If there is one thing that the Belgian black/thrash/speed metal band Bütcher made sure with their new album "On Fowl of Tyrant Wing", it's that if you're gonna have such an awesome album title and an awesome cover art by Kris Verwimp, you are obviously gonna provide one hell of an album absolutely worth blasting on full volume. It's by far one of the fastest and heaviest releases of 2024 that you can't get enough no matter how much you think you've pleased your appetite for destruction. After revisiting the new album "On Fowl of Tyrant Wing", I managed to get in touch with the band's vocalist R Hellshrieker where we've discussed the latest output of Bütcher, from the songwriting process to the end result. I hope you maniacs will enjoy this interview and make sure to support Bütcher!

Vladimir

Greetings Hellshrieker, warmest welcome from Metalbite! How are you doing?

Hey Metalbite and metalheads, we're good. Reaching the years' end and it's been a very busy year. So we're taking the time to take a breather and enjoying what 2024 has brought us!

Your new album On Fowl of Tyrant Wing is finally out now and there has been such an overwhelmingly positive response from fans and critics, praising the band's performance and overall highly improved songwriting, while still remaining faithful to the core principles of Bütcher. How has the whole journey with the work on the new album been for you guys? What was the band chemistry like during the songwriting and recording process?

Thanks for your kind words. The album has proven more divisive than our previous one, with people really enjoying what we did, diving even deeper into mixing various old metal genres and focussing on more subtle songwriting. The new album is certainly a grower, with a few cuts really taking you by the throat, but others require more attention and repeated listens to appreciate all the layers we put in there. For a minority that made it too complicated to what they expected from us. But that's cool, to each his own and that counts certainly for us as well. We think we achieved what you said: remaining faithful on all fronts to the core principles of the band, and improving our performance. It was a unique approach though, with KK Ripper writing and arranging most of the material by himself. Our previous drummer LV Speedhämmer composed and recorded the drums. I actually wrote lyrics and tried vocal approaches afterwards. Normally we would first finish everything together and then hit the studio, but due to Speedhämmer's leaving we were forced to work within the time frame we had. So for the next one, we'll go with another take on band chemistry again and write in the rehearsal room. It'll be very interesting to see how the next album will differ in those regards. Gonna be fun!

When it comes to the physical release sales for On Fowl of Tyrant Wing, which format was on high demand? Vinyl, CD or cassette?

I should ask our label for accurate numbers, but it seems on shows and what we see on social media that the vinyl is actually in high demand. I have to add that the artwork was really made with vinyl size in mind and it shows. The package is perfect in large format!

For subgenres such as black/speed metal or black/thrash metal, it's really a difficult task to provide any kind of innovation, but you seem to have handled that incredibly well, because your song structures are very rich and complex with constant tempo-changes, sonic riffs, powerful guitar solos and melodic touches here and there. Was there anything specific that you were looking to improve or tweak in your music?

Thanks again! And yeah, it's a balancing act to stay within the rules of the genre (and bend them a bit, of course - because rule breaking makes things interesting ;)) and still sound fresh, contemporary and with new ideas. I think we achieved it, but there wasn't a rulebook we wanted to follow or a list of boxes that we wanted to tick. I think you can definitely hear our influences, ranging from Slayer and Nifelheim, over Primordial and Desaster, to Mercyful Fate and Iron Maiden. We did want to put a bit more US metal into it and the openers of the album (Speed Metal Samurai and Blessed By The Blade) are actually songs we had for an EP on which we really wanted to let people hear more Omen, Liege Lord etc in the guitar work. But we stopped with the EP idea to continue into a full-length.

One song that stood out for me is "A Gypsy's Tale (Of Sex and Seance)", because it stylistically feels like a nostalgic throwback to classic Morbid Angel, with the inclusion of sitar in the background and some King Diamond-ish vocal elements. What can you tell me about working on this song specifically?

Yeah, it's the most divisive song on the album, by far. To us, it made a lot of sense because it's the middle piece of the B-side trilogy. The song tells about the origins of a sensual gypsy woman - who is truly a vessel of the Devil, living through time and corrupting mankind. She was born of ancient entities in the occult Middle-Eastern caverns of the world. That theme gells very well with the occult Morbid Angel riffing - which in turn we thought cool to combine with Mercyful Fate influences, both in music and vocal delivery. We had a lot of fun doing this one, and I'm very proud of it. In the theme of the trilogy it's megacool, though it's not a new direction we're gonna do. Though you can never say never, haha.

If I may be so bold to say so, I think this might be your heaviest and most musically intense album yet, and it really feels like a greater bastard child of 80's Slayer, Nifelheim and Dark Angel, with some instances of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest on "A Sacrifice to Satan's Spawn". Were you guys aiming to incorporate your various musical influences or did it all come out naturally?

Oh yeah, totally. It's no coincidence that the bands you mention are the very ones we refer to when explaining our style and influences. Bütcher definitely is a mixture of all these classic acts, but we don't aim to do anything. It's just a style that comes natural to us, that's why our albums have so many subgenres on it. But we write wherever our ideas on that moment take us.

It might sound like a weird question to ask, but do you guys have any set of rules and ideas that you think a Bütcher song should accomplish? (apart from being heavy and extreme of course)

So this question is actually something I touched upon earlier, and the answer is definitely: no! We have no set rules of ideas about what we think our songs should accomplish. We have a lot of freedom in our minds and a Bütcher song just needs to have the right feeling. It doesn't need to be anything else than that! We only know whenever we try something that is NOT Bütcher material and that comes natural as well. Like: oh this is a cool riff, but this is totally not something we'll use, haha.

This is your second album in a row which features the artwork of the renowned and talented Belgian artist Kris Verwimp, and I think this might be the best art that he has designed for Bütcher yet, although I think we can all agree that he's simply unmistakeable. What was it like working with him for the second time for On Fowl of Tyrant Wing?

Kris's artwork for Goats really helped to solidify that album and even became a bit of iconic in the underground, if we may say so. We were certainly looking for some continuity in the Bütcher brand, so to speak. And it was the most logical step to ask Kris again. And boy, did he deliver. He nailed it again, telling a story of a few of the lyrics, painting eye-popping visuals with a lot of character and personality. This time he even used an orange and purple palette, and to a degree we didn't expect. We gave him some cues and provided him with the music and lyrics. And as he did with Goats, he turned it into a very distinct cover that grabs the viewers attention. We're extremely happy with it.

We all know how Bütcher is highly acclaimed across the globe, but what is the general reception from your local metal scene? Does the Belgian metal scene treat you with proper respect?

Funny thing is that we have more fans abroad than in Belgium, so it seems to us at least. Of course quite some people are respecting what we do over here, but our take on old skool metal just works better in audiences in other countries. It's also a Belgian thing, to prove yourself abroad. Only after, we notice our own talent, haha. And probably this niche we created just has a larger demographic target audience in larger countries. We've played a lot of parts of Europe by now, with even more coming in 2025. In any case, that is truly an honor to do so, and we love how we are received across the continent.

Thank you so much for doing this interview. Looking forward to seeing Bütcher live someday, and continue to keep it true! Any final words for the fans?

Hope so too! Thanks for the interview and to the fans I'd say: thanks for your dedicated support. See you Maniaxxxe on the road, URGH!