1. So could you please introduce yourself and the current lineup of the band?
Tucker: I'm Tucker Thomasson, and I do lead vocals and guitar. Corwin Deckard also plays guitar as well as synth in some parts. Jacob Lett is our drummer who does backing vocals. Evan Pruitt plays bass.
2. Throne of Iron formed in 2018 and was originally a solo project. We’re you shocked at how much positive feedback you received from the demo? How did you come up with the name for the band? Myself I remember hearing it on bandcamp and immediately purchasing it.
Tucker: I was blown away at the response for the demo! Things picked up extremely fast with it and I was sending out demo CD's faster than I could restock them. Everybody was leaving such nice comments about the songs, and it was so encouraging. This may come as a shock to some, but the name of the band didn't come from Game Of Thrones, but rather I was bench pressing one night and just thought of "Throne Of Iron" as a kenning of sorts for my bench and squat rack, and then I thought it sounded like a super tough and hard band name.
3. To turn to current events you guys just released a split with Hillsfar a dungeon synth band. How did this come into fruition? Something I thought was interesting this is whenever you see metal and dungeon synth together would be with bands like Summoning or Caladan Brood. Are you a fan of those bands?
Tucker: I reached out to Maalthir, the nebulous storytelling wizard behind Hillsfar about doing a split with his other band, but he suggested we get adventurous and interesting with this and do it with Hillsfar instead, which was an idea we were immediately keen on, as I love dungeon synth. Corwin actually did a dungeon synth track for our full length, for instance. I love Summoning AND Caladan Brood! I got introduced to Summoning's "Minas Morgul" when I was just out of high school, and I'd never experienced anything like it before, and it left quite an impression on me.
4. So recently you guys were planned to play Gen-Con and from my understanding is you guys got screwed over. Can you explain what happened?
Tucker: We did a video on our YouTube explaining the full story, so anyone interested in the long version can check it out there. The short version is that we were apparently only being allowed to play as a trial or a test run, but nobody told us that. We got shut down after two songs with little in the way of an explanation as to why, and the people who paid to see us were pretty visibly upset about it. But they voted with their wallets and bought every CD we brought with us, which makes me want to give a shout out to everyone who came to see us at Gen Con. We got to meet some incredible people there in spite of the less than pleasant experience we had playing and dealing with event staff.
5. You guys have recently done two new songs. One for Roll for Metal and one for Indy Metal. How did you get involved with those projects?
Tucker: We actually dropped another Roll For Metal as well! Roll For Metal was a song writing game that Corwin and I came up with the day after our frustrating Gen Con experience to let off some steam. We have a folder of drum grooves on my computer, so we use dice rolls to determine the tempo of the song, then again to pick out the drum patterns for the intro, verse, chorus, and bridge of the song, then make up guitar parts on the spot to fit the feel of the drum parts. Originally we were using the "Power Metal Lyrics Generator", but after we released the second one Dave from DMR Books made us our own very extensive random lyrics generator to use in future ones. Our plan right now is to possibly get other bands involved in playing Roll For Metal with us and spreading the fun around!
I've been friends with a lot of people involved with Indy Metal Vault, some for almost 20 years in the case of Jason Roach. Bryan from Indy Metal Vault approached me about us doing a song for a compilation to help fundraise for local all-girls School Of Rock organization, which is a cause I will always back because I want kids to have a future in music. So we wrote "Xanathar" really quickly and had our friend Mitchell McKinney, who I knew from my previous band Thorr-Axe lay down a shreddy solo on it, and it was off into the world.
6. You guys are obviously heavily inspired by sword and sorcery imagery and literature. What are some of your favorite authors and what else inspires you?
Tucker: Corwin and I both come from a heavy Tolkien background. Like most other metal kids on the literate side of things, I also read a lot of Howard and Lovecraft. The core influence for this band, however stems from a childhood experience of finding a stack of 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons manuals that an older cousin had left behind after he had moved away. The illustrations and the feelings soaked into those books left a huge impression on me during a time where I was also just beginning to get into heavy metal, so in my mind those two converged and sat in my mind as a seedling of sorts for what would eventually become this band.
7. Another obvious observation is seeing you guys are influenced by the ancient ones (Manilla Road, Cirith Ungol etc..) What are some of your favorite albums and what are your biggest influences? Would you consider your band just a traditional metal band or an epic metal band?
Tucker: Within this corner of metal, I always go back to "King Of The Dead" and "Crystal Logic". I think that the feel and vibe of those two albums set the bar for everything that us and bands like us do now. I think that the band that Corwin and I in particular draw the most from, however, is Accept. We have spent many an hour combing over and reveling in "Restless And Wild", "Metal Heart", and "Balls To The Wall", as well as the newer output with Mark. As for what we are, we really just play what we feel we need to be, so I'm not entirely sure what niche we fit best into!
8. Coming from Indiana I’m assuming there isn’t a huge metal scene. Especially playing a more niche style of metal. Was it hard to find members for the band? (Hell even here in Cali most people still don’t like USPM or Epic Metal)
Tucker: Indiana actually has an extremely healthy metal scene, especially in Indianapolis. We have a good number of great venues that host a wide variety of different sub genres every week, and touring bands of all sizes come through here regularly. Doom metal in particular is big in Indy right now, but death metal has always been a presence here. In our hometown, about an hour southwest, we have been trying to build up more of a metal presence and things have been going well. We live in a college town, so when the students are back it's much easier to get shows together it seems. We just hosted Midas down here, and Paladin and Knights Of The Forge before them. Finding members wasn't hard, because I'd known the other three guys in the band for so long before they joined. I've known all of these guys for close to ten years at this point. It's just now that we've all decided to play music together.
9. You guys are signed with No Remorse Records from Greece. Is there a projected date for the new album?
Tucker: Not just yet! We'll be sure to scream and herald the date form the hills and roof tops when we find out.
10. Well we have come to the end. I want to say thank you for your time to do this interview. I’m assuming the Allure of Silver is calling you to the road. Is there any touring plans? Do you have any last words for the fans?
Tucker: We have some plans for a smaller United States tour around the time of the album release to try to get our name out a bit more in the states. I really like touring, especially in the American West, and we're in a position to be able to tour pretty frequently, so I suspect the United States will be seeing a lot of us later this year and in 2020!
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Tucker: I'm Tucker Thomasson, and I do lead vocals and guitar. Corwin Deckard also plays guitar as well as synth in some parts. Jacob Lett is our drummer who does backing vocals. Evan Pruitt plays bass.
2. Throne of Iron formed in 2018 and was originally a solo project. We’re you shocked at how much positive feedback you received from the demo? How did you come up with the name for the band? Myself I remember hearing it on bandcamp and immediately purchasing it.
Tucker: I was blown away at the response for the demo! Things picked up extremely fast with it and I was sending out demo CD's faster than I could restock them. Everybody was leaving such nice comments about the songs, and it was so encouraging. This may come as a shock to some, but the name of the band didn't come from Game Of Thrones, but rather I was bench pressing one night and just thought of "Throne Of Iron" as a kenning of sorts for my bench and squat rack, and then I thought it sounded like a super tough and hard band name.
3. To turn to current events you guys just released a split with Hillsfar a dungeon synth band. How did this come into fruition? Something I thought was interesting this is whenever you see metal and dungeon synth together would be with bands like Summoning or Caladan Brood. Are you a fan of those bands?
Tucker: I reached out to Maalthir, the nebulous storytelling wizard behind Hillsfar about doing a split with his other band, but he suggested we get adventurous and interesting with this and do it with Hillsfar instead, which was an idea we were immediately keen on, as I love dungeon synth. Corwin actually did a dungeon synth track for our full length, for instance. I love Summoning AND Caladan Brood! I got introduced to Summoning's "Minas Morgul" when I was just out of high school, and I'd never experienced anything like it before, and it left quite an impression on me.
4. So recently you guys were planned to play Gen-Con and from my understanding is you guys got screwed over. Can you explain what happened?
Tucker: We did a video on our YouTube explaining the full story, so anyone interested in the long version can check it out there. The short version is that we were apparently only being allowed to play as a trial or a test run, but nobody told us that. We got shut down after two songs with little in the way of an explanation as to why, and the people who paid to see us were pretty visibly upset about it. But they voted with their wallets and bought every CD we brought with us, which makes me want to give a shout out to everyone who came to see us at Gen Con. We got to meet some incredible people there in spite of the less than pleasant experience we had playing and dealing with event staff.
5. You guys have recently done two new songs. One for Roll for Metal and one for Indy Metal. How did you get involved with those projects?
Tucker: We actually dropped another Roll For Metal as well! Roll For Metal was a song writing game that Corwin and I came up with the day after our frustrating Gen Con experience to let off some steam. We have a folder of drum grooves on my computer, so we use dice rolls to determine the tempo of the song, then again to pick out the drum patterns for the intro, verse, chorus, and bridge of the song, then make up guitar parts on the spot to fit the feel of the drum parts. Originally we were using the "Power Metal Lyrics Generator", but after we released the second one Dave from DMR Books made us our own very extensive random lyrics generator to use in future ones. Our plan right now is to possibly get other bands involved in playing Roll For Metal with us and spreading the fun around!
I've been friends with a lot of people involved with Indy Metal Vault, some for almost 20 years in the case of Jason Roach. Bryan from Indy Metal Vault approached me about us doing a song for a compilation to help fundraise for local all-girls School Of Rock organization, which is a cause I will always back because I want kids to have a future in music. So we wrote "Xanathar" really quickly and had our friend Mitchell McKinney, who I knew from my previous band Thorr-Axe lay down a shreddy solo on it, and it was off into the world.
6. You guys are obviously heavily inspired by sword and sorcery imagery and literature. What are some of your favorite authors and what else inspires you?
Tucker: Corwin and I both come from a heavy Tolkien background. Like most other metal kids on the literate side of things, I also read a lot of Howard and Lovecraft. The core influence for this band, however stems from a childhood experience of finding a stack of 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons manuals that an older cousin had left behind after he had moved away. The illustrations and the feelings soaked into those books left a huge impression on me during a time where I was also just beginning to get into heavy metal, so in my mind those two converged and sat in my mind as a seedling of sorts for what would eventually become this band.
7. Another obvious observation is seeing you guys are influenced by the ancient ones (Manilla Road, Cirith Ungol etc..) What are some of your favorite albums and what are your biggest influences? Would you consider your band just a traditional metal band or an epic metal band?
Tucker: Within this corner of metal, I always go back to "King Of The Dead" and "Crystal Logic". I think that the feel and vibe of those two albums set the bar for everything that us and bands like us do now. I think that the band that Corwin and I in particular draw the most from, however, is Accept. We have spent many an hour combing over and reveling in "Restless And Wild", "Metal Heart", and "Balls To The Wall", as well as the newer output with Mark. As for what we are, we really just play what we feel we need to be, so I'm not entirely sure what niche we fit best into!
8. Coming from Indiana I’m assuming there isn’t a huge metal scene. Especially playing a more niche style of metal. Was it hard to find members for the band? (Hell even here in Cali most people still don’t like USPM or Epic Metal)
Tucker: Indiana actually has an extremely healthy metal scene, especially in Indianapolis. We have a good number of great venues that host a wide variety of different sub genres every week, and touring bands of all sizes come through here regularly. Doom metal in particular is big in Indy right now, but death metal has always been a presence here. In our hometown, about an hour southwest, we have been trying to build up more of a metal presence and things have been going well. We live in a college town, so when the students are back it's much easier to get shows together it seems. We just hosted Midas down here, and Paladin and Knights Of The Forge before them. Finding members wasn't hard, because I'd known the other three guys in the band for so long before they joined. I've known all of these guys for close to ten years at this point. It's just now that we've all decided to play music together.
9. You guys are signed with No Remorse Records from Greece. Is there a projected date for the new album?
Tucker: Not just yet! We'll be sure to scream and herald the date form the hills and roof tops when we find out.
10. Well we have come to the end. I want to say thank you for your time to do this interview. I’m assuming the Allure of Silver is calling you to the road. Is there any touring plans? Do you have any last words for the fans?
Tucker: We have some plans for a smaller United States tour around the time of the album release to try to get our name out a bit more in the states. I really like touring, especially in the American West, and we're in a position to be able to tour pretty frequently, so I suspect the United States will be seeing a lot of us later this year and in 2020!
Bandcamp