The interview that follows was conducted in May 1997 by Caleb. For more Darkenwood see their demo review in this issue.
ATL) How about we get a little introduction, tell me who you are and some history of the band.
Chris) Well Stephen O'Malley and I started this project called November's Fire that was probably going on about 3 or 4 years ago. This was after I was really burned out playing the local metal scene around here which consisted of about 3 bands. I just sat around home and started writing material. Stephen was playing bass at the time, then he started Descent Magazine and he had to devote all his time to that. Everyone I wanted to jam with was in a band already or doing some project so I realized that I had to put an ad in the Rocket to find someone. Michael answered the ad so we got together and started jamming. He was playing with this guy named Jeff; good drummer but he wasn't our style and then he moved away. Then Jamie Sykes came into the scene, he had just moved over from England, he answered our ad in the Rocket, now he's gone back to England. Randy joined to play drums after that and now we have Gabriel, our new drummer.
ATL) He plays drums now, he was a guitar player in your old band???
Mary) He and Jamie both left, then I came into the band. I borrowed some keyboards from a friend. I had always played the violin but not the keyboards before. I borrowed my friends keyboards and I just started messing around and it just kind of worked, so I bought my own.
Chris) Our drummer, Randy, decided to face plant a dash board and got stuck in the hospital. He got in a head on car wreck. He had to have steel plates stuck in his face and his jaw wired shut, so we had a set back.
Michael) His drums were down at the practice pad and we hooked up with Gabriel one night. He played drums and shit fucking rocked.
Chris) He played drums before, about 8 years or so ago before he moved up here from Arizona. He was playing guitar for us. We'd never heard him play drums because Jamie would never let anybody play his kit. So we always knew he played drums, turns out he's fucking good.
ATL) So how long have you been together for?
Chris) About 2 1/2 years.
ATL) Now your playing shows, it seems like you weren't playing a while ago.
Chris) We were playing shows when we first hooked up, beginning of 1995.
ATL) And now you are playing shows, are you getting good responses?
Chris) Yeah.
Mary) We have a keyboard intro with a fog machine, then Chris comes out and breathes fire, does some spoken word. Lots of our songs run into each other, a lot of them have spoken word along with fast and slow parts.
Chris) I feel a big part of our music is staging the right atmosphere for when you see us. I think that's really important.
ATL) I would say that Darkenwood has a Norwegian influence, do you think that style is now coming over here to the US?
Chris) Well it's over here right now. It's just such a small number of bands. A small handful of bands like us in the US. It seems to be getting more acknowledged more and more. Every month I go to the magazine rack and look at Hit Parader and all the other cheesy magazines and I'm seeing more black metal stuff coming up. It's going to be how death metal was years ago.
ATL) Are you planning on recording anything new soon?
Chris) Well right now we're working with Gabriel, getting the drums down. We had to cancel a few shows already. We have to get back to being ready musically. Our next show is on the 13th of June in Portland.
Michael) We're playing with Vein, Warhate and Thy Infernal. We've got to get our demo mastered. Gabriel did the artwork for it.
Mary) The artwork is too good.
Chris) Yeah, it is too good to use for a demo.
ATL) I'm assuming you've sent off to the recording labels?
Mary) No, not really. We're not entirely happy with it. They're old songs, our newer songs are so much better.
Chris) I think the next thing we're going to do is a split CD with Inquisition from Columbia.
ATL) So you're wearing corpse paint...
Michael) To an extent. We don't do it like the other guys. It's kind of like our own style.
ATL) What are the lyrics about?
Michael) Mary writes all the lyrics.
Mary) They're not really based on Christianity or Satanism. It's a concept based on skepticism and that anyone who believes blindly in any kind of faith is fucked. It starts out with the life of a boy and what happens to him. Throughout life he becomes more and more skeptical. He runs away from the village and a priest is trying to make him believe in his way of living. The boy then goes through the veil of Darkenwood and becomes a powerful wizard.
