Interview is a Necrometal exclusive done with guitarist Rob Adams

1) I’d like to be able and introduce Obsidian Reign to us, American
heathens. You are a fairly young band having formed in 2002. How did
it all begin?

- Officially, our first line-up was formed back in February of 2003 at
which time, we finalized the band name. After a few months of shows,
we fired our original drummer. The search for a replacement continued
until December of the same year and ever since then, we've had a
stable line-up of the same five guys so we're coming up to our 3-year
milestone. And in that time since, we've played a lot of shows and
recorded two demo CDs: one 5-song EP called "Conviction" and our new
10-song full-length entitled "Persevere".

2) The name for the band is killer. How long did you all have to drill
your brains to come up with it?

- "Obsidian Reign" was actually a band name I thought of many years
ago for a different group that I was in but it was never used; they
thought it was too "complicated" hehehe. So while this new band was
brainstorming for ideas, nothing really grabbed our attention and then
I thought of "Obsidian Reign" again. Everyone was intrigued by it and
it sounded original which is one of the hardest things for a new band
name.

 3) What was it you wanted to illustrate by choosing this moniker?

- I didn't want us to fall into the typical metal clichés of terms
like "black" or "dark" but I always loved the word Obsidian as being
more poetic and intellectual in its meaning. I like to engage
people's minds with my lyrics and I wanted the band name to be
interesting as well. And I knew it had to be longer than just a
single word to be unique so I thought the "Reign" was a cool addition,
slightly regal, and no other band had used it before which was best of
all. We all liked the concept, bought the domain name of
obsidianreign.com and we ran with it. Best of all, we all still like
the name and it's really caught on with our followers.

4) Listening to the tracks that you have available thru the bands
website, I can hear lots of Thrash that just take me back. I could
name just a few like Crumbsuckers, Annihilator, older Biohazard,
Carnivore, DBC? What is the core for ORs influence.

- At the heart of this band, we're definitely a thrash group. But
we're more than just that in the sense that we have five members who
have a vast listening scope and various influences. Overall, if we
had to classify ourselves, we'd probably use the term "Progressive
Thrash" because we enjoy mixing up time signatures on occasion and are
pretty heavily influenced by bands like Nevermore, Testament, Dream
Theater, Arch Enemy, Slayer, and many more. It's cool that you
mentioned some bands above as well ... out of those, I'm actually
quite a fan of Jeff Waters and Annihilator so that's flattering that
you hear some of that influence.

5) In my previous question, I used the word influence. Many a band
use this term but, they are merely copying their heroes where I
believe you guys triumph by jumping over this hurdle. What is the
essence that makes OR unique from other bands in Canada or, in a more
global sense of the word, a Metal scene that is recalling its Thrash
Metal roots?

- Thank you for that compliment. We'd like to think that while we
wear our influences proudly, we are writing songs to develop our own
style; to take what's been done in the past and hopefully create
something new. We're not egotistical enough to claim we're doing
anything revolutionary, very few bands truly are, but we don't want to
be clones of anyone else as well. Our strength is that we're unafraid
to be dynamic in our songwriting. Some tunes may be full-out assaults
with some touches of black or death metal but we also enjoy tossing in
hooks and melody to compliment the aggression. At times we also like
to incorporate different sounds or acoustic passages to make things
interesting but it's always metal. We mix up our vocal styles here
and there as well and realize that we may not be "grim" or "true"
enough for some people but also may not be "commercial" enough for
others. We play what we like and we like what we play. It's just
five metalheads getting together and this is the music we create and
it would be great if some other people enjoy it as much as we do.
There really is a lot of mediocre music out there and we're just
striving to take this band seriously enough to rise above and try to
make our mark on the scene ... locally and beyond.

6) The band’s biography points out that you have shared the stage with
other bands. With whom have you played in both local and well known
circuits?

- Yes, we've been fortunate in the caliber of bands that we've been
able to share the stage with. Especially on the east coast of Canada
which is a pretty isolated spot that many top bands just never tour
to. But in the last couple of years, we've been able to perform
alongside many local artists but also some huge acts in the global
metal scene like Augury, Quo Vadis, Necronomicon, and Behemoth as the
most prestigious names. In the past year, we've toured as far as
Montreal, metal capital of Canada, and next spring we're planning to
go even further west as far as Toronto which will be exciting.

 7) Canadian bands usually have the short end of the stick when it
comes to recognition regardless of how good they are. Your thoughts?

- In some ways, that may be true. It's just harder to make a break
when your country has one tenth of the population of the USA for
example. But the cream always rises to the top and if you persevere,
hard work pays off ... hopefully sooner than later hehehe. The good
part is that if you are able to garner some positive attention in
Canada, you can become a bigger fish in a smaller pond. Bands like
Martyr, Augury, Quo Vadis, Sacrifice, Kataklysm, and Cryptopsy come to
mind. We just set goals for ourselves to achieve and once we surpass
them, we just think of bigger goals. The Internet is a useful tool
for emerging artists to gain exposure outside of their home region and
we're thankful for the opportunity to have you and necrometal.com take
an interest to support us as an unsigned band. If we can gain more
fans throughout the States and worldwide through all avenues of
promotion, it's much appreciated.

8) How does Obsidian Reign work as a live band unit? By this I mean
where does individualist behavior end and where does the collective effort
begin.

- Good question. As songwriters, often myself or our other guitarist,
Mike, will come up with the riffs and basic song structure and the
others help mold the arrangements until the transitions are worked out
and it flows smoothly. That's when we all put our individual touches
on the tunes and rehearse them. Egos are left at the door and we're
always open to changing parts in order to make each song better in the
end.

Live, all of that work is already done and we become entertainers. So
few bands are interested in putting on a "show" for an audience. We
hate bands that just get up onstage and simply "go through the
motions"; lifeless and boring. We always bring 100% to the
performance, whether it's audience interaction like looking the crowd
right in the eyes or just going nuts and headbanging like madmen.
It's five energetic guys up there and we want our fans to enjoy the
performance and be able to tell their friends about how great our live
show is. We have a huge 8 foot x 8 foot colour backdrop of our new
album cover, banners of our tribal logo, a drum riser, and like to
rent a big lighting rig when possible ... all to show our dedication
to the stage and the desire to entertain the people that pay to come
see us.

9) In listening to the track "Anothers Day Mourning", I cannot help
but to get the feeling of a little Slayer creeping up in there?

- Without a doubt. I'd be lying if I didn't cite Slayer as a major
influence on my guitar playing. This tune itself was a story that I
wanted to tell lyrically. It's basically a tragic love song with a
twist and has become a fan favorite as well as one of mine.

10) No doubt on anything at all that Obsidian Reign is, first and
foremost, a Metal band. Period. On a number of newer acts I have had
the chance to listen to lately, I have come across the clean, emo
vocal style or female voice being used. Sometimes this fits the mood
of a song but, to what end, I do not know. In “Of Roses and Ruin�, the
song makes use of female vocals. What prompts, in your opinion, the
use of such an element?

- Funny how you asked this question next because "Of Roses and Ruin"
was written as a sequel to "Another Day's mourning". People familiar
with the plot and musical themes of the first song will hear the story
taken to the next level. And this time as I wrote the lyrics, I was
inspired to hear the female character take on a voice of her own in
this second chapter and invited a friend of our, Tina Gaudreau, to
lend her talents to it. We have no desire to include a female
vocalist to the band and this was done strictly as a storytelling tool
to give greater impact to the studio track. I wanted to stretch our
boundaries a little bit and add some new dynamics to the album and
this is the only song that has female singing on it. It was an
ambitious CD as you'll be able to tell when you listen to the whole
thing and we saved that track as the epic "closer". We're now playing
both those songs back-to-back live which turns it into about a
13-minute story and the response has been amazing so far. Who knows,
maybe it'll turn into a trilogy on the next CD hahaha.

11) You are not signed yet but, have had a good chunk of self releases
to your belt. What are they?

- After hiring our current drummer in December of 2003, we decided we
needed a product to offer the public and get some buzz going. So just
over a month later, we started recording our first demo; an EP of the
first 5 songs we'd written as a band. The CD, "Conviction", was
released on June 16th, 2004 and did very well for us ... all 500
copies were sold out in a little over a year. We were also a part of
a cool Canadian metal compilation in 2005 with some big names like
Wetwork, Augury, and Beneath the Massacre. Then by early 2006, we
outfitted our own studio and spent about five months recording and
mixing the 10 tracks for our new full-length album, "Persevere". It
was released on October 10th, 2006 and we're looking forward to
promoting the hell out of it now.

12) Is there a concept behind the tribal design you guys use? I hope
that one day it doesn’t become something like what Prince did. ?And
now in the news, the band formerly known as Obsidian reign??

- I had the idea in our beginnings that I wanted this band to have
some sort of recognizable symbol that would be associated with
Obsidian Reign just by looking at it. Kind of like something
Queensryche has done with their "Tri-Ryche" symbol or Iron Maiden's
"Eddie". You can see those graphics and know right away which band
they represent without spelling out the band name which I always
thought was cool as a fan. So I asked a graphic designer friend of
ours, Manny Peters, to go nuts and be creative and he came up with
this tribal-type logo. The entire band loved it and I've even gone so
far as to have it tattooed on my left arm. Hopefully people look at
it now and immediately think, "Obsidian Reign". It's great for
merchandise and just looks killer.

 13) You guys like to play out covers live. How do these covers get
chosen and what does it take to make them a OR version of a song.

- Covers are quite fun to play and are always a way to pump up the
crowd, especially if they're not as familiar with your original
material. For us, playing covers depends entirely on the how much
time we are allotted onstage. If we're playing a show with two other
bands on the bill and are given 45 minutes, we'll probably only play
our own songs and perhaps toss in one cover just for kicks. However,
if we're in a situation like at our CD Release Party back on Nov. 11th
where we were the only band on the bill, we played for a full 2 and
1/2 hours. We don't have that many original songs and therefore we
added more covers to our setlist to fill up the entire night. So in
situations like that, it's a necessity but is also rewarding when fans
come up and comment on how well we pulled them off.

I believe that many bands avoid playing covers because they simply
can't play them well and sound good. We try our best to accurately
recreate the song and add our own flair to it as well. We choose
covers, first and foremost, that WE love to listen to and play. At
the same time, we judge what is appropriate for the audience as well.
For example, if we're playing a heavier show, we'll do songs like
"Disciple" or "Angel of Death" by Slayer but if we were on a bill that
was more mainstream, we may tone it down a little and play stuff that
would appeal to that crowd like Metallica or Black Sabbath.

14) I think it takes courage nowadays to play a Metallica song no
matter what album it came from. They have distanced themselves from
the true Metal scene for so long that the only ones who like them a
lot are the newer fans they have acquired since they became a
household name. Why the choosing to cover “Creeping Death�?

- "Creeping Death" is a classic and regardless of what Metallica has
done in the last decade, metalheads everywhere at least appreciate the
"glory days" of that song. And we like to think that we make it a
little heavier too. In addition to "Creeping Death", we came up with
an idea to do a Metallica medley of our favourite songs. Over 13
minutes long and we include our favourite parts from "Master of
Puppets", "For Whom The Bell Tolls", "Creeping Death", "Sad But True",
"Am I Evil?", "Seek And Destroy", "Of Wolf And Man", "Blackened", and
"The Four Horsemen". It's a blast to play and really psyches up the
audience who always get singing along throughout.

15) What do you think things would have been like if Obsidian Reign
had been part of the “Golden Era� of Thrash back in the mid 1980?s?

- Well we may have been more popular back in the mid 80s but who knows
really. When there was such a saturation of those bands, it may have
been harder to get noticed too; hard to say. Even though our style of
metal is slightly less "popular" these days, and we choose not to
incorporate a lot of "extreme" vocals within our songs, I think that
makes us a little more unique in today's music scene. We're proud of
not jumping on any trends and don't sound like most of those new
poseur black metal bands or hardcore/screamo clones. Don't get me
wrong, I love well-executed black metal or metal of any genre; I
appreciate talent in general. We are happy being an aggressive
technical metal band and just keep working our asses off and hope that
people come along for the ride.

16) What do you consider yourselves at this time, leaders or followers
in the Canadian scene?

- Well I'd like to think we're not followers. We've been around for a
few years now and have been paying our dues and trying to expand our
fan base. Most of our band members have been playing in the local
metal scene for years prior so I wouldn't call us "leaders" but we've
got some experience under us for sure. With the release of
"Persevere", we're very proud of this accomplishment and have been
receiving great feedback thus far. We're getting airplay on metal
radio across the country and promoting ourselves online to folks
around the world through our website:
http://obsidianreign.com
or on our Myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/obsidianreign
This is a band that takes itself seriously and truly enjoys what we're
doing. If we can influence younger bands or give them the opportunity
to play some shows with us, we're more than happy to do so. We pride
ourselves on always being on time for shows and sound checks and treat
our bar staff, soundmen, and other bands with as much common courtesy
as possible. For us, it's all about professionalism in our attitude
in everything we do and I think THAT separates us from a lot of other
local bands who just want to get drunk, act like rock stars, and sound
like shit. With the type of metal we play, it's all about precision
in the riffing and drumming and locking in tight with each other, so
playing sloppy is not an option or it's going to sound terrible. We
have no desire to embarrass ourselves onstage hahaha.

17) Has there been an interest from labels in your work as of yet or
any sort of contact?

- We actually kept pretty quiet in that way with our first EP but
we're now submitting our new album to a lot of media locations for
reviews and airplay and hopefully it will generate some interest. We
think this album showcases us well and we'll see what the future
brings from the industry.

18) Concerning how OR records, do you all go to a studio or pretty
much take care of recording on your own.

- For "Conviction", we hired a local producer to come into our
rehearsal space, set up his gear, and record us. It was quick and
dirty and gave us a good start and some valuable experience. There
were some aspects of that recording that we thought about afterwards
and knew that we would want to change slightly on our next effort but
it served us well at the time and was successful. Like the first CD,
"Persevere" is completely self-financed but this time, we spent the
money to set up our own studio. I acted as a co-producer throughout
the sessions along with our drummer, Dan, who also decided to take the
reigns of recording/engineering/mixing; kudos to him for that level of
dedication and time. In the end, it was great for the band to have
complete control of the project and spend as long as we felt was
necessary to get the performances we were striving for. And I'm sure
next time will go even smoother.

19) Do all of you collaborate in the ideas that end up for
consideration in song writing?

- For sure. Like I mentioned, Mike and I will come up with the riffs
and basic skeleton of the song and everyone else puts in their two
cents in the arrangement. It's definitely a collaborative effort in
that way and songs rarely end up sounding exactly the way they began.
Myself and our lead vocalist, Steve, write the lyrics in OR. Since
those are often more personal, we usually write separately but have
been known to share ideas from time to time. And if something in a
song just isn't working, none of us are afraid to share opinions and
suggest changes for improvement.

20) What’s the most fucked up thing that has happened to OR so far?

- I've seen a few things happen in our moshpits that were pretty
messed up like people getting their noses broken and being knocked
unconscious. There was one chick who jumped on the soundman's back
during a show and started beating him while he tried to break up a
scuffle on the floor. Stuff like that is interesting to watch while
we perform. We played a large biker bash where there was a huge stage
and the promoters asked us if we minded if there was a professional
piercing display going on onstage during our set. We didn't care as
long as it didn't get in our way and there ended up being this guy
getting long needles inserted down all along his spine. There were
also big hooks through this one dude's arms suspending a two-by-four
which he smashed into his forehead while he was headbanging to our
music. That was pretty fucked up hahaha.

21) What are you guys listening to nowadays?

- It's really crazy the eclectic stuff each of us listens to. We're’obviously metal fans but more than just that. We listen to those
bands that I mentioned in our influences like Arch Enemy and Slayer
but also dig Pink Floyd, Opeth, Behemoth, Motley Crue, or KISS and
stretch into other musical genres too.

For example, Dan is a devoted fan of Dream Theater, Morbid Angel, and
ABBA ... no joke hehehe. As for myself, I'm a huge fan of Nevermore,
Maiden, and Dissection but my guilty pleasures are Fleetwood Mac, the
"Phantom of the Opera" musical, and Kate Bush, who I think is
absolutely brilliant but pretty far away from metal. Pretty dichotic
stuff I know but hey, it's good to be balanced, or UNbalanced as the
case may be.

22) As far as the technical aspect, how do you choose what type of
gear to use to play? Any favored types of strings, effects boxes, drum
makers, etc?

- If you go to our website at obsidianreign.com, we have those specs
listed under the Members section. But quickly, our drummer plays a
Sonor kit with Sabian cymbals (who's head office is about an hour away
from us). He has an endorsement with Los Cabos drumsticks as well. I
play exclusively B.C. Rich guitars through a Crate GFX half-stack. My
other guitarist plays a Jackson and an Ibanez through some Peavey rig.
Both of us actually use the same guitar effects processor, a Boss
GT-6. The bassist plays a Yamaha bass with Yorkville amp. Our lead
vocalist yells until someone gives him a microphone ... then he just
gets louder hahaha.

23) Metal as a whole has become an established musical genre and it
has brought forth its share of characters some of which have begun to
die due to one reason or the other. From a fan’s point of view, is it
strange to start seeing people like Tom Araya from Slayer to act like
Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead? I mean the guy is so mellow now,
no more cool intros to songs like “Die by the sword� or
�Necrophiliac�. Not to mention the high price ticket tags for shows.
What do you think?

I saw Slayer a couple of years ago on the "Still Reigning" tour and
Tom was hilarious as ever. I've always thought he's been pretty
mellow and not at all "evil" in his stage banter; the things he said
were just entertainment to me. Speaking of that tour and your
question, Damageplan opened up for Slayer that night and I had the
blessing of meeting Dimebag after the show. We shook hands and shot
the shit for a few minutes and was one of the nicest and most genuine
guys around. To think that he would be taken from us less than six
months later is unreal. As people like him are lost from metal in
various ways, it's painful but hopefully new metal fans remember the
veterans of the genre and new bands follow in their footsteps to
create music that will live on forever. As far as our idols getting
older and mellowing, obviously you have to be saddened by the state of
some metal characters like Ozzy or James Hetfield in the last few
years. They are much more drastic examples of personality changes
than Araya any day. It's surreal to think that in the next decade,
our heroes that ruled the 70s and early 80s like Sabbath, KISS, Alice
Cooper, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest will become senior citizens.

With regards to ticket costs for shows, the prices are skyrocketing
and not just in metal. It's ridiculous really and fans are getting
screwed by the greed of the bands and/or promoters. Of course since
I'm in a band, I realize that it takes money to tour and I want my
favourite acts to make a living. The worst part is that the bands who
charge the most money for tickets are the ones who are already the
richest and need it the least ... like KISS or U2 or whomever. Those
bands who aren't as "commercially successful" keep working their asses
off for much less money oftentimes. That's why it's admirable that an
artist like Dave Mustaine has put together a huge tour package like
Gigantour for such low ticket prices for the consumer. It's a
double-edged sword because you know the majority of the bands,
especially on the 2nd Stage are making very little cash at all but are
just wanting to gain exposure to more fans. You've got to be in a
metal band because you love it, not for the promise of fame and
fortune. But hey, if someone told me I could sell out an arena for
$100 per ticket, I might change my mind hahaha.

24) I am glad that your songs aren’t overflowing with movie sound
bytes or long speeches from some educational/government/religious
recording. Is it safe to assume that you all don’t use this in your
music?

- Well we have one track on "Persevere" where we used a tiny sample
about 7 seconds long from George W. Bush but it was directly linked to
the lyrics of a song called "The Hand of Righteous Hate". That's the
only time we've ever done that sort of thing. We're certainly not
trying to preach through our songs. In this case, it just suited the
song so well, we couldn't pass it up.

25) What is life for you guys in general out of OR (and Metal)?

- All of the guys in the band have steady jobs outside of the band and
various personal relationships that obviously take up a large portion
of time. Everyone has their own interests and hobbies as well, from
working out to Web design. Also, we all hang out together as friends
outside of the band which probably explains why we haven't had a
line-up change in the last three years. Of course, the band takes up
a good chunk of our lives and personally, Obsidian Reign is my
passion. I enjoy songwriting and rehearsing whenever I have the
opportunity and promoting the band online since I designed the band's
website. Music is my blood.

26) Religion has always been a mandatory staple in the Metal
repertoire and still holds an influence in the lyrics. In your opinion
is there really a need to keep adding logs to the fire?

- Some bands obviously use religious imagery in their lyrics and I
think it's valid for people to write about whatever inspires them.
Whether or not people agree with those sentiments is irrelevant.
There are people who are drawn to various niches like "Christian
metal", "Black Metal", "Viking Metal", or whatever. So obviously,
those genres are "adding logs to the fire" in often quite polarizing
ways. Whether or not there is a need for it, I'm sure the people
writing these songs may feel there is. I have personal opinions on
religion and even though I haven't written any songs specifically
about religion in Obsidian Reign, it's quite possible that I may in
the future.

27) As for places that you’d like to play at, where would those places be?

- Well, headlining Wacken might be fun hahaha. But seriously, we
would ultimately love to be able to make music our #1 priority.
Unfortunately, it's hard to pay the bills just playing independent
metal so we all have day jobs at this point which complicate touring
for long periods of time. But for the moment, we're planning on
playing further west across Canada which will be a rush and we'd love
to book some shows across the border and play in the United States
someday. We're about an hour away from the border to Maine so it's
not inconceivable. If we can get a break, who knows how far we could
take it but we're definitely willing. I have a passion for this band
and would do whatever it took to make it a success.

28) Up To this point, what is the most important thing you have
learned by being in the band?

- It would have to be "work ethic". I learned that about myself and
about my band mates, past and present. I've realized that in order for
a band to work, everyone has to be on the same page, with the same
vision for the group, and with the same level of commitment and
willingness to sacrifice. If all the members don't share those
ideals, eventually the band will self-destruct or else "present"
members become "past" members. Obsidian Reign has been quite
fortunate over the years with such little turnover we've had and we
strive to keep writing music, play shows, and bring our metal sound to
the world. Thank YOU for listening.