Interview: Legion of the Damned

Recently DutchMetalManiac’s Tim van Velthuysen interviewed Legion of the Damned’s vocalist Maurice Swinkels.

Hey, congratulations with your new album, Slaves of the Shadow Realm. It’s very nice!

In the studio you worked together with Andy Classen, as you did with almost every Legion of the Damned album. What makes you return to him?

For us Andy is the right person to give us this typical Legion sound, also since we have been working with him for years he knows us through and through, that gives us alot of advantages.

Does Slaves of the Shadow Realm have a main theme? If yes, can you collaborate on that?

Slaves of the Shadow Realm refers to those who walk the path of adversity towards the organized “white light” religions. The lyrics all deal with various aspects of the shadow realm, which ranges from left hand path occultism, demonology, carnal indulgence and antireligious hatred, to “narcosatanism” and disciples of the gods of war.

The lyrics on Slaves of the Shadow Realm, as with many of your other albums, are written by Tony “Skullcrusher” Manero, who isn’t a musician in Legion of the Damned. What is the reason for doing that and what makes him the perfect person for writing these lyrics?

Tony is one, probably the best friend of mine, we grew up together from when we were even 2-3 years old, he always lived next door, we also started in metal together in our teens. For Occult I always wrote my own lyrics but once I started my own company in 2003 I didn’t find the time and joy for it anymore, I asked Tony if he would be interested in doing it and help out, I was also curious how it would turn out when someone else would look at the songs, when he wrote the lyrics for Elegy for the Weak (Feel the Blade) we were all blown away – the rest is history and we kept this method until today.

You have two guest musicians on Slaves of the Shadow Realm, pianist Christopher Peel and Brian Freeland, who composed the intro and outro. How did these collaborations came to pass?

The piano player is a friend of Andy Classen, that piece was originally written for guitar but Andy thought it would be great to transfer it into piano tunes. As for Brian, I found him through a website and offer him the job to compose something for our new album.

I really like the cover too. It’s made by Gyula Havancsák. What made him the perfect person for this job?

Easy – all his covers are absolutely stunning, so it was an easy choice.

Soon Legion of the Damned celebrates its 15th anniversary. Earlier you already released two compilation albums because of that, can we expect some more to celebrate that anniversary?

Poeh, I don’t think so, but since it’s in 2 years I don’t know, maybe we do something.

You also announced quite some shows, looking forward to being on the road again?

Yes, we have been silent for 5 years, did some shows yes, but mostly Asian tour, Central America etc…but we are excited to play new songs at German festivals again and other festivals of course.

There is only one Dutch show included, can we expect some more Dutch dates?

At the moment, no! We are very selective and since we are doing this still as a hobby we just do what we like to do rather than just doing all kind of random shows. Sneek we took because it brings back alot of good memories, we have been playing there with Occult a few times late 90’s, so it’s cool to be back there with Legion of the Damned for a change.

What are the differences for you between doing shows in The Netherlands compared to somewhere else?

Holland is much more spoiled plus Dutch bands are less appreciated I think, once you are from your own country Dutchies are less interested, unless you are from the States, but Germany (even for German bands) is great to play, but once you go to Asia or Central America you are carried on your feet, people appreciated you coming all the way to play your music – it’s awesome to play there. Best experience was Davao City in Phillipines, more than 350 people going absolute berserk on Legion’s music. We probably go back there in 2020.

What do you like more?

I love playing countries we have never been to, like we played Lebanon and Dubai – absolutely fantastic. End of the year we are doing 2 shows in Brasil and 4 in Japan – excited about this as well.

Thanks for your answers! Is there anything you want to say to DutchMetalManiac’s readers?

Hope to meet you all in Sneek in November and if you haven’t heard the new album – check it out!!

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