{"id":14301,"date":"2015-01-28T01:00:34","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T06:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=14301"},"modified":"2022-01-06T20:05:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T01:05:37","slug":"content-needed-blowin-wind-with-lord-dyings-erik-olson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=14301","title":{"rendered":"Blowin’ Wind with Lord Dying’s Erik Olson: “I think that there is so much interesting metal going on that it\u2019s still a really exciting thing to be into.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portland, Oregon doom masters Lord Dying have just released their latest platter of sludge face metal called Poisoned Alters. On a very busy press day Erik Olson was cool enough to talk with me about all things metal. We talked about trying to break from the mold of a geographic sound of metal, his excitement for hitting the road once again, and what his thoughts are on the current state of metal.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Lord Dying will be hitting the road on an extensive tour behind Poisoned Alters as support for Canadian metal legends Anvil. The tour will kick off on February 5th in New York City and will wind down on March 20th in Seattle, WA. Be sure to get out there and check out Lord Dying and in the meantime enjoy this interview with Erik Olson.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Erik, thanks so much for taking the time out to talk today. How are you, brother?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Man, I\u2019m doing pretty good. How about yourself?<\/p>\n

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You\u2019ve had quite the busy press day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughs] Yeah, it\u2019s been pretty busy.<\/p>\n

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I have really been digging the fuck out of Poisoned Alters. This really feels like a step forward for Lord Dying’s sound.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks, man. Yeah, I think our sound is really evolving and that\u2019s where we are currently.<\/p>\n

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Erik, 2015 is a brand new year and there are all kinds of cool shit on the books for Lord Dying. What are you looking forward to the most?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Man, we just hope to get out on the road and tour as much as possible. Hopefully we get to get out to a bunch of new places and some new countries. We\u2019re just really excited to get back out on the road and start playing these new songs.<\/p>\n

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Lord Dying has a really extensive tour lined up with metal legends Anvil. Are you pumped for that or what?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is going to be our first time meeting Anvil. The first show will up in New York City in a few weeks. We\u2019re really looking forward to that tour. It\u2019s definitely going to a long tour [laughs]. It should be a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

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I was looking at the dates for this tour and it\u2019s a pretty fucking grueling schedule. How do you keep up that kind of pace without burning out early on into a tour?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It can be tough for sure [laughs]. Trying to moderate the drinking is a big help with that [laughs]. We toured so much for the last album and it really got kind of exhausting for me. I pretty much had to quit drinking and tried to get myself a lot healthier by working out and eating better. That\u2019s just kind of what happens. Touring can really wear you down but once you get in the groove you just get going with it.<\/p>\n

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Sometimes when there\u2019s a certain movement of metal it gets pegged with a geographic location. Do you feel like there is actually a signature \u201cPortland sound\u201d so to speak?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, to a degree for sure. There\u2019s a lot of doom oriented bands from here. We try to not sound too much like a lot of them. It\u2019s just in Portland but in the Northwest in general. I think that the sound has a lot to do with the weather being that it\u2019s very gloomy weather. There\u2019s like 9 months out of the year where you\u2019re forced to stay inside [laughs]. There\u2019s always just been this sound up here, especially for heavy music in general. I see that coming through a lot of the bands. We definitely try to not completely sound like everybody else but it is part of that sound.<\/p>\n

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So do you feel that Lord Dying works a little harder to try and not sound like the other bands from your part of the country?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, to an extent. To be honest, we don\u2019t really notice how many of the local bands sound anymore because we\u2019re on tour so much. We know a lot of the bigger bands from around here that have been around longer. Honestly, there are so many bands around here that it\u2019s hard to keep up with what\u2019s going on in the scene [laughs]. There are so many doom and funeral doom bands around here and we don\u2019t really sound like that necessarily. We try and stick out for sure.<\/p>\n

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If you had to describe the sound of Lord Dying to someone who has never heard you before how would you describe it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would say it\u2019s aggressive and heavy with some thrash and even some death elements in there. There\u2019s also a heavy sludge element in there but to be honest, it\u2019s just metal.<\/p>\n

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Over the years metal has seen so many new genre tags getting pinned to it that it\u2019s really gotten out of hand. Do you ever feel the potential to get lost in the shuffle with how people will identify Lord Dying?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, actually, I totally do. I feel like people like to put a label on everything that makes them feel more comfortable. I don\u2019t necessarily like to do that with us. We\u2019re constantly trying to push what we do in different directions and as the band evolved I think those genre labels words before that or whatever its fine.<\/p>\n

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What other bands would you love to see Lord Dying tour with that you haven\u2019t already been on the road with?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to see us tour with High on Fire. We get compared to them a lot but I don\u2019t think we really sound that much like them [laughs]. I think that would be a great tour though. We\u2019d love to do something with Mastodon or Clutch. I\u2019d love tour with Morbid Angel or Morgoth [laughs]. That would really be cool.<\/p>\n

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How do you feel about the current state of metal music and what metal is being perceived as by the general public.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think that right now metal is bigger than it\u2019s been for a long time or since the 90\u2019s. I think the internet has a lot to do with that which in some ways is really good but at the same time it\u2019s been really bad for record sales. It\u2019s kind of a catch 22 kind of thing. I think that there is so much interesting metal going on that it\u2019s still a really exciting thing to be into. At the same time so much has been done that it\u2019s going to be hard to imagine what can be done in the future.<\/p>\n

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Metal music seems to really be experiencing a cycle of sorts as we see a lot of young, up and coming bands playing a more classic, old school kind of metal. Do you think that metal is just going to keep recycling itself over the years and if so is that ok?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh yeah. I mean, definitely. I think we\u2019re going to see a big resurgence in old school death metal. I\u2019m already seeing a lot of bands playing that kind of style. Death metal in itself has just become so much different than how it started. I think that everything just comes full circle and I totally see it happening in the future.<\/p>\n

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What is it about metal in general that appealed to you and inspired you start playing this kind of music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I was really into punk rock growing up and I just wanted something more aggressive. That\u2019s where metal came. I just loved the technicality of the music and I loved the aggression and anger. That\u2019s why I love metal to be honest.<\/p>\n

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What was the album or band that started it all off for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Slayer\u2019s Reign in Blood. What a great album.<\/p>\n

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In your opinion, what is one metal album that nobody should go without owning or hearing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morbid Angel\u2019s Alters of Madness [laughs]. That album is amazing.<\/p>\n