ronin

its been a while coming. We knew there were two other bands called hour of the wolf but truth be told we never regarded them as 'real' bands. Our fans and allies have always been people of substance and quality and it never occurred to us that there would be any confusion between the bands.... well heeled elite and rag clad 'rawk' fans rarely rub shoulders. However , we live in an age where a garage band can have as much potential visibility as a signed band from 10 years ago. I don't believe that our music scenes are dying so much as we are witnessing a MASSIVE paradigm shift in the ways that artist conduct business. Thanks to the internet and he availability of cheap recording the independent music scene has become far more democratic than ever with all the mediocrity and mob rule that democracy entails. So I guess the other bands won in a way,,,,,music that panders to the lowest common denominator will always have the strength of numbers to support it. There will always be more Slaves than Masters. From today on we are now WOLFCULT CHOIR. It marks a change from our past and points to a definite future. Yes , we still represent Satanic Ideals and our goal musically will never be anything short of ritual and theatre. We are no longer the maniacal skinheads cutting ourselves in our crack-den practice space trying to be "evil"....we have moved on and grown up and have never been closer to what we know we can be. Hour of the Wolf represents our childhood , WOLFCULT CHOIR is who we are now. Please stop by our page and see some of the changes we have made. Shows VERY soon and out new ep "Discipline" will be out later this Spring. We will also be on Itunes later this week. Looking forward to seeing you all in the flesh soon.



Ave Satanis!!!
-Lex Ronin

(see the more colourful version at http://www.bang-mag.com/hourofthewolfinter.html)

1) What are the names of all the members?

Lex Ronin: Guitar and Vocals
Cin Lucifera: Church Organ and Vocals
Cocaine Jaymes: Bass
Kurtz the Alchemist: Drums



2) Where are you guys from and how did you meet?

(LEX)-Cocaine Jaymes and I are brothers from the cultural sewer known as Memphis, Tennessee. We moved here about three years ago. I met Cin a little over a year ago when I was trying to jam the phone lines of Trinity Broadcasting Network and we became fast friends. She and Kurtz are married and I met him when they came to see Hour of the Wolf back when we had our old drummer and keyboard player. Cin was originally only going to do some viola tracks for our 2nd record but during this time our keyboard player quit and as it turned out she was a keyboard player who was far more suited to Hour of the Wolf's style of playing. Kurtz has always been around even before joining the band. His primary medium is painting but he has always been around, hanging out with us, painting while we practice, watching all the drama that goes with being in a band and so on. He used to play drums back in the day so he was accustomed to the environment. This past August our original drummer quit and Kurtz decided it was time to be a drummer again. We have always sort of considered Kurtz the '5th member' anyway so him taking over the drums felt totally natural.



3) What roles do they play as band mates?

(LEX)- I'm the organizer, Cin is the whip-cracker and socialite , Kurtz is the wise sage and Jaymes keeps everyone cool and level-headed.

(CIN)-I'm the organizer and whip-cracker, Lex is Master Shake with his stolen guitar. Actually, Lex is amazing with music. He hears an entire piece in his head and then communicates it to each of us and it evolves from there. To me he's the ultimate songwriter. Kurtz is the wise sage who practices relentlessly and Jaymes keeps everyone cool and level-headed.

(KURTZ)-I'm the spiritual advisor.



4) Are you guys Satanic or…?

(LEX)- 3 of the 4 of us are Church of Satan members.

(KURTZ)-I'm not only a CoS member, I'm also an alchemist.

(CIN)- I'm both Satanic and "or…"



5) What clubs, venues, and etc. have you played within the past year?

(LEX)-Bar of Soap , Curtain Club , Darkside Lounge , Club DaDa , Reno's Chop Shop , Crazytown Skate Park , Height's Art Gallery , Banschee's ( where someone asked if we could play 'Freebird' without the slightest hint of irony) , Ridglea Theatre , The Inferno , various private events and a place called 'The Engine Room' in Ft. Worth that I swear had a meth lab on site. It reeked of chemicals and there were meth heads everywhere. We have had more than a few "Blues Brothers" experiences where we REALLY did not fit in....Hopefully later this year we will be able to set our sites on Austin.



6) What are your thoughts on Christianity vs. Evolution?

(LEX)- I try to not to get too deep into that sort of Dualistic thinking. Clearly I am not a Christian by any stretch of the imagination but unlike a lot of Satanists I don't spend a lot of time hoping for the downfall of the Church. Christianity hasn't been a real threat to anyone's personal freedom in a long time. Not in any broad historical sense anyway. Sure, it seems like the Christian influence on politics and daily discourse is stronger than ever but what seems to be a revival is , in my eyes , a death-rattle. Plus, I think Christianity serves the purpose of keeping human sheep in line. Do you really think that Mankind as a whole is ready to take on the responsibility for his own destiny without a giant invisible babysitter? If it wasn't Christianity then the herd would just invent another nightmare for itself. On the other hand , while there is considerable evidence on the side of the theory of evolution I think it is important to keep in mind that Darwin was not entirely straight-forward with his works. During that time there was considerable class struggle in his country and there were outside pressures on Darwin to colour his works in a way that sort of explained in a scientific manner the division of classes. I think it is easier for an upper-class man to think of himself as the successful end-product of evolution rather than just a twat that started with an advantage. Personally, I don't trust anyone with a book to sell. I don't rally behind causes and I try not take 'right/wrong' sides on anything...that's where the madness sets in.

(CIN)-I largely agree with Lex on this one. Sheep will eventually kill themselves through stupidity if they don't have a shepherd. Some form of this debate will always be around. I too try to stay away from such black and white issues such as this. Most people are clearly for one side and clearly against the other and little-to-nothing will sway them. That's fine for those who want to shut out possibility and remain who they are today for the rest of their lives. I prefer to balance my brain between the right vs. wrong camps and bask in noir grays. After all, what is truth aside from experience? It's second-hand at best, which is always to be questioned.



7) Bald heads and Goat-tees!!! What lies behind all that?

(LEX)- I know where you are going with that! No, I was sporting this look long before I knew who Anton LaVey was. Originally, Hour of the Wolf had a really strong Oi! influence and although the music has veered far from that path I guess the shaved heads and stomp-boots is just a remaining vestige of that period. Although, I think it fits with our current Disciplinarian philosophy. I look around at shows and see all of these sick, physically decrepit young people and wonder why anyone is surprised that "freaky" kids get stomped and ridiculed. Most people you meet in this so-called scene tend to be slightly more intelligent than most (though that is not a huge accomplishment in Texas) but have allowed themselves to be placed in this box where they are expected to have crappy jobs and poor health habits and live at the bottom of society. Anyone can have a dozen piercings and work at Wendy's! I think it is a lot more of a threat to the Status Quo for the intelligent and aware , the "productive misfits" if you will , to use their minds and talents to infect the system from the inside. Why should the people who just said "yes massa" get all of the rewards? In my ideal world, all of the weird , smart artistic kids can embrace culture along with enjoying push-up contests…sort of a return to the Samurai ideal. So I hope that gives some explanation of what our look is about. Although anyone who has seen me near Martini Bar knows that I have a long way to go!

(KURTZ)-My bald head and gotee have nothing to do with LaVey or the scene. I shaved my head as a form of ritual the first night of my honeymoon. This is because my whole life I had long hair. The act was the severance of my youth and the beginning of my adulthood.

(CIN)-It's fucking hot. That's why.



8) If you could be any comic book character, who would it be and why?

(LEX)- (laughs) I'm a Batman freak from way back but everyone in this band and most of my other friends call me Master Shake! Why? You would have to ask them!

(CIN)-Well, Kurtz and I are sort of like The Wonder Twins. We actually have this thing about our wedding rings and special powers….eh, you get the point.



9) How many CDs have you guys released since you've started?

(LEX)- Two so far. The first one "Wolf's Blood Rising" was more of an experiment than a real record. If a movie was made about the making of that record it would make 'This is Spinal Tap' look like fucking Citizen Kane! There were some pretty good songs on it but it was really obvious that we were still trying on different masks. A few of the better songs showed up in a refined form on our 2nd record "Beneath the Sign of Mars". We are working on new material for a vinyl EP and an mp3 only format. We are pretty old school in the sense that we think in terms of "making records" but we are aware that those days are pretty much gone so we are learning to adapt to the new world of Itunes and all that silliness.



10) If you could be on the cover of any magazine, what would it be? (Ex. Rolling Stone,SPIN,etc.)

(LEX)- Rolling Stone? Spin? It really floors me that those magazines still have the audacity to exist. Old boring "rock" dinosaurs kissing hip-hop arse! To be honest, I can't think of a currently existing printed media that I would want Hour of the Wolf associated with! Rolling Stone is for old people, Spin is for has-been alt-rockers trying to keep up with the Emo/Screamo/Indie shitwagon and all of the current so called "gothic" publications are pretty much jack-off rags for fashion ads. I do like Drop Dead a whole lot but I can't get my head around the retro thing and what in the hell happened to Propaganda? One issue was brilliant with Rozz Williams on the cover and a year later the next issue has transexuals shrimping one another. And things like Guitar World should call itself EGO MASTURBATION MONTHLY because that's what guitar magazines are for...that and beating the dead, talentless horse that was Stevie Ray Vaughn.

(KURTZ)-Quest Magazine, the quarterly publication for the Theosophic Society.

(CIN)-There use to be a wonderful, little place down on Exposition Ave. called Forbidden Books and Media. They had a couple of homemade zines that I would have liked to have been in. But there's nothing mass produced that I would like to add my name to.



11) What do you guys like to do when you're just hanging out and not performing?

(LEX)- We are a band of flourishing ADD kids! (laughs) I WISH I had free time! In my "civilian" job I work as a Paramedic. Alongside that I am currently finishing my degree in Psychology and training in Ninpo Taijutsu (commonly referred to as Ninjutsu) and getting ready to ship off for a week of SWAT- tactical medic training in a couple of months. Cin , Kurtz and Jaymes keep similar manic schedules so most of time spent together is , regretfully , spent on band business which sucks because we have similar leisure interests.....port wine and strip clubs have been a re-occurring theme in the past...we are sort of a traveling Hellfire Club!

(CIN)-I'm currently getting a BA in Digital Media Production, as well as maintaining a corporate position that I've had for almost six years. I'm also working on expanding my personal video production/direction/editing portfolio as well as my digital still photography portfolio. I wish I had more time to hang out, but at this point I'm lucky if I make it to Panoptikon twice a month. It's all worth it though. I'll be in business for myself soon, doing what I love to do. (Besides, it's probably a good thing that we don't have more time together outside band business. Who'd hold the bail money?)

(KURTZ)-I work as a graphic designer. I'm awake and painting by 6:00 each morning, so I don't have time to enjoy a good glass of port as much as I'd like.



12) What genre would you like your music to be known as?

(LEX)- I wouldn't! I think the second a genre attains a name it starts to die! Think about it , all of the great "Goth" bands that we all draw influence from are from a time when the word Goth had not come into use yet or at the very least was just used as an adjective. I think Joy Division was called 'positive punk' or something silly like that. And after that all of the so-called Goth bands that ever mattered always shied away from the tag. I'm using Goth as an example as that is what we are most tagged with. But really, isn't it all just loud white people with guitars? Any other perceived difference is just a fashion crisis in my opinion. At the end of the day is there any REAL difference between Pantera and Buddy Holly? Plus, playing in a "rock" band is just fiddling while Rome burns....a trip to Deep Ellum will bring that ugly reality home.

(KURTZ)-Hour of the Wolf

(CIN)-I've heard people describe us as goth, punk, neo-folk, rock, indie, industrial (strange) and the list goes on. I agree with Lex, that categorizing something beats it to death. It takes all the wonder and mystery out of it. I think William S. Burroughs said it best when he said "language is a virus."



13) If you could perform with any other group/artist (dead or alive), who would it be?

(LEX)- I think an Hour of the Wolf / Babylonian Tiles show would be amazing though that may be too much church organ for some people (if such a thing is possible).

(KURTZ)-Ok, here's your triple bill; Beethoven, the NSDAP marching band and us.

(CIN)-Composer Hector Berlioz because he's inspired me since I was very young, Rasputina because those pretty ladies know their strings and Depeche Mode because I just know Dave Gahan has a secret crush on me.



14) Who would you tour with, given the opportunity?

(LEX)- Eh, 'Touring' is so 1996. I think a vaudeville/chitlin circuit thing is more our speed. Though I think people take offence to minstrels these days.

So it is done....music for the end of the world. That was the idea anyway. The story behind the title is that when we first started preparing to record I was driving lost somewhere late at night listening to coast to coast and some sort of psychic/astrologer was on air speaking about how at that time the planets were in alignment for worldwide catastrophe and war and how the last time this had happened that America was declaring independence. Now, I take no stock in astrology whatsoever but I found the idea very exciting...if you remember a few short months back , Iran was really being forward about its nuclear ambitions , a certain Muslim holiday was supposed to be the date of an all out terrorist attack , the "insurgency" in Iraq was really heating up , a drought has struck a huge part of the country and some wierd christain group had everyone convinced that the world was going to end on one particular date...for a short while people were very paranoid and I felt like the potential for violence around me had become even more palpable than usual....in short, a VERY good time to be a Satanist and a gold-mine for those who enjoy Social Psychology. Nothing really happened....sure, boys died for nothing in Iraq as usual and we still have terrorists in the whitehouse but no big change. It all set me thinking how its not really secret groups and corporate power and a large , mostly useless police force that keeps people in line and submissive but ideas that do the real whipping. If people are kept scarred and frustrated and isolated then they will do and believe anything so not to get separated from the herd and will glady suck 'de massa's dick for a pat on the head.  Money and Fear keep us all doing the minstrel dance. Even me....especially me. At the end of the day there are two kinds of people. Subjects and Subjects who know the score and who are waiting for the chance to settle that score. The great Mind-Fuck has never been the fear of Hell but the possiblity of an afterlife. Humans are really no more advanced that they were in the 1950's.....strip down the fake sophistication and assumed 'progressive' ideas and you will find the old W.A.S.P slave mentality thats always been there....if you beat them hard enough they WILL scream for Jesus. Hope is the ultimate Mind-Fuck...the idea if they keep taking it up the arse and be a good slave then things will work out. On the other hand if there is always this niggling fear that The End is just around the corner then you can keep them both hopefull and demoralized. Of course the real joke is that those who gladly submit to the slavery of the mind deserve to do so and those who do not , dont have to...The days when I though all people were equals and worthwhile and greeted every man as a brother are many years gone.

That said, a recurrent thought during this project was on how Man has always had spook stories to keep himself from every truly being free. "The End is Near" they squawk....and I agree , the End IS near...in fact the world has ended many times....nothing is ever permanent, civilization is a very fragile human construct and has failed mankind many times and man being the adaptive , innovative creature that Nature designed him to be has always crawled out from the rubble and the valuble higher types recreated themselves and society...and today I hear rumors of War and Catastrophe and get get a pleasant shiver. Where some see disaster I see possiblity. When the system collapses the scum is flushed away...its simply Nature's way. Our grandparents showed great adaptive ability to survive during the depression and mark my words we are heading for another one and do you think that the fat lazy suburbanites in the SUV's are going to last? Do you think the masses who have lived on hand-outs for generations are going to thrive? As a very fetching lady once said "survival is always in style"...have YOU been fattened for the slaughter or do you have a fire in your belly....would you kill to save your life or would you falter at the critical moment? Every person should ask themselves this...The End is Near , Prepare for the Afterlife.....the afterlife here on Terra Firma. But we will have to march through a lot of fire, rubble and death to get there.

                                                                               -Lex