Interview with
Legion of the Damned
The Dutch Thrash / Death Metal band LEGION OF THE DAMNED has just released its newest record, ‘Decent Into Chaos’. Also, they have been busy touring with KATAKLYSM to promote their music. In between some shows, singer Maurice Swinkels found the time to answer some questions.
Reflections of Darkness (RoD): Firstly, thanks a lot for answering these questions and many congratulations on your recent release. Could you tell our readers some details about the working process and the development of ‘Decent Into Chaos’?
Legion of the Damned: Writing the new album took a little bit more than 1 year. This time we spend more time in the writing process, compared to previous albums we always had a lot of shows and tours in our schedule while also writing a new album. For Descent into chaos we didn't actually took any shows except for 5 METALFEST shows, so we could 200% focus on the new album.
RoD: Why did you decide to work with Peter Tägtgren as a producer? And how did the process turn out to be?
Legion of the Damned: Peter has always been on our list, he is a killer producer. We decided it was time to do something different this time and also out of curiosity we decided to go someplace else and see how another producer would work with LEGION OF THE DAMNED.
RoD: Where would you see your main influences, with regard to music as well as lyrics?
Legion of the Damned: Musical it’s hard; everyone has a different taste and influence. Richard for instance has its inspiration from hate Eternal, Morbid Angel, Destruction and Slayer while Harold is more into grind and death, me and Erik are into old thrash like METALLICA for instance.
RoD: Do you plan to stick on releasing a new album every year?
Legion of the Damned: No! It seems like we are writing a new album every year, but almost every album has 2 years in between, Malevolent rapture was already recorded for a long period while it was released and also Feel the blade was a re-release from 2003, even before Malevolent. But because all these releases were planned so close to each other it felt like we are working like animals!
RoD: How are your experiences from your most recent European Tour, the Neckbreakers Ball with KATAKLYSM, MILKING THE GOATMACHINE and others? Were there any especially remarkable shows, highlights or lowlights?
Legion of the Damned: This was a great tour and our best experience yet!
RoD: Are there any special bands with whom you would like to share the stage one day?
Legion of the Damned: No, as long as the bands have no attitude I'm fine with a lot of bands.
RoD: What are your plans for the future, with regard to touring and festivals?
Legion of the Damned: We are negotiating several festivals, we are playing Graspop, With Full Force, Sweden Rock Cruise, Metalcamp, Masters of rock, Paaspop, for the complete list everyone should visit the website.
RoD: What are your favourite songs to play live? Which ones work best with the crowd and are there differences between the different countries?
Legion of the Damned: I like a lot of songs to play live, but there are always several songs which the fan wants to hear such as bleed for me, legion of the damned, cult of the dead, pray and suffer and werewolf corpse.
RoD: What got you into making music in the first place?
Legion of the Damned: Listening to early demos from SATHANAS and ACHERON really.
RoD: A limited edition of your previous album, ‘Cult of the Dead’ was available with a cheese block. Did you come up with that idea yourself and how? Are you planning on releasing other unusual band accessories or was this just a unique occasion?
Legion of the Damned: The cheese block was an idea by our German manager who thought it was typical Dutch. For the new album there is a limited version with a 28cm big figure.
RoD: Is there anything you would like to tell our readers?
Legion of the Damned: Thanks for the interview and support.
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