Calling your second album ‘The Great Work’ is a somewhat audacious and bold statement and one that may well get people thinking that the band behind it are somewhat pompous sods. This is all part of a trap that Centurions Ghost have set to catch unsuspecting listeners and the odd reviewer out. I caught up with them recently to get an overview of the new album prior to its release.

PW: Firstly and just to catch up a bit, you have had some recent line-up changes in the band and seem to be having a bit of a Spinal Tap affair with your guitarists. Tell us a bit about what’s been going on here and how is the courageous new lady in the group coping with the all the studio and tour bus testosterone?

Mark: Well crikey, since I joined the band we had Stuart playing guitar and he was a replacement for Andy the original guitarist on ‘A Sign Of Things To Come.’ As far as I’m aware Andy just couldn’t commit to touring with the band, Stu was committed to another band and didn’t have time for Centurions Ghost and Dan 138 err just left! Feds wicked, she plays guitar better than me, that’s for sure.

Rich: Yeah when Dan quit I was like, ‘shit this is fucked,’ I didn’t really know what to do and thought it was the beginning of the end for CG but now we have Fed on board the band is stronger than ever before!

PW: How has she coped being the only woman in the band?

Mark: Very well, there were a few moments on tour with everyone farting uncontrollably but she has coped with it fine.

PW: I should point out that Fed isn’t actually involved on the new album Dan contributed right?

Mark: Yes and John as well, who has only been in the band about a year and 5 months and is actually the longest serving guitarist.

PW: You are still signed with highly respected label I Hate. Were you tempted by other offers? What made you stick with them?

Mark: There were a few other offers but none of them seemed any better.

Rich: Not only that, it was getting to 2 years before the next album and we had to get it out, so we just decided to stay where we were.

Mark: I Hate have a really good reputation in the underground. For us that was the main reason. There were a couple of others not as well known that were offering better deals but we knew I Hate would do a good job.

PW: Concentrating on the new album, the idea behind it has been in your collective heads for quite some time. Although not a concept album ‘The Great Work’ is in your own words, “an ancient study associated with alchemy and the Illuminati” I think some ‘enlightenment’ into this is necessary?

Rich: Milly wants to become a Mason but he hasn’t got a job so he thought he would draw attention to the Masonic ideology and hope to get invited… but I don’t think he has. Also he is far too hairy.

Mark: I like the idea of ‘The Great Work’ as it is more of a personal change and a change in mindset than anything else really. It’s not traditional alchemy but represents where we are, as we have gone through a lot of changes, sound wise, line-up wise, attitude wise, just in the last year and a half.

PW: The Great Work or Magnum Opus dates back to medieval alchemy and the practice of turning base metal to gold. Many secret orders have adopted this phrase as a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment. It’s a fascinating and complex subject. How much research did you do into the subject, what sources did you use and have you discovered ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’ on your quest?

Milly (via email) "In terms of actual specific research for the album "THE GREAT WORK", I didn't do any really, I just have had an interest in spirituality and religion for as long as I can remember. A few years ago I became particularly interested in esoteric religions and the earliest forms of Christianity (before it became the bastardized version of the religion that one sees today). It is a fascinating subject and I could ramble on for hours but the aspects of it that left a lasting impression were the idea of death and rebirth and the striving for spiritual perfection, enlightenment through constant learning and improvement. It's a slightly crude and simplistic way of describing it, but I felt that it was a great analogy for what we were trying to achieve with Centurions Ghost. Death and rebirth, in the sense that the band went through upheavals with the departures of James and Andy, but was essentially reborn with a new line-up that was stronger than before. We were (and are) pushing ourselves for constant improvement, learning, refining our craft and chasing this strange and mysterious Holy Grail. The Holy Grail in this case being musical rather than spiritual."

PW: Someone who certainly had grasped your ideas was Albert Witchfinder from Reverend Bizarre. His artwork on the album is both striking and fascinating. How did this collaboration come about and can you explain the significance of the imagery to the theme of the album?

Rich: We needed someone to do the artwork and we knew Albert was a really good artist. He only works on projects which he is personally interested in and basically we just gave him the 4 demo tracks and the title of the album and he went away and drew this amazing artwork. As soon as we all saw the drawing we immediately knew it was EXACTLY what we wanted, the guy is a genius!

PW: Again with the artwork it really doesn’t get the justice it deserves on a mere CD format. I know you were keen to get the album out on vinyl, any news on this?

Rich: Ola from I Hate did say he would look into getting it pressed onto vinyl but if I Hate decide not to press it then there is another company who have already shown interest in doing so.

PW: As it ends so it begins. ‘Sign Of Things To Come’ ended with the haunting pagan musical delights of The Wicker Man and this is how we approach ‘The Great Work.’ It’s a perfect sample that brings a chill to the spine, was this always your intention to present things as perhaps a full circle?

Rich: It’s a continuation. It’s a similar idea to what Venom used at the end of ‘Black Metal’ into ‘At War With Satan’ I had this idea in mind when the last album was recorded and in my opinion it works really well. I love how the ending of ‘A Sign Of Things To Come’ morphs into the beginning of ‘The Great Work’ it’s a natural progression in every sense.

PW: Obviously speaking of transitions this is singer Mark’s first album. There has been a lot of talk about the difference in style between him and previous singer James. What qualities and nuances would you say you have brought to the band?

Mark: Definitely I am a completely different singer to James, I think I have brought a lot more ‘singing’ to the band although that might be debateable. I try and vary my style quite a lot, always try and push where I am vocally. I’m always listening to different things, drawing different influences. On ‘The Great Work’ there’s some harmonies going on and songs like ‘Black Hearts Will Break’ is all singing and I think (not being bad to James) I push it a bit more than he did in the past and that’s absolutely no disrespect to him. I think we are very different singers, my voice is a lot more aggressive and a lot more emotion comes across.

Rich: Also you do a lot of song-writing too.

Mark: Yes I am a guitarist first and foremost. I started singing because my old band couldn’t find a singer. I always used to write vocals for singers in my old bands. I spent ages in a band looking for a singer and in the end I realised I wasn’t going to find anyone who was good enough and thought I may as well do it.

PW: There’s a great organ sound on opening track, ‘The Supreme Moment’ what did you use for this it really creates an atmosphere?

Rich: Milly used a B3 Hammond plug in.

Mark: A software based plug in that emulates the sound of the Hammond.

Rich: We did want to record a proper Hammond but we just didn’t have the time.

PW: There are some very interesting song titles on the album. ‘Let Sleeping Corpses Die’ alludes to the ‘Let Sleeping Corpses Lie’ alternative title to Spanish horror film ‘The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue but what is the song about?

Rich: The band went through a period where certain individuals had a grudge against us for certain decisions we had made. This hate campaign is what inspired me to write ‘Let Sleeping Corpses Die’, the concept of the song is a metaphor for the way these people went about their erroneous business, so read the lyrics and make of it what you will.

PW: Two tracks in and the pace has radically changed, the fast and somewhat furious retro opener is replaced by a slow shuffling cadaverous crawl. Many try to genre tag you and perhaps the doom moralists get upset when you push the boundaries. For anyone confused I’m going to ask again, how would you describe yourselves musically?

Rich: Heavy Metal!

Mark: Yeah

Rich: Its very heavy, its very metal, its very Bad News! Hahaha. We just write the music we like. A wise man once said, “You are only as diverse as your influences.” Therefore, if you look at all the influences each member of CG brings then you have a pretty broad spectrum of music from which to draw. I find these days there’s a really blinkered view of heavy music, its like metal has become so separated and everyone is more interested in a genre rather than the overall picture. You should actually be sticking together and fighting as one, the old phrase ‘united we stand, divided we fall’ springs to mind.

Mark: It’s the complete hardcore mentality; it pisses me right off to be honest. Obviously we have a lot to do with the doom scene but I find there are a lot of people who are very elitist within that scene. We try to be very open-minded but I think a lot of people are just scared of change.

Rich: I think a lot of people are scared of opening their own fucking mouths as well and giving their own opinion.

Mark: It’s the difference between back scratching and arse licking.

PW: I know I can be really obsessive about samples ‘The Great Work’ itself is one, where did this come from it’s really bugging me although I guess it’s an obscurity?

Rich: I stumbled upon an audio sample called ‘The Great Work’ and from what I gather this speech was some priest who had recorded spoken word books on his philosophy on life. I then bastardised the audio to fit with our album concept and Bobs yer dads’ brother.

PW: Bedbound (In The House Of Doom) another great title, where did that one come from?

Mark: That was certainly my idea. At the time it had been a really difficult 18 months It was probably one of the hardest times of my life a lot of things were going wrong for all of us and it is really a metaphor for being stuck in a rut.

Rich: When I read the lyrics Mark had written for Bedbound I was like, “fuck that’s me!” I was stuck in a very difficult situation, my life was goin down the shitter and ironically this song sums up exactly where I was at that particular point in time. A lot of the shit stuff that has gone on over the past two years has been vented through this album; turning the negative into positive.

Mark: It’s definitely an angry record, in no way is it happy.

Rich: The next one’s going to be really hippy and a folk album. Hahaha, yeah right!

PW: ‘Specimen No 7’ is a haunting acoustic guitar interlude. It really breaks the heavy momentum and was basically a bit of a swansong from Dan. Tell us a bit about the ideas behind it?

Dan (via e mail): 'With Specimen No 7 I had images of a hammer horror styled laboratory in my head, all these dusty bottles and twisting tubes filled with curious coloured liquids. I composed that image. Rich added his special touch with samples. The feedback that runs alongside the guitar is in complete contrast to the classical guitar, the guitar being strict and traditional and the feedback being crude and uncertain. It's beautiful yet ugly.'

PW: Another question for Mark specifically was the power metal scream ending ‘In Defiance’ intentional or did you catch yourself in a painful manner?

Mark: It was just the heat of the moment really. I was just feeling the metal. I do a lot of random shouting just for a laugh at the end of ‘In Defiance’ to be honest, live not on album. The song ended and I did an almighty power scream and Rich loved it.

PW: ‘Walking Through Walls’ is a ghostly habit, some of the band have not got the best eyesight in the world and drink a fair bit, have any of you actually attempted this practice?

Mark: I’ve seen Rich attempt to walk through bins, trees, metal fences.

Rich: There’s actually a famous ghost story from York where there’s a phantom legion of Roman Centurions that have been seen walking through walls. It’s also an accurate description of where we are going with our sound.

PW: You recently hit the road with Earthride and The Gates Of Slumber taking in the likes of the ‘Doom Shall Rise’ festival. How did this go? I heard that Dave Sherman of Earthride was quite a difficult character to upstage.

Mark: He’s a big character, he’s a great bloke, a really good guy but he gets a bit full on sometimes and sometimes you just want a bit of quiet. Especially me, I like to relax but that’s him really. It’s was a great tour. We went through some hardships on it, people had bags stolen, Dave broke his leg stage diving, which certainly put a downer on it for the guys from Earthride. It also made our lives a hell of a lot harder getting him round. All in all it was very good. Gigs like ‘Doom Shall Rise’ were unbelievable, it was the best gig I’ve ever played hands down. We have played some awesome shows but this was probably the best we have ever done. I mean we were tight, and giving it.

PW: Mark again I have to ask this but I always look upon people who wear sandals as traitors to metal and that’s in the crowd and you are wearing them on stage. My question is what the fuck?

Mark: I’m just bringing them back. It was very hot that day. As Fred from Serpent cult said, it made me look like a hippy guru.

PW: You are going to namedrop now just to try and get yourself out of it.

Rich: Rich from Centurions Ghost said you look like a cunt! The giant from BFG, hahaha your toe nails are massive, like giant claws, you’ll ave someone’s eye out with them one day!

Mark: I’ve had it from all angles, even my girlfriend hates it. I’ve got beautiful feet what can I say, you’re just intimidated by the size of my toes.

PW: Future touring plans take in America, what shows have you lined up for there and who will you be treading the boards with?

Mark: Well obviously ‘The Gates Of Slumber’ who we are doing the whole tour with, Orodruin, Pale Divine, Ogre, Twisted Tower Dire. Yeah and a load of local bands really.

Rich: Chowder are playing Bible Of The Devil, and The Dream Is Dead, check them guys out they’re heavy as fuck!

PW: How long and what States are you taking in?

Both: 2 weeks and its East Coast. Maryland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Raleigh, Baltimore, North Carolina, New York, Chicago, Indianapolis, shit loadsa places!

PW: It’s probably too early to talk about future recording plans but I hear there may well be a couple of drum n bass mixes of tracks (yes honest). Tell us a bit about these?

Rich: I’m mates with Jay who runs Armour Records and we recorded guitars, drums and bass at his studio. He was kind of into what we were doing at the time and I gave him the CD which he played it in his office. He called me one day and said, ‘man you know when you have music on and the papers move in front of the speakers, your music just cleared the fucking desk and I want to work with that.’ We’re gonna give him 3 of the songs from the album and and see what happens, it might not work but fuck it, why not give it a go!

Also, we are recording a split 7” with ‘The Gates Of Slumber’ which will be coming out on ‘Timeless Wounds’

Mark: It’s going to be a picture disc as well.

Rich: We are working on the next album and already have a title for it!

PW: Which you are not going to share with me?

Rich: Yeah, ‘Burning Bridges And Dancing On The Ashes’.

PW: So I have an exclusive then!

Mark: We will probably change it though hahaha!

So there you have it and that all important date which sees ‘The Great Work’ unleashed on I Hate Records is the 20th August.

Centurions Ghost have also just been announced as support on UK dates with Candlemass.

Listen to Centurions Ghost at www.myspace.com/centurionsghost
Visit their record label online at www.ihate.se
Additional resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnum_opus

Interviewed by Pete Woods
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