German producer Lasse Lammert will be remixing the album "Return of a King" over the next few weeks...Lasse is one of the top metal producers on the scene at this moment in time so Steel Tormentor are really looking forward to working with him...Check out some of Lasse's work at http://www.myspace.com/lsdtonstudio

We will be playing the Ruby Room in the TF on the 8th of January 2010 with Reborn,Struck & Severance.

The gig is an all ages show doors 7.30 admission 8 euros.

A night of quality heavy metal is assured so be there or die a death from seven sorts of shite.

Interview with Graig for rockontheweb.co.uk

I’ll start with a couple of pretty generic questions. First of all, could you please introduce yourself and the band to our readers?

My name is James Kelly vocalist/guitarist & founding member of Irish traditional metal band steel tormentor


What were your primary influences when forming Steel Tormentor and have they changed or developed over the years?

The first time I saw Iron Maiden live!!! I was a big Maiden fan anyway but seeing them live for the first time (on the X Factor tour) it just made something click with me. The very next day I started searching for band mates. I have a passion for traditional heavy metal & its stronger now than it ever was. The song writing & musicianship is much better these days every member of ST can play that’s for sure. I've worked allot on the vocal side of things over the years to & these days we are tuned down to C# instead of a standard tuning .It has helped my voice but it has also given the band a much heavier low end sound.


Obviously quite a bit of time passed between you forming the band in 1996 and the release of the debut album in 2004. Can you talk us through the early days of the band and the differences (if any) between then and now in terms of style or approach? Has the band always been your project or did it start as a group of friends?

ST has always been my project right from day one.

From ’96 to about 2003 the band was a 3 piece playing local pubs myself on guitar & vocals John Hanly on bass & Ian Ferguson on drums. Myself & John were best mates & Ian was a cousin .Our set list was made up of classic rock & metal numbers we just did it for fun really.

A lot of time & money has gone into ST since the early days so we take it a bit more seriously these days.



Recording albums with your own money is obviously not the cheapest of businesses to be in, but are there any other reasons that it's taken nearly 5 years since the release of the debut to have your second album ready?

We did gig a lot between 2004 & 2007 toured the UK played Bloodstock, Up the Hammers festival in Athens etc so we kept ourselves busy. Line up problems was the main reason we couldn’t get into a studio to record. Paul Donnellan the drummer spent most of his time in Dublin at college so that meant our time as a band in the rehearsal room was very limited. After the trip to Athens I knew we had to move on & bring in a new drummer. Paul was a great drummer but he just couldn’t give us 100%. Little did I know it would take a year to find a decent replacement in the shape of Kevin Ryder. We did audition a lot of drummers but Kevin was a different class & a sound bloke it was worth the wait it in the end.


Melodic metal bands formed in Ireland in the mid-90s are as rare as hens’ teeth. How difficult was it getting Steel Tormentor off the ground in the early days, and were there any problems getting opportunities in that sort of environment?

Well surprisingly once Unleashed was released we started getting some great reviews which led to decent support & festival slots. The hub of the Irish scene was based around Dublin & Belfast so being stuck on the west coast we were able to develop away from the spotlight so to speak. By the time Unleashed was released we had a solid album under our belts which caught everyone in the scene off guard.



Traditional and power metal are finally creeping back onto the unsigned scene here in Glasgow and other parts of the UK. In terms of the metal scene in Ireland, or your part of it at least, have you witnessed any sort of improvement (from the traditionalist’s point of view) in your years as part of it?

There’s probably only 3 bands I can think of that you could call traditional metal that are doing good things. There's a few younger bands about but they are still in the early stages give them another year or 2 & they may come out with something special. The majority of t