Utter Trash--Lick the Blade

Old School Assassins

An interview with Tom Mowcomber of Lick the Blade

By Bob Ignizio

Utter Trash: Let’s start with the basics. When did you guys get together, and who is everyone in the band?
Tom Mowcomber: We formed in Spring of 2004. The current line-up is Greg Behnke – Drums, Ted Anderson – Vocals, Mike Kurtz – Bass, Brian French - Guitar and Tom Mowcomber - Guitar. We started the band with another guy on guitar, Chuck Ceiclik, but he has decided to part ways with us so we have replaced him with Brian. Chuck and I wrote most of the songs on the demo together so it was a shame to see him go. He was a very creative guitar player who complemented my style really well.

UT: Anyone in the band a veteran of other groups people might be familiar with?
TM: A few years back Mike was in Fathom - another classic metal influenced band. They were beginning to make a name for themselves but things unfortunately did not work out. But hey, we are glad to have him in Lick the Blade! He was also jamming with Brian and I in a Mercyful Fate tribute band ... which will hopefully see the light of day sometime in the future. That band never played out or anything, but it was a lot of fun.

UT: You guys definitely have a very NWOBHM sound, in particular there's a lot of early Iron Maiden influence. What drew you to that particular sound, and how do you feel you've put your own stamp on the style?
TM: The Maiden influence has been with me since the day I heard that band ... and it will never leave me. Chuck, Mike, and I are huge Maiden fans. Can ya tell? Chuck and I went to school together at Kent State and we spent many nights at the bar talking about putting a Maiden-influenced band together. We started writing and here we are. Luckily Brian has similar influences, so hopefully our sound will remain intact. We've always loved Maiden for their perfect blend of melody and intensity. A lot of metal bands now are trying to write melodic catchy songs, but the tune ends up sounding poppy and weak, taking away the true metal feel. We don't want to do that. If we wanted to play pop music we'd cover Green Day songs - no thanks!

As far as putting our own stamp on the style, I would say the drumming in our band is somewhat of a departure from Nicko McBrain's, although plenty of similarities still exist. And rhythmically our songs rely quite a bit on a heavy guitar driven riff. Most of our tunes were written on the guitar before bass was put down, but with Mike doing a lot of writing for the next batch of songs that will change greatly (We had a different bassist in the band initially). I think the Maiden parallels with us will always exist, but as we play more and more, they will become at least a bit more subtle. A style of our own will have somewhat of a stronger presence down the road I think.

UT: You've got a seven song demo that you've been giving away. When/where was that recorded, and why did you decide to just give it away instead of selling it?
TM: We recorded that demo up at our rehearsal space. Our buddy Russ Taylor down the hall offered to give us a hand. He's good at what he does and we were ready to record so it worked out great.

As for giving the demo away, we just want to get the tunes out there. I don't think we are in a position to start selling a demo, ya know? We only put $300 into making it and the cost of a CD-R is pretty small. I'd rather get it out there to a greater number of people. We need to build a name for ourselves.

UT: Any songs on the demo that stand out as favorites (or for that matter that you aren't as happy with now)?
TM: We all seem to love “Sea of Apathy” – it’s got a great harmony line and chorus. “Lick the Blade” and “Rex Mundi” are fun to play as well. Those songs always go over very well live. “Lick the Blade” was meant to be a live song, and a closer. We don't contrive too many things in this band, but that particular song was intended to finish off a live set, and it works pretty well.

I'd say most of us are the least happy with “Fear of Damnation”. Ted loves it, it’s one of his favorites cause he can scream his head off on that one. But for some reason it just doesn’t mesh as well with the rest of our tunes. But I personally love the lyrics on that song, and the pre-chorus is cool too. It’s a good one, just not our best. It works well live, though.

UT: What's your writing process like? Does everyone write, or is there one guy who comes up with most of the ideas? What kind of subjects do you deal with in the band's lyrics?
TM: Well as for the initial batch of songs (most of the songs on the demo), Chuck and I put those together. I would often come up with the ryhthm and Chuck would put a lead to it. But some songs, like “Sea of Apathy”, are Mike's for the most part. He built that song and Chuck and I threw in the duel and some other lead stuff and little riffs here and there. Mike is a great song writer - and the new songs will display that nicely.

As far as lyrics, most of our tunes deal with the dark side of human nature, I would say. War is the ultimate example of human nature in its most lethal form, so that topic tends to come up a bit. Religious hypocrisy is a common thread as well. Basically every song we have is derived from some particular concept, event, or whatever. Lyrics are important, and I think they need to compliment the intensity of the music.

UT: How have things been for you on the live front so far? Any gigs that were especially memorable?
TM: Playing live is awesome. We love it. There's nothing better than playing for rabid metal people who love that type of music. There's an abscence of real metal these days so as a metal fan I always appreciate seeing bands who are still doing it. I want us to be one of those bands.

We've had a lot of really fun shows and they have all been pretty memorable. Its not like we are packing places in or anything, but we've had some pretty descent crowds. We've had some good turnouts at the Pirate's Cove and the Phantasy. - and Peabody's lets play quite a bit, which is cool. We've gotten to open for Vader and Exodus, which was cool for us. We played early so the crowds were small, but who cares, Vader and Exodus man! We are opening for Loudness in March so that will be fun. Raw Meat is on that bill, too. They will be fun to see again.

UT: What are your plans for the future? Do you have a full length CD in the works, or any plans for playing out of state?
TM: We want to do a full-length. We are about to start sending out the demo to some labels to see if we can get any attention. It will be tough - most labels don't give a shit about metal bands here in the States. But hey, it’s worth a shot. Maybe some decent little label will find us - who knows. As far as playing out of state, we've had an offer to do a Michigan show with Vindicator from Amherst, along with Sauron and Harbinger from out there. We may do it, not sure yet. We'd like to, though.