Blackened Horde: How did the band get started?
Vance: The band was formed in the Summer of 2009 by Drew, Scott, Jose (the first drummer) and Grant (the first vocalist.) After playing shows for a few months Ben joined up on Keyboards in early 2010. From then to now the band has gone through many bass players and vocalists and has finally settled into a solid line up as of the end of 2015.
Blackened Horde: What kind of music do you play?
Vance: I think I would place us in the category of symphonic technical death metal.
Blackened Horde: How has the fan response been?
Vance: So far, so good; we have been getting hit up by people from around the globe asking for our EP Entering Oblivion since the day it was released. So, the fan base is growing and we are sure it will grow more once our new EP, Enduring Creation, is released.
Blackened Horde: Where did the band name come from?
Vance: From a book called The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley, picked by a past vocalist. The tale of religious fanaticism and demonic possession in 17th century France in a small town of Loudun (pronounced loo-dun).
Blackened Horde: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
Scott Hermanns: Guitars
Drew Tuel: Lead Guitars
Ben Velozo: Keyboards
Vance Bratcher: Vocalist
Billy Keller: Drums
LJ Cline: Bass
Blackened Horde: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Vance: Scott mainly writes all the songs, then Billy develops the drums along with everyone else changing parts here and there, then I write all the lyrics.
Blackened Horde: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Vance: The lyric ideas that I come up with are based on a wide range of video games, movies and books. If you were to ask, “What is this song about?” I could describe each one and tell you how it has been merged into the concept story the album tells. I have been thinking about writing it into a book. But for now, I have placed this story in the form of all the songs we have recorded.
Blackened Horde: What is your view in Satanism and Occultism?
Vance: “Satan’s pretty cool” – Weird Satan Guy. Personally, I don’t have any comment on either cause I just don’t believe in any gods nor do I practice in the fine arts of witchcraft.
Blackened Horde: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Vance: We have released one EP so far in 2015 called Entering Oblivion. Our second EP comes out April 8th called Enduring Creation, so two.
Blackened Horde: Tell me about some of the songs on the latest CD?
Vance: I would say most of the songs on Enduring Creation are a lot heavier and have a darker tone then most the songs from Entering Oblivion. Also, I’m very happy with the vocals I put down for this EP. Last time I recorded vocals for Entering Oblivion, I was very sick but still managed to pull it off. We were so rushed to record. This time there was no rush and we took our time to perfect it.
Blackened Horde: Do you have any side projects?
Vance: I have a side project called Six Days of Darkness where I play guitar and do vocals, but its on the back burner and something I do when I have free time. Scott has a project called Vor’s Room and Billy has another project called Good Men and Thorough.
Blackened Horde: Who are some of your musical influences?
Vance: Cattle Decapitation, Behemoth, The Black Dahlia Murder, Archspire, Gorguts, Fallujah, Cannibal Corpse, Protest the Hero, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Defeated Sanity, Dream Theater, Arsis. This list could go on.
Blackened Horde: What is the band like when you play live?
Vance: I would say we have a professional look to us and we play as solid as most touring acts these days. We have energy and give it all to the crowd, even in the off chance that not that many people are there at show.
Blackened Horde: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Vance: No, but we do want to. Canada is certainly a likely possibility.
Blackened Horde: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Vance: Depends if the show is promoted right first of all. But usually 30 to 60 people for us, then for national acts that we get to play with we see 100 or more.
Blackened Horde: How is the crowd response when you play?
Vance: For certain songs we play most people like to stand and watch us shred and no matter what, you can tell they are loving it. For the heavier songs we can get a pit moving in the blink of an eye.
Blackened Horde: What do you think of the US Black Metal/Death Metal scene?
Vance: It varies from place to place, some areas better than others. In some places it just feels like everyone is in competition, like survival of the fittest. We prefer to act as part of a community.
Blackened Horde: What do you think of the Oversea scenes?
Vance: I wouldn’t really know haven’t really looked into it. Also I’ve never been overseas for any local shows.
Blackened Horde: What are some of new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Vance: For new favorite bands would have to be Archspire, The Zenith Passage, Fallujah and Beyond Creation even though they have been around for a while as a bands they are releasing killer albums.
Blackened Horde: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Vance: As soon as possible and most likely we will get around to it after out tour is over.
Blackened Horde: What does the future hold for the band??
Vance: Hoping a lot, but one never really knows. I will say this, more music to come from us, full tours and international touring is in our future.
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/TheDevilsOfLoudun
http://thedevilsofloudun.bandcamp.com/
https://www.reverbnation.com/thedevilsofloudun
https://twitter.com/devilsofloudun
https://www.youtube.com/user/DevilsofLoudunBand
