TULSADOOM Interview

1. 1.     Hello. How are you? How are things in the TULSADOOM camp?
   Rick Thunder: Ahoj! Things are quite well at the time. We released our new album “Storms of the Netherworlds” a while ago and we are now in the process of writing some new stuff.
   2.     Since this is our first interview let us go to the beginning of the band. How and when did you decide to form a band that combines thrash metal with tales from the Cimmerian age?
   Rick Thunder: I met Virgin Penetrator in 2007 at a party. First our friendship was a little bit fragile, because he tried to fuck a girl I had taken with me. In the end neither of us could get her, because to competition was too much for her... but we got good friends and our interest in old school metal and old barbarian movies brought us to the idea of combining these two things in one great metal project...and TULSADOOM was born.
   3.     Why did you choose to name the band after the name of infamous Kull and Conan villain?
   Rick Thunder: It was more or less a coincidence, cause we ware drunk and riding on a bus on the way up to a hill in the surroundings of Vienna. It was a little bit uncomfortable cause we were drinking quite hard, like 2 bottles of vodka, or booze... can’t remember that good, and I really felt like vomiting all the time. But up on that fucking hill we began to talk about that Conan movie from the 80s and how much we loved that stuff when we were kids. So somehow we thought about James Earl Jones and his role in the Conan movie...and so we decided to name the band TULSADOOM.
   4.     There is a time gap of 3 years between your debut and sophomore release. Why did it take you so long? How did you spend this time and how did this affect your sound?
   Rick Thunder: It is not that easy to write an album with a satisfying quality of song material. As you said it took us like 3 or 4 years but in the end the time was needed! You know we cannot afford to sit around all the time and write songs... some of us have jobs, others go to university... normal stuff like that. 
   5.     I would like to ask you to compare your two releases and I would like you to tell me which the similarities and which the differences or the new elements that you have introduced to your sound with “Storms of the Netherworld” are?
   Virgin Penetrator: Hey μαλάκας! Our first album “Barbarian Steel” was a rather rough and impulsive creation, mainly nourished by coincidences and alcohol. Back then, we wrote many of the songs in the rehearsal room. Things were kept rather simple and straightforward, riffs and lyrics alike. In contrast to the debut, “Storms of the Netherworld” was written in a much longer and selective process. On the instrumental part, we added demonic speed as well as many polyphonic parts and refined song structures over and over again. Also the lyrics and vocals followed the epic and evil album concept, rather than slipping towards the worship of booze and flesh like on “Barbarian Steel”. Both albums have in common that they were hammered from merciless barbaric metal. This also won’t change in future. You don’t need to be afraid that we will ever introduce melodramatic or modern sissy shit into our sound; we’ll forever ride on the wings of masculine old school metal!
   6.     Everyone has his own influences. So I would like to know which bands have influenced you or inspired you to compose music.
   Virgin Penetrator: There are things which inspire us. Amongst other old school video games, great composers such as Basil Poledouris and also many metal bands which we listen to. As main influences from the side of heavy metal, I would name JUDAS PRIEST, IMMORTAL, DEMOLITION HAMMER, SEPULTURA, EXODUS and MANOWAR.
   7.     Who writes the lyrics in the band? Are they all inspired by Robert E. Howard’s works or do you write your own stories too?
   Virgin Penetrator: So far the lyrical themes and song concepts were done together, while the lyrics were worked out in detail by our former singer King Totolva. Our new singer Sototh Dult takes over the lyrics part for future releases! Of course the whole concept and the thematic landscape of TULSADOOM is heavily influenced by Howard’s powerful works, but so far our songs do not primarily deal with specific short stories written by him. The “Storms of the Netherworld” album is thematically based on what Robert E. Howard’s calls the vanishing pre-cataclysmic age and the great cataclysm, an era shaped by violence, disasters and occult evil mights. We built some own short stories around this setting, which also served as the seed for the song lyrics and also the instrumental compositions.
   8.     Since you are big Conan fans, I would like to know which story of the barbarian you would like to see on screen. Also who do you think that can play Conan in our days?
   Rick Thunder: I think one of the best written stories about the Cimmerian is the “Tower of the Elephant”. It is full of mystery, fantasy and produces powerful pictures in your head. I think this would be a great movie flick, but I am really excited what style of movie awaits us in 2016, when Arnold comes back as King Conan!
   9.     If it was possible for you to do a video – clip with a story, how would you like it to be and which song of yours would you choose to visualize?
   Virgin Penetrator: Actually we planned to do a video for the title track “Storms of the Netherworld”, but as the album was released at a point when it was already clear that our former singer King Totolva is going to leave the band soon, we decided to wait to do a video clip for our next release. I actually prefer old school, 80-ies style video clips, so we will probably stick to simple methods without modern special effects and green-box shit. The setting of the clip will of course depend on the song we choose, but it will contain a bunch of barbaric action for sure!
   10.  If metal existed in the era of Conan, how would it sound?
   Virgin Penetrator: Is this a serious question? Like TULSADOOM of course!
   11.  Are you satisfied with the reactions of the press and fans for your new album? Which is the best comment that you have received so far and which one made you laugh or irritated you and why?
   Virgin Penetrator: The feedback from fans and press is very good. Most people seem to enjoy the new album a lot. As always, there are some fans who stick more to the old stuff and would prefer a “Barbarian Steel 2”, but it would not be satisfying for us to copy ourselves over and over again. And of course there are also some people, who don’t like or don’t understand what we do. We don’t care about them weaklings as long as they don’t anger Crom. And if they do, they should pray to their pathetic gods now. There was one reviewer who hoped for something more “clean” and was complaining about the “croaking” of our singer, as well as our idiotic pubertal names. He wrote that “listening to this CD is like looking forward to an ice cold beer on a hot day and realizing with the first draught that it is a flat, lukewarm Ottakringer (a beer from our hometown Vienna, which people from other regions in Austria usually don’t like)”. Well, I don’t know what the problem is, we also love to drink beer warm and flat, and wherever it is brewed! So here’s the official warning: keep your ears off of TULSADOOM if you lost your balls and can’t handle rough music and warm beer! (A tip for the beer fans out there: Our self-brewed BARBARIAN BEER is excellent when it is warm! Check out the review by beer pope Conrad Seidl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myc8_NgZVl4)
   12.  Thanks for your time answering my questions. Hope to see you for a live here in Greece soon! Close the interview in your own way…
   Rick Thunder:  Hao Da Ye! Νενικήκαμεν!!!!
   
   Nick  “Verkaim”  Parastatidis