-- Thorium gets shredded --
09/01/2019
Stijn Daneels
One of the bands I looked most forward to at
Pluto Metal Fest (December 15, 2018) was the band Thorium. I had already known
band members Dario, Stripe and Tom during their time with Ostrogoth. We kept in
touch with each other over the years and therefore I was quickly aware of their
new music project called Thorium. I also had a great
time reviewing their self-titled debut album so it was damn time to sit
together with Dario and Stripe to talk about their first album’s production,
the band members’ various musical backgrounds (which range from Djent to Bay Area
thrash), and how they got signed to two different record labels.
BMS: First off, congratulations on releasing
such an awesome debut album! Like I said in my review, the
eponymous Thorium album shares a lot of traits with your former band Ostrogoth.
An upbeat, melodic and catchy old-school blend
of heavy, power and speed metal with several songs discussing historic events.
Tell me how this first Thorium album came to be.
Dario: You’re
absolutely right about the Ostrogoth vibe you just mentioned. In fact, most of the material on this
first Thorium album was originally meant for a new Ostrogoth album. Unfortunately,
the other Ostrogoth band members preferred to use different material, so we
agreed with them to use these newly written songs for a brand new project,
which ended up becoming Thorium. For the record, there’s no bad blood at all
between us and Ostrogoth; we respected each other’s decisions and peacefully went
our separate ways.
BMS: I’m glad to hear that. What are your future plans?
Dario:
We’ve just finished writing songs for the second Thorium album. The new songs will show a natural
evolution in Thorium’s sound. Less like Ostrogoth and more its own thing. Still, we’ll be retaining
elements from the previous album like the aforementioned catchy cocktail of
heavy, speed and power metal, but we’ll also be incorporating more thrash and
progressive influences. It’s going to be a more personalized album than the
first one, with more variety. Thanks to the larger creative freedom we now have,
we can let our own musical backgrounds shine through.
BMS: Tell me something about your individual musical backgrounds, and I’m starting with you, Stripe!
Stripe:
Sure thing! I’m always been an 1980s rocker, inspired by the likes of Saxon,
Iron Maiden, Helloween and of course WASP. As a bassist I prefer to play a consistent,
galloping rhythm similar to those aforementioned bands and so I provide Thorium
with that classic heavy metal pace. Our drummer Louis, on the other hand, has a complex style of drumming inspired
by Djent and plenty of modern metal, which opens up a lot of possibilities for
me to play along to.
Dario: As
for me, I’m a huge lover of Bay Area Thrash Metal (think Death Angel, Testament
and Exodus). Tom loves classic power metal and all kinds of progressive rock
and metal (like Therion, Blind Guardian, Dream Theater, Rush,...). And finally our vocalist David is a
classic vocalist inspired by such metal legends as Rob Halford, Udo
Dirkschneider and Biff Byford. You know, the fun part of Thorium is that we
have a huge musical variety at our disposal. Let’s say I write a track, that song will
obviously have Bay Area thrash at its core, but thanks to the influences from
the other band members, this particular song gets a unique flavour. And so it goes for every song we
write.
BMS: So you aim to be a very multi-faceted
band. Sometimes you go the progressive route, other times you go for an
old-school vibe. But you’ll always allow a different metal subgenre to sip into
the main style of any given Thorium track.
Dario:
Exactly! As long as it keeps the adventurous aspect that Thorium will be known
for. And that means our songs may look simple and catchy on the surface but
when you look a bit deeper you’ll notice how complex a typical Thorium song can
be.
BMS: Very interesting! Now, despite your recent beginnings you’ve already visited countries like the Netherlands, Germany and Spain.
Dario: Yeah,
it was a delightful experience and next year we’ll be hitting the road once
more with a headline show in the Czech Republic and one in the UK, among many
other gigs. We’ll also
be hitting the studio again to record our next album, scheduled for release in
2020. Our main goal for the next few years is to tour as much as we can while
also consistently working on new material. Me and the guys want to escape
Ostrogoth’s shadow and stand as a proud and strong Belgian band with its own
personality.
BMS: Keeping up the momentum, I like it!
Stripe: One
thing I love about Thorium’s career path thus far is how well our music
connects to people from various countries and cultures. I recall during our
little Spanish tour that certain folks in the crowd were joyfully singing along
to our songs despite the fact that our album was only a few weeks old. It’s such a satisfying feeling, to
see and hear people love your music as much as you love writing and performing
it.
BMS: Yeah, it’s great to love and to be loved
in return! Now, what other things do you have in life aside from Thorium?
Stripe: I’m
the frontman of my own tribute band called WASB, not hard to see what iconic
rock band I’m covering there. Not much else aside from that, I currently focus
my efforts on making Thorium a success.
Dario: I
also have a cover band; mine is called STS Cover Band and covers famous pop
rock songs from the likes of Robbie Williams, Queen, Toto and the Simple Minds.
But like Stripe and the other guys in the band, I dedicate most of my time to
Thorium. I believe it’s better to keep yourself focused on one band and make
the most of it, rather than playing in three or more bands at once in the hopes
that one of them will eventually become successful.
BMS: I agree, putting your eggs in too many baskets at once is never a good thing. Now tell me, currently you’re signed on two record labels. Empire Records takes care of your physical releases and Rock N’ Growl handles the digital distribution. How did you make it to those labels?
Dario: As
you know, Empire Records is a Belgian record company with a small but
high-quality roster of bands (the label released material from high-profile
Benelux bands like the Evil Invaders, Distillator and Evil Shepherd). The 2015
Ostrogoth album, “Last Tribe Standing,” was released through Empire Records and
aside from playing guitar on that release I was also very involved in that
album’s distribution. Although a few other underground labels had shown
interest in releasing our debut album, we decided from day one that we would be
working with Empire Records because of the good experiences we had with them in
the past. Plus they always print vinyl versions of all their releases and I
really wanted a vinyl version of the Thorium album to add to my large LP
collection. As for Rock
N’ Growl, we really needed a good company that could take care of the digital
distribution, such as streaming, etc. They showed interest and made us a great
offer, so we didn’t hesitate for one second in making a deal with them.
BMS: All right, I’ve got nothing else to say. You wish to add something to this fun little shred?
Dario:
Thanks for sitting together with us! We look forward to playing tonight’s show
as well as the many other gigs we’re planning to do next year!
Stripe: Ditto!
See you later, Shredder!
