Hail Phil. Good to have the chance to make another interview with you. So is the breaking up of Vestal Claret combined somehow with the creation of Hour of 13?

Very much. Vestal Claret started as a solo project of sorts with session musicians. Once interest began in the band after the split on Metal Coven with Atlantean Kodex conflicts started arise and a power struggle began causing a rift. I was trying to make a clean break from Vestal Claret when a close friend introduced Chad and I. Chad had this batch of quality NWOBHM doom songs that just suited my needs much better than where Vestal Claret was headed musically. My vision for Vestal Claret was being distorted and I didn’t want to loose the concept. Chad’s music allowed me to finish what I started with Vestal Claret.

Do Vestal Claret and Hour of 13 have any common members –except you-?

No only me, but the reality is that Vestal Claret was only me. The stuff you hear on the Vestal Claret “Ritual and Rehearsal” demo is a collaboration between Simon and I, but wasn’t something I was comfortable with in the end. There are many aspects of the “Ritual and Rehearsal” demo I really like but the majority falls way short of its original intention as heard on the Vestal Claret / Atlantean Kodex split.

What would you point as the main differences between Vestal Claret and Hour of 13?

The music has much different approach. Vestal Claret is not quite as retro sounding as Hour of 13 and has way more gothic and death rock influences. Hour 13 is more straight forward NWOBHM and traditional heavy metal influenced doom. Conceptually the lyrical ideas are the same and Hour of 13s lyrics are taking nearly word from word from the Vestal Claret demo. But where as in the case of Vestal Claret I had some doing in the writing of the music, in Hour of 13 Chad writes all the music and I just contribute lyrics and vocals. But I think they both have the common ground influences of bands like Black Sabbath, Witchfinder General, Mercyful Fate and the like.

How would you describe the band to someone that has never heard of it?

I personally would describe it as traditional occult heavy metal.

What was the first song that was composed under the name of Hour Of 13?

The music and name Hour of 13 has been something Chad has had in the works for a few years I understand so I personally am not sure which he composed first. I to already had the lyrical ideas on paper for well over a year. The way it came together was really a splicing of ideas we had both already had long running. When it came to the finished songs it was more a merger of lyrics and music than a traditional writing process.

Was there any kind of demo release before the debut and if yes please give some info.

There were 4 songs I was given to begin with that we had planned to demo but Shadow Kingdom picked us up so fast the demo was never completed and we went right to recording the debut.

Well let me say that your debut in Shadow Kingdom came really fast. How did you get in touch with them?

I had been in contact with Tim and Evil Legend (also Shadow Kingdom) in the past on behalf of Upwards of Endtime and he was also carrying the Atlantean Kodex / Vestal Claret split at the time and I was so excited about the way the songs were coming together I attached one to an e-mail and sent it out to some of my closer label contacts that included Tim and Shadow Kingdom. By the next morning I had a message in my inbox from Tim saying “I want this” Chad didn’t even finish the lead breaks yet. Tim was so enthusiastic, we couldn’t say no.

Listening now to your Hour Of 13 debut can you hear something that you may want to change?

All I have now complaints. I very pleased with the final recordings but I wish I spent more time playing back and mixing the vocals. I only had a couple days in North Carolina and had to leave during the mixing stages and was only present for the mix of one song. As we were playing back the tracks I noticed lots of imperfections in the vocals I would of preferred to correct. I only spent maybe 3 hours recording the vocals, which is pretty common for me as I like to just throw them down as live as possible. But at the time I felt rushed as we only had the studio for 2 days and I had to get back to Connecticut. I wasn’t able to step back in and redo the parts that needed it. It was very hard to just let it go. But in the end I very proud of the record and Chad and Corey did an amazing job mixing with what they had and I have to commend them for that.

Which bands can we point as the main Hour Of 13 influences? Do you think that you are mostly influenced by Doom or NWOBHM bands?

That’s something Chad would have to answer as far as musically. For me though all doom bands are influenced by NWOBHM bands. So that kind says it all. Lyrically and vocally I am most influenced by primarily NWOBHM and 80s heavy metal bands like Angel Witch, Witchfinder General, Witchkiller, Stormwitch, Running Wild (the early occult years). But also have some gothic and death rock influences from bands like Mighty Sphincter, Fields of the Nephilim and early Lubricated Goat I hope shine through at times and of course 70s band have always been a huge influence on me like that of Black Sabbath (with Ozzy) and Alice Cooper (the original band not the man)

Is there any kind of special philosophy behind your lyrics? If the word philosophy is too heavy for you then lets stick into the word concept.

For sure! There was a definite lyrical concept in place. I wanted to stay away from all the ancient themes so overly exploited in occult metal. I wanted to give it a modern day feel. Evil of the here and now while also taking note of 70s occult exploitation and the 80s satanic panic. I didn’t want write stuff about witches and warlocks in castles and caves casting and conjuring magic. Or even steal from the satanic bible and the Necronomicon. I wanted to come from somewhere more real and truly evil. The songs “Call To Satan”, “Submissive To Evil”, “Grim Reality”, “Allowance of Sin”, “Endurement to the Heirs of Shame” and “Missing Girl” are all loosely tied together telling a tale of innocent black magic dabbling leading to depravity and murder. While “Hex of Harm” is a simple spell put to song and “The Correlation” tells of the Illumanati’s place in the terror plots against the US and the war in Irag and their plan to create chaos and destruction on the religious world.

Do you really believe yourself to belong your dark side or all this Hour Of 13 stuff is a way of taking away the daily routine, turning up the volume, playing favorite classic Metal tunes and singing about witches and devils?

Im not trying to fool anyone here. This is heavy metal. The heavy metal I love! Its all about the music and nothing more. I have my own personal beliefs and politics that allow me the moral compass to say whatever I do and not feel guilt or remorse for it. And as for a darkside you better believe I have a darkside and if you really know me you know it’s there. But music is music and I just go where it takes me for better or worse. Chad on the other hand might say differently I don’t know, but I’m just a underground metal fanatic laying back and doing my thing.

Upwards Of Endtime have just released a new CD. Can you give us some info about it?

After the second UOE CD “Sadly Never Fore” was recorded things began to disintegrate and I was feeling like there was more I wanted to say that hadn’t been said with that band. Matt and I had been writing together since the early 90s so we had some old demos we wanted to re-record for UOE. Jim was transferred from Vestal Claret to UOE when conflicts there came to light. I had contacted Paul Wise who wrote the music for the song “The Gathering” off the second UOE CD that was a good friend from the past both Matt and I played with in bands previously. Matt in the 80s with Paul in Tribe and Paul and I were in a band called Kill Your Dreams in the early 90s. Tony Truglio (Liege Lord) is also an old friend of ours, so we asked him on board as well. It turned into this reunion of old friends and it was a great experience to work on something together. We pulled a batch of old songs Matt, Paul and I had wrote together over 15 years ago and added a few more to finish off a CD. It was all very rushed and unrehearsed. We just went in the studio and threw things down. No one was even in the studio at the same time. We all hoped to spend more time working together in the studio but scheduling became a nightmare and everyone just had to get in while they could. I had asked Fred Melillo of CT metal pioneers Legend if he would come in and executive produce the recordings for us. He was great man, he really had his work cut out for him and really did an awesome job. Barbarian Wrath ended up taking the recordings to release it as our third CD “From Genesis to Apocalypse and Beyond”. A title that references the evolution of UOE and that 3rd recording session.

Which part of your musical self that does not get satisfied in Upwards Of Endtime is getting satisfied in Hour Of 13?

Clarity and commitment. Chad is 100% committed to Hour of 13 and really stands behind his music. UOE has always been this vague, uncoordinated, loose entity that really isn’t focused. Just who ever’s around at the time sharing some ideas. Where Hour of 13 is very planned out and calculated in it’s intent. Polar opposites really.

But I think that except Upwards Of Endtime and Hour Of 13 you are running another band. Can you give any more info on them?

While the recording of the second UOE CD I decided I wanted to get serious about the music. UOE was very raw and unpolished so I wanted to clean things up and explore new ideas. Ive always been way into occult music so Vestal Claret was my first outing. Soon after I came across Atlantean Kodex who were looking for a vocalist and did a couple songs with them which was an incredible experience. That was like a dream come true, one to be singing epic heavy metal and the other to be part of a German band. I have always been such a huge fan of the German metal scene! After that I decided to really break things down and separate my ideas from UOE. I turned UOE into a more 70s HM/HR band took the darker elements to Vestal Claret and was satisfying my true metal nature with Atlantean Kodex. Atlantean Kodex outgrew me and the distance between us so I started Earthlord to fill that void. I had met Tim from Seamount on myspace and was a huge fan of theirs and they needed a singer so we eventually decided to make that work despite the fact Seamount was like Atlantean Kodex based in Germany. Vestal Claret lead to Hour of 13 and the demands for Seamount and Hour of 13 became to much so something had to give. So Earthlord was axed in favor of Seamount. Seamount has now become my focus. We have 12 songs completed and 8 songs will soon be released as a free download any day now. The download release is a complete interactive folder with extensive original artwork, lyrics and audio. In addition to Seamount Tim and I have created the acoustic side project "II" that will be releasing material sometime in 2008.

Will we ever see Hour Of 13 on stage?

That’s really up to Chad. I’m good to go. But since Chad plays all the instruments in Hour 13 there is allot of shoes to fill before that can happen. So you’ll have to pass that one on to him. I can say the CD is being so well received it will be hard not to, we’ll have to wait and see.

That is all. Close the intie as you like. Thanks!

As always thanx for being in touch and takin an interest,. I really do appreciate it. It’s always good to hear from the Count!