If there is one thing that the Belgian black/thrash/speed metal band Bütcher made sure with their new album "On Fowl of Tyrant Wing", it's that if you're gonna have such an awesome album title and an awesome cover art by Kris Verwimp, you are obviously gonna provide one hell of an album absolutely worth blasting on full volume. It's by far one of the fastest and heaviest releases of 2024 that you can't get enough no matter how much you think you've pleased your appetite for destruction. After revisiting the new album "On Fowl of Tyrant Wing", I managed to get in touch with the band's vocalist R Hellshrieker where we've discussed the latest output of Bütcher, from the songwriting process to the end result. I hope you maniacs will enjoy this interview and make sure to support Bütcher!

Vladimir

Greetings Hellshrieker, warmest welcome from Metalbite! How are you doing?

Hey Metalbite and metalheads, we're good. Reaching the years' end and it's been a very busy year. So we're taking the time to take a breather and enjoying what 2024 has brought us!

Your new album On Fowl of Tyrant Wing is finally out now and there has been such an overwhelmingly positive response from fans and critics, praising the band's performance and overall highly improved songwriting, while still remaining faithful to the core principles of Bütcher. How has the whole journey with the work on the new album been for you guys? What was the band chemistry like during the songwriting and recording process?

Thanks for your kind words. The album has proven more divisive than our previous one, with people really enjoying what we did, diving even deeper into mixing various old metal genres and focussing on more subtle songwriting. The new album is certainly a grower, with a few cuts really taking you by the throat, but others require more attention and repeated listens to appreciate all the layers we put in there. For a minority that made it too complicated to what they expected from us. But that's cool, to each his own and that counts certainly for us as well. We think we achieved what you said: remaining faithful on all fronts to the core principles of the band, and improving our performance. It was a unique approach though, with KK Ripper writing and arranging most of the material by himself. Our previous drummer LV Speedhämmer composed and recorded the drums. I actually wrote lyrics and tried vocal approaches afterwards. Normally we would first finish everything together and then hit the studio, but due to Speedhämmer's leaving we were forced to work within the time frame we had. So for the next one, we'll go with another take on band chemistry again and write in the rehearsal room. It'll be very interesting to see how the next album will differ in those regards. Gonna be fun!

When it comes to the physical release sales for On Fowl of Tyrant Wing, which format was on high demand? Vinyl, CD or cassette?

I should ask our label for accurate numbers, but it seems on shows and what we see on social media that the vinyl is actually in high demand. I have to add that the artwork was really made with vinyl size in mind and it shows. The package is perfect in large format!

For subgenres such as black/speed metal or black/thrash metal, it's really a difficult task to provide any kind of innovation, but you seem to have handled that incredibly well, because your song structures are very rich and complex with constant tempo-changes, sonic riffs, powerful guitar solos and melodic touches here and there. Was there anything specific that you were looking to improve or tweak in your music?

Thanks again! And yeah, it's a balancing act to stay within the rules of the genre (and bend them a bit, of course - because rule breaking makes things interesting ;)) and still sound fresh, contemporary and with new ideas. I think we achieved it, but there wasn't a rulebook we wanted to follow or a list of boxes that we wanted to tick. I think you can definitely hear our influences, ranging from Slayer and Nifelheim, over Primordial and Desaster, to Mercyful Fate and Iron Maiden. We did want to put a bit more US metal into it and the openers of the album (Speed Metal Samurai and Blessed By The Blade) are actually songs we had for an EP on which we really wanted to let people hear more Omen, Liege Lord etc in the guitar work. But we stopped with the EP idea to continue into a full-length.

One song that stood out for me is "A Gypsy's Tale (Of Sex and Seance)", because it stylistically feels like a nostalgic throwback to classic Morbid Angel, with the inclusion of sitar in the background and some King Diamond-ish vocal elements. What can you tell me about working on this song specifically?

Yeah, it's the most divisive song on the album, by far. To us, it made a lot of sense because it's the middle piece of the B-side trilogy. The song tells about the origins of a sensual gypsy woman - who is truly a vessel of the Devil, living through time and corrupting mankind. She was born of ancient entities in the occult Middle-Eastern caverns of the world. That theme gells very well with the occult Morbid Angel riffing - which in turn we thought cool to combine with Mercyful Fate influences, both in music and vocal delivery. We had a lot of fun doing this one, and I'm very proud of it. In the theme of the trilogy it's megacool, though it's not a new direction we're gonna do. Though you can never say never, haha.

If I may be so bold to say so, I think this might be your heaviest and most musically intense album yet, and it really feels like a greater bastard child of 80's Slayer, Nifelheim and Dark Angel, with some instances of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest on "A Sacrifice to Satan's Spawn". Were you guys aiming to incorporate your various musical influences or did it all come out naturally?

Oh yeah, totally. It's no coincidence that the bands you mention are the very ones we refer to when explaining our style and influences. Bütcher definitely is a mixture of all these classic acts, but we don't aim to do anything. It's just a style that comes natural to us, that's why our albums have so many subgenres on it. But we write wherever our ideas on that moment take us.

It might sound like a weird question to ask, but do you guys have any set of rules and ideas that you think a Bütcher song should accomplish? (apart from being heavy and extreme of course)

So this question is actually something I touched upon earlier, and the answer is definitely: no! We have no set rules of ideas about what we think our songs should accomplish. We have a lot of freedom in our minds and a Bütcher song just needs to have the right feeling. It doesn't need to be anything else than that! We only know whenever we try something that is NOT Bütcher material and that comes natural as well. Like: oh this is a cool riff, but this is totally not something we'll use, haha.

This is your second album in a row which features the artwork of the renowned and talented Belgian artist Kris Verwimp, and I think this might be the best art that he has designed for Bütcher yet, although I think we can all agree that he's simply unmistakeable. What was it like working with him for the second time for On Fowl of Tyrant Wing?

Kris's artwork for Goats really helped to solidify that album and even became a bit of iconic in the underground, if we may say so. We were certainly looking for some continuity in the Bütcher brand, so to speak. And it was the most logical step to ask Kris again. And boy, did he deliver. He nailed it again, telling a story of a few of the lyrics, painting eye-popping visuals with a lot of character and personality. This time he even used an orange and purple palette, and to a degree we didn't expect. We gave him some cues and provided him with the music and lyrics. And as he did with Goats, he turned it into a very distinct cover that grabs the viewers attention. We're extremely happy with it.

We all know how Bütcher is highly acclaimed across the globe, but what is the general reception from your local metal scene? Does the Belgian metal scene treat you with proper respect?

Funny thing is that we have more fans abroad than in Belgium, so it seems to us at least. Of course quite some people are respecting what we do over here, but our take on old skool metal just works better in audiences in other countries. It's also a Belgian thing, to prove yourself abroad. Only after, we notice our own talent, haha. And probably this niche we created just has a larger demographic target audience in larger countries. We've played a lot of parts of Europe by now, with even more coming in 2025. In any case, that is truly an honor to do so, and we love how we are received across the continent.

Thank you so much for doing this interview. Looking forward to seeing Bütcher live someday, and continue to keep it true! Any final words for the fans?

Hope so too! Thanks for the interview and to the fans I'd say: thanks for your dedicated support. See you Maniaxxxe on the road, URGH!

After the split with Thundermother Guernica Mancini (voc.); Emlee Johansson (dr.) and Mona Lindgren (bass, git.) didn't fall into some kind of depression but used all their emotions, time and energy to focus on a new band called The Gems. With "Phoenix" the Swedish girls released a furious debut album with really cool rock songs and caused quite the sensation in the scene. This of course was the reason enough for me to try and talk with Guernica and find out a little bit more about all that happened and the plans for the future of the band. Enjoy reading and check out the album (read my whole review here).

Michael

Hi Guernica, how are you doing?

I'm good, thank you for having me (laughs).

First of all, congratulations on your fantastic debut album "Phoenix". It has become a ass-kickin' rock album. Are you satisfied with the feedback you got so far?

Yes, I'm incredibly happy with the feedback. Most reviews I have seen are very good and very reasonable (laughs). I mean there are no like 10s but I think that if we would only get the highest score on all the ratings there would be a lot to live up to for our next album actually. I still think we got good rating; I would say like 6 or 7 out of 10 which I think is really great for a debut album.

The Thundermother split was about a year ago now. Did the wounds healed up a little bit since then?

It's a work in progress. I would say some are but I think that in a situation like that, it takes years to heal completely because the girls and I devoted our entire lives to the band and building up the brand and everything. There are always new things coming up but I'm very proud of the progress that we've made so far. We're all in a much better and happy place now and that's the most important thing.

Did you have any contact with them after the split?

No, we've been only communicating with Fillipa through our lawyer. It's been like a really bad divorce.

How hard was it to start as a quasi-new band after that? I mean, you had great supporters with The Scorpions and Whitesnake and then you had to start new.

It sucks but we're all really hard-working and I believe that we accomplished so much in Thundermother while being treated like shit for so many years so I don't see why we wouldn't be able to do the same thing now that we feel really good. But it does suck to have to go back to square one and build up everything again. I think that due to what we have done before, we have a bit of an easier time than other brand-new bands. I am fully aware of that. So certain aspects suck but at the same time, I am so excited for this new beginning. It's very exciting and I think we have done it in a way I'm very proud of.

You released "Phoenix" on Napalm Records. How did you catch their attention?

We've been in contact with Thomas (Caser; M.) the CEO of Napalm since Thundermother. Obviously, we were signed to AFM back then so that wasn't relevant for that time being but we stayed in touch. As soon as the news broke that what happened happened a lot of labels contacted us. So we decided on Napalm because it just felt like the best fit. After all the tumultuous years we felt it was important to be on a label that is stable and has been around for many years. They are professional and know what they're doing. We have huge dreams we want to accomplish and take over the world so you need to have a label that has some kind of manpower. We also want to go back to America because we did very well there on the Scorpions tour and we have a lot of fans from there already. They also have a good office over there, too. So it just felt like the right match for us.

Listening to the music, I find a lot of parallels to some 80s rock bands, is this your main influence so to speak? It is much more sleaze-rock-orientated (GNR, The Almighty, Mc Queen Street, Skid Row) than this AC/DC stuff you did with Thundermother.

None of those bands are our influence (laughs). So it's really funny that you mentioned that because everyone hears what I guess they are listening to themselves. Our influences have been more Van Halen, Queen, Led Zeppelin on this record and I guess there's a mixture of that on the album, I do like Sebastian Bach as a vocalist and Skid Row of course, too. So I guess you could say it's a little bit of Skid Row and Guns n ' Roses mixed into that. Iron Maiden and a lot more stuff…it's a mixture of everything that we love.

What about the lyrics? I don't have them and the music sounds pretty much like a party.

No, only "P.S.Y.C.H.O." is some kind of party song. The rest of the album takes you through the grief that we felt and all the feelings that we went through while dealing with all this heartache we had to deal with. If you have the time and listen to the lyrics you can basically follow through the emotional rollercoaster it was for us. We have some faster songs that we enjoy and we also had in mind while writing the album that we would be able to play them live and we wanted to have a mixture of songs. We have "Force Of Nature", "Queens" and obviously "P.S.Y.C.H.O." that could go under the umbrella of "party songs".

So this is more a "fuck off"-album to cope with the whole situation you experienced?

It's an empowering and not-giving-up album. It's a hopeful record. We go through emotions but there is always a glimpse of hope, empowerment, and self-love which has always been super important for us. It's a message that we believe in and something that we live and breathe and it came out on the album, too.

Apart from The Gems, you have a solo project. How is it currently going on with that?

It's on hold. In 2023 I wrote a lot of songs for it that I was dying to put out but everything that happened has taken a lot of time to rebuild the whole band. So my main focus was just to rebuild and have this new band up and running because I love being part of a band. But my solo career is definitely something I'm gonna work on as soon as I have time and I will keep releasing stuff just kind of randomly, no specific way for now (laughs).

I've read that you worked together with the producer from The Black Eyed Peas in 2014 because you won a song contest.

Yeah, exactly. I won a songwriting contest when I lived in America. I studied in Los Angeles at a school called Musician's Institute and while being there I had a teacher, Robin Randall, who pushed me to do my own songwriting, which I am super grateful for. She really encouraged me to write my own stuff because she saw something in me and I did write a few songs there and ended up winning the showcase and got to record an EP with Darryl Swan. I guess he's mostly famous for working with Macy Gray. He was super cool.

Cool. Did you think about collaborating with any of those bands in the future?

I mean I would love to in the future but you need to be famous enough to get a chance (laughs). I'm open to any collaboration if I like the music. I mean all of us three in The Gems like a lot of different styles of music.

I read that you had some cancer-related surgeries. Is everything fine with you again?

Thank you for asking. I had it twice. 2019 and then it came back in 2021. I was lucky because it was a tumor that was encapsulated so they could take it out. I didn't have to do any chemo or anything like that but I still go on regular checkups. After this summer I'm only gonna go two times a year which is like going towards not going there at all. You have to have a check-up for five years. It was a very tough thing to go through.

And of course just like every band you want to perform your music live – are there any plans for a tour so far? I couldn't find any information about this.

Yes! We are planning a four-week long European tour in the fall which I think we will release in a few weeks. I'm excited about that. We have to update our website, so it's always updated like our Instagram and Facebook which always are updated with the latest info. We have shows in Sweden, and some festivals - we're playing Reload in Germany and some other festivals. I'm excited for all that.

The last words are yours!

We appreciate everyone who is supporting The Gems and who joined us on this new journey, I think it is gonna be a very interesting ride. Follow us on all our social media accounts and if you use Spotify, we would really appreciate it if you would make sure to follow us on there and also subscribe to our YouTube channel because we're trying to build that as well. We've already released some acoustic tracks there, tutorials and all kinds of fun stuff. And finally, I'm excited to see you guys on tour!