TORIAN – Interview with Carl Delius/guitars

Hello Carl! Great that you are bringing some time. You just released your debut Dreams under Ice. A reason to talk more about that. Because that killer album is great!

Hey, thank you very much. That sounds very good! 😉

You are welcome!! That is just the truth! Tell me, where are you from, who are you guys and how did the story about Torian begin?

Sorry for my impatience. That has to do with my zodiac! Not that I would believe in such things 😉

So: We live in Paderborn/Germany. But our new drummer originally is from Geseke/Germany and our singer lives in Bielefeld. Paderborn is a nice metal city in Ostwestfalen, about one hour northern-east from Dortmund. The band was founded in 2002, with more details: our former drummer and me founded it while being to the Wacken Open Air. In November we practiced regularly for the first time with bassist Mix and guitarist Alex and singer Marc entered the band in February 2003. In June of the same year we had our first concert which was really awesome! After that we recorded our demo called “Into the Winter” and released it in October 2003 with three songs that were now rerecorded for the new album. We played many concerts all over Germany, got positive reviews in big magazines and finally we have got our record deal after a long search with Underground Symphony Records from Italy. This contract was signed in August 2004. After the recordings we split from drummer Manuel and kidnapped our producer David directly from the studio and took him as a our drummer. That is where we are now. Organising gigs, promoting the album and songwriting…

Where did you give Dreams under Ice a shape, I mean, where did you record?

In the Westwood Recording Studios B in Paderborn/Germany. I can recommend that to every beginner metal band with a small wallet!

This is a great production for little money. And you definitely have a good production! You often play live concerts. Could you already become more popular around your town?

Hey, thank you very much for that 🙂

Well, urbanly in Paderborn we have around 200 people and that in the death metal city Padernborn! But we try to play anywhere to get our name more popular! Actually, we are very good in that, thus we can play once a month!

Who is responsible for the songwriting?

Actually it is me who writes the songs. Together with Para (vocals), I write the vocallines. The others add their ideas and we arrange together, thus finally it is a product of all guys.

What about the songwriting process? Can you give me some details? How do you start, what is first and what is next?

At home I am writing a song or, like last time, I am doing a spontanous session with our drummer. Then I will show the riffs to the others and they think about what they could play. Then we are going to arrange the song together. When the song is ready, we record it provisionally and we give it to our singer in an instrumental version. So he can think about some vocallines and the lyrics. Sometimes he gets some tips in shape of melodies and subjects or a finished chorus respectively. So he can work with that. We can work together very well. Afterwards the song will be played together and we work out the details until the perfect song is there. That can take its time when we are not satisfied for 100 %. The most important thing on a cool metal song is the chorus. That must rock. This is very important to us and when there is a song that doesn´t rock for 100 %, then it will be changed, even, if the song is older…

How did you find the bandname Torian? Which meaning does this name have?

Torian is a novel hero from Hohlbein´s Sword & Sorcery novel “Die Saga von Garth & Torian”. A sword warrior ŕ la Conan. The selftitled song is about that. This is the only fantasy text we have. This name keeps inside your mind and you can shout it well 🙂

What about the metal scene where you live? Do you have many metalheads in your town?

Yep, the scene has grown within the last 3 years dramatically. The underground concerts are very popular and the Metal Inferno e.V., where I am used to work with, has got great billings: With the local band and even non-urban, powerful bands. Even if no band from Paderborn plays, the concert has around 150 people standing in the audience. That is fabulous, if you recognize that it was not that way around 10 years ago.

Is there the possibility to see you on tour soon?

No, unfortunately there is nothing planned yet. It would be sensible to be a support band of a famous act, but at the moment we don´t have the possibility to work with them. The label might be too small for that. But it would be awesome to play a tour, but unfortunately most of the bands don´t get the chance to do that. But… We are working on it 🙂

What are your musical influences and which bands do you like?

Ok, I am a die hard Manowar fan, although their songwriting got bad during the last few years and they made themselves ridiculous. I don´t think about the commercial success, contrarily, that is great! But their live shows are involuntarily funny. Then I can say that Iced Earth are one of my main influences. Jon Schaffer has inspired me with his guitar style like nobody else. And then, of course, Blind Guardian and Iron Maiden. During the past years I have become a big Edguy fan! Furthermore I love thrash like Testament or Slayer and melodic death metal like Amon Amarth or Arch Enemy. On the other hand I am listening to calm and beautiful melodic rock like Bob Catley. Well, my music taste has increased in the meantime. I have never thought that: In the age of 15 I was a totally intolerant true metal warrior. I still am a true metal warrior, but not intolerant. Metal is too different to be just a true metal fan!

Why would you recommend your album to the people?

We have cool songs where you can bang your head and sing along as well as a powerful singer, who doesn´t sound like any other singer of any other power metal band. We have songs for everybody in every mood. From true metal to thrash or bombastic epic. We are a power metal band, but different than the whole Helloween-copies, who definitely bore the people.

Which subjects does Dreams under Ice include?

I know that sometimes it is not very nice, but Para and me, we cannot always go into those metal clichés when it comes to write a songtext. But we try to be critical. But we have a few clichés, in songs like Torian and “Born to Win”. Normally in our lyrics we refer to human feelings in their extremes, we are very thoughtful and partly critical.

Please compare Torian with Deadly Sin where you played.

Hey, cool, you know our brother band Deadly Sin? Which albums do you know? I have to go back a bit. Well, I quit playing 5 years ago. Before I split from that band, my job was to be the main songwriter and the singer. I think that you can hear my marks in the songs. Torian are a going-ahead of what I did that time: That I write all of the songs and Para sings. Deadly Sin had a very true metal image, because of my style of singing and the cliché announcements. Compared with that, Torian are a bit different than Deadly Sin, because Para, who is a perfect entertainer, has got a trained and variable and comfortable voice. And with that voice he can reach a lot more people than me in the past. This is a fact without any commercial thoughts. Afterwards I see that I have tortured myself with the double function. I blocked and limitated myself in playing the guitar. I don´t want to forget the time, but today I have much more fun with the music, because we are all in one line due to the music. Just, when I sing some Manowar songs in our rehearsal room, everybody is pissed off. Hm… 😉 Nowadays Deadly Sin still have the name Power Metal, but in the meantime they are more influenced by progressive metal bands like Dream Theater and Symphony X, while we are more traditional heavy metal. But I love the up to date Deadly sound and we are close friends. Our drummer David has even got a band together with Deadly Sin singer Ross. It is called Display. And I get drunken with Deadly guitarist Nikko regularly. We are even planning to have concerts together.

What is your destination with Torian? Is Torian just a fun band or is it something to do even more?

Well, first of all there is the fun, but anyway there is a motivation to get forth. Maybe I can tell you that: Having fun while working professional

Who was in charge for the cover artwork?

Diego Farrarin, an italian artworker who works with our label and has already plenty of covers done for those bands.

Your words for the metal nation?

Celebrate a fat metal party! You won´t forget that night!! 😉 Well, and keep yourself informed by having a look at www.torian-legion.de and listen to our songs. And don´t forget to order our CD that we offer in a nice digipack 😉

Thanks for the interview. That was a lot of fun! Metalcentre wishes Torian the best for the future!!