The Moshville Times have been covering Metal 2 The Masses (London) the road to Bloodstock for a while now. Not only do we get to hear some of the country’s best unsigned bands, we get to talk to them as well. The Winners of Heat 10 on 15th April; Empire Warning agreed to answer some questions. So, here they are. Also check the review of M2TM Heat 10.
How did you meet?
The abridged version is Adam and Ben met during a random jam with Adam’s old band on a night when his guitarists couldn’t make the booked studio session and started the band as a 4 piece. Ben’s vocals were too clean to really do justice to the style we were writing so we enlisted Elsio as he was a guy Ben knew from school. We lost a guitarist and luckily enough the ad was answered by Grant. Instantly we knew he was the right fit. Suddenly drummers came and went, then Jordan who we met on the scene playing for a band called Makavalien answered the call and just fit the sound and musicality. Which brings us to now and looking forward to the future.
How long have you been playing as a band?
It’s been about 8 years now in various lineups.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
It came from a joke, we were looking for a name and the stuff being bounced about just wasn’t working. Ben started to just say what he saw while walking through Shepherd’s Bush “red bus”, “black cab”, “bush green” then elsio said “Empire Warning” while standing outside of Shepherd’s Bush Empire and a ‘warning no parking’ sign and we stopped and said that’s it until we find something better… we never found anything better.
What are your influences?
It’s such a mismatch of old and new
Sabbath, Dio, Motörhead, Led Zeppelin, Gary Moore, Thin Lizzy, Slipknot, Lamb of God, Mastodon and so much more.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Our mix of old and new showing respect to what came before and looking forward to the future. Unique comes from modern tones and vocals with an old school sensibility.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
We draw from life at the time, be it personal or the world around us and concepts of what if the world took this approach to today’s problems… except “Heil to the Rat King” that was birthed from the dumbest story made up on the spot waiting for a jubilee line train.
If you could describe your music in the form of a fictional character, who would it be?
Doomsday from Superman, every time we have been feeling defeated we come back stronger, driven and more aggressive.
Recently you played at Metal 2 The Masses – how did that come about and what was your experience of playing along with the outcome of the vote?
The experience is a damn fine one filled with great interactions and friendships built with the other bands. As for the vote you never know what sort of audience to expect but we are extremely grateful for the reactions and the fact that people who may have never seen us before gig what we do. As for voting it’s the fairest system of any contest of this style, we have never seen it done any better.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
A lady head banging so hard her boob fell out… the fact it took her two songs to notice made us feel like we were doing a good job. Bless her, she apologised to us after.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Ben uses a Mesa dual rectifier, flashback delay, mxr script phase, semaphore tremolo, mxr slash wah, fultone fat boost 2 and a custom built Empire TTV-6 with fluence pickups.
Grant uses a White Gibson Flying V with BKP miracle man pickups, Victory Kraken, Morley’s Bad horsie wah wah.
Jordan uses mostly Meinl Classics Custom Extreme Metal cymbals, with a few Zildjian and Sabian cymbals thrown in to create a varied bunch. He also uses Tama Iron Cobra double pedals and Vic Firth 5A drumsticks, a Tama Superstar Hyperdrive 6-piece drum kit at home, and currently uses a 13×6.5″ Pearl Joey Jordison Signature snare, though is looking to upgrade to a snare from Mapex’s Black Panther range or something of a similar calibre.
Elsio uses Line 6 XD‑V35 ‑ Digital Wireless Microphone.
Adam uses an old Washburn XS-4 with Hipshot tuners, Babicz full contact bridge, brass nut and EMG pickups. A sans amp deluxe and TC electronics RH750 amp.
What are your plans for 2018?
To get out new material, gig hard and make plans to see our fan base in Europe which we haven’t had the pleasure to play for yet.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
It would have to be Lamb of God, no explanation needed. For support British thrash titans Dead Before Mourning, these guys absolutely destroy the stage. “Once More to War” is so damn chant-able you get lost.
A question from previous Band of the Day, Zebedy, if you had to replace your front person, but you could only pick from superheroes, who would it be and why?
Dead pool, you can’t kill us, we always come back, our banter is random and when we get serious we get the job done.
Another from Thunder On the Left: If you punch yourself and it really hurts, does that make you strong or weak?
Strong, so strong, oh so strong that only we can kick our own asses.
What question would you like to ask the next band to feature in Band of the Day?
If a Norse God had to take over from one band member what god will it be and what position would they be filling?
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