• In the band's own words : "Heavy-Metal-Herman from SHADOWLORD bares his gigantic penis to the world and gives insight into the music of this soon to be legendary band".

• One of the most important events would have to have Ross Join us, we were band that had the motivation and the musical vision, we just never had a good vocalist, there have been other landmark times too, playing the bigger shows, experiencing a taste of the Rock 'n Roll dream by touring with our brother bands and abusing vast amounts of alcohol with them.

2.WITH WHAT CRITERIA HAVE YOU SELECTED THE BAND'S NAME? WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?

• The name comes from our music being totally ignored by the South-African music scene, Heavy-Metal has a real bad name here, we are mostly known only by our (very dedicated) followers, hence SHADOWLORD.

3.WHICH ARE THE BAND'S INFLUENCES? HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC? DO YOU REMEMBER WHICH BAND MADE YOU REALIZE THAT WHAT YOU WNATED TO DO IS INVOLVE WITH MUSIC?

• The influences vary from member to member, my own vision for the band has always been to create the truest form of Metal that i can, i've likened it to taking cacophony (the band) and taking their music one step further, however the bands that have been a major influence on our music have been the true-Metal bands such as Manowar, Maiden to neo-classical influences, Malmsteen, Stratovarius and a good deal of thrash: Exodus, Kreator.. jeez we even have WASP to Queensryche to Skid Row to Running wild to Dissection (very much Dissection) influences.. too numerous to name, anything i consider as true-Metal is what i like and the abovementioned bands would probably play the biggest role. The band that changed my life is definately Manowar, when i was about 11 i heard them for the first time and knew what my destiny would be...

4.I THINK THAT YOUR LYRICS REFER TO EPIC METAL THEMES. WHAT IS EPIC METAL FOR YOU? HOW DO YOU DEFINE IT? IS IT JUST A NICE WAY OF NARRATING A STORY OR IS IT SOMETHING MORE?

• The concept is very close to me, it has always been, growing up my favoroute movies have always been 80's fantasy movies, Conan the Barbarian  and so forth, I think the theme has always been perfect for Heavy-Metal, it seems cliche to use but i will never get enough of it. Our theme varies from song to song and has to do with ourselves and our emotions and thoughts, Triumph is about Vikings and their beliefs, I dont want to go too in depth but I have very strong viewpoints and a lot of respect for their religion and Values, Sail into the stars is actually Trumph part 2, about us as a band being prepared to leave everything behind in persuit of our dreams and Heavy-Metal!! some songs are based on arthurian legends and some are just about how silly christianity is, some are about bikes and chicks, everything we believe Metal is about.

5.MANY PEOPLE CLAIM THAT EPIC METAL IS A CULT GENRE AND IT'S FOR A SMALL PART OF FANS. DO YOU AGREE?

• Well over here Metal in general is a cult genre, but Metal people i have met overseas, some think epic Metal is cheese, some are shy to admit that is what they are into, so id have to agree that its a cult genre, but i am in this band to prove to the world that it is superior to everything else!!

6.I FOUND YOUR SOUND CLOSE TO RUNNING WILD, RIOT ("THUNDERSTEEL" PERIOD) AND VIRGIN STEELE. DO YOU AGREE? ARE YOU IN FAVOR OR AGAINST TRIBUTE ALBUMS? IN WHICH TRIBUTE ALBUM WOULD YOU LIKE TO PARTICIPATE? ARE YOU AWARE OF A RUNNING WILD CONTEST RUNNING AT THE TIME? WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER TAKING PART?

• Running wild have always been a big favoroute of mine, Riot, and especially modern virgin steele are amazing, Invictus and house of Atreus act1 are among the most inspiring albums ive ever heard so definately a big influence there. Tribute albums? i think so, Id take part in the contest, yes could you tell me where to get details?

7.HOW WAS YOUR MUSIC ACCEPTED SO FAR BY THE FANS AND PRESS?

• The fanbase have been growing in numbers and strength, Metal will (as you well know!) never die in our hearts and in the hearts of the fans that have accepted us, as for the press, things are very slow, the radio stations mostly play pop and so forth, they keep bringing local bands down even though we have some of the best musicians in the world, we have had a couple of radio interviews, a couple of songs played and such, nothing by european standards.

8.THE BIG LABELS SIGN BANDS THAT COPY HELLOWEEN AND STRATOVARIUS (MAINLY). HOW EASY OR DIFFICULT IS IT FOR A BAND LIKE SHADOWLORD TO FIND A CONTRACT?

• Well, we havent had much luck with labels, no deals have come in so far. What big Labels should realise is that our currency is worth shit, it'll cost them nothing to get a band like us to tour and record and stuff, for us earning rands its more difficult, we'd get signed just to have our albums in print and have a european tour to come back only with smiles on our faces is enough. At the moment we print and record the cd's, flyers, posters advertising and so forth by our own expense, there are no Metal labels in this country so we are trying to get hold of the bigger Metal labels in Europe, but its very expensive to even get demo's to them, but make no mistake we will hang in there as we have done in the past, and we will be triumphant.

9.DON'T YOU THINK THAT THE CD'S ARE VERY EXPENSIVE AND IT'S VERY DIFFICULT FOR THE FANS TO BUY EVERY RELEASE?

• Well we make our own and we sell them at cost price to the fans, I just want them to listen to the music that's all, CD's in general are too expensive, they cost about 4 times what they cost in germany, dont know about greek prices, we have huge import taxes and very little metal gets imported, i saw that in Germany a cd costs about 10 euro's and a beer about 2 so you can buy a cd at the price of 5 beers here a cd costs about 6 rand in a club and 2.50 in a bottle store a cd costs R250 and up, so we can drink 5 cases of beer for one cd!!! (R250 = 25 euro)

10.MANY METAL MUSICIANS ACCUSE POP STARS FOR THEIR LIFE STYLE, YET WE SEE SUCH BEHAVIOURS IN THE METAL SCENE AS WELL (BANDS PAYING TO MAKE A COVER FOR SUCCESFUL MAGAZINES, HAVING A GOOD REVIEW, METAL LABELS PROMOTING SPECIFIC BANDS AND GENRES EACH EPOCH,ETC).IS IT MAYBE AFTER ALL TRUE THAT THE METAL INDUSTRY DOESN'T DIFFER FROM THE POP? WHICH ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?

• First of all, we dont dress the way they do and make the music that we do because we are "misunderstood" or something fucking wuss like that, we are who we are because Metal flows in our blood! About the pop thing, I think its all the same, in a sense that bands that I think are amazing gets shit reviews in metal magazines cause they dont sell, the reason for them not selling is because of the shit reviews (if any reviews or interviews at all!!) and the bands that i dont consider Metal gets put on the cover of "Metal" magazines. That way the industry is just as corrupt as the pop industry, we need true-Metal people who know whats going on to run magazines and radio stations to show the word what Metal really is!!

11.WOULD YOU BE ANNOYED IF YOUR MUSIC WAS TREATED ONLY AS A PRODUCT AND WITHOUT ARTISTIC VALUE?

• There is no way of getting around it, a record company would treat your music as a product, how else? I have made peace with that, its the fans who it is important to and we need to get them what they deserve! and i cant think of another way of getting it to them, so wed all have to deal with idiots some time or the other, its all for a greater good..

12.WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST? THE CONAN STORIES OR THE LORD OF THE RINGS? NEITHER OF THEM MAYBE? WHY?

• CONAN!! The overall theme is the best, the theme of one man breaking free, fighting against enormous odds for that what he believes in, my favorite part is when he prays to Krum for the first time before battle and is prepared to defy him if he does not listen "what matters is that one man stood against many, and if you do not listen, then, to hell with you!!" The other band members might disagree with me here but L.O.T.R. has got nothing to do with being epic, the themes arent as powerful and emotional, too much of a fantasy element in stead of barbarian war and such.

13.YOU ALSO HAVE A HARD ROCK SONG IN THE CD. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

• hmmm, i am not sure which cd i sent you, we have a couple of hard rock type songs, you might be referring to schoolgirl - its actually very serious, about people who have been shallow enough to drive you mad untill you stop trusting people, Hail and thunder, its about us as a band and what metal is to us, Dark Messiah - about how the false conservative christian upbringing have destroyed people's minds - Steel wings - about Harleys and such.. anyyway we have hard rock influences, anything from AC/DC to Black Sabbath to Led Zeppelin.

14.DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE GREEK METAL SCENE? IF YES, WHICH BANDS DO YOU LIKE?

• I know that the scene is Huge compared to anywhere else, you have metal shops and so forth, Rock wave festival my greek friends go to visit every year. The bands i know of is Rotting Christ, flames and airghed lamh -havent heard of them in a while though, awesome music though.

15.IF YOU HAD THE MONEY TO MAKE A PROPER VIDEOCLIP HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE? DESCRIBE IT TO US...

• easy..... CHICKS, EXPLOSIONS, BIKES, BLOOD, BEER AND LOTS OF SCREAMING FANS!!! Other ideas vary if the song happens to have a theme which we have a budget to try and portray.

16.IF SOMEDAY YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO MEET THE CREATURE THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE, WHICH WOULD YOUR BIGGEST QUESTION BE?

• I'd ask the creature (Joey de Maio) to bestow me with the voice of Eric Adams, and the penis of a horse... wait already got that!

17.IF TIME TRAVEL WAS POSSIBLE, WHICH HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHY? WHAT WOULD YOU MISS THE MOST FROM OUR TIME?

• ooooohhhh.... History question..... One of my biggest passions is history, so ill try and make it short.. First choice, I'd visit the library of alexandria just before it burned down, I'd take a machine gun with unlimited ammo and kill any mother-fucker who even tries to bring a flame near that thing!! because I believe that humanity would be thousands of times more advanced if we had that knowledge, we'd have a vastly better knowledge of history and we'd stop all the great christian evils from spreading like a plague over the world, like the crusades, inquisition, even illiteracy which was a great setback for humanity... next I'd visit south-africa during the colonisation, well, I might get locked up in jail for saying what I want here... next I'd go to 15th century South-America and kill all the conquistadores, fuck them for destroying a great part of history, destroying counltless amounts of knowledge because it was "pagan" and melting gold artifacts making ther crucifixes and so forth.. (as you can see im no big fan of christianity)... ill stop here.

18.WHICH IS MAN'S BIGGEST TEMPTATION?

• Aside from women and beer I can't think of much else right now.

19.WHAT PROLOGUE AND TITLE WOULD YOU LIKE THIS
INTERVIEW TO HAVE?

• Title: OH MY GOD THAT THING IS HUGE!!!
• Prologue: Heavy-Metal-Herman from SHADOWLORD bares his gigantic penis to the world and gives insight into the music of this soon to be legendary band.

20.I LIKE YOUR MUSIC VERY MUCH! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!I WISH YOU THE BEST. THESE LAST LINES ARE YOURS...

• Thank you for the excellent words in the demo review, I hope our paths could one day cross and we could consume lots of beer together. To all the Metal fans all over the world: Never let the Metal in your heart stop pounding, never be shy to stand up for what you believe in, whatever you do, even if it is taking a wank in the mornings, do it for the GODS OF METAL AND YOURSELVES, Never be selfish, never stop giving the gift and spreading the word and it will all come back to you!!!