This is Mithras, guitarist and vocalist of Fallen Tyrant from Darmstadt, Germany answering your questions. I founded Fallen Tyrant in early 2008 as a side project, as my main band was, and is, psychedelic/prog/doom rock band Wight, where I play bass. I recorded two demos all by myself, before I was joined by Den Tørstige Mand on bass and Sperrfeuer Heretic on drums. We recorded a two track demo in spring of 2011, went on to play some live gigs and recorded our debut album „No World To Win, A Life To Lose" in fall 2012 and will release it on August 2nd, 2013.

We play Black Metal, fast, heavy and aggressive. Our sound has been described as „epic and dirty at the same time" by some guy at one of our concerts, and that really fits quite well. We use blast beats extensively, but at the same time always retain a sense of melody and some rock'n'roll groove in our songs. We are a power trio, there are no keyboards, so you get the picture. We're not called the South Hessian War Machine for nothing. Lyrically, we deal with the dark sides of human life and society as well as some left hand path symbolism. I use that term very loosely here, we don't really follow any kind of fixed ideology. We take our music and performance very seriously, but we also like to have a good laugh and take the piss out of everything. Generally, we use a very rock'n'roll-styled approach on playing music, because that's where we all come from. Influences on the other hand, that's a hard question. I listen to a lot of black metal and classic heavy metal and quite a bit of fusion jazz. Some of the bands that have definitely influenced me in what I do in Fallen Tyrant would be Darkthrone, Immortal, Urgehal, Marduk, God Dethroned and Judas Priest. All classics, you get the picture Our drummer is more into the more brutal Death Metal stuff, and our bass player comes from a blues and doom background.

Because of the music, obviously. We love what we are doing, and we're pretty good at it at this point, too. When you listen to a Fallen Tyrant record, you're in for a ride through dark spaces.

As I mentioned earlier, I released two demos alone with a drum computer to a mixed reception – looking back, I don't regret recording them, but I can also see what they're lacking now. We then released a demo with the whole band, which we sold at our concerts and was generally very well received. Right now, we are promoting our debut album, which will be released through Fat & Holy Records on August 2nd, 2013.

Yes, we do play live, we are first and foremost a live band. Our album was also recorded live in the studio, by the way. We've been all over Germany in the last two years, generally it's not that easy as the Black Metal scene is in a pretty bad shape, but it's getting better. Our live shows are very intense, we obviously play the music we play, use smoke, a video show whenever we can, and vast amounts of frankincense and corpse paint. A Black Metal show has to be able to create a dense atmosphere, that's what we are striving for. Black Metal is a form of art that should enable you to get in touch with the dark, especially your own dark side.

You should be interested in Fallen Tyrant because we have a good record out, we put on a good live show, and we are willing to play live almost any time, anywhere. To put it short: You should be interested in us because we're a good band. Just check it out and decide. Promoters also should notice that we are not associated with the NSBM scene in any way and wish for that to remain so.

First, we release the album. Then, we'll play some more live shows. We have already started writing songs for a second album and have performed one of them live. Our next record might even come out as some sort of concept album, as all the songs and lyrics we have so far fit together thematically quite well. In the long run, we just want to keep doing what we do, and hope that people enjoy it. For me, Fallen Tyrant is an emotional outlet that I really need as well as a musical entity that I enjoy working with, and I feel that in my band mates, too. It might be interesting that DTM, our bass player on the album and the guy behind most of our visual imagery, just decided to leave the band in friendship due to a shift in personal priorities. We already have a new bass player, Nihlathak, who fits in really well.

You can listen to the album in its full length and also order it at fallentyrant.bandcamp.com, or you can visit us at fallentyrant.com or facebook.com/fallen.tyrant. You can also check out our label at fandandholy.com.

September 2013