You might not know who Brother Von Doom are but you soon will. Their album is called Relentless, that should say it all. Planet Loud caught up with Justin from the band to find out more about these bruisers.
Planet Loud – For those of our readers who are not familiar with the band, could you give us a bit of a background history?
Brother Von Doom – BVD was birthed in early 2006. We recorded an EP titled Malice and Retribution in 2007 which quickly gained the attention of many record label heavyweights. BVD signed with DEATHCOTE records in early 2008. We went through a few line up changes but we are stronger now than ever and taking the world by storm!
Planet Loud – How did you guys get together, who inspired you to form a band?
Brother Von Doom – We have all been playing in bands since we were like 16 years old or so. Three of us have played together in another band prior to BVD so we knew the chemistry was there. Songs were written and passed around on the internet. Next thing you know. Here we are!
Planet Loud – You put out your album towards the end of last year, what can you tell us about it?
Relentless came out October 14th on Deathcote records. Check it out.
Planet Loud – Did you achieve what you wanted from the album?
Brother Von Doom – Yes! We are very happy with how the album is doing. With Relentless we really just wanted to write a good solid record that would get us on the map and we feel thats exactly what we did. We have gotten a lot of great reviews and built a pretty damn loyal fan base.
Planet Loud – Can you talk us through some of your favourite songs on the album and what inspired them?
Brother Von Doom – Well, we all have our own reasons for our favourite songs on the album. I would say my favourite song from the album is Norse Demise. I think the song has a great message of how the world is. It’s a pretty positive song. We like to have good solid messages in our songs so we try to write them in a way to keep things positive for the most part but there is always an ugly side of things.
Planet Loud – If someone asked you to describe your sound, other than Relentless, how would you describe it?
Brother Von Doom – We read this in a review about BVD.” A style of music that gets it’s sound as much from Sweden as is does from the Southern California Death Metal scene.” We think that is a pretty good understanding of what we have going on. We play fast melodic death metal with extra death metal in it.
Planet Loud – But the name Brother Von Doom would conjure up other ideas of how the band sound don’t you think?
Brother Von Doom – Well, I guess it could but we really feel that the name Brother Von Doom sums our sound and style up like no other name could.
Planet Loud – Where did the name come from? What made it “the name”?
Brother Von Doom – A very good friend of the band by the name of Dylan Tehrani came up with the name. He was playing a lot of Castlevania when he came up with it!
Planet Loud – You went on tour towards the end of last year, what was that like? Any good stories?
Brother Von Doom – We toured with our friends in Woe Of Tyrants and This Or The Apocalypse at the end of last year and it was AMAZING! Both of those bands are great dudes and great musicians. We were out for a few weeks on that tour and it went great! We are now seeing more and more BVD fans showing up and singing along! There’s nothing better than that! Any good stories you ask… well…what goes on on the road…stays on the road!
Planet Loud – Did you learn anything new about your band mates touring across the States?
Brother Von Doom – Yes! They smell terrible!
Planet Loud – And you go out on tour again next month, any message for the Brother Von Doom fans coming to see you?
Brother Von Doom – Get ready to have your head blown right off your shoulders!
Planet Loud – What are your plans for outside the States? How difficult is it for a band at your level to make a break outside the US?
Brother Von Doom – As of now were traveling hard within the States but we have talked about getting across the water! We definitely plan to get over there as soon as possible. It’s one of the big goals that we have as a band…so we WILL make it happen!
Planet Loud – Back in America though you already have the support of people like Headbangers Ball, how much of a help is that?
Brother Von Doom – It’s great. When were out on the road we have a lot of people come up and say they watched our video. That show has been around a long time so it’s an honour to have that kind of support!
Planet Loud – Going back to the UK, do you know much about our metal scene over here?
Brother Von Doom – Yeah actually! Our drummer Matt Thomas used to play in a band called Morning Again which has played there numerous times. He’s says its definitely one of his favorite places to play! He’s vegan and says there are plenty of vegetarian foods there!
Planet Loud – What’s the metal scene like in Ohio? Any good bands we should check out?
Brother Von Doom – The metal scene in Ohio is pretty cool. We have a lot of successful bands here so it’s nice to be surrounded by that! There is a band from here called Woe Of Tyrants. check them out! AMAZING metal band!
Planet Loud – Okay, better let you get on with preparing for the tour, hopefully we’ll see you in the UK soon. Thanks for your time, any final message?
Brother Von Doom – Let the trends come and go…Support REAL metal! See you soon and thank you.
Interview by Graham Finney
