• Vore derives from the latin word "vorare" meaning devour. Is in the human nature, unfortunately, the "need" to devour everything. Themselves, the nature...the future. Vore are here not only to ring the bell but to shake us and wake us from our sleep. Which is their secret weapon? Their music and strong lyrics of course! All the death, doom metal fans, I am sure, will be moved by the perfect combination of brutality and atmosphere. Noise and silence...
• After all, there's one more reason for all of you to read this interview! Vore give to all the Behind The Veil readers the opportunity to get their cd with less money! Get it and I bet you won't lose!!!

• VORE began in June of 1994. Myself (Page Townsley - lead guitar & vocals) and John Voelker (rhythm guitar and vocals) had played together previously in a band called Mausoleum from 1990 to 1993. We left that band and started Vore with drummer Brian Marcinkiewicz from New York.  Glen Wheeler who was a friend of ours that had been a rhythm guitarist in another local band joined up as our bass player a few months later. We released our first demo in 1995 called " To Devour ". It was a cassette demo. In 1997 we released our first cd " Dead Kings Eyes " which had a much improved production over our previous effort. In 1999 we appeared on Dwell Record's Sepultura Tribute 'World Of Pain ' and also played at the Milwaukee Metalfest. Last year we released our latest full length cd " Lord Of Storms ".

2.WHAT DOES VORE MEAN? HOW DID YOU SELECT IT? HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU
THINK IS THE CHOICE OF THE BAND NAME?

• Vore comes from the latin word ' vorare ' which means "to devour". When John and I were still in Mausoleum we were going to have to come up with a new band name because we had learned that the name Mausoleum was already in use. We wanted to come up with a name that was different from what all the other death metal bands were calling themselves at the time. Everyone had a name that ended with the suffix -ition or -ation. It was important to us too try and come up with something we liked that was different as well as not being in use by another band. We were going to rename Mausoleum  "Primalvore" which was a name John came up with after watching a documentary about primates that were carnivorous and would hunt and eat other monkeys. After  Mausoleum disbanded and we started this band, John said "why not just 'Vore'". We liked the sound of it so that's what we ended up naming ourselves. We feel its a powerful name. It is also a statement of the human condition. Humans devour everything, slowly destroying their environment and ultimately themselves.

3.WHICH ARE YOUR INFLUENCES? WHICH BANDS DO YOU ADMIRE? ARE THERE ANY
BANDS YOU DESPISE?

• There are many different influences that make up Vore coming from many different genres like death Metal, Thrash Metal, Classical/Symphonic music, Doom and Traditional Metal. We never set out to copy any particular band. We're all influenced by different things and we all have differing opinions and ideas about music and what bands we admire or despise. We don't always agree with each other but I think those differences add to our musical strengths.

4.HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSICAL STYLE? I THINK YOU FOUND THE
PERFECT COMBINATION BETWEEN BRUTAL DEATH AND DOOM. HOW DID YOU MANAGE THIS?

• Thanks for the compliment ! This is the type of music that comes out of us naturally when we write metal.  We write what we'd like to hear and fans of metal and what gives us the most emotional and intellectual satisfaction as people and musicians. I would describe Vore as a  mid paced death/thrash metal hybrid with an emphasis on strong riffs and arrangements. We also have a classical influence that manifests itself in our acoustic instrumentals and intros.

5.TELL US SOME GENERAL THINGS REGARDING THE ALBUM, THE RECORDINGS...IS
THERE A FUNNY OR WEIRD INCIDENT YOU COULD MENTION? YOUR PRODUCTION SOUNDS A LITTLE OLD FASHIONED. WAS IT MADE LIKE THAT DUE TO SMALL BUDGET OR WAS IT MADE ON PURPOSE TO REMIND US THE OLDER BANDS?

• We recorded Lord Of Storms with Aaron Allen in Tulsa Oklahoma. He's the same engineer that we recorded our Dead Kings Eyes MCD and Sepultura Tribute track with.  He's become a good friend of ours over the years. He had purchased some new hard disk recording equipment and he wanted to test it out with us so we got a good break on the recording costs. There were some extended delays in getting it finished due to some hardware/software issues, but we're very happy with how it turned out. If the production sounds "old fashioned" it wasn't our intent. We ran up against budget and time constraints. I can't think of anything funny or weird that happened during the recording of Lord Of Storms to tell you about. The recording went by without incident for the most part besides some of the initial software problems I mentioned before.

6.HOW MANY ALBUMS AND DEMOS HAVE YOU RELEASED BEFORE "LORD OF STORMS"? HAVE YOU WITNESSED ANY EVOLUTION?

• Two. We released our first cassette demo in 1995 called " To Devour " and an MCD in 1997 called " Dead Kings Eyes ". Yes, there's definitely been an evolution in songwriting, musicianship and production through all of Vore's releases.

7.WHAT ARE YOUR LYRICS TALKING ABOUT? IS YOUR ALBUM A CONCEPT?

• Lord Of Storms is not a concept. One thing that sets Vore apart from the majority of other death metal bands is that we don't have lyrics about gore, mutilation or satanism. John and I write all the lyrics and we're into reading a lot of fantasy, horror and sword and sorcery novels. We enjoy the books of Brain Lumley, George R.R. Martin, Robin Hobb, David Gemmell and Tolkien of course. We're also into movies like Excalibur, Conan The Barbarian and The 13th Warrior. We try and  create a picture with our lyrics and tell a story. Some of our lyrics are based on short story ideas that John and I have had over the years.Songs like Godslayer and Primordial Conquest fit in this category.

8.THE TRACK TITLES ARE DARK, PESSIMISTIC AND DOOMY. IS THERE A REVELATION OF YOUR CHARACTERS THROUGH THE LYRICS?

• Sure. Our beliefs, interests and personalities all come out in what we write. We throw some of our personal demons, ideas and philosophies into our lyrics as well. The songs Veils Of Obliveon and Forging A New Vision are based on feelings and theories about life and the human race.

9.WHAT'S THE CONNECTION BETWEEN YOUR LYRICS AND THE ARTWORK? WHO IS THE
PERSON IN THE COVER? WHO IS "THE LORD OF STORMS"?

• We gave all our lyrics to our artist Odis Holcombe to draw inspiration and ideas from and the  painting on the cover is what he came up with. The connection of the art to the music is that of the dark rumbling power our music had on Odis. The mage is a dark rumbling of that power and a continued search and obsession with that power. Vore's music and the mage are balance. The calm and the storm, the thunder, and the silence, the creation, and the destruction. The Mage is a  creation of our sound, and we are his thunder. Who is the Lord Of Storms ?  He is many things.

10.WHY DO YOU THINK METAL KEEPS INVOLVING SO MUCH RELIGION?

• To many people music, metal or not,  IS their religion and as such is a very stong and personal thing.  Metal often personifies rebellion against accepted standards and reflects a dark view of life . It is not a form music that is embraced by the general public and there is a certain lifestyle and ideal that goes along with that. Here in America and elsewhere metal music is misunderstood and often under attack by the church. I think much of metal's religious themes are in response to that. Religious beliefs are opinions. Everyone believes something different and likes something  different.  But unlike other opinions, religious and political opinions are strongly heartfelt and personal and if someone disagrees with these opinions conflict can be quick to arise. This is human nature. Look at the multitude of wars that have been fought through history over religious opinion and manipulation. If you look at the moral teachings of many of these religions this behavior is a hypocrisy.  This is also exemplified in many metal lyrics.

11.IF YOUR MUSIC WAS AN EMOTION WHAT WOULD IT BE? IF IT WAS A PAINTING
WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?

• That's the most annoying question someone's ever done to me ! Actually I don't know.

12.HAVE YOU DONE ANY LIVE SHOWS? WHICH BANDS WEW FRIENDLIER TO YOU? HAS
ANYONE HELPED YOU IN A WAY?

• Yes, Vore's played many live shows. Currently we play mostly in our mid-south region of the U.S. but we're planning on a tour this fall. We've played shows here in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Tennessee. We also played the Milwaukee Metalfest once back in 1999 on Metalfest XIII. We've played with DEICIDE, MALEVOLENT CREATION, JUNGLE ROT, SIX FEET UNDER, MANOWAR, HALFORD, CANNIBAL CORPSE, NILE, MONSTROSITY, ORIGIN and MORBID ANGEL. We're going to be playing with NILE again this summer as well as ARCH ENEMY and HATE ETERNAL. The bands that we've played with that were the nicest have been CANNIBAL CORPSE  & MANOWAR.  Both those bands were exceptionally cool to us. I wouldn't say that any band has helped us directly, but us being on a show with them has helped expose Vore to more and more people and we've always left a good impression on metal fans when we play live. That's were Vore has its maximum impact.

13.WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO COMPOSE MUSIC?

• I'd be pissed off all the time !! We'd probably all be serial killers or an inmates at a mental  institution ! Honestly though I'd probably be an artist or a writer, something that involves personal creativity.

 14.WHICH IS THE MOST ANNOYING QUESTION SOMEONE'S EVER DONE TO YOU?
WHICH QUESTION WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE ASKED AND NO ONE EVER DID? ANSWER IT AS WELL.

• That's easy ! - "11.IF YOUR MUSIC WAS AN EMOTION WHAT WOULD IT BE? IF IT WAS A PAINTING WHAT WOULD IT SHOW? " Ha ha ha !

15.WHICH BOOK WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE MADE A MOVIE? WOULD YOU EVER BE
INTERESTED IN PLAYING IN A MOVIE?

• I always thought it would be cool if they made a movie based on The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock or The Necroscope series by Brian Lumley. To me the biggest challenge is not in the special effects but in writing a good screenplay that does justice to the original book and maintains most of its integrity. As for being in a movie, John and I were extras in a movie shot here in Northwest Arkansas called " Barbarian Poet ". Barbarian Poet recreates the year 406 AD (the year before the beginning of the fall of the Roman Empire). The story takes place just north of the Rhine River, outside the boundary of the Roman Empire. A mountain top village of Germanic refugees is under siege because they have been freeing slaves that were illegally taken by corrupt Roman Army commanders. Now, 800 peaceful villagers must defend themselves against a legion  of 6,000 well-trained Roman soldiers, and their only secret weapon is a pacifist poet sees no glory in violence. Barbarian Poet is a fantastic tale of bravery and love during a very unstable, bloody time. John was a Roman Centurian and I was a Vandal. It was a lot of fun. It was cool hanging out on the set with a couple hundred people all dressed up as Romans and Barbarians, It was like living in another time!

16.IF YOU HAD THE ABILITY TO CHANGE SOMETHING IN THE WORLD, WHAT WOULD
THAT BE?

• Humans would never have evolved. Nature would rule the planet without the foul taint of humanity upon it.

17.WHAT TITLE WOULD YOU GIVE TO THE BAND'S LIFE SO FAR?

• VORE !!

18.THANK YOU! THESE LINES ARE YOURS. LEAVE YOUR MESSAGE...

• Everyone needs to order a copy of our latest cd ' Lord Of Storms ' ! We're making a special deal to the readers of Behind The Veil !  Send  $ 10 to us at: VORE, P.O. Box 8425, Faytteville, AR  72703-0008 USA.  ( U.S. funds only please. Make any money orders payable to Page Townsley ). We'll send you some stickers too ! You can also check out our website at www.vore.org. We've got some MP3 samples up that you can listen to along with pictures, show information and more.