Performing their second ever show at Bloodstock’s Jagermeister Stage there is certainly something to take note of with The Heretic Order. Returning back to this year’s Bloodstock with ever more ambitious plans the band performed on the infamous Sophie Lancaster stage. Prior to their performance however we were able to catch up with guitarist and fellow Blues enthusiast (though you wouldn’t know it from his stage name) Count Marcel La Vey on all things The Heretic Order and the bands plans for the future, including a brand new record!
Listen to the full unedited interview below or read the transcript underneath that!
I’m here with Count Marcel La Vey, what is it like being at Bloodstock for you?
Well Bloodstock is one of those festivals that has stayed true to the Heavy Metal scene, thats what I like about it. Wherever you go, whatever stage you go, there’s going to be a Metal band and it really doesn’t deviate from that. You go to other festivals and you know they’ve gotta do what they’ve gotta do to survive or whatever but its not always a Metal festival. You might have a band headlining that you wouldn’t necessarily recognise to be a Heavy Metal band. You know, thats the way it goes. Thats why I like Bloodstock.
Is this your first time playing with The Heretic Order at Bloodstock?
No, its our second time. We played here two years ago, we played the Jagermeister stage and that was our second show together. It was a great experience, it is our second time here so its a nice step to go on the Sophie Stage this year.
How come you got on the Jagermeister stage on your second show?!
Thats just the way that it panned out! Our first show was at Metal To The Masses guest appearance and it just happened, we had other gigs lined up but they just called us in to do the Jagermeister stage and you’re not going to say no to Bloodstock, it was just the way it went.
What about from the beginning of the year until now, what has been happening?
A lot of gigs, a lot of writing new songs. The album for the public is relatively new, its been about a year that its been out but we’ve been playing the songs for a couple of years. We’re hoping to go and record with Will Maya again in the next few months, there is a lot of material down there that is ready. A whole album is ready to go, you just have to record it. Theres been that, we’ve had a lot of gigs. Some really good support slots, we’ve toured with Icon, we did a couple of shwos with Exodus and we got a couple of shows ocming up in a couple of months time. Its basically a lead up to Mammoth Fest tour. We’re going to end our tour at Mammoth Fest. I think its a two week tour before that, headlining tour.
This new material that you mentioned do you follow a narrative in it?
There’s no story to it really but Lord Ragnar he’s the lyricist and song writer. He writes most of our stuff and he likes a lot of pagan type material hence the lyrics and titles that we have. “Rot In Hell”, “Burn Witch Burn” stuff like that. We’ll keep that theme going for that second album.
What about the writing process, is it quite a democratic writing process or is it one guy comes in with something?
It might get mixed up but thats pretty much how it goes. You come in with a song and the lyrics are his thing. I would never touch anyones lyrics, just because its personal to them but because I’m not good at it. We write songs as well and the others write songs and if it works out it works out. If it doesn’t we just keep the best ones.
What about the name The Heretic Order? How did you guys come up with that?
To be honest it was already there when I joined the band. I was the last to join the band, I think it was Rotting Skull and Lord Ragnar that came up with the name and its one of those. They came up with it and it kind of stuck and we just liked it. Didn’t come up with anything else but thats one we like, we’re happy with it!
Could you tell us about the previous album’s artwork, how that came about?
Well, the artist’s name slips my name right now but he’s an awesome artist. He has even worked with Shadows Fall, all kinds of bands. We just gave him an idea, this is the kind of thing that we want and we asked to reference the songs as well and he did it all. There’s quite a few songs referenced if you look at the artwork carefully.
Iron Maiden style!
Yeah! There’s a lot of references there and he did an awesome job. Its one of those things that you want to see blown up because you don’t want to miss it. A CD cover is almost too small!
You wanna see it on a 3 LP gatefold sort of thing!
Exactly haha! Who knows maybe we’ll do an LP haha!
What about you as a musician where do you lie in your sphere of influence?
Within the band the influences are all over the place. I got from Classic Heavy Metal, you know I like King Diamond and Sabbath and Iron Maiden and things like that. Guns ‘n’ Roses, thats my thing, I really like that kind of band but I also like more modern stuff as well. Really its all over the place! Pantera is a big influence in myself, its just one of those personal things. Its really hard to say where your influences come from. You listen to all kinds of stuff.
Are there any particular players that you’ve got that are a favourite?
As a guitarist, yeah, Slash is one of those guitarists that does it for me. Maybe an unexpected one is David Gilmour. I haven’t listened to the last one! I went to see him and it was awesome! I wanted to go and see him in Pompei. You know he played in Pompei? He played with Pink Floyd like forty years ago and he went back and did it himself this year, like a month ago or something. It was one of those crazy gigs that I just couldn’t get to but I’m hoping to see him later on in the year. I’ve heard he is at the Royal Albert Hall.
Slash and David Gilmour!
Yeah! You go through periods where other guitarists are favourites or other bands are favourites it just depends on the mood!
What about to the end of the year, what is in store is it just writing and recording or…
Well no, we’ve got a tour in a month’s time and at the moment the way it looks, we’re just going to concentrate on recording the album. Hopefully get it out in the beginning of next year, early and begin the cycle for that album. Thats the plan at the moment!
Are there any kind of new ideas musically that you guys have experimented with?
Its one of those things that every band says, the next album is going to be the biggest.. I won’t go there! Its the next step and we albsolutely love what we have come up with. It is I guess a different level of song writing but we keep to our sound. We want to keep to our sound and not deviate from that.
Over the last six months to a year, what record has really caught your attention, something that you have been listening to a lot?
Yeah, I have to be honest a lot of the new stuff that comes out I don’t get. On the other hand there are bands that release new albums that I like. Lamb of God’s new album is good I like that but most recently because I’m going blank! Its completely going to a different field of music in Blues Rock. Joe Bonamasa, I absolutely love the guy, he just doesn’t pull a note wrong. He’s one that I really listen to a lot and surprisingly enough I’ve played some of his riffs. You stick a bit of distortion on them and they get to be quite Metal! There are some riffs that are surprisingly Metal. He’s Classic Rock as well he’s done Black Country Communion with Glen Hughes. He’s definitely got that Rock thing going for himself! Thats one recent thing that I have been listening to a lot!
The Heretic Order’s album
