Interview: Sourvein Vocalist Talks Upcoming Album And Randy Blythe

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Formed in 1996, Sourvein have always been a favorite among doom and sludge fanatics. The band is due to release a new album on April 6th, titled Aquatic Occult. The album will feature several guests including members of Corrosion of Conformity, Lamb of God, Amebix and Iron Monkey.  I was recently able to speak with founding member T-Roy, via telephone. We discussed the new album as well as topics on doom metal.

 

How did the writing process for your album go? 

It went really well man! I had a lot of fun with it and was rocking out to some old school tunes. I was really into it

In what direction will this new album go in?

Its all the same elements of all the other records with some new elements added in as well. We will have more guitar layering and leads. The album has a loose theme which is something we haven’t done before. We are all still Sourvein and the record will be heavy as fuck!

Can you elaborate a little on this loose theme? 

Its called Aquatic Occult, so its loosely based on an island in southeast North Carolina.Its loosly based upon being raised by the ocean as well as things about the ocean that are pretty abstract. The lyrics will contain some personal themes as well as fictional stuff. It’s always been pretty personal and real, but this album does have some lighter fictional abstract poetry

I  notice this album has a bunch of guests. What made you decide to choose these specific guests. 

We got Steve from Amebix and Dean from Iron Monkey, I’m a big fan of both bands. We were just talking and stuff. I finally have the opportunity to have a guest or two, it just happened like that. Randy Blythe from Lamb of God and I we go way back. He was around during our recording process. He has sung live with us before so it was a no branier to get him. Also he’s an old friend. When I was in high school Lamb of God was the cool band in town. Just felt I needed to pay honor to him. We also have Mike Dean from Corrosion of Conformity doing guest drums. He wanted to play with us and we glad to let him being big fans of his.

What made you choose “Ocypuss” as the albums single?

It’s the one everyone kinda chose. The album is 14 songs long, so we had to have a single. We thought that track was a good one to lead it off with.

Any tour to promote this album? Any idea who you will be touring with?

We are not sure who we are going to tour with yet, but we do have somethings up in the air. We are definatly coming to Europe around late spring/ early summer and playing the west coast in the fall. We also have planned festivals and one off shows all year long. We will promote all of this as much as possible.

Sounds cool hopefully you guys come around here. With Electric Wizards last tour selling out really fast and fests like Maryland Deathfest getting more and more doom metal bands, do you feel the sub-genre is getting more popular then it was say 15 years ago? 

For sure man. Fifteen years ago there was only like a handful of bands people were into. Now it is more of a big thing, more and more people are going to doom shows. The band’s that were around back then are getting more and more exposure and new bands are popping up all the time. I think its awesome.

It is awesome it’s just also funny that back when I was in high school and finding bands like Electric Wizard and Eyehategod and most of the other metal fans at my school had no idea these bands existed. Now some of my friends that don’t even listen to much metal are listening to these bands. 

Yeah it is pretty funny. I remember playing Electric Wizards first tour and playing to only 40 people. Their were no sell out shows back then. It’s a trip seeing this stuff get popular all of a sudden but at the same time it’s cool to see bands like Pentagram and St.Vitus, who I look up to, finally get their just dues.