THORNSPAWN – Interview with Guitarist Lord Necron

San Antonio, Texas' THORNSPAWN play raw, primitive, no-bullshit black metal. In the forefront of the USBM scene, Thornspawn proves you don't have to come from Norway to play vicious black metal. They are a name that I have heard thrown around for many years now. I did not give them much of a chance until I recently saw them play the Sacrifice the Nazarene Child Fest 7 in their hometown a few weeks back. Their performance and new CD “Sanctificed by Satan's Blood” (thanks for the disc Lord Necron) have made me a fan. THORNSPAWN guitarist, Lord Necron answered a few questions concerning the band to further educate me all the MC readers about this USBM kvlt band.

How do you feel about your new album Sanctified by Satans Blood? Did it turn out the way you wanted?

Hails Darren! The new album has more atmosphere like the older albums. It does have the brutality of “Wrath of War”, but the atmosphere of “Blood of The Holy” We are very satisfied with the results. Very dark assault of pure hate and evil.

You mentioned to me that you tuned up your guitars on this release. Why did you do that? How did it change your music?

Previous releases were tuned to D which works fine in the studio but sometimes when you're playing live downtuning becomes a blur of sound. We decided on this release we would tune to standard tuning to get a clearer sound; the standard tuning gives the guitars more of an attacking sound and cuts through the mix a little more I think.

How do you feel Sanctified compares to your past releases? Do you feel you have matured as musicians?

I think “Sanctified” is like the best elements of our prior releases, some of the older recordings had more atmosphere than some of the later recordings which were more brutal. Now we have total brutal attack with atmosphere in it too. The songs are just better put to together on this recording, more cohesive. I think this album bridges the earlier material with the new material very well.

You credit Necroinferno Blasphemies as the place where you recorded the album? Tell me about this place and the recording process?

Necroinferno Blasphemies IS Necroinferno Studio. Necroinferno has been in the band a couple of years now and we always thought he did a good job producing his prior bands so we approached him about recording the new THORNSPAWN album and he agreed to do it. We recorded it in his home studio and we tracked each song standard style, we laid down tracks and did the mixing all in his studio.

Sanctified was released by a Polish label, Agonia Records. How did you hook up with this label? Have you released other albums on this label?

After leaving Osmose, Agonia showed major interest in working with the band. We decided to release our demos through them on LP and CD format since people were always inquiring about the old demos. Also we released is a 7″ inch “Horns To The Cult” which was covers of Beherit and Necrovore. These releases worked out fine, so we decided to do a full-length with them.

THORNSPAWN hails from San Antonio, Texas. Would you say there is a good metal scene in Texas, especially Black Metal?

The Texas metal scene is decent, some nights better than others. It's hard for me to compare because I have not been to shows out-of-state in years to say that ours is better than any other state. I do feel that in the last 10 years that black metal has definitely improved in the whole American scene.

Has Thornspawn played any other festivals (other than Sacrifice the Nazarene Child, which is put on by THORNSPAWN drummer/vocalists, Black Thorn) like Milwaukee Metal Fest or Maryland Death Fest?

We played the Milwaukee Metal Fest in '00 and played many Texas festivals over the last 10 years.

Black Thorn told me you were about to embark on a tour of Mexico. What is it like touring Mexico?

Your balls get all chafed from sitting on a bus for hours getting down there but our Mexico fans are devoted and fanatical about black metal. Its very gratifying to be playing in front of crowds that TRULY appreciate black metal.

Thornspawn participated in an U.S. tour with SUMMON. How did that tour go?

All the bands got along and it was pure partying and blasphemy every night. Some turnouts were awesome and some so-so, but it was great taking the attack on the road.

Do you have any future touring plans?

Nothing as of yet we have some offers out there, but nothing confirmed.