Tony<\/strong>: Yes, last month we did the European tour with Obituary and next month, in March, we go to Russia. [In 2013] we finished our European tour with Onslaught, Master and Tantara. At the end of that we had a couple of festival shows. When we returned home from that tour we had a discussion with Marc…basically we just came down to a situation where we felt that the whole idea behind MPire Of Evil was predominantly based on myself and Mantas. We do all the management work, we do all the artwork, all the production and all the writing. Marc wanted to do more than play drums. He wanted to be more involved, but of course the way that we work is pretty much centred around myself and Mantas. And we couldn\u2019t balance it out in a way that Marc would feel completely happy with his role.<\/p>\n So because I had some shows coming up and we were still in a little state of indecision I called a friend of mine, Peso, who drums for the Italian band Necrodeath and asked him if he could step in should I need him for a couple of shows. And he said that he was a bit old now [laughs] and that it would take him quite a while to learn everything…..probably longer than we could wait. So he suggested another Italian drummer who\u2019s like a young [Dave] Lombardo. His name is Francesco La Rosa…they actually call him Francesco \u2018Frullo\u2019 La Rosa because \u2018frullo\u2019 in Italian means \u2018to mix\u2019 and he mixes well with his feet, he\u2019s very fast with his feet. So I got in touch with Francesco and I said \u201cLook, we may not have a drummer for a couple of shows. Would you be able to come and step in for us if that happens?\u201d He said \u201cYes\u201d and I sent him the material and we\u2019ve been together ever since. Francesco plays for a band called Extrema and also plays in another band called Mastercastle, he\u2019s a drum teacher and he\u2019s played with a lot of different people.<\/p>\n We found that that was the perfect solution for us. Plus we didn\u2019t need to expand beyond 3 members and risk all that \u2018band politics\u2019…..you know, like every band has. We decided to keep it nice and clean, no arguments, just fun to do and always exciting and creative. We found that this was the best way to do it. It means we have a superb drummer who comes to play with us and when he\u2019s with us he\u2019s as much part of MPire Of Evil as we [Tony and Mantas] are ourselves. But it also means that he can then go back to Italy and carry on with everything else he\u2019s doing while we can focus on writing and recording and dealing with all the management stuff. And when it\u2019s time to put the drums down, we can call him up and he goes into a studio and he can put the drums down. Also when we go to play live, we tell him what the dates are, he arranges it, and then he comes on tour with us. Actually it turns out to be a great solution to the issues we were having. Initially this was how I wanted to use Marc Jackson, in a very similar role after we had parted ways with Antton. So yes, for the foreseeable future we will have Francesco playing for the MPire.<\/p>\n Antton [drummer Anthony \u2018Antton\u2019 Lant] was involved in the songwriting of \u201cHell To The Holy\u201d, the first MPIRE OF EVIL album. How much did his departure influence your decision to do second album \u201cCrucified\u201d, basically a re-interpretation of Venom numbers?<\/strong><\/p>\n Tony<\/strong>: Well, kind of. I mean bringing us all together was partly Antton\u2019s idea. They [Antton and Mantas] were playing together in Dryll – the project Mantas had prior to MPire Of Evil – and then they got in touch with me inviting me to join and I thought it was a brilliant idea. We all had a relationship through Venom: of course Mantas is Mantas, I was there for a period of time and Antton was also with Venom for a period of time, besides being Cronos\u2019 brother. So we felt we had something in common even though, until then, we had never played together as musicians.<\/p>\n We did \u201cCreatures Of The Black\u201d, our first EP. Then we recorded \u201cHell To The Holy\u201d. We all had an input in that and I thought it turned out pretty well. Antton, however, just wasn\u2019t quite happy at how it turned out or how he wanted the thing to move forward. He wanted to push it in another direction that I wasn\u2019t particularly happy with. And one thing I said when we began the project was that this time we have to do everything correctly. We don\u2019t need and politics, we don\u2019t need any arguments and it should be fun. I didn\u2019t want to go ahead with the band for just a year or two or three years. I wanted to do it so it will be our legacy.<\/p>\n Over the years there have been so many times when we said \u201cOh, let\u2019s do an album, let\u2019s do some shows\u201d. And then you do it and two or 3 years later the band has broken up again. I just didn\u2019t want to waste that sort of time because I know how much energy I put into projects and how much time it consumes. So if we were going to do it, we\u2019d have to all be happy, all agree and we need to put everything into it.<\/p>\n Right before the American tour, when we had just finished \u201cHell To The Holy\u201d it was quite clear to me that all things with Antton were not particularly well and that we may be creating some sort of issue with ourselves that in a few years\u2019 time might break us up. I didn\u2019t want that to happen so I thought that before we do the first shows we have to make a decision. That decision was Antton\u2019s departure. But he also had his Def Con One band and it was what he liked doing so it was perfect. He\u2019s been getting albums out with that band and he\u2019s doing really well. He got to do what he wants and we moved on.<\/p>\n We drafted in Marc Jackson after that and, a bit like Francesco, he was recommended to us. We saw him play and we thought this is brilliant and asked him if he would like to join us for the tour. At that point we should have explained to him how it was going to work. We though we\u2019ll just keep our drummer and not convene our band to clarify things but with hindsight that was probably the wrong way to go about it. After that tour, because he\u2019s such a great drummer, we wanted to record with Marc. So we had written two songs for a single: \u2018Demone\u2019 and \u2018Taking It All\u2019 and then we looked into doing the next album.<\/p>\n What we were finding was that when we went out and played, a lot of the die-hard Venom fans were asking us to play \u2018Prime Evil\u2019 and \u2018Parasite\u2019 and \u2018Skool Days\u2019 and \u2018Harder Than Ever\u2019 and other Venom songs that I had done with Venom. And then of course because Mantas was with MPire Of Evil, they also said: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you do \u2018Welcome To Hell\u2019?\u201d \u201cWhy don\u2019t you do \u2018Black Metal\u2019?\u201d They\u2019re not really MPire songs but then we said, hang on, we are doing \u2018Blackened Are The Priests\u2019, we are doing \u2018Carnivorous\u2019, we are doing our old material and although they were recorded under the name of Venom, they were actually our songs. We did write them. And we thought you\u2019re not going to hear Cronos play those songs live with Venom so if Mantas is here and I am here, why should we deny fans hearing the songs? So we decided to play them live as part of our set. Bear in mind that in the beginning we didn\u2019t have enough material to do a 2-hour set of MPire Of Evil songs anyway so we went to the fans to ask them what other songs they\u2019d like to hear us play and they told us to play songs like \u2018Die Hard\u2019, \u2018Black Metal\u2019, \u2018Hellspawn\u2019, \u2018Metal Messiah\u2019. Basically our live set was put together by the fans.<\/p>\n So if people criticise us for playing songs such as \u2018Don\u2019t burn the Witch\u2019, it\u2019s actually a song that was written by Mantas and me. So we\u2019re not distinguishing between Venom songs and MPire Of Evil songs \u2013 they\u2019re just songs…great songs…written by the people who are on stage playing them for the fans who want to hear them.<\/p>\n When we talked about recording our second studio album, we thought that in order to include the Venom songs in our live set, why don\u2019t we make them legitimately MPire Of Evil songs by first asking fans what their favourite songs are and then re-recording them as MPire with Marc Jackson. So we weren\u2019t trying to give them a 21st<\/sup> century sound or re-doing them because we didn\u2019t thing the originals were as good. Most of the people who\u2019ve heard the \u201cCrucified\u201d album consider it to be an MPire Of Evil album. We\u2019ve even had reviews which said there were one or two Venom songs with the rest being MPire Of Evil songs. It was only the die-hard fans that recognised the album as having older Venom songs. So now, when we play those songs live…..songs like \u2018Black Legions\u2019, \u2018Temples Of Ice\u2019…..people don\u2019t distinguish between Venom or Mpire Of Evil. They just think they\u2019re MPire songs. And that<\/em> was the idea behind \u201cCrucified\u201d.<\/p>\n Trailer of \u201cCrucified\u201d album:<\/em> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pODGKahjuzc&t=19<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n When you started MPire Of Evil, did you have a clear idea of what you wanted to sound like or did you say, let\u2019s just jam together and we\u2019ll see what emerges?<\/strong><\/p>\n Tony<\/strong>: Well, it\u2019s a good question….when we initially started as the three of us with Antton, Mantas and myself discussing it, it was quite clear that they wanted to aim towards Venom. I didn\u2019t feel that we needed to do that because we were<\/em> Venom so we didn\u2019t even need to try to get there. We could play Venom songs if they wanted to but we didn\u2019t need to. So my take was that this was an opportunity for us to be able to play any style we want and any type of songs we want. Whatever we create could be totally our own. We don\u2019t have to put ourselves in a category, we don\u2019t have to be Death Metal or Deathcore or, you know, Thrash. We don\u2019t have to be anything. We could just be whatever we were feeling. And so we looked and though \u201cWhat do we love about the music?\u201d And we concluded that what we love is the heaviness and that ranged from Cryptic Slaughter to Napalm Death to Pantera to Kiss. What we loved was the very idea of Heavy Metal….classic Heavy Metal…..stuff that sounds good, that makes the audience move along to. That\u2019s why we did \u201cCreatures Of The Black\u201d \u2013 we looked into ourselves and said \u201cWhich were the songs that shaped us?\u201d Which were the songs that I, personally, first heard that made me say \u201cShit, that<\/em>\u2019s what I want to do for a career\u201d. For me it was Mot\u00f6rhead, for Mantas it was Judas Priest\u2019s \u2018Exciter\u2019 and for Antton it was AC\/DC. We also did \u2018God of Thunder\u2019 [Kiss cover] because you could do \u2018God of Thunder\u2019 in Venom\u2019s early sets and also to mess around. And then we added two of our own songs.<\/p>\n People were asking why we did that EP as our first release and the reason we did that was because we hoped they\u2019ll understand why we were doing MPire Of Evil. We wanted to say, look, we love Heavy Metal, we love the classic bands and if you want to call that \u2018old school\u2019 you could but it\u2019s just about the genre, the Heavy Metal genre. And that covers everyone from Cradle Of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, all the way to, I don\u2019t know….Accept and AC\/DC. Just the heavy, groovy style of everybody. And when we came to do \u201cHell To The Holy\u201d we did our own songs but the imprint of the classic Metal sound is still there. All of our influences are on there.<\/p>\n You know, this morning I was reading a review of one of the shows we did with Obituary and the reviewer said that he couldn\u2019t quite categorise us. He felt that it was brilliant, very professional and that we certainly had our old school heads on and yet he couldn\u2019t categorise us.<\/p>\n Tony, while playing with bands such as Atomkraft, Venom and MPire Of Evil, your role varied from bassist, guitarist and lead vocalist, often adopting more than one of these roles concurrently. Clearly you\u2019re quite a versatile musician but in which of these positions do you feel most comfortable?<\/strong><\/p>\n Tony<\/strong>: When I had accepted Mantas\u2019 invitation to play bass guitar in his band [around 2004] I didn\u2019t think about roles too much because there already was a guitarist and vocalist. But I loved the material so I still enjoyed recording and playing live with that band. There\u2019s a certain freedom on stage at playing bass and not having to sing. With Atomkraft I sometimes played bass, sometimes I played guitar and sometimes I sang. Of course with Venom and MPire I played bass and sang. To be honest I don\u2019t really distinguish between not singing and playing or singing and playing<\/p>\n So you\u2019re happy either way?<\/strong><\/p>\n Tony<\/strong>: Yeah, it always feels quite natural whatever I do or play. Besides, I\u2019ve played bass and done lead vocals for so many years now that it doesn\u2019t feel like I\u2019m doing two things. It only feels like I\u2019m doing one thing.<\/p>\n You mentioned Atomkraft…..what is the situation with that band? I read the band had got together again and were thinking of doing another album.<\/strong><\/p>\n [Note: Formed in 1979, Atomkraft spearheaded what became known as the NWOBHM movement. Like Venom, the band came from the North English city of Newcastle and only ever released 1 full-length, \u201cFuture Warriors\u201d, besides a few EPs.]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Tony<\/strong>: Well, I often get approached by people wishing to put on Atomkraft shows or asking if I\u2019d be prepared to record something with Atomkraft. I\u2019ve done it once or twice over the last 2 or 3 years. I released an EP on vinyl and CD through W.A.R. Productions in 2011. It was called \u201cCold Sweat\u201d which included a cover of the Thin Lizzy classic. That came after Jaap [Waagemaker], of Nuclear Blast, suggested that I should do something on the anniversary of Phil Lynott\u2019s death. So I did that and then I was asked to do some shows in Holland, which I did, with bands such as Girlschool and Agent Steel. But it wasn\u2019t the original band. As a drummer I had Steve Mason \u2013 he was with a band called Blinded By Fear. The guitarist was P\u00e4r Hulkoff, from Copenhagen. Yes, Atomkraft were originally a 3-piece before we progressed to a 5-piece band but at the end of those shows, I didn\u2019t feel it was right. I wasn\u2019t happy with the performance and I didn\u2019t feel it was the real Atomkraft. So I decided not to do any more shows.<\/p>\n Then, a couple of years ago, Minotauro Records approached me and asked me if I had any demos and things that I\u2019d like to put together and give them a release. So last year….or maybe it was the year before…we released what was basically a compilation of live recordings and demos that I had lying around. It was released as a double-vinyl set and a 3-CD set. The recordings were very rough \u2013 I didn\u2019t produce it or mix it, it was exactly as they sounded in their original recordings. What I quite liked about the reaction to that box-set was that unless you\u2019re a hardcore fan, you hated it. And I liked that because Atomkraft was never about being perfect, it was always about the energy of the whole thing.<\/p>\n As a result of that release I was contacted by Brofest, a festival in Newcastle, and asked if I wanted to play with Atomkraft. And I said that the guys I have with me at the moment were a drummer called Paul Caffrey, who drums for the Thrash band Gama Bomb, and a guitarist called Kr\u00e6n Meier, who was with a Danish band called Sacrificial. So I told [Brofest] that those were the guys I could use to do the show but I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m comfortable playing Atomkraft. And they said that they thought we could do a special set featuring the entire \u201cFuture Warriors\u201d album. Eventually I agreed and after we rehearsed the album, we played it from beginning to end but what I did was to invite Mantas, who was living in Newcastle at the time, to come down and maybe join the band for a song. He ended up joining the band for two songs. They were recorded and when I looked back at it, I realised I absolutely enjoyed it. It was fantastic playing the Atomkraft material with those guys. Maybe that was the problem before \u2013 I was forgetting the band\u2019s roots.<\/p>\n Thrash Metal did have its roots in Punk but Atomkraft were always a bit more Punk than Metal. We were more Mot\u00f6rhead and Venom than, say, Exodus and Metallica. Anyway, now I\u2019m working on songs for the next Atomkraft album. It will be myself, Paul and Kr\u00e6n…with some help from Mantas. Hopefully we\u2019ll complete the Atomkraft album this year and then either towards the end of the year or in 2016 I\u2019ll be taking Atomkraft out to play in a few selected shows.<\/p>\n \u2018Devil\u2019s Reign\u2019 by Atomkraft:<\/em> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BAqLo8B5hHI<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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