(Unsigned)
Genre: European influenced Thrash comparable to As I Lay Dying or I Killed The Prom Queen.
Interviewed on: 4/10/08
From: South, UK
www.myspace.com/thescarlethourglass
1. What are your names and role in the band?
Matty - Vocals
Ben - Guitars
Daryl - Guitars
G - Bass
Davey - Drums
2. How's the new album coming along? Does the song "Severance" sound like the rest of the album will?
It's going well so far, we're not specifically writing for an album but there're 3 or 4 songs ready for us to work on which will be on an album if we eventually write one. They're all on a similar level to severance, but things are getting a little more progressive and experimental and abit more dark. We've started experimenting with huge textures, like 8 guitars at once shit and. theres some layered up acoustic parts happening now too. its gonna be hard to do live but worth it in the end - we hope.
3. Being from the UK, the metal scene is growing very fast, what makes you guys stand out in the sea of metal?
the majority of metal bands from the uk (with some exceptions obviously) are hitting the generic brutal metal route looking for the JFAC, Suicide Silence, Knights of the Abyss chug chug side of things. We're alot more focused on the melody and musicality of it all, loads of harmonised guitars and stuff. Whereas most of the uk bands are going for the american metal style, we're pretty much mixing european metal with american thrash. The only underground band i can think of from the uk right now doing that is Anterior from wales.
4. How did you hook up with Mat Caron from Carnival Of Horrors?
Matty's been a close friend of mine and Davey's (drums) for a good 4 years now. Davey was his first friend when he moved here from Wales so they go way back and i met him soon after through a mutual friend. We stayed good friends right up til now, and when the first lineup of TSH went to shit Mat was stupid enough to say "if you ever reform it and need a vocalist, i'll totally do it" clearly thinking i'd never do it. Turns out i did and i held him to it, which is totally awesome cause hes an incredible vocalist and an incrdible frontman. It all worked out really well, really easily. Without mat, i would never have worked to get the new lineup and there'd be no TSH now.
5. You guys have a show with 3 Inches Of Blood coming up, you guys excited? Have you guys played with any nationally signed acts before?
Yeah the 3Inches show is gonna be fucking sick!! We've got some special guests coming to check us out aswell which could result in some important news for us. I don't wanna say anything unless things dont quite go to plan, but it could be good times. But we all love 3 inches and it'll be sick to play with them. We've played with a couple big bands before - anterior (metal blade) and sylosis (nuclear blast) who are both AWESOME bands. The best two underground bands going in the uk in my opinion. We've got shows with See You Next Tuesday, Despised Icon and Cephalic Carnage coming up too.
6. We saw that you had your EP up for downloading, what's your take on music downloading?
The thing with Newborn was that it was all written and recorded with the old lineup, so when they all quit, there was really nothing we could do with it. we thought it'd be a waste to just lose all the tracks, so we put them up for download as they're still a big part of our set. the amount of music we download, we'd be hypocrites if we didnt anyway.. money's the least important thing as far as we're concerned and at the end of the day, if its free, more people will hear it and the more people that hear our music and enjoy it, the happier we are.
7. If you could describe your band in three words, what what it be?
Epic melodic metal
8. What are you currently listening to?
depends who you ask! as a band we have the most ridiculous music taste haha.
Ben - Black metal/thrash/prog
Mat - punk/acoustic/however the fuck you
describe Modern Life Is War
Davey - Everything ever.
G - hardcore
me - trance and dance
clearly we all appreciate metal and we all listen to everything, but if we're generalising...
Also, buy the new In Flames album!
9. What's next for The Scarlet Hourglass?
Well, it all depends how 3inches goes! ;) this year could be good for us though as far as tours and releases go. We've got a few weekenders and basic plans coming up though. We're basically gonna keep writing and keep playing shows, and keep fucking partying! thats how it goes in TSH camp.
10. Any shoutouts?
Just the one, to Tim Yankeeboy, the promotor at our local venue. without him we'd probably literally be nowhere. if we ever get any bigger, the simplicity of it is that Tim gets all the credit :P
