KINGDOM OF TYRANTS

You probably won’t find a bigger STEEL ASSASSIN fan than yours truly. When I read online that new band KINGDOM OF TYRANTS had been formed featuring members of STEEL ASSASSIN AND MELIAH RAGE, I was hooked, I had to know more.  I started digging into their music to see what these metal warriors were up to, and the result is some killer power metal fans need to check out. Is this the end of STEEL ASSASSIN? What does the future hold for KINGDOM OF TYRANTS? Read on to find out…, 

WORMWOOD CHRONICLES: Hello, please introduce yourself.

MIKE MOONEY: Hello! I’m Mike Mooney, guitarist for KoT. The band was the brainchild of Kevin Curran, my guitarist partner in crime, he contacted me a few years ago and wanted to do a new metal project, and this band was the result.

KEVIN CURRAN: This is Kevin, the guitar partner in crime Mike refers to. In the “post-STEEL  ASSASSIN” years, I had a bunch of song ideas that we all thought were worth developing.  Just the love of metal was at the heart of the KoT project.

WC: Do you remember what got you into metal? Was it a record you bought or a show you saw?

MM: I was a young teenager in the early 70’s so it was a great, fertile time to be influenced by new music, immediately I took to all the bands that played loud, bombastic guitars….first it was AEROSMITH, KISS, VAN HALEN, etc, then I started expanding listening to more bands like RUSH, QUEEN, JUDAS PRIEST who would flex their writing skills to expand the boundaries of music at the time. 

KC: Adding to Mike’s comment, I had very similar influences as Mike... BLACK SABBATH, DEEP PURPLE and RUSH were big influences on me.  

WC: What about the idea of wanting to either start a band or join a band, how did that come about, do you remember what year that was and what band that was? 

MM: Well of course listening to all those bands was certainly inspiration, but even from a young age I used to want to perform. When I was really young, I would have this toy guitar and lip sync BEATLES songs to my family and as I got older I would do it in my room to ZEP, KISS, AEROSMITH as loud as possible. Finally, when I was 15 my parents bought me my first acoustic guitar and I immediately tried to make it electric but taping microphones to it and running the sound through cassette decks to get distortion. From all this it was a natural progression to find likeminded kids in my neighborhood and eventually we had a small band that played very simple rock, but the feeling that came from the live music coming from our own hands was exhilarating and frankly life changing.

WC: Prior to forming KINGDOM OF TYRANTS, I know MELIAH RAGE had disbanded. Is  STEEL ASSASSIN through as well?

MM: We’ve never made an official announcement but from my perspective, for all intents and purposes it is through, I just don’t think we’d have anything more to say at this point. Not that our library is that vast, but the music that we did make would only be worth it if it came from a core group of guys that may not be possible to get together any longer. KINGDOM OF TYRANTS was formed in 2022 consisting of STEEL ASSASSIN guitarists Kevin Curran and Mike Mooney,with Dave Liolios on bass, and drummer Stu Dowie and singer Mike Munro, both formerly of MELIAH RAGE. 

WC: Whose idea was it to start this band, and what was the drive behind it? 

MM: It was the brainchild of Kevin’s to do something new and exciting. We batted it around for over a year and I finally agreed to move forward. We didn’t have a focus or name or anything, just the prospect of a new metal project. 

We both were involved in several other things, but the time was right for this to come to fruition. Then it was just a matter of personnel, and frankly we struck gold the way it all came together, first our good friend Dave on bass, he was already a member of all our side projects and just a massive player!! 

Next, Stu came on board and finally Munro, suddenly we felt like the Metal Gods had truly blessed us with this incredible line up! From that point on the focus was to write new songs and eventually an album with particular focus on not sounding like either MELIAH or SA...we wanted it fresh and new, at least from our perspective.

WC: KINGDOM OF TYRANTS describes its sound as a hybrid of power metal. So, it might not be along the lines of say, JAG PANZER, RIOT V, IGNITOR, or even STEEL ASSASSIN?

MM: When I listen to the record, I find you can’t help but hear a lot of our influences, but I think we succeeded in not sounding like our old bands. Frankly we used a much simpler approach and concentrated on just making the songs as good as possible, we weren’t throwing in extra parts for the simple sake of making it more complicated, if it didn’t fit the song it wasn’t used. Personally, I’m really proud of the way the record came out and we hope a lot of fans, old and new, would agree with us!

WC: How did the record deal with Italian label Metal on Metal happen? Who approached who?

MM: Coincidentally our friend Tony Nichols of MELIAH RAGE had done a bit of biz with MoM records in the past, and Kevin and I had met the owner in Italy years before when SA played a festival there. So, it seemed like a natural fit for us at the time.

WC: Lyrically you’re drawing from mankind’s history as well as mythology. Who’s coming up with the lyrics? In terms of mythology and mankind, is it swords and sorcery or man, myth, and magic you’re writing about? 

KC: Most of the lyrics that I wrote were a just a bunch of song ideas that came about over the course of a few years. The lyrics on the record range from historically inspired ideas to mythological themes.  There wasn’t a specific focus on any one source of inspiration.

WC: Is KINGDOM OF TYRANTS currently writing songs for a new record?

KC: Although there are no plans for a second record, I have some pretty good ideas simmering on the burner if ever needed.

KINGDOM OF TYRANTS