Hell Spawn

Well for starters the band rose out of the ashes of Sinning Is Our Savior. Can you tell us a little more about that band and how you eventually became Crown The Lost.
Joe (Bonaddio; lead guitars) and I started Sinning in June of 2002 and for all intents and purposes, it was our first real band. At the time, Joe was light-years ahead of me on guitar, but we both had similar interests and goals, so it was only natural for us to move forward. Musically, it was along the lines of death/thrash with no clean vocals, but we did employ lots of melody. We were much more technical in Sinning than in Crown the Lost, so the songs aren't as cohesive or focused, but for being how inexperienced we were, we fared pretty well. We recorded one album, "Painted With Utter Desolation" that got picked up by Screaming Ferret Wreckords in 2004, but they sat on it and by the time they were going to release it, we were ready to break up and I was starting Crown the Lost.

Are all the same guys from SIOS active in Crown The Lost?
Funny you ask that - when I started Crown the Lost, the goal was to have everyone from Sinning in the band and at one pont, we did have everyone from SIOS in Crown the Lost, but that lineup fell apart pretty quickly, as Jon (Rice, drums) left to join Job For a Cowboy and we kicked out Ryan (Eicheldinger, bass) in 2008. It was all for the better though; the lineup we have now in Crown the Lost is far and away the best we've ever had.

Is religion important within the band seeing the current and previous  bandname?
I wouldn't say it's important, but it's a topic we've addressed on more than one occasion. None of us in the band are religious and we've found it to be a major bone of contention in our lives, so it has become a fairly easy topic for us to address. Most of the lyrics on "Blind Faith Loyalty" deal with our disgust for organized religion and rather than attacking it in a vicious manner, we raise questions and pose our lyrics on a philosophical level.  That being said, I think we've run out of ideas on how to bash religion lyrically, so we're going in a new direction with our new songs. Still, that doesn't mean we've changed our outlook - just moving onto new things.

You recently released "Blind Loyalty Faith", but before you released an EP (or was that a demo) and your debut cd "Reverence Dies Within", how did those do?
When we formed, we wanted to put out a little EP leading up to "Reverence", but it never came to fruition, so  "Reverence" is our actual debut. Considering it was self-funded and independently released, Reverence did very well for us. It served its purpose of getting our name out to the metal press and we were able to build a fan base both on American shores and abroad. We're still selling copies of it to this day, so I guess there's still interest in it, which is very much satisfying.

Listening to "Reverence" and now to the new cd "Blind Faith Loyalty", you  guys made huge progress. I guess you worked very hard on this new cd? Which one was the hardest to create, the debut of the new album?
Neither record was easy to make, but "Blind Faith" was definitely the more difficult of the two to make. There was a lot of internal strife at the time when we were recording, which made the entire process a rather unenjoyable experience. The songs themselves came about easily, it was just when we got into the studio, the wheels almost came off and we were precariously close to breaking up. That's what happens we have a bunch of selfish, ego-driven people in the band (read: our old drummer). The atmosphere was toxic, none of us were getting along and no one wanted to work.  Luckily, we made some lineup changes and were able to continue, but I'd never, ever want to go back to that again.

How did you came in contact with CRUZ DEL SUR? They are one of the few who really seem to believe in US power metal! Happy so far?
We recorded a one-off song in 2007, "Bound to Wrath" and posted it on our Myspace and shortly afterward, Enrico from Cruz del Sur got in touch and relayed his enthusiasm for the band. From there, we stayed in touch and weighed our options when it came time to sign a deal and Cruz del Sur was always at the top of our list. Enrico is genuinely into the band and has been a tremendous help thus far. Plus, the label has a great reputation and that always helps when you're still a relatively new band like us. I can't say enough good things about the label, to be honest.

A cool thing is that your cd artwork isn't the typical metal artwork, is this intentional?
Yeah, it was intentional. We wanted to avoid the usual skull-death-blood themes of other covers and our artist, Jarno Lahti presented the cover to us and we were hooked right away. We gave him little or no direction on it and he just came up with it out of the blue, so needless to say, we were suitably impressed.

How about touring? Anything planned for Europe, a small clubtour or so?
Nothing is planned for Europe at the moment, although we've had some rather informal offers, so it's something we'd like to make happen after we release album #3 in 2010. From what we gather, our style of metal is well-suited for European audiences, so we'd jump at the chance to come over. Believe you me, our fingers are crossed!

Not to say you guys sound like Nevermore, but I think you guys must appeal to their fans aswell! Do you mean what I say here? (for you also have those technical twists into your music, great compositions, also great diversed vocals, etc...) Are Nevermore a huge influence? If not who or what are?
I know what you mean. We don't sound like Nevermore, but we have the same ingredients: clean singing, technical music, etc. They're a big influence on us, definitely. As for other influences, I'd point to bands like Mercenary, Into Eternity, Megadeth, Maiden, and Priest. Those are the obvious ones, although we don't pattern ourselves after one particular band. Everyone in Crown the Lost has different tastes, but there are a few bands we universally like and I think that's what seeps in during the writing process.

How's the reaction been so far on the new cd?
So far it's been mostly positive. There have been some people who have bashed it and we expected it, but for the most part, the press and fans have been receptive to what we're doing. I think we've set ourselves up nicely for our next album in the sense that there's room for us to grow and we've yet to paint ourselves into a corner. I think we'll outdo "Blind Faith" without a problem for the next album. No doubt about it.

Downloads nowadays hurt lots of bands, do you guys suffer from this aswell?
On some level, yes and this was told to me by the label. No one is buying albums anymore and it's killing the industry. I'm not sure how it's going to survive, even though metal fans are fiercely loyal and tend to enjoy the entire product (packaging, liner notes, etc.) as opposed to just the music, like a lot of pop music fans do. Then again, we make no effort to live off our music, so it's not like we're taking a beating in our bank accounts. It would be nice to have larger sales figures, but what can you do?

Futureplans?
In 2010, we'll take January and February to finish writing and rehearsing for our third album then if all goes to plan, we'll be back in the studio in March of that year. Right now, we have about 6-7 new songs, most of which improve upon what we've done in the past. We are going to try some new things with these songs, but nothing that would totally shock people. I think we're all jonsesing to go back in the studio and see what we come up with.

Anything left to add or a last word?
Yes! Much thanks for the interview - 'tis truly appreciated. For those reading, please check us out:

http://www.myspace.com/crownthelostmetal. Stay heavy!
Nico