Conquest
Of Steel
True, pure, honest,
classic, 80s fucking metal... That's what Conquest Of Steel stand for,
so I don't think I need to say anything more... Just enjoy and raise the
flag of heavy metal up high!
1. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CONQUEST OF STEEL
CAMP FROM THE RELEASE OF YOUR EP “MAY YOUR BLADE NEVER DULL” UP UNTIL NOW?
Well there wasn’t all that much time between
“May your Blade…” and “Hammer and Fist”. We basically got back out gigging
to promote the EP and to try out some of the new tracks off "Hammer and
Fist". We were however able to collect loads of great reviews for “May
your Blade…” from mags and zines across the world. This has certainly helped
us in being able to promote "Hammer and Fist" in a better way.
2. WHICH ARE THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN “HAMMER AND FIST” AND “MAY YOUR BLADE NEVER DULL?
"May your Blade…" was a stop-gap release and
a preparation for the fans for "Hammer and Fist". "May Your Blade..." contains
some old tracks that we have been playing for years (Steel is the Law,
Righteous Victory (of War)), 2 brand new tracks (Priests of Metal, Halfway
to Hell) and a new track off "Hammer and Fist" (May Your Blade…). It was
designed to show something of the old, the current and the future. The
production on "May Your Blade…" was a step up from our debut album ‘Conquest
of Steel’ and "Hammer and Fist" is an improvement even from that. Needless
to say we are really pleased with how both the EP and new album have turned
out – they are both great slabs of True Heavy Metal!
3. YOU PLAY 80S FUCKING HEAVY METAL AND YOU COME
FROM THE U.K. NOW HOW STRANGE IS THAT? ARE THERE ANY OTHER BANDS WITH A
SIMILAR TO YOURS SOUND OVER THERE THAT DESERVE OUR ATTENTION?
Strange? Not really, considering that Heavy
Metal originated in the UK. However, I guess that although Metal started
here it kind of died for a period of time (particularly for True Metal),
and straight up, honest Heavy Metal has not been popular in the UK for
a long time - it has migrated to the new homelands – Germany and Greece!
I am pleased to say that there are lots of True Metal fans in the UK, and
we see great turnouts to our gigs from fans who are dying to hear some
real Heavy Metal. There are plenty of bands in the UK playing Metal, but
not many doing what we do – there are some young bands coming through,
and there is a particularly strong Thrash scene, but we definitely stand
out in the scene. We like it this way though – we are proud to be the flagbearers
for a new True Wave of British Heavy Metal!
4. CAN YOU NAME SOME OF YOUR MOST BELOVED BANDS
AND ALBUMS? WHO ARE THOSE MUSICIANS THAT MADE YOU REALIZE THIS IS THE SOUND
THAT SUITS YOU BEST?
The bands that influenced us to start Conquest
of Steel, are all the classic acts: Maiden, Priest, Dio, Twisted Sister,
WASP etc etc. Our love for the old style of Metal and the fact that there
were very few bands playing underground True Metal in the UK made us want
to start our own band in this style. We are of course influenced by other
bands within the Metal and Rock scenes and we all listen to Doom, Death,
Power, Prog Rock, Prog Metal etc etc. All the different types of Metal
and Rock that we listen to help to influence the sound of Conquest of Steel,
but it is the sound of 80’s Heavy Metal that comes out in the end, and
this is the way it will stay. We will continue to play True, honest Heavy
Metal.
5. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER TO THE METAL HEADS?
WHY DO YOU THINK THEY SHOULD CHECK YOU OUT?
Because we are Britain’s finest Heavy Metal
Warriors. We are bringing back the sounds of old school True Heavy Metal.
Our biggest selling point is our live show. We excel in the live arena.
This is where feel most at home – playing Metal songs for rabid Metal fans.
We put our all into our gigs – blood, sweat and Heavy Metal. Nobody walks
away from a Conquest of Steel show without having enjoyed what they have
seen. For us it is all about putting on a professional, entertaining live
show. There is nothing worse than seeing a band standing still looking
at the ground when they play. We engage with the crowd and whip them up
into a frenzy. Any Metalheads who aren’t sure if they will like us should
come and check out one of our gigs – they will not be disappointed!
6. ARE THERE ANY ELEMENTS YOU’D LIKE TO EXPERIMENT
WITH OR ADD IN YOUR SOUND? ELEMENTS THAT SUIT THE CLASSIC HEAVY METAL SOUND?
We will continue to add in new elements to
our music, but we will always stay true to our roots and to what we are
about. We are a Heavy Metal band and we will not start to introduce Dance,
Rap etc and other non-metal influences into our music. We will however
develop within our style and fans can rest assured that we will continue
to provide them with the best of True Heavy Metal, done in the Conquest
way.
7. WHAT’S THE BEST AND WHAT’S THE WORST PART OF
YOUR MUSIC, ACCORDING TO YOU?
There is no worst part! Maybe all the wimps
and poseurs who can’t stand to listen to Real Metal will find it offensive,
bit that is our aim. As Manowar said ‘If your not into Metal, you can leave
the Hall’. The best bit is that we are proud to play and sing about the
glory of Metal. We write great Heavy Metal songs and sing about the passion
that we feel for Metal – our fans understand this and also feel the same.
8. WHICH ARE THE TOPICS YOUR LYRICS DEAL WITH?
IS IT PURE FICTION OR IS THERE ANYTHING MORE TO LOOK FOR BETWEEN THE LINES?
The lyrics mainly glorify Heavy Metal and
how being a Metaler is one of the greatest things in the world. However
on the new album we have tracks about Battle, Wolves and all kinds of Metal
shit. Yes it’s a stereotype to sing about these things, but these are Heavy
Metal themes and we are a Heavy Metal band. We actively try to write about
Heavy Metal themes, as this is what we spend our life doing and this is
our passion. There are no ‘whingy’, self obsessed lyrics in Conquest of
Steel – only True Metal lyrics.
9. HAVE YOU GOT ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS? HOW
ARE YOU THINKING OF PROMOTING YOUR WORK?
We are always on the road gigging. We play
at least 50 gigs a year. We try to get abroad as much as we can. We have
just come back from a 2 week European tour, taking in the UK, Holland,
Belgium and Germany. We are playing DOD Festival in Ireland this weekend
and have plans to return to Ireland later in the year. We are always looking
for new contacts and promoters to help book us shows in new countries and
we hope to book another European Tour next year and hit some Underground
European Metal Fests. So any promoters in Greece that want to book us
just get in touch!
10. WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE A FEMALE FIGURE ON
YOUR COVER ARTWORKS?
We feel our covers represent the band in a
positive Metal way. Female figures are an integral part of Metal covers.
We are true to the old ways and do not deviate from the path of Steel.
Of course our artist is also very adept at creating Heavy Metal women on
our covers. The women on our covers are strong women, they are not subservient
to men, the battle along side them for the glory of Metal. We believe that
both men and women can fight the good fight and stand proud for Metal.
This is we wrote the song ‘Wenches can be Warriors (Sluts of War)’. We
honour our female fans and are proud that they choose to listen to our
music.
11. WHAT WAS THE MOST FLATTERING AND WHAT THE
WORST COMMENT YOU’VE READ ABOUT YOUR MUSIC?
We regularly get great comments about the
band. Here are a few quotes from magazines:
“If you ever wanted to know what perfect British
metal sounds like, having your eardrums blown out by Conquest’s impossibly
awesome Maiden-isms should set you straight”
“…stunning trad-metal that puts the originals
to shame”.
“…so utterly metal through-and-through…”
“…the heavy metal formula nailed to a tee
with screaming guitars, galloping rhythms and a one-hundred-percent metal
vocalist.”
Of course the most flattering of all comments
come from our fans after gigs. We appreciate them taking the time to speak
to us and tell us how they feel about our music. This is what matters to
us the most.
As for the worst comments. Unfortunately not
everyone understands what we are trying to do and we do occasionally get
people saying bad things about us and slagging us off. But this happens
to every band. We are just glad that people have an opinion about us. At
least it means we are not just mediocre. At least we get peoples attention
and have people talking about us.
12. WHAT EMOTIONS AND IMAGES DO YOU THINK YOUR
MUSIC CREATES TO YOUR FANS?
Heavy Metal, pure and simple. No more no less.
13. IF YOU HAD A HUGE BUDGET TO SHOOT A VIDEO
CLIP, WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO
BE?
A big budget would be great. We had a very
small budget for our last video and we are probably going to have quite
a small budget for our next one as well. We are planning on doing a video
for ‘I am Legend’ off "Hammer and Fist". We are currently making plans
for this video and hope to have it finished before the end of the year.
Unfortunately I cannot give away any of our ideas – but rest assured it
will be one great Metal video!
14. HAS ANY FUNNY OR WEIRD INCIDENT OCCURRED TO
YOU IN A LIVE SHOW OR WHILST RECORDING YOUR LATEST ALBUM?
Everything went pretty smoothly with recording
"Hammer and Fist". Of course we were recording through the night and then
there was lots of drinking afterwards, so we didn’t get much sleep and
were usually recording with hangovers, but we managed to get everything
done just right. As for live shows, probably one of the funniest
was a festival we played in Germany – Zoro Fest. We were playing outdoors
in the afternoon and the beer was flowing long before we got on stage,
so we were all well oiled before picking up our instruments and to make
matters worse whilst we were on stage people kept bringing us trays of
shots for us to drink whilst playing – so we ended up pretty pissed by
the end of the gig! Unfortunately after the first few songs things started
to go wrong as Dan (Vocals) kept getting electric shocks from the mike,
my guitar strap kept falling off and eventually the bass amp blew up! Vic
(Bass) Just had to get into the crowd and headbang through the rest of
the set as we played on as a 4 piece with Dan still getting shocks from
the microphone. The atmosphere of the gig was great though, and despite
it being a near disaster we had a great time. The crowd were great and
enjoyed every minute. The rest of the night was a haze of alcohol induced
Metalness. Unfortunately as we missed our plane home the next day we had
to stay another night and drink more fine German beer with the kind people
who had put us up for the night. All in all it was a fine Metal weekend
and we can’t wait to return.
15. IS THERE A TITLE YOU THINK CAN SUM UP THE
WHOLE CONQUEST OF STEEL ESSENCE?
16. WHY DO CONQUEST OF STEEL EXIST? WHAT DO YOU
WANT TO ACHIEVE WITH THIS BAND?
We exist because we love Metal and we love
to write our own Metal songs that glorify all the bands that have gone
before us and have provided us with years of Metal music. We wish to preach
to the unconverted masses – we want people to understand the power of Metal.
We are the Priests of Metal.
17. THANK YOU! IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE
TO MENTION?
Just to say cheers for the Interview Christine.
Keep up the good work with the ‘zine and stay true to the ideals of Metal.
Keep your eyes on www.conquestofsteel.co.uk
and www.myspace.com/conquestofsteel
for loads of info, videos downloads etc etc. And last but not least
hope to see some of the Greek Metal fans at a gig some time.
Keep it Metal
D.D.Danger (Guitars)
Christine Parastatidou
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