Lankester Merrin's third album Dark Mother's Child delivers a dynamic blend of power metal, storytelling, and soaring vocals. Here's an inside look into their creative process.
1. First
of all, congratulations on the upcoming release of Dark Mother's Child!
Can you share the meaning behind the album title and how it ties into the
themes explored in the songs?
Hey guys,
thank you very much! Well, every new album is like having a baby, that you
would like to see growing and thriving. Especially after this short time of
releasing our second album “Dark Mother Rises” we wanted to show that this
album now is an extension of our work.
2. This
is your third album as a band. How would you say your sound and approach to
songwriting have evolved since your debut?
At first we
read the reviews to our second album and made notes what the people liked about
it and what could be improved. We worked on our strength in writing songs with
special lyrics of mostly history themes and figures. We stuck to our style of
power and melody and integrated our first power ballad.
On top of
that we went again to Hannes Huke in the Institute of Wohlklangforschung in
Hanover because we like the way of exploring new sounds with him, for example
this time we used real amps instead of plug-ins, we shared a lot of ideas in
backing vocals and orchestration. Also we had a guest musician Linda Laukamp on
cello parts in the ballad and some new backing voices in “Hoist up the sail”.
3. Cat
Rogers’ vocals are a powerful and defining feature of your music. How does she
approach the vocal arrangements to match the diverse styles present on this
album?
We always
listen to the songs together and work on certain melodies to match the diverse
styles. The rest of it is feeling the music and let the voice express the
lyrics! 😉
4. The
first full track you’ve shared, “Mastermind,” gives a taste of what’s to come.
Why did you choose this song to introduce fans to the new album?
Mastermind
combines all the trademarks of Lankester Merrin and is a very catchy song for
the Listeners. Everybody is aware of the story of Frankenstein and the crazy
idea of bringing a monster alive. It became a really good live act, too. It´s a
galloping riff with a super easy chorus line to sing along.
5. With
songs like “Eyes of the Night” and “Lords of the Flies,” there’s an interesting
variety in the tracklist. Can you tell us more about the stories or ideas
behind some of these titles?
No problem
at all and thank you for the interest in the lyrics. “Eyes of the Night” tells
the story of the two lionesses in Tsavo that had killed many people before they
were shot by hunters, maybe you know the film “Ghost and the Darkness” with
Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer that based on that true event.
“Lords of
the Flies” is inspired by the novel of William Golding in which he writes about
the human nature, when there are no boundaries set to let the “real person”
show, the good ones and the bad ones.
6. From
fast-paced double bass tracks to more melodic mid-tempo rockers, Dark
Mother's Child offers a lot of variety. What was the inspiration
behind the mix of styles on this album?
We are very
open minded to all kinds of metal songs, like i.e. Accept´s “Metal heart” and
Running
Wild´s “Black Hand Inn”. We like the mix of styles because we are Listeners of
music, too and we sometimes would like to combine the styles in one album. So
this is what we do with our songs, we deliver a variety of them.
7. The metal scene has a lot of strong
female-fronted bands. How do you feel Lankester Merrin stands apart from other
bands, particularly in the melodic power metal genre?
Oh yes,
there are truly big names in the female-fronted sector and we enjoy listening
to a lot of them. But honestly we do not compare us to only female fronted
bands, because there is no difference between man and women, it´s the music
that counts. 😉! Cat’s vocals are influenced by
traditional singers like DORO or Kimberly Goss (from Sinergy). There are no
symphonic and growling parts, like a lot of others do.
8. Your music has always had a lot of energy,
which translates well into live performances. How are you preparing to
bring Dark Mother's Child to the stage, and are there any
tracks you're especially excited to perform live?
For
promotion purposes we´ve already played one or two songs live on stage to get
the fans curious for “Dark Mother´s Child”. It worked out very well and we wish
to deliver the people a really nice show with a nice variety of songs from all
the three albums.
9.
Finally, what message or feeling do you hope listeners take away from Dark
Mother's Child once they’ve heard the full album?
We would like to thank all the fans and friends from Germany and all over
world for your heavy support! It means so much to us and motivates us to record
the fourth album in the future. Lankester Merrin would love to travel all over
the world to enjoy our songs with you on stage.
So, have fun with the new album “Dark Mother´s Child”, share it with your
friends and have a good time listening to the songs again, again and again.
Lankester Merrin (@lankestermerrin_official) • Photos et vidéos Instagram
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