I recently interviewed Robin (bassist and vocalist) of Wormwitch.  Their sophomore album “Heaven That Dwells Within” is out now! Check them out if you love black metal and hard rock, quite the interesting combination of musical styles.

TMR: Explain the mission for “Heaven That Dwells Within”. Was this a natural progression from the debut? Or was there a set plan musically?

The only thing we went in knowing was we wanted to make a better album than the last one.

TMR: Talk about your upcoming April tour. How did an eclectic lineup get put together? 

We did a tour with Uada last year and quickly bonded with those guys, knew we wanted to do something again. We share a booking agency so it just naturally happened. I don’t know the Cloak guys but I’m pretty sure they’re with Heavy Talent as well. The offer went out, we all said yes, and here we are.

TMR: What influenced the album cover? And is there a concept that you could elaborate on?

The cover is a crop of a painting by John W. Waterhouse titled “The Lady of Shalott”. I’d been sitting on a variant of the layout for years cause I just love the painting, and there’s a certain mythic melancholy that really drew me to it that reminds of our musical goals for the record. When the time came to decide upon album art, I put it forth and everyone was really happy with it.

TMR: What is your favorite tour Wormwitch was a part of? Weren’t you guys on the Black Dahlia Murder, Decrepit Birth and Suffocation tour a few years ago? I remember seeing you guys as support on the tour when you came through Rochester I’m pretty sure. You were great!

Favourite tour so far is the run we did with Uada back in August surrounding Psycho Fest. Lots of good hangs, Psycho Fest was great. There’s been lots of great tours, but that tour felt right.

TMR: For the genre you guys play, it’s very tight. Some black metal subgenre bands are kinda sloppy sometimes to be honest. You guys are really polished and professional. Where did you guys find inspiration musically? Whether it’s a band or some special albums that motivated you.

Thanks. Some inspirational bands would be: Dissection, At The Gates, Disfear, Martydod and Ulver.

TMR: How did you get your starts as musicians? Were you self taught or did you take lessons? Where there any figures whether family or friends that influenced you? Or was it natural?

I personally just always liked music and imagined myself playing it live one day. Took the first opportunity I got, was really dogshit for about a decade, and then slowly figured it out.

TMR: What were your first instruments? Can you remember exactly what they were? Mine was a Mexican Fender Telecaster, I still play it 20 years later!

My first instrument was some no name starter drum kit when I was 10 years old. Ended up switching to guitar later. I still prefer playing drums over anything else, though.

TMR: How did you decide on your band name?

It was a joke name for a fantasy d-beat band we wanted to do on the side. Just picked a kinda generic crusty name for a band that wasn’t gonna go anywhere and now we’re stuck with it.

TMR: What are your future plans for Wormwitch as far as 2019 and 2020? 

Just touring–hopefully with bands we like. We really want to go to Europe before we begin working on any new music.

TMR: What new bands are you guys digging? It doesn’t have to be all metal. Provide some links for our followers to check out!

I’m writing this from the road in the van so I don’t have access to links, but some bands I can think of off the top of my head are:

• Idle Hands
• Superstition
• Aindulmedir
• Sumerlands

TMR: What releases have you enjoyed so far in 2019 And what albums are you looking forward to?

As far as what’s released already: really into the new Vanum record, Drastus, and Aindulmedir. For records coming out: Darkthrone, Inter Arma, Idle Hands, Baroness, Enforcer.

I’m really bad with keeping up on this stuff, I’m often looking at really small/new bands for my little label operation, but I’m always months behind on big releases, and tend to listen to the same albums for a really long time. I’ve mostly been digging into bands like Yellow Eyes, Vanum, Ustalost, Wayfarer, Old Tower, Thangorodrim, Necrot, Disma, Grave Miasma, etc.. Other than Vanum, not a lot of those projects have particularly recent releases as far as I’m aware. I’m just not one to keep tabs on what everyone’s doing. The music comes to me when it comes to me. For stuff that’s not metal, been getting into lots of small country and bluegrass projects, and a healthy dose of Thin Lizzy.