Summon: How did the band get started?
Jeff: I hadn’t played in a band in a few years and got the itch to play again when I filled in on bass for a tech death band that Holly used to be in. I started Bloodstrike with two ex-members of that band, Holly and Rudy. Joe was next in the band; he was our first choice without a doubt. Then Rudy left, he moved out of state. I found his replacement Ryan on line via craigslist. I asked if any of his students were interested when it ends up he was looking for the same thing. Old school death metal! After about a half dozen bass players I remembered Rhia. She was onboard as soon as she heard the first songs we were working on.
Summon: What kind of music do you play?
Jeff: Straight forward old school death metal.
Summon: How has the fan response been?
Band: It’s been great so far. We’ve heard from people all over the United States and are now hearing form people all over the world about how much they like our music. We have a very strong metal scene here in Denver and our friends here have supported us from the beginning.
Summon: Where did the band name come from?
Holly: It took us about year to come up with Bloodstrike, it was pretty awesome how the whole band calibrated on names every single one of us had ideas. So we decided to make a list of all the different name and go down the list to make sure that they were not in use. We really wanted to be original and different, and it was hard, but one day Jeff was like how about bloodstrike we looked it up it and no one had taken claim to it so yea we were pretty stoked. So then next was getting a logo made. We sent the name to three different artists we knew and we picked the best one out of the three.
Summon: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
Jeff: I’m Jeff and I play lead/rhythm guitar. Holly on vocals, Joe on lead/rhythm guitar, Rhia on bass and Ryan on drums. We’ve all played in other Denver metal bands such as Havok, Silencer, Torrid Flesh and Clusterfux.
Summon: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Jeff: The music is primarily written by myself, Joe and Ryan. The structure of the songs is worked on as a band during practice. The lyrics are mostly written by Holly. I’ve helped her with a couple of songs.
Summon: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Holly: Lyrical ideas come from horror movies, real life crime, serial killers, necromancy, and most important my hatred for the ignorance and stupidity of mankind. I feel it’s important to embrace how our society can be so blinded by lies and fairy tales.
Summon: What is your view in Satanism and Occultism?
Holly: Mmy views on Satanism/Occult, is how they lead their lives different from the herd of cattle, they seem to follow a fantasy. I like how they basically live their lives in ways that make them happy and don’t impose their beliefs on people. The whole aspect of Satanic/Occult ways to me are ways for us to express how much better life can be without all the bullshit and lies that follow along with the stupid bible in which case the government has basically written. I think today society is becoming a tiny bit more acceptable of freedom of religion, so on that note I can’t fucking wait to see the Baphomet statue in Oklahoma.
Summon: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Jeff: We’ve released a 3 song demo named Necrobirth. We are working on a full length at the moment.
Summon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Holly: Well the first one is called “In Death We Rot” It’s basically about how we die and we have nothing. No hope, no faith, no living flesh just rot and maggots devouring our flesh ad we lay to rot forever in the dirt. “Skeletal Remains” is about our graves being disturbed during eternal rest, for more living human development. “Serpent Son” is about Satan and his rising of fire coming to cleanse the unhealthy people of our society.
Summon: Do you have any side projects?
Band: No. Bloodstrike is the only band for all of us. Rhia occasionally fills on on keyboards for a Denver metal band named Moth.
Summon: Who are some of your musical influences?
Jeff: All of us are die hard metal fans. We have influences from all types of bands. You may not hear it directly but we take influence from bands like Judas Priest, Venom, Slayer, GG Allin, and influences you do hear like Grave, Entombed, Entrails and Black Breath. Holly- Peter Tägtgren, Jorge Sandstorm, David Vincent, Peter Vader.
Summon: Which current bands?
Jeff: Revel in Flesh, Asphxy, Blot Thrower, Hail of Bullets, Crypticus, Ribspreader.
Summon: What is the band like when you play live?
Jeff: Tight! Energetic and a little unpredictable. You just never know what Holly is going to say or do. She seems to take on another personality on stage. She’s a beast up there. She really brings it. We all enjoy playing live, maybe the reason we all do this. We’ll put on the same killer energetic show whether there are 4000 people or only 4.
Summon: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Band: Not yet.
Summon: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Band: We’re still in the early stages and will have our first official show here in a few weeks. We’ve gotten some good response and have promoted the show like crazy. So we’re expecting a big crowd. Like I was saying earlier we have a great metal scene here in Denver.
Summon: How is the crowd response when you play?
Band: Holly keeps everyone entertained and our music is very easy to head bang to . She does a good job getting a crowd into the show.
Summon: What do you think of the US Black Metal/Death Metal scene?
Holly: I think it’s pretty awesome all though some of the American Black Metal could possibly never be as brutal as the Nordic Black Metal. And as for our Death Metal scene is pretty amazing considering we have bands like Morbid, Obituary, Napalm Death, Possessed. But overall Sweden Death Metal rules.
Summon: What are some of new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Holly: Death Metal would be Vader, Hypocrisy, Grave, Entombed, Morbid Angel, Asyph, and Death. Black Metal would be Immortal, Bathory, Aura Noir, Destroyer 666, impious Baptism, Dark Throne.
Summon: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Jeff: We haven’t stopped writing since this band began. We’re 8 songs in for our new album. We’re still not sure how many will be on there but another one or two I’d say.
Summon: What does the future hold for the band??
Band: We’re currently working on our full length album due out in 2015. We’re pretty excited about that. We’ve tapped Patrick Bruss of Crypticus to mix and master the album. We’ve also talked to him about co-producing the album as well. We’ve also tapped Riddickart to do the album art. We have a handful of shows currently booked. We’re also getting our merchandise together. We’ll have t- shirts and stickers here pretty soon. We’re just hitting it hard now seeing how far we can take this.
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/bloodstrikemetal
http://bloodstrike.bandcamp.com/releases
