BAND OF THE WEEK: Scorpion Throne
Mike Hill (Tombs) + Mike Gonçalves (Replicant / Windfaerer) + Andrew Hernandez (ex-Tombs) = SCORPION THRONE, aka "music from the edge of the abyss."
It’s great when Band Of The Week just falls on my lap, all done and ready to go like this. Just a few days ago, Mike Hill from the mighty Tombs, one of my favourite metal bands of this century, announced on his and the band’s social media the existence of Scorpion Throne, a new band formed by himself, former Tombs drummer Andrew Hernandez, and bassist Mike Gonçalves who is also in a number of awesome extreme bands like Replicant or Windfaerer among others. Knowing Mike’s work with Tombs and Anodyne and all his other projects, it’s safe to confess that the choice of band for this week was made even before I frantically loaded the Everything Went Black’s Bandcamp where the thing is hosted and subjected myself to the four amazing songs on offer, which constitute the first (digital) release, an EP simply named ‘I’ (or as the full name seems to be, ‘Scorpion Throne I’).
Simplicity really seems to be the name of the game here. There’s no social media pages, no band pictures, the EP is called what it is and songs range from ‘I.I’ to ‘I.IV’ (or, again, ‘Scorpion Throne - I.I’, etc). Musically, too, though it has Mike’s post-punk infused (creepy spectral vocals and all) black metal sort of signature all over it, it feels rawer and more straight to the point, and your face, than especially the latter Tombs records. Most of all, it feels spontaneous, like the three guys just showed up on a mouldy basement with a faded Fields Of The Nephilim poster on the wall and let out these eighteen minutes of violent, obscure darkness.
But if you want a better description, why not get it from the man himself? That’s right, I had to go and bother Mike a little bit about Scorpion Throne right after I listened to and was blown away by ‘I’, and was even more when I discovered he calls it “music from the edge of the abyss.” So continue on and read below. Preferably while listening to it too - right here.
Could you tell us how Scorpion Throne got together in the first place?
Mike: I wanted to do something outside of Tombs a few years ago, so I started writing material, making demos and playing around with ideas. There was no actual direction; the only criteria was that it had to sound different from Tombs. I didn’t even have anyone else in mind to play on it.
I wrote A LOT of material and picked the four songs that appear on ‘Scorpion Throne I’. For years, Andrew and I had been talking about working together again so it made sense for him to be involved with this. Mike Gonçalves is one of our close friends, an incredible musician who has a bunch of other projects he does including Replicant, Windfaerer and Putrascension (my drummer Justin Spaeth also plays in that). It also made sense for Mike to be involved. I wanted the band to be comprised of friends, people who love each other.
How would you define this kind of music, actually? Not necessarily with “genre” words or anything, but if you had to describe it to someone, for instance.
Mike: The final phases of the material was completed during a very intense, dark time in my life so I would describe the music as “music from the edge of the abyss.”
Especially with having Andrew also in the band, is it at all a concern to keep Scorpion Throne a bit separated from Tombs in terms of your overall sound?
Mike: I’m not too concerned about ST sounding like Tombs. There is a more sombre vibe to ST and Tombs is more of an expression of Red Energy.
That 4-track EP is already up on Bandcamp, will you keep it as a digital release only for now? Is it a kind of taster for something big to come? What are your short term plans for this new band?
Mike: I don’t have an ambitions or aspirations for Scorpion Throne. We are going to write more material and keep it honest. In a lot of ways, I see ST as a more niche kind of thing for people who are already into my creative output. I’m not necessarily looking to cross over into anything or make new fans with ST. We want to just keep everything creative.
Do you hit the gym often enough for us to ever see Tombs and Scorpion Throne in the same bill?
Mike: Scorpion Throne was never conceived as a live band. I don’t necessarily think the music will translate to that setting. It’s too much of an internal thing.
While we’re here, any Tombs news? Still enjoying the afterglow of Ex Oblivion, or are you already working on any new stuff?
Mike: Tombs has more touring coming up this fall (it hasn’t been announced yet, but it’s a pretty sick tour). We’re working on new material; there are two songs in the mill that I’m really stoked on, very different. We are always trying to push forward.
Find Scorpion Throne on the Everything Went Black Bandcamp and on Encyclopaedia Metallum.