Introducing Tomb of Oedon: Unveil the origins of this
deathcore band through the words of Colin and Billy. Delve into their creative
evolution, milestones, horror-inspired sound, and future aspirations. Explore
their unique blend of influences and experiences in the metal scene.
1. Can you tell us about the origins of Tomb of Oedon?
How did the band come together and what inspired its formation?
● Colin - I had been wanting to start a deathcore
band for a while and had just not found anyone that really wanted to do it. I
met Billy when we were both going to SAE in Atlanta to learn how to record and
mix music. We were really the only two people there that both liked heavy
music. We started doing songwriting projects together and we were always the
only ones that would do any type of metal or heavy music together. I talked to
him about doing a new band together, he wasn't sure if he wanted to do a new
band though, he was in a band for a while years ago and did not know if he wanted
to again. He always helped me with writing songs though.
Eventually I started writing what would become “Martyrs” and
it was the first thing I felt proud enough as a song to actually release so we
did and then continued to try to make it as part of an EP. One of my close
friends, Duncan Cameron, has been a huge help with helping achieve our artist direction
for the band, from helping with lyrics and shooting the covers for the first
two singles as well as doing almost all our promotional materials.
● Billy - As far as the original inspiration goes, I
do not know. When Colin and I met we were both going to SAE for audio related
studies. I told him originally I just wanted to do a small project and not be
in a band.. And then one day he said “I’m starting a band and you are my other
guitarist” and I said “Okay” and here we are beating the shit out of seven
strings.
2. Starting in 2021, how has the band evolved since its
inception? Are there any specific turning points or milestones you'd like to
share?
● Colin - I think we have grown as songwriters and
getting new members that have the same vision is helping us evolve into a
better band. As for milestones for me when we released “Martyrs” as a single
last year. That was the first time I had ever released a song into the public.
Also when we found our current lineup, finding a group of guys that care about
this band as much as us was a huge challenge. And of course releasing our EP,
it took us way longer than expected because we had a vision that we wanted to
complete and we did not want to settle on it.
● Billy - I would say our biggest turning point and
or milestone was when we hit the gas and finished writing the EP. We wrote
Martyrs first but we were stuck for some time. We kind of just picked some
things we wanted to do and tried to incorporate that into music. Terrifier was
based off of triplets and triplet counts and we knew we wanted it to be eerie
since Art the clown is menacing as hell, so I came up with the piano intro with
the little circus sounding snare rolls and at the end I played the piano part
in reverse (It’s not one hundred percent accurate i had to shift some notes
around and take some out).
3. The band's name, "Tomb of Oedon," is quite
intriguing. Could you shed some light on the meaning behind it and how it
reflects your musical style?
● Colin - The name “Tomb of Oedon” came from one of
my favorite games, Bloodborne. It is the area in the game where you fight the
second boss “Father Gascoigne”. I wanted a name for the band that was based off
something that I already loved and Bloodborne seemed perfect for it and I chose
that area and name just because it seemed badass.
● Billy - Inspired by Colin’s favorite game
Bloodborne and I liked the idea of Oedon being in the name since I’m kind of a
norse nut.
4. Deathcore is known for its intense and diverse sound.
How would you describe Tomb of Oedon's unique take on the deathcore genre?
● Colin - I knew it would be harder for us to stand
out because we are not as good of players as so many bands in this genre.
● Billy - It’s hard to really be totally unique and
authentic in this genre since there are MANY great musicians backing it. For
the EP we just chose to dive into our favorite horror movies and tried to
capture the scenes in a way that fit with metal. The album we are writing has a
new theme and in my opinion way more of a traditional Deathcore sound.
5. Atlanta, GA, is a vibrant musical hub. How has the
city's environment and culture influenced Tomb of Oedon's music and artistic
vision?
● Colin - I don’t think Atlanta’s culture impacted us
at all, It’s just where we happened to be.
● Billy - It taught us everything that we didn’t want
to do.
6. Building a band with a shared vision can be a
challenge. How did you meticulously select members who aligned with Tomb of
Oedon's goals, and what qualities were you looking for?
● Colin - We went through a few different people who
seemed really interested at first and then would just do nothing or try to
change what the band is and what we wanted from it. Eventually we found Ben who
would immediately start writing “Cannibal Holocaust” with me the second day I ever
met him. Knighton was all in from the start too, he has been very helpful for
the next project we’re writing for.
● Billy - We found a couple dudes who ended up being
extremely flaky and did not contribute to any progress. We shit on those guys.
After them we decided to vet people way more seriously and it worked very well.
We love our lineup now. Those other dudes can eat shit.
7. You collaborated with Samuel Bassani and Renan Azevedo
from the Brazilian deathcore band "Calma'" during the band's
formation. How did this collaboration come about, and how did their
contributions impact your sound?
● Colin - Billy was in some facebook groups looking
for a session drummer for our song “Martyrs” and found Sam in there. We started
working with him and the whole process of working with him was so easy and
great. At some point during doing drums with him he told me his vocalists of
his band would be interested in doing vocals on it if we did not have anyone which
we didn’t at the time. He showed me the songs they had released at the time and
I thought he sounded great and we happily accepted. We kept working with both
of them for the rest of the EP.
● Billy - I was a part of some metal community groups
for mixing, mastering and collaborating projects. I met Sam there and he was
originally our session drummer that we paid him to record (and do some writing)
the drums. Eventually we made the decision to hire him as our mixing and mastering
engineer as well. Renan was a friend of sams so we went with Renan as a session
vocalist as well. Both are super cool dudes and both are very good at what they
do. Check their band “Calma” out.
8. Let's talk about your current lineup. Could you
introduce each member and share a bit about their role within the band?
● Colin - Ben Connell joined us first in this current
lineup. I was living in Nashville for a while at the start of the band and met
him there, he just moved down and started working at the same AV company as me.
I heard from some of the other guys that he listened to the same music as I and
was doing vocals for his solo project called ICON/CREATOR. He agreed to join
us. He and I wrote the lyrics for “Cannibal Holocaust” together and he performed
on that song with Renan. Billy was looking for a drummer on some Atlanta metal
pages and Knighton reached out, we met up with him soon after and he joined us.
He and Ronnie had another band they were writing for together which Ronnie
played bass in and I asked Knighton to talk to him about doing bass for us too
and he said yes.
● Billy - They aren’t important. I just asked my 1
year old daughter this question and told her my answer and she just laughed so
I guess it was the right answer.
9. Your debut EP "Horrors You Only Dream Of"
has a fascinating concept, drawing inspiration from horror movies like Martyrs,
Terrifier, and Cannibal Holocaust. What drew you to these particular films, and
how did they shape the thematic content of your music?
● Colin - When I was shown the movie Martyrs years
ago I immediately thought “This is metal as fuck, I’m going to write a song
about this one day”. I already loved horror movies especially the over the top
violent ones and these movies are definitely over the top violent. At some
point in the writing process for “Martyrs” we talked about turning it into a
short EP showing off some of our other favorite movies and we chose “Terrifier”
and “Cannibal Holocaust”. We decided to add the intro and outro later on to fill
out the EP more.
● Billy - I’m already a massive horror movie fanatic.
Colin introduced Martyrs and Cannibal Holocaust to me and I fell in love with
the films. I picked Terrifier. Each was uniquely gruesome in their own way, but
if I had to pick a favorite overall movie I would have to say Martyrs. But my
favorite character is 100% Art the clown.
10. The EP features an Intro, an Outro, and tracks named
after the movies. Can you walk us through the creative process of translating
the essence of these films into your music?
● Colin - We tried to use storytelling and samples
from the movies to help give the songs the same type of emotions that the
movies give you.
● Billy - Terrifier is more about Art the clown
himself and less about the movie per se. Martyrs is basically a scene by scene
play through in the song. Cannibal holocaust is basically putting the movie
into a fantasy styled rewriting in the Villagers point of view. Intro and outro
are essentially just that, but we sprinkled a little something something with
horror in there.
Intro has an audio sample from the movie “The Devil's
Rejects” and Outro isn’t necessarily a full on horror movie, but it is some
spliced up audio samples from “Apocalypse Now” and the speech is this whole
spiel about horror so it just kind of fit.
11. Sam from "Calma'" mixed and mastered your
debut EP. How did this collaboration enhance the final product, and what did
Sam bring to the table?
● Colin - I think that Sam really understood what we
wanted to do for this EP. He really helped us accomplish what we had set out to
do with this EP.
● Billy - Sam brought the EP’s sound to life. He
gathered some info on what kind of sound we like and he put it to work.
12. Lyrically and thematically, could you elaborate on
how each self-titled track from your EP corresponds to its respective horror
movie inspiration?
● Colin - For “Martyrs” I wanted the song to follow
the story of the movie. There’s a part of the movie where the main character
shifts to someone else and I wanted the song to also shift to a different
perspective at that same moment. The song opens up with a sample from the very
beginning of the movie and right before the breakdown at the end there is
another sample from the end of the movie. The lyrics for Terrifier were mostly
done by my good friend Duncan Cameron. I helped guide how I wanted it to sound
and he really helped figure out what I wanted from this song. This song doesn’t
really follow the story like “Martyrs”, this song more shows the helplessness
of being in a situation like this while describing Art The Clown himself and
how terrifying he can be. “Cannibal Holocaust” was pretty much all done by our
new vocalist Ben, and while I helped guide, it was pretty much all him.
● Billy - I played zero part in lyrics as I am
linguistically challenged when it comes to lyrics.
13. Deathcore lyrics often delve into dark and intense
themes. What messages or emotions do you hope your listeners take away from the
EP "Horrors You Only Dream Of"?
● Colin - What I wanted most out of this EP is a
scary soundtrack to some scary movies. I wanted the songs to be just as dark
and fucked up and the movies themselves.
● Billy - I just hope they enjoy the music and like
how we artistically and musically portrayed the movies.
14. Looking ahead, what are Tomb of Oedon's aspirations
and goals for the near future? Are there any upcoming projects or performances
you'd like to tease?
● Colin - We have a lot of new songs that we are
working on with Knighton that we want to finish up and we want to finally start
playing some live shows coming up soon.
● Billy - Our biggest goals to hit first are to start
playing live shows and to get some demos of our album finished so we can make
final decisions on it.
Our long term project is to get a music video together.
15. Finally, as a band with a unique blend of influences
and experiences, what do you believe sets Tomb of Oedon apart in the larger
metal and deathcore scene?
● Colin - Our mix of influences from all eras of
deathcore for me and Billy’s love for 2000’s metalcore helped us create
something really cool on this EP. Knighton’s influences of some more
progressive music have been pushing us for this next album and are helping us
play and write in ways we don’t usually write to really expand our sound.
● Billy - For Colin and I he is way more into
traditional deathcore heavier music. I love it too, but as far as inspiration
of what I play, I come from more of a 2000-2012 metalcore background. Like old
school miss may I, as I lay dying and All That Remains. I am not nearly as good
of a guitarist as any of those dudes, but you can really hear the influence in
it. Trying to getthat influence into a heavier styled music is a challenge, but
ultimately I think that’s what helps us stand out because our sound isn’t just
a one trick, it’s a mesh of multiple styles that has been made even more
intense since Knighton joined the band. We have some bangers in the next album that
we can’t wait to share.
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