Well they must be Britain’s most accident prone band. Earlier this year their bassist broke his collarbone, and shortly after that, the drummer broke his wrist. As if this wasn’t bad enough the vocalist managed to fall head first down a flight of stairs, causing him to sprain his wrist and suffer a slight concussion. Are Conquest Of Steel carrying a curse? Doubtful. The only thing they are carrying is an abundance of alcohol in their system to fuel such self- injuring antics. As such occurrences may suggest, Conquest Of Steel are a band who understand the true meaning of the word “fun”…whether on or off stage. Donning denim and patches a-plenty and armed with swords you just wouldn’t wanna fuck with, this horde are here to inject you with a lethal dose of metal old school style! Guitarist D.D.Danger answered a few questions for MTUK (and luckily didn’t end up in hospital in the process!)

LH: Hailz! How are things in the Conquest camp?

D.D.Danger: Hi Luci, things are great at the moment. We are enjoying getting out gigging as always and we are getting great reviews for our new album, so everything is going well.

LH: Last I heard your drummer Chris had broken his wrist partaking in some drunken antics at the DOD fest in Ireland (very fucking metal \m/). When do you anticipate him to be able to rejoin you guys on the drums and how have the gigs been going with John Savage beating the sticks?

D.D.Danger: We are not entirely sure when The Destroyer will be back behind his kit. He is due out of plaster at the end of August and then I guess it depends how long before he gets full use back in his arm. He doesn’t hit the drums gently, so it may take him a while to regain his full power! Hopefully he’ll be back towards the end if the year. John Savage is doing a fine job standing in. He has played with us on a few occasions previously when The Destroyer was unable to make a gig, so he knows the songs reasonably well, which is just as well as he only had 2 practices before his first gig with us!

LH: As we are already on the subject of DOD, how did the gig go? Did you get a good reaction from the crowd over there?

D.D.Danger: We had a great time at DOD. It was our first trip to play in Southern Ireland (we played in Belfast a few years ago) and we certainly made the most of it! We were made to feel very welcome and the Irish Metalheads are a great bunch – who certainly know their Metal and know how to drink! The crowd response we got was great and we hope to go back to Ireland early next year all being well. It was just a shame that I ended up spending all Saturday night in the Hospital with The Destroyer, trying desperately to sober up so I could make sense to the doctors and nurses!

LH: Moving on to your new album “Hammer and Fist”. I’ve had a scour across the World Wide Web and come across a number of reviews for the album, all fairly positive. Are you happy with the reactions you have had to the album thus far, from both the press and the fans?

D.D.Danger: Yeah, the reviews have all been great – both fans and press seem to think that Hammer and Fist is a step up from our debut, and we are pleased that people are recognising the steps forward that we are making.

LH: Do you think that your sound has progressed at all since your previous album?

D.D.Danger: The style of music we play has not changed at all – we still play and will continue to play True Heavy Metal, but we have certainly progressed in terms of improving our song writing abilities, better playing and better production. We were able to spend more time on this recording and a (slightly) bigger budget meant that we could use 2 different studios to help us get the best sounds possible. We laid down all guitars, bass and vocals and Red Flag and recorded the Drums and mixed at Priory Studio. This meant that we could get the sound we wanted, whilst still retaining the ‘old school’ feel that we think is so important.

LH: Influences are fairly obvious; Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon, Manowar…are there any bands that have influenced any of you that aren’t quite as obvious?

D.D.Danger: Probably not!! - Apart from the bands you list we are influenced by Metal in general. Obviously our most obvious influences come from the big old 80’s metal giants – (you can also add WASP, Dio and Twisted Sister to your list), but we have all been listening to Metal for over 15 years (apart from our new guitar player, Claymore Clarke – who is but a youngster!) so we have an extensive knowledge of all forms of Metal, so that influences our playing and writing to a large extent. Despite liking other forms of Metal we are clear in our vision – Conquest of Steel is a True Heavy Metal band – we may progress naturally along our chosen path, but we will never stray from the path of Real, True Heavy Metal.

LH: Who are the main songwriters in the band and how do you go about the process of writing songs?

D.D.Danger: Vic Victory (Bass) writes 80-90% of the music at home and then brings it to the practice room. We then add our ideas, rework sections, change them around etc etc until we are fully happy with the tracks. We have occasionally jammed out ideas (half of Lamentations of War was created this way), but we feel that this isn’t always productive and we generally stick to learning the riffs that Vic produces and following his Heavy Metal guidance!

LH: How important are the lyrics and what inspires you as far as the lyrics are concerned? Would you say that your approach to lyric writing has changed much over the years?

D.D.Danger: The lyrical approach has stayed pretty much the same since the band was formed. We sing about Heavy Metal!! It’s pretty much that simple. All our songs are about glorifying Metal in one way, shape or form. Of course we use occasional allegory and hidden references – but generally it’s all pretty blatant. My favourite lyrics on Hammer and Fist are in Million Strong. It’s all about that special feeling that we have as Metallers. We know that in society we stand out, and we may often feel that no-one gives a shit about our music, but then we meet up at gigs and at festivals, and we know there are thousands, millions of us and that we all have that same feeling about Metal – a feeling that will never die. The idea of brother/sister hood in Metal is very important to us and it’s something that we feel bonds us with our fans, We are fans too, we buy records every week and go to gigs, so we know what being a Metal fan is all about. We feel that this gives us a close, Metal bond with our fans.

LH: You put on one hell of a live show – do you feel that you are able to capture that energy in a recording or do you think that people really have to see you play live to get the full “Conquest Experience”?

D.D.Danger: It’s the one thing that we are always trying to achieve. We all know that we are at our best on the stage, it is were we belong and were we are happiest, so it’s only natural that we should want to replicate that on our CD’s. I think we are getting closer all the time to replicating our onstage energy on record – but as our show is so visual, it is very hard to replicate that aspect on album and so people really should come down to a show to get the full Conquest Experience – you won’t be disappointed!

LH: Judging from recent events I can guess you have some fun times gigging and getting drunk. Could you share with us an interesting story of something that happened while on tour?

D.D.Danger: We always set out to enjoy ourselves. When we stop having fun when on the road then that’s when we should pack it all in. Of course alcohol plays a big part in the band and we all like a drink (or seven) as often as we can. It’s often difficult staying sober enough to play, particularly if we are headlining. We do try to play sober (ish) as we don’t believe in giving our fans a shit performance, but the temptation of beer is often difficult to resist. I fell fowl of this the other week at DaveFest, when in the Festival spirit of things had far too many bottles of beer before going on and I think it’s fair to say that I’ve played better!

We played a one off outdoor festival in Germany last year, and the booze was flowing before we went on stage, and while we were playing they kept bringing us trays of shots to drink – needless to say we were all pretty pissed by the end of the gig! Unfortunately during the gig, the bass amp blew up, my strap snapped, Dan kept getting electric shocks from the mike and the drumkit kept falling apart! Despite all this it was one of the most enjoyable gigs we have played – great crowd, great atmosphere and just a great Metal day. Unfortunately on our way home we were taken to the wrong airport so we missed our flight and had to stay another night and get pissed all over again – what a shame!

LH: You have played a lot of gigs over the years. Are there any that stand out as being your best and worst gigs?

D.D.Danger: We have had some great gigs over the last few years. The festival mentioned above was fantastic fun, as was the Heavy Metal Maniacs Festival in Holland. Bloodstock 2005 was probably the biggest crowd we have played to and Damnation fest was a total surprise as we didn’t expect the response we got. Most of the gigs we play are good, some gigs we know we could have played better and some gigs the turnout isn’t always brilliant, but we always have fun and put on a great show. We believe the only way for a band to exist is by gigging as much as possible, so we will play as much as we possibly can. Some gigs we may play to 50 people, some we may play to 500, but what matters is that we are out there doing it and playing Metal to as many people as possible – spreading the word of Metal far and wide – we are the Priests of Metal!

As for worst gigs – we went to play a gig recently, at a venue I won’t name. We hung around for hours and when it came for time for us to play the gear that we had been promised got taken off stage and we had no equipment to play with! We had to go home without playing the gig because the idiots who booked the show didn’t know their arse from their elbow, and failed to arrange sufficient equipment for all the bands. The real shit about it was that we had to disappoint fans who had come to see us, and this is something we hate to do. Thankfully they were able to demand their money back and we were able to give out free CD’s to all who had come down to see us. We won’t be going back to that venue! Thankfully most of the people we deal with when booking gigs are well organised and are a pleasure to work with.

LH: How do the crowds compare in Europe to here in the UK? I imagine you go down well in countries like Germany where there is a big call for “true” metal bands.

D.D.Danger: We get great responses from crowds both at home and abroad. It has however been a pleasure to play in front of Dutch, German and Belgian audiences. They all lap up the power of the Steel. I think the Europeans are somewhat surprised that a British band is playing the style of music that we do. I think they think that all UK bands and fans are trendy like the Americans, and that the British gave up playing True Metal in the 80’s. We are pleased to be able to show them otherwise and to fly the flag for True Heavy Metal!

LH: In your press release it states that your music is simply “metal”. Not battle metal or power metal. I’ve seen you get classified as both of these and other sub-genres besides. Do you think that this type of categorization is a necessary evil to help give music fans a better idea of whether they will like a band or not, or would you rather that the press stop pigeonholing bands into such restrictive categories?

D.D.Danger: We are clear in our minds that we are a True Heavy Metal band. We are not a happy-clappy power metal band like Dragonforce, Hammerfall, Stratovarious etc etc, nor are we Battle Metal – whatever the hell that is. Ok, we have songs about battles but our music is 80’s style Heavy Metal – True Heavy Metal, not Battle fucking Metal!!!! Fans need categories to put bands in. I don’t have a problem with that, but I do have a problem when a genre is invented by a magazine to push a certain type of music for a brief period of time before that style of music is then dropped in favour of the next trend. I feel this is exactly what has happened with Battle Metal - a non-existent genre, with lots of bands from Death, Black, Trad and Power genres all lumped together because they happen to have the odd song about Battles – this is total bollocks in my opinion.

LH: Classic heavy metal is getting more popular at the moment and I’ve noticed more kids are listening to the older bands like Maiden, Sabbath, Metallica and stuff like Hammerfall and Primal Fear. Do you think this is a positive thing, or would you rather proper metal stayed away from the mainstream?

D.D.Danger: I think it is a great thing if more people are listening to Metal. The only problem I have with this is that I worry that Metal is becoming the new trend and that in a few years time all the people listening to Metal at the moment will have moved onto whatever else is the next popular thing. Metal is not and should not be a fashion or trend. Metal is in your blood – once a metaller, always a metaller – for life.

LH: How happy are you with what your current label “No Face Records” are doing? Are you on the look out for a bigger record deal?

D.D.Danger: We have always been very happy with No Face. They are a small independent label that give us the freedom to do what we want, there is nobody telling us what to do, we have full control over everything from the songs, the artwork to promotion and everything else in between.

We do realise however that with a small label there are limited funds, distribution, promotion etc and it would definitely be a good thing for the band if we could sign with a bigger label, but and this is a big BUT; any potential label must be able to offer us the same freedom and control that No Face do. We will not give away our creative control for a few extra sales to help furnish some rich label bosses new penthouse. Our Heavy Metal art is far too important for that.

LH: That’s all the questions I have for you. Cheers for the interview. Do you have any final words?

D.D.Danger: Cheers for the Interview Luci – keep up the good work with Metal Team. We appreciate your support. To all the fans – many Metal thanks for your continued support – check out www.conquestofsteel.co.uk and www.myspace.com/conquestofsteel for regular updates and band and gig info. We’ll see you down the front at a gig near you soon!

Interviewed by Luci Herbert
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