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Category: Music
This month at Metal Blessing Radio we bring you
Seventh Reign, a power metal band hailing from Canada. Below you can
read my interview with them.
Be sure to check out this month's podcast to hear some songs off of Seventh Reign's new album!
______________________________________________
MBR: Hello, how are things in Canada? If you don’t mind, would you introduce the band members?
Seventh
Reign: Things are fantastic here in the Great White North. The band is
from the province of Ontario and we all in different areas but are
within 3 hours of one another.
Our line up is:
Marios Panayiotis- Guitars
Adrian Robichaud- Bass
Jared Tomlinson-Keyboards
Johnny Roberts- Drums
And myself Brian Soulard- Vocals
MBR:
I am surprised I had not known of you guys previously before receiving
your material, how long have you been writing music as Seventh Reign?
Seventh
Reign: Marios and I established the band in January of 2005. He had
tons of material written from the past. We incorporated some of that
material into songs for the 1st and 2nd album but there were also many
brand new songs created specifically for 7th Reign. Our debut self
titled album was released in April of 2007
MBR:
I have not had a chance to hear your previous release, but I was
impressed by “Fallen Empires”. Has the album release been met with as
much success as you hoped?
Seventh
Reign: The feedback for the material has been excellent. Of course
being independent means that the music is not reaching as many people
as you would like. But, this album has definitely been a stepping stone
towards possibly having the band signed and seeing the music
distributed properly. We feel that the music is very strong and the
overall album can compete with anything that is currently out and
signed to major labels.
MBR: You know,
its easy to think to yourself, “if you’ve heard one power metal
band…you’ve heard them all.” I had felt this way before listening to
“Fallen Empires”, but I was proven wrong. In your opinion, what do you
feel sets your music apart from other bands in this genre?
Seventh
Reign: Well, good question! We really don’t consider ourselves as being
restricted to power metal only. We are just trying to create passionate
music through the forum that we Seventh Reign: know best, which is
Heavy Metal. There are so many classifications under that umbrella and
we don’t feel like we need to be stifled by one or the other. The music
is varied as is our musical influences. Every musician tries their best
to be original and unique but that is becoming harder and harder to do.
I feel we are lucky to have a writer like Marios who to me writes very
original material that sounds fresh with every new song.
MBR:
You closed your new album with two nice epic songs; Deliverance, and
Requiem for the Dead. Out of curiosity though why did you choose to
have a child speak the spoken portion in Requiem for the Dead? No
complaints here, I thought it was a different, but nice touch.
Seventh
Reign: I am sure you know that the child speaking in Requeim is my
daughter! This was Marios’ idea all the way. This particular song holds
a strong amount of emotion for him and he was able to write the
beautifully poetic speech. My daughter has that naturally sympathetic
voice that just fits perfectly over the music. She did a great job…one
take for those lines by the way!!
MBR:
I have to say my two favorite songs on your new album are Unbeliever,
and 7th Reign. I hear this was the 2nd time the 7th Reign song has been
recorded. Why did you choose to re-record it, and were you pleased with
the result? I have not heard your original version.
Seventh
Reign: Haha, oh boy, 7th Reign, yes we have actually recorded that tune
and mixed it etc numerous times. This was actually the very first 7th
Reign song that was every written and worked on between Marios and
myself. It helped us to establish an identity for the band. At the time
though our recording and post production capabilities were just not at
a high enough quality to properly release this song. Holding back on
releasing this song on our 1st album was very difficult. We knew it
would be well received and would help us obtain our goals. But, even
though we knew people outside of the band would enjoy the song, we were
not totally satisfied and that is what really matters. We need to be
happy.
In the end we finally did the song justice and gave it the
production value it deserved. In the future this will be a good
reference point for us to work with as we write and record new material.
MBR: Do you guys do a lot of touring in Canada? Is there a usually a pretty good response from the audience?
Seventh
Reign: No touring happening at the moment. However, when we have played
the material live it is always met with a great reception. Our music
resonates strongly live even to people who have never heard us before.
As a band we have some unique individuals who make a live performance
exciting and fresh to watch.
MBR: How
is the metal scene in Canada? I don’t know of many Canadian metal bands
in the Christian scene. The only band that comes to mind is Sympathy.
Seventh
Reign: The Metal scene is probably the same as always, it is small but
mighty. We put out some great bands up here. I am really not familiar
with any “Christian” bands as a classification. We really don’t
classify ourselves that way. We are just trying to write music that we
believe in and write lyrics that inspire and send a positive message.
MBR: Where do you draw influences from and what bands inspire you to play music?
Seventh
Reign: We like to say that our musical foundation is built on the roots
of Metal, the godfather’s of the genre that created something unique;
Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Queensryche, Black Sabbath etc. We are also
very influenced by the European scene with bands like Startovarius and
Nightwish at the top. There are so many artists and bands that can have
a positive effect on you from around the world and from time past. We
are all heavily influenced by classical and myself theatrical music
too…….the list goes on and on.
MBR: Have you already started writing material for your 3rd album?
Seventh
Reign: Marios has enough cool ideas floating around for 10 more
albums!! Seriously though, Marios has been slowly constructing material
and as well Jared has some created pieces that I am sure will find
their way to the album as well. I have been writing lyrics and themes a
bit as well. It will probably start taking some shape during the late
fall.
MBR: Is there anything you can tell us about the next album yet? Do you have any surprises in store for us?
Seventh
Reign: We will be keeping close the same format that we have
established with epic like tunes and meaning to the lyrics. All I can
say about the theme is that the “Gate is Narrow”.
MBR: I enjoyed the vocal layering near the end of Unbeliever, will we be hearing anymore of that in the future?
Seventh
Reign: Thanks and yes I believe we will do some more experimenting with
harmonies in the future. I actually love layered thick vocals but as it
turns out the melodies are strong enough to stand on their own and we
end up scraping ideas or tracks and just have me as the one voice
narrator! Some of my favourite vocalist of all time are presented in a
similar way.
MBR: Do you have any plans on touring outside of Canada anytime soon?
Seventh
Reign: Not really at this point. Obviously that would be great as I
believe there are many markets that would love to hear this band. But
without some proper support we really couldn’t tour. There will likely
be opportunities for playing smaller festivals and such though in the
future.
MBR: Do you have a favorite Bible verse or passage you would like to share with everyone?
Seventh
Reign: As was hinted upon earlier, right now there is focus on the gate
and what we need to ensure we are on the right path.
MBR: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, is there anything else you would like add for any of the readers?
Seventh
Reign: Nothing really to add, good thought provoking questions and we
really appreciate the opportunity to showcase our music with this great
station.
Take care and God Bless,
Brian
1:40 AM
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