Swords and metal go hand in hand. That’s what crossover thrash band High
Command say, having turned heads with their debut album Beyond The Wall
of Desolation (2019).
“Our love for the bay area in the 80’s is certainly no secret. Besides
some of the more obvious influences we have I think we were much more
comfortable exploring some of the less obvious stuff we hinted at with
the first record. Particularly traditional heavy metal (Dio, Mercyful
Fate) the south’s interpretation of the bay area (Exhorder, Obituary,
Nasty Savage, Devastation, Rigor Mortis) first wave black metal
(Bathory, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost). Of course all of this executed with
the discharge, Cro mags, Sacrilege DNA that runs through our veins”
But it’s not solely metal music which influences the band, who cite the
lustful violence of Robert E. Howard, Michel Moorcock, Jack Vance and
many other legendary pulp writers of the 20th century as an impetus for
their expansive storytelling.
“People would also be surprised to hear
we drew quite a bit of inspiration from the music of Ennio Morricone,
especially in regards to writing some more of the epic, grandiose
passages and chord progressions.” says the band.
Now, with their second album, Eclipse of the Dual Moons, the band take
their love of storytelling a step further, deepening and widening the
world of Secartha, the realm of High Command’s songs. The band place
themselves as omniscient narrators of the world they have created, and
say that they are inseparable from Secartha and its people.
“It’s one thing to make a good metal record, but it’s another to put on
top of it a sort of overarching story that makes sense to listeners. The
whole High Command project is enriched by lyrics articulating
characters, a world, and trials faced within it. We want our records to
be immersive and leave listeners with a feeling they’ve experienced
something bigger than the music.”
It’s not just a question of widening the world, which the band first
started exploring on The Secartha Demos (2016); Eclipse of the Dual
Moons sees High Command honing their process to a fine art “it’s like we
started with chiseling a rock… this record is the moment the rock in
question begins to look like an actual sculpture.”