Philip A. Wickstrand is a contributing freelance writer for Metal Psalter Webzine. He sat down with Altar of Plagues guitarist/vocalist James Kelly, at Berbati's Pan in Portland, OR on July 10, 2010.

Nobody gives the Irish enough credit. Despite the fact that Saint Patrick and the Irish saved the western world from widespread illiteracy after the Roman empire crumbled and its libraries were destroyed, the Irish remain the one group in today's politically correct climate that everybody makes fun of. Why does the world at large think of the Irish as a laughing matter? They are not. And bands like ALTAR OF PLAGUES with their honest, uncompromising take on Black Metal underline that fact. Having released their debut album last year on Profound Lore, they followed it up with the "Tides" EP and their first ever North American tour this year and as such, their music and artistic vision spreads. Three cheers for the Irish!

Phil: First off, how's the tour been so far?

James: Quite good. Tonight's only the second night. Last night in Seattle went good, but just there was a technical problem and we have a session guitarist for this tour because our regular guitar player had to leave - he got a new job in Paris, so he's going to finish with the band and we got a United States session player to come with us, so that means he's not really used to our dynamic and what we do, so this is going to be a little bit of an adjusting period. But besides that it was good and it went well, so we're looking forward to tonight - see how it goes.

Phil: Tell us a bit about the "Tides" EP.

James: That was recorded last December. It was the first time we ever recorded in winter and it was a seriously intense winter in Ireland. It's pretty rare that we get a winter that intense, so I think the kind of harshness of the weather inspired this sort of aggressive and bleak music. So I think it's a lot rawer than the album and we purposely wanted to do a more sort of rough recording and I think it's much darker than anything we've ever done, it kind of feels more melancholic and aggressive.

Phil: Tell us a bit about the lyrical content.

James: That mostly comes from my work. I'm a graduate and environmental scientist and I've done various jobs in different places. For example, I was working in Costa Rica for three months this year doing research in the forests there, living in a remote camp with no electricity, that sort of thing. What I see and learn from that really inspires the lyrical side of ALTAR OF PLAGUES, which is kind of my view of how the world is today and how instead of preserving an ancient and beautiful planet, we're putting Starbucks and roads everywhere, so that kind of inspires us to do what we do.

Phil: How was the time in the studio?

James: It was good. I don't feel too comfortable in studios because I think it's not a very natural thing, for example, to record a guitar line over and over and over. Actually, this time what we did with the vocals was we tried to do them all in one take so it would be just a very honest expression of what we wanted to do rather than trying to redo every line until it became perfect, you know. I don't think it's a very honest thing to do to rerecord… like, for us, the vocals are the expression of… our vocal expressions, so you want them to be honest and not rehearsed. I think they really lose their emotional honesty if they're just done over and over and over, so that's why we did that. We kind of did the vocals just more of a one take approach as I said, so yeah, the studio went fine. There are no complaints about that. I was quite actually shocked, I think we actually did "Tides" in like four days, where "White Tomb" was more kind of a ten day thing, so it was good.

Phil: What do you think is one thing that the average person can do to help conserve resources?

James: Even just the tiniest changes in your lifestyle. To echo on the preaching of every different organization, just unplug things, turn off lights. As little as your contribution might seem, it really does all add up to make a major, major difference. But I also agree that the kind of changes that need to be made are more at the massive top levels from massive industry and things like that, so it's kind of hard for people to follow suit when there's not an example being set by these people. But like I said, just don't think that doing little things yourself won't make a difference, 'cause it all adds up. Just admire the beauty of the world and I think that'll make it more motivating to actually do some things.

Phil: Recommend a book for our readers and then explain why you recommend that particular work.

James: As we're in America and I'm reading it for maybe my third or fourth time, the book "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold. It's just a beautiful narrative of a man and his observations of rural America. It's just really beautifully written and it describes the flora and fauna and just the seasons and the landscape. It's a really incredible book. And it's quite simple - it doesn't have a plot or anything like that, but it's just a really beautiful work. So Aldo Leopold, "A Sand County Almanac".

Phil: What are the future plans for ALTAR OF PLAGUES?

James: Once we get home, I think we are going to record our second album. We're doing that in September and that's going to be done in the west of Ireland, kind of rural setting, so we're going to go down there for maybe two weeks and immerse ourselves in the setting and create that music. And then after that, I think we're going to take a little bit of a break from live shows and touring for a little while, just to kind of recuperate and just get back to normal life and then after the second album comes out, we'll see where things go from there.

Phil: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

James: Thanks for your time.

Altar of Plagues' James Kelly

Interviewer: Philip A. Wickstrand

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Formed 2006
Cork, Ireland
Label: Profound Lore /
Candlelight Records
Genre: Black Metal

CURRENT LINE-UP:

J. Kelly:  Guitars, Vocals & Keyboards
D. Condon:  Bass, Vocals
J. Spillane:  Guitars
S. MacAnri:  Drums

DISCOGRAPHY:

First Plague (Demo-2006)
Through the Cracks of The Earth EP
                                                      (2007)
Sol EP (2008)
White Tomb (2009)
Tides EP (2010)

PHOTOS BY PHIL A. WICKSTRAND

(Click on Photos to Enlarge)

(Click on Photo to Enlarge)

July 12, 2010