EMQ’s With King Ov Wyrms
EMQ’s With King Ov Wyrms
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with USA Blackened Death Metal project, King Ov Wyrms. Huge thanks to their Vocalist/ Guitarist/ Studio Bass Player, Michael “Oneirous” Sanchez, for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
My name is Michael “Oneirous” Sanchez and I’m the vocalist, guitarist, and studio bassist for the Death/Black metal band King Ov Wyrms. King initially started back around 2015/16 as a side project for my prog Metal band Pain Patterns as a means to satiate my want to do something more aggressive. The project fell apart pretty quick due to the inability to hold a lineup but I resurrected the project in 2020 for a debut album titled Lord Ov Thornes which was performed, Mixed and Mastered entirely by myself. Now we are back with a full-time drummer named Ricky Williams helping me handle our next album The Womb Ov Borealis.
How did you come up with your band name?
Originally it was a toss-up between two names, Lord Ov Thornes or King Ov Worms. We ended up using the latter option due to its aggressiveness which is a reference to the slanderous name given to Jesus Christ “a king of worms, a king of nothing”.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
We are from Tucson, Arizona in the United States. Arizona itself is like a big melting pot of arts and cultures. People think it’s just a desert here but you would be surprised at how much hustle and bustle is going on. Tucson in particular has a small but very strong music scene ranging from punk to extreme metal and we all have very close ties to the bands from Phoenix which is another metro just north of us that pretty much just blended into one giant scene between the two cities.
What is your latest release?
Our newest release is a single from our new upcoming album “The Womb Ov Borealis”. The single is called ‘In Aeons We Spoke’ which is pretty much the title track of the album. Tt starts the album out strong and gets you set up with the haunting echoes of eldritch beasts.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Definitely going to say Mikael from Opeth, he and Ihsahn are continuous inspirations for what I do and they have been since I was a young teen.
What first got you into music?
My father was a big music fan, he always had something on in the background. I gravitated largely towards the more instrument-heavy stuff like Southern rock, classic metal, and orchestral stuff but I don’t think I knew what I wanted to play until I saw The Eagles play live. All that crazy layered guitar work was just inspiring!
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
I think it would be extremely awesome to be able to work with Sulphur Aeon, either in a split or maybe even feature some guest vocals here or there. It’s no doubt that I’m a big fan of those guys and I can’t stress how underrated they are as a band.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
An easy one for me definitely is Maryland Death Fest. I visited Maryland when I was younger and fell in love with the place, it was beautiful and I would live there myself if it wasn’t for Tucson being my home. Needless to say on top of how great Maryland is as a place, Maryland Death Fest has always had phenomenal lineups ranging from death to black metal and even doom.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
I personally haven’t had any weird requests but our Ricky by far has one of the weirdest requests I’ve heard of. Someone messaged the singer of his (previous) band Evasion asking if he would sell him his underwear after a live performance drumming hahaha.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Just a big thank you to everyone that has supported us from our first album as a solo project to now our second time around with the new addition of Ricky. Everyone has been so positive and supportive of it all, and I just appreciate each and every one of you all dearly.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
A bit of an odd one for a black metaller like myself but I would bring back David Bowie in a heartbeat, that man was a treasure and a large inspiration to me trying to find my way in art.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
It is probably the end result of my hard work, whether it’s performing live or releasing new songs once they have gone through the engineering rat race. It’s always so gratifying like opening presents on Christmas morning as a kid. The back end of that part is what I do hate, the lack of understanding of what it takes for a lot of us to do those things. There’s so much time and preparation that goes into performing live and then when you get into production it’s a whole different beast of burden, more so on me because I produce the King Ov Wyrms material in my own studio so I really do carry these albums from beginning to end, but most people don’t think about how long or how hard it is to release even a 3-minute song at the end of the day.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
The competition, I get it we all want to be the best and to do that you “have” to be better than everyone else. I personally don’t agree with that but that doesn’t change the opinion of others and there’s always gonna be those musicians that are more talented and like to point it out needlessly, the bands that make more money, have the bigger tour bus, better sponsorships but really we should just be focusing on building music back into art. It’s been so washed over through the years.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Oh easy one, “Gateways To Annihilation” by Morbid Angel. That album was the first real death metal album I bought as a kid and it changed my life.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
I’m a big vinyl guy personally, I live for those limited runs and variants plus there’s a dedication to listening on vinyl that a lot of people lost with other media. Vinyl forces you to really sit down and listen to an album, you can’t really jump around and switch to your favorite tracks (easily), it isn’t portable so no car rides, it’s a nice involved way of enjoying something.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
Well, King hasn’t performed live at all yet but hopefully we can change that in the near future. However, I did get an opening local slot for my old band Pain Patterns on a Summer Slaughter tour which was the year Morbid Angel headlined, so I got to work on a show with my childhood heroes.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Definitely a teacher. I was pursuing a classical guitar performance degree along with music education when I was in college because I love the gratification of helping someone reach their goals, the very same reason why I do audio engineering just to help bands get to that end result of a well-deserved album.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Hmm, Al Di Meola so he can make the food haha, that guy is a big culinary buff from what I see online. Corpsegrinder because the dude is a saint, Sammy Duet because I would love to talk occult with him, Jens Bogren because he’s my favorite producer and Mikael Akerfeldt just so I can fangirl a bit.
What’s next for the band?
Well, we are still pushing out our new album “The Womb Ov Borealis” which is due October 6th. Now that we have our band finalised with me and Ricky taking care of everything, we have already started working on album number three. More likely before that third album we will have our live lineup finalized so you may see King Ov Wyrms live sometime really soon but in the meantime do take the time to enjoy The Womb Ov Borealis!
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
https://www.facebook.com/KingOvWyrms?mibextid=ZbWKwL
https://youtube.com/@kingovwyrmsofficial9733?si=8wCRrOc7G8HNA9EC
https://instagram.com/oneirous_oss?utm_source=qr&igshid=ZDc4ODBmNjlmNQ%3D%3D
https://kingovwyrms.bandcamp.com/music
Time for a very British question now. As an alternative to the humble sandwich, is the correct name for a round piece of bread common in the UK either a Bap, a Barm (or Barm Cake), a Batch, a Bun, a Cob, a Muffin, a Roll or a Tea Cake?
Well, I’m stumped! I would guess a Muffin but I could be horribly wrong, just going off of the whole cookie vs biscuit thing hahaha!
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Just one last major thank you to everyone who’s been supporting us and enjoying the new music so far! The new album “The Womb Ov Borealis” will be released on October 6th. Thank you all again, cheers!
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
