Pic courtesy of: Legion of the Damned "I know that countries like Singapore or Thailand or Peru or whatever else, some of them are poor and it makes no sense to do anything there. We will never play there and those magazines always send in the standard emails where they ask for free stuff..I have learned a lot from this in past times. I don’t say that everyone there is the same, but I think those people should approach a band differently than just emailing and asking for a lot of free stuff for a small review. To me it always sounds like they want free records."

CR: Hey man how are you?
Maurice Swinkels: I am excellent, thanks!

CR: Feel the Blade came out early this year, have you guys been promoting it as a new Legion of The Damned record or as a reissue of Occult?
Maurice Swinkels: Now as a re-issue, since that’s what it is, there was some promotion going on, but we didn’t do any shows for it.

CR: Let’s get some history out of the way if you will… Legion of The damned used to be called Occult; but you guys changed the name because the record label that used to release the albums for Occult went under and you got into some legal issues with them… If I’m right on my information, was there any problem with the name Occult speaking in legal terms or the decision to change the name was just as simple as you trying to build a new band?
Maurice Swinkels: No the name itself didn’t get us into trouble, we just wanted the past to be the past! Plus a new fresh start, that’s why we changed the name!

CR: Apparently the big magazines have loved the album (METAL HAMMER for example), you must be very pleased with it! Do you think the impact of a good review on one of those magazines can be best perceived on the record sales or on the live attendance?
Maurice Swinkels: Yes of course, although how stupid it may sound of course because you should not go by one person’s review, but that’s what people do, once getting a great review people go out and listen or even buy it straight away!

CR: LOTD seems to have a pretty solid year in 2008, with many festival appearances; I don’t know what your situation was when you where Occult but it seems to me that for a band that has 3 albums out, you are already playing in the major leagues, you know playing with Behemoth, Doro, Exodus, Sodom etc. Do you feel like a rookie despite your years of experience when you have to play alongside bands of this caliber?
Maurice Swinkels: No absolute not. We are doing the band also for 17 years, we already toured with Immortal in 1994, Morbid Angel in 1999 and even with Cradle of Filth around 1996, so we have already been playing with big names, even when they were not that big, we are just sober guys, so no matter how big a band is we play with, they are as human as we are, so no big deal ;-)

CR: I have read more than one reviewer actually stating the you guys are the new Slayer… do you see yourselves as a band that can go beyond the “normal” popularity that many good bands have and become a modern Slayer heir?
Maurice Swinkels: Of course we do not see ourselves as that, and of course it’s a great compliment. You know I guess Slayer won’t continue another decade, and time changes, new generation…but we do not see ourselves as a new slayer or anything.

CR: If I’m not mistake Malevolent Rapture and Feel the Blade are both albums that contain in their majority material writing by you guys when the band was still called Occult; so my question is how much “change” does the name really brings up, will we hear a different sound a progress per say on the upcoming LOTD albums?
Maurice Swinkels: Only feel the blade was under Occult, Malevolent was released as Legion of the damned. No, the sound has always been the same, we already recorded the first LOTD / last occult with Andy Classen, the producer we still go to.

CR: Let’s talk about Feel the Blade; why and how did the decision to re-release this album came about?
Maurice Swinkels: This album was still under Occult, but a great album and we decided that if we change the name that album should be out under that name as well, especially since it didn’t sell great and nobody knew this album although it has killer tracks on it. Of course in the beginning there was not much time, since we did malevolent and sons, so in 2008 we decided to rerelease this piece since we are also working on new material right now for a NEW album!

CR: The DVD and the 2 extra new songs really add some value to it, but what would you say to people that would rather buy the original release of this?
Maurice Swinkels: I guess both are worth buying. Elegy (original) has an extra song as well that is not on the re-release and the re-release has a dvd and 2 extra songs plus cover of Pestilence.

CR: I got to tell you I am one of those people that had no idea that Occult existed, so when I first heard Malevolent Rapture I was very excited about the sound of the band, do you have any idea of the amount of old Occult fans that have continue to be with you since those early days or much of what you see now days are new kids approaching you only for LOTD?
Maurice Swinkels: No every fan that got to know us during the Occult times followed us into our LOTD new adventure. But of course through the major promotion we get we see a lot of new fans!

CR: Feel the Blade just as Sons of the Jackal is quickly making their way into everybody’s top albums list; do the effort to release this album has giving you guys a new confidence on your talent as musicians, song writers, and performers by seen just what little promotion can do for a band?
Maurice Swinkels: Yes promotion can do a lot for the band, that’s for sure! And now every band gets this! That our albums are in someone’s list is great of course, but we remain sober about this, if you would go crazy about every person putting you in a list you would go nuts ahaha

	Pic courtesy of: Legion of the Damned "Lyrics are important but not as Important as the music itself. The music itself is what you hear FIRST then you go and read the lyrics, and maybe a lot of people do not even read the lyrics, when I buy an album I never read the lyrics. I don’t care what people sing about, if the music is GREAT, so be it!!!"

CR: I read some place that the lyrics are done by another person, if this is true; do you think that a bands lyrics portray the attitudes and beliefs that the band or at least one of its members feel therefore making every word more powerful than if they are written by someone else? I guess what I wanted to ask is, how do you manage to build a bands identity when part of your music is prepared by someone who’s not on the band?
Maurice Swinkels: Lyrics are important but not as Important as the music itself. The music itself is what you hear FIRST then you go and read the lyrics, and maybe a lot of people do not even read the lyrics, when I buy an album I never read the lyrics. I don’t care what people sing about, if the music is GREAT, so be it!!! The guy who writes the lyrics is a friend of mine that I am friend with since I was 2 or 3 years old. He is the same age as me now, we both got into metal etc…so he known’s how we are and also writes lyrics that fit us and also fits the Occult times, where I wrote the lyrics myself. It’s not that strange since a lot of bands do this, also because a lot of bands are not good in English. Vader also uses lyrics from other persons. It has also an advantage, since when I write lyrics I have a certain way of working, when you give the song to another person you get a complete different approach to that song.

CR: What do you think Feel the Blade has accomplished for you guys musically, because it is very obvious the incredibly good reception it has have from people, but for you guys personally how do you see this record building the legend that could very easily become LOTD?
Maurice Swinkels: I do not have an opinion about this. I mean it’s a great record, great songs, great lyrics, that’s how far it goes, we never think more deep about how this was our start etc..etc…we just do what we do without further thinking!

CR: With the actual state of the media do you see music videos acquiring more importance in the internet than in actual TV?
Maurice Swinkels: Music videos are important on internet, especially TV is not showing any metal anymore like it used to do in late 80’s early 90’s

CR: Apart from been the singer you are also a video director, you directed all the LOTD videos if I’m not mistake. Do you see a future where an LOTD video would be regularly played in let’s say MTV (not MTV2, regular, reality shows MTV)? With a enormous growth the world scene has have over the last 10 years, do you see a future where metal and metal fans are no longer marginalize by mainstream society?
Maurice Swinkels: Maybe our video gets played when the media finally discovers how many followers metal has, they cancelled a lot of metal shows in different countries, so they are not playing metal a lot, so right now I don’t see MTV playing our stuff.

CR: What do you think of this "old school" thrash revival that we have been seen since 2006 approx? Do you think that this wave of an old school sound helps thrash metal progress on the right direction or is it just helping diminish the development and growth process of the genre of the music itself?
Maurice Swinkels: No opinion about this. If it’s from the heart I appreciate it, when it’s about money I HATE it, but what can you do, I try to not let it bother me! These bands should do what they like to do, that’s it!

CR: Reading an old interview on Lords of Metal as the first record for LOTD was coming out, Richard Ebisch stated that there will be no songs from Occult played in a Legion of the Damned show…you guys didn’t actually kept that promise releasing a reissue of Elegy for the Weak on Feel the Blade? Do you intent to “fuse” even more both stages of Legion Of The Damned, bringing back songs from the Occult records?
Maurice Swinkels: What Richard meant was that we are not playing any songs from the old occult records until elegy for the weak, its abit complicated, because when Richard said we WILL play songs from old Occult records and he meant elegy, then everybody would say: Hey Richard said you guys would play old songs, but why not from enemy within or of flesh and blood? So its abit complicated. But we will NEVER play those songs from older records.

CR: The whole renaming of the band, sounds to me just like a rebranding of a product, I mean the music hasn’t change, the band members are pretty much the same, but the name is different; how close to a marketing campaign is the name Legion of The Damned? Can you personally appreciate the comparison of a rebranding campaign to what you guys are doing?
Maurice Swinkels: Yes why not, you see that it worked, I have been trying to get the band on festivals and it never worked, with changing the name, and doing better promotion we played the biggest metal festivals in the world. I do not see any harm in this, PLUS it was a very personally thing for us, especially for me to change the name!

CR: I know the whole situation when you guys where Occult is not one that you like to talk about that much, so I will just like to ask one more thing regarding that topic; what was the thing that you guys learned that helped you the best after coming out of all those problems with Occult and your previous record companies? Are you more careful or “suspicious” of record labels now, how involved are you now on the whole legal issues of the band?
Maurice Swinkels: I am involved with about EVERYTHING!! But I can’t say we are much more careful. With other labels it was more on friendly basis, while right now we try to get everything on paper and get it signed!

		Pic courtesy of: Legion of the Damned "That our albums are in someone’s list is great of course, but we remain sober about this, if you would go crazy about every person putting you in a list you would go nuts"

CR: Maurice you on an interview for Metalrage said the following “Also when I look back to when we were on Karmageddon with Occult, those people send stuff to like Singapore and such, this doesn’t do anything for you” here’s the link (http://www.metalrage.com/articles/514) Do you feel the same way now, that sending promotional material to countries that don’t have a big metal following doesn’t really help any band “make it into the mainstream metal community”? What media, what magazine or program do you see now as the best heavy metal media out there?
Maurice Swinkels: Right!! I know that countries like Singapore or Thailand or Peru or whatever else, some of them are poor and it makes no sense to do anything there. We will never play there and those magazines always send in the standard emails where they ask for free stuff..I have learned a lot from this in past times. I don’t say that everyone there is the same, but I think those people should approach a band differently than just emailing and asking for a lot of free stuff for a small review. To me it always sounds like they want free records.

CR: What do you think has been the single most important moment in the young career of LOTD?
Maurice Swinkels: Changing the name!!!! Without that we would not even be here and doing this interview ;-)

CR: After all my annoying questions about Occult, I honestly have to say that LOTD sounds like one of the good ones out there… but what do you have to say about some critics (and I have said this also) that LOTD tends to be too monotonous, repetitive from album to album?
Maurice Swinkels: Of course taste is taste! People tell us to NOT change anything and others say we are boring! That’s a matter of taste. We play METAL straight from the HEART!!!! And we do what we do! No matter what other people think. If people think we are boring or that we play riffs that someone else can play as well, fuck them!!! As said we play METAL without compromise, and I do not see LOTD adding some female shit voice into it to make it sound different, why would we?? Just to please those fuckers who cannot appreciate METAL played what comes from the heart without putting any soft shit into it?? It really makes me mad always that people nowadays always have an opinion about others but never achieved anything by themselves!!

CR: Hope you are working on a fourth album, because we are all expecting it… what’s on the future for LOTD do you guys ever take a vacation, because I see your calendar already packing with gigs.
Maurice Swinkels: We are working on a new album called CULT OF THE DEAD! There will be a lot coming so be prepared!! This will be massive!!!
Thanks for the interview my friend!

CR: Well man I just ran out of questions, hope I kept it interesting for you, Thank you very much for the time and the patience, if you have something to add… the page is all yours!
Maurice Swinkels: Thanks again! And again people should not judge other people but first try to achieve something themselves and otherwise FUCK THEM! Just have a listen enjoy our honest metal played from the heart!!