Interview With Chris “Stoz” Storozynski (Vocals)
I always like to start with a band’s history, no matter how famous they are. Because no one tells a band’s history quite like the band themselves. Judging from what I’ve gleamed here in the press release, you gentlemen have quite a long one. I don’t recall much, so please explain your origins to myself and the readers. Quite simply, how did you get to this point?
Hi Stoz here! Well, Andy and Kieron started the band with friends at school and Kev joined soon after. The band was originally called “Merciless Fail”. After a lineup change in 2011, I joined the band and we set about writing more and were lucky enough to win “Metal to the Masses Essex” and played the mighty Bloodstock festival as a result. We felt the name “Merciless Fail” wasn’t strong enough to reflect our developing sound so we decided to change it to “Forged In Black. This was a name from a track off the original first album, which had developed into our anthemic closing number. I believe Kieron had originally come up with the title for that track.
Your influences are certainly along the lines of Sabbath, Candlemass, Maiden and others, but what do you think are some of the best albums ever released in this particular genre? What are some discs that you can go back and say, “that was a definitely influence on the band or a certain track that we wanted to do?”
Well, we have individual influences and some of us share a few, so it’s hard to pin it down, as we all write our tracks 80% collectively, so we are always throwing ideas out there into the melting pot. I believe we are all strongly influenced by the British styles, as you say, Sabbath, Maiden, Priest, Purple etc. We all like classic rock, thrash, prog & of course loads of different Metal sub genres but we don’t ever sit there trying to rewrite any of the greats, we just write what we believe is good and best for our song at the time. We strive to make the best original music we can and are currently writing our new album, which will be out in the summer.
What was it like working with such a legendary producer as Chris Tsangarides? The man has worked with so many gems like Priest and Sabbath, which I would consider their great grandparents of this whole genre – everyone has their work to thank for the numerous evolutions we’ve seen, and yet their work has not aged or fallen out of favor with me.
Bless CT, We miss him dearly. The news of his death really shook us and we still wish all his family and friends our love. It was an honor and privilege to have had the chance to work with such a legend and call him a friend. We recorded Eps “Fear Reflecting Fear” and “Sinner Sanctorum” with him at his studio down in Dover. In true CT style, we probably spent more time talking, laughing and listening to stories of the great bands and people he had met along the way, then we did cracking on with recording, but we always managed to get the job done, and always with a smile on our face.
That leads to my next question. I’ve noticed judging from opinions in numerous heavy metal circles mostly comprised of the current generation (do we call them Z?) that classic acts like Priest, Maiden, Anthrax, Metallica, Slayer and others have indeed fallen out of favor with these youths. Sabbath surprisingly remains unharmed, but it breaks my metal heart to see the classics not only being skipped over, but considered “inferior” compared to their modern acts. Now I know that this was bound to happen over time, but it’s disheartening. That being said, a lot of traditional and newer power metal is getting shunned over and looked on as a joke. What do you think about all this?
We don’t actually see that ourselves, most of the younger generation we know still love the classic bands & even if some don’t, they are respected. I don’t really see the “Old guard” being looked over, they are still selling out all over the world and releasing some fantastic new material. If anything they are probably putting some younger bands to shame. With us still trying to secure our first record deal and looking to grab opportunities, we do need the promoters and industry to look at newer up and coming bands like us. The older bands like Sabbath are starting to hang up their crosses, and who will be the next headliners if there is no one cutting their teeth now?
Let’s talk about life on the road, as you guys have toured with so many amazing bands like Savage Messiah, Tim “Ripper” Owens and many more. What was it like touring with these acts, and do you have any awesome or just plain funny tour stories?
We have been very lucky so far and managed to meet and play with some of our heroes. Tim Ripper Owens, for instance, was such a pleasure to meet and chat to. We ended up sharing a beer and the stage with him whilst he was jamming out “living after Midnight”.
As The Grim Tower combines music with geek culture, we want to know what kinds of things you geek out on. These don’t necessarily have to be books, movies, video games, television, exc – just anything that you devote a lot of time to aside from music and would recommend to others.
I know myself, Kieron and Kev are fans of wrestling in its different forms and decades, WWF/E/WCW etc. Kev probably takes the geek crown though, he has collected comic books for years, loves horror & sci-fi film/TV& is a Doctor Who nut! Obviously we all listen to music and a wide variety of bands. Currently our time is taken up with writing the new album, which will be recorded by Romesh Dodangoda in Cardiff in April.