When it comes to heavy metal, there’s nothing quite like the intertwining of fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and riffs with soaring melodies. That’s what you’ll hear from Helms Deep – a powerful four-piece that take their classic power metal foundation in a bit more progressive direction for their latest album Chasing the Dragon. We got the chance to talk to guitarist / vocalist Alex Sciortino to learn more behind the differences in the two records, how two new members got recruited into the lineup, thoughts on power metal in general, the changing music industry landscape and how the band navigates these platforms, being a part of Nameless Grave Records, albums that shaped the band’s style, a humorous King Diamond show story, and what’s on the horizon for the follow-up.
Dead Rhetoric: Chasing the Dragon is the second album for Helms Deep. Where do you see this set of material sitting in the band’s catalog – and where did you want to expand upon or make things different from your Treacherous Ways debut effort in 2023?
Alex Sciortino: In my opinion, Treacherous Ways – they are almost two different bands. The vocals are the same, a lot of the guitar stuff is the same, all my writing. The writing in general, the songwriting and compositions are a little bit more expansive. It takes more direction as opposed to riff, riff, riff – which Treacherous Ways is a little bit that way. And Treacherous Ways has a little bit more of Mike (Heller’s) writing influence. His drumming is also totally different than Hal’s. His drumming dictates a totally different vibe. There are a lot more odd time signatures – Chasing the Dragon is all me with the songwriting. The other guys came up with their parts, which made things whole, brought things more to life. It’s different, man.
This one is a four-piece, the other one is a three-piece. We’ve got the dual guitar stuff going. The vocals too are a little bit more pulled back. The first one, I had Mike sort of telling me to scream here, scream there. Some people loved it, some people didn’t. For my personal tastes, I could have pulled back. When I had the demos for the first album, I was way more reserved. Mike wanted me to go balls to the wall on every single part. I thought we should tease it more and work your way up. A lot of people like Treacherous Ways, but I like Chasing the Dragon more. It’s a personal taste thing. There are things that I wanted to do with Treacherous that I didn’t get to do, that I think I got to do with Chasing the Dragon. And I think my songwriting got better because of Treacherous Ways.
Dead Rhetoric: How was it again to work with bassist John Gallagher? He’s a very impressive musician based on his long history with Raven, and he has said that playing Helms Deep material is some of the most challenging material he’s ever been a part of playing…
Sciortino: Yeah, John is an awesome guy all around. Very laid back, very easy to work with. He’s old school, and honestly, I am too, especially with all the computer stuff. Recording an album this way where I am in my basement, they are in their basements, and we are messaging each other to do this, change that. It’s kind of funny. It wasn’t too bad with this one because there was a lot less editing involved. We took John’s stuff and stuck it in there. The first one, Mike wanted everything very clean cut and polished. Mike is a very particular guy, very thorough with the recording process and everything. I would listen to something that was recorded on a tape in somebody’s garage – I’m not that crazy about it. Mike is very picky; he wants everything to sound really professional. That’s cool as it gives you a certain kind of sound.
John is from the 80s. He was used to recording the old school way. He’s used to Mike polishing up his stuff and making sure he re-records things to get every single note. I kind of like when we let John be himself. I don’t need that level of perfection. I like a little bit of human (touch), to see John’s personality when he plays. Even tiny imperfections or mistakes, they can weirdly be cool in music. Obviously, it can’t be a huge mistake where it’s obviously the wrong note. If it’s slight little stuff, you keep it as it sounds like a real person as opposed to every single thing being perfect. I don’t need that personally; I like it when I hear on an album with the older stuff the bands only had one take to do it as it was recorded on tape. Those little mistakes, they kept them, and you end up loving those mistakes. I don’t need every single note to be perfect and edited. Every time he sent us takes of his playing, God dude. He’s so melodic and he comes up with such cool ideas. I would play bass on the demos, and he takes the idea I had and quadruples things in a different direction than I could ever think of. It’s always fun.
Dead Rhetoric: What did drummer Hal Aponte and second guitarist Ray DeTone bring to the table for the band on this go around? What do you enjoy most about their styles and approach that benefits Helms Deep in the long run?
Sciortino: They brought a lot. Ray is an awesome guitar player; I’ve known him for a long time. He has kind of an almost Steve Vai-esque type of sound, but a little dirtier. He has his own thing, for sure. I hear some Jeff Beck in him, and he’s Ray. I’ve known him forever. We got his voice in this, his style, which contrasts mine really nicely. He taught me guitar when I was 13. He gave me a bunch of guitar lessons in a year, then I went off and did my own thing, practice and practice. I think we sound good together just because we’ve known each other for so long. He also mixed everything. He was the engineer for all of this.
Hal is my kind of drummer. He’s like Neil Peart playing speed metal. The hi toms, crazy cymbals, he’s almost got a drum set you could flip upside down on (laughs). Maybe not that crazy. The bell tree, all the percussion stuff, he brings all that. I wanted that stuff in the first album. Mike talked me into keeping things straight up metal. I had some much longer intros on some of the songs, but maybe Treacherous wasn’t meant to be that way. With Chasing the Dragon, I wrote it to be a lot more proggy, a lot more inviting to outside the box stuff. As soon as I heard Hal’s playing because Ray introduced me to him, yeah this is going to be the guy. I saw he was in a Rush cover band; he’s definitely right up my alley. He’s a little more loose- Mike is extremely talented. Insane, overqualified maybe for power metal. He’s coming from bands like Malignancy, that ridiculous technical stuff that he does. Hal, he’s fast as hell too but it’s a little looser, a little more human being, you know what I mean?
Dead Rhetoric: Seasoned science-fiction illustrator Bob Eggleton did the cover art for Chasing the Dragon. What was the process like working with him, and how do you feel about the final product? Does it give an accurate representation for what people can expect musically from the band?
Sciortino: That wasn’t a piece he customized for us. He made that previously. I was scouring the internet for some kind of cool artwork with a dragon in it. I got through a bunch of Michael Whelan stuff, but it wasn’t really fitting my ideas. Whelan has a lot of cool dragon pieces. I stumbled upon this one, had to find out who did this. Finally, I found out it was Bob Eggleton. I got in contact with him, can I buy the rights for this for my band’s album, and he was like, yeah. It was pretty easy, simple, he’s a nice guy. I think it’s a perfect representation of the music. It’s a dragon with a backpack in space – because there’s some spacey stuff on here too. It goes into the prog area, some 70s rock going with this one. It’s all heavy metal for sure. We use a theremin, we use a lot of weird stuff, effects, phasers, that we didn’t really hit on the first one.
Dead Rhetoric: Were there any songs on this record that took on a great challenge or development from the initial demo ideas to what we hear on the final product?
Sciortino: Honestly, no. For some reason, these songs just poured out of my head. Like the first one, I showed up with some half-finished songs that I thought were finished as it was my first real go, let’s just record these. Mike was like, these aren’t finished, we had to do some rewriting on those first batch of songs. This was like no, they are done. When Hal played the drums better than my demo of shitty drums, John played better than the bass ideas I had, and Ray came up with some more cool stuff. The structure of the songs were all done.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s more challenging for you – guitars or vocals? Or are both equally important to you, just in their own unique ways?
Sciortino: I have been a guitar player my whole life, but I’ve only done vocals since the first album. For this project, they are equally important. I’m more of a guitar player. That is going to be what I am better at and more experienced with. The vocals, I do it because they happened to work. I was originally thinking about getting somebody else to do it. I couldn’t find anybody who could really get the sound right, so I’ll do it. Now I have the hang of vocals a lot better than on the first album. The second album I know where everything is supposed to go, especially with doing it from the first time. I know what I like and don’t like.
Dead Rhetoric: Where do you draw inspiration for your lyrical themes in this band?
Sciortino: A lot of stuff. Horror, sci-fi, fantasy, occult stuff, H.P. Lovecraft. Anything weird and creepy and cool and fun. That’s the types of books that I read, movies that I watch. Just stuff that messes with your head.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you feel about the classic power/traditional metal style that you represent through Helms Deep? What has always captivated you most about this genre – even if it has a very cult or niche-like appeal?
Sciortino: I love power metal. I listen to so many power metal bands, I think that’s what made me do this. Judas Priest really made me want to do this, and bands like Iron Maiden, Manowar too. I wanted to be in a band like that, but I want to take it and maybe add some progressive elements to it. Like Rush does, they have some more spacey aspects to it. Judas Priest did stuff like that too in songs like “Starbreaker”. I wouldn’t say they don’t delve as far into it, but they did have some stuff like that. Everybody was a little out there in the 70s and 80s.
Dead Rhetoric: How did Nameless Grave Records come into the picture to sign the band? Do you enjoy the attention and diversity that the roster represents?
Sciortino: The first album, we finished it, and I was talking to Mike about how do I release it? Mike was like, you have to send it to labels. I was emailing all these major labels, and nobody answered me. I just decided to put it out on Bandcamp, and told Mike and John to just share that link on Facebook. Mike flipped out, he didn’t want me to do that, but I didn’t know what else to do. I self-released it, and then the same day I did that I got an email from Nameless Grave Records. They must have seen it on Bandcamp, or seen John’s post. They wanted to do an official release of this. I wanted just a distribution deal; I wasn’t interested in signing some crazy thing where they take the rights to your songs for like ten years. I wanted to get physical albums sold and get some marketing. Push it in the right places where people can hear it.
They offered that exact thing. That’s what they do, so perfect. Sign me up, man. They did the first one really well, so I knew they would be the right label for the second one. They are cool guys, Brandon and Andrew, they do a great job.
Dead Rhetoric: What are your thoughts on the current state of the metal music industry? How do you navigate all of the challenges with instant technology, digital streaming, and social media platforms to promote your work and stand out against the numerous releases that hit the market on a weekly basis?
Sciortino: My take on the current music industry. It’s interesting that it’s gone this way. It’s probably a good thing, as it’s keeping the genre alive. I live in the US; heavy metal isn’t huge here. There’s a subculture for it, festivals like Hell’s Heroes in Texas, but it’s not like you leave your house and you see metalheads where you live. I live in Florida, and I don’t see any metalheads in my area. Usually on my day to day, it’s not something I talk to people about whereas when I lived in New York, there was a bunch more given. It depends where you live. I had moved to Colorado; there were zero people where I lived interested in metal there. They thought I was the devil there for wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt. It’s weird.
I think the internet, as annoying as it can be, it keeps this music alive and it keeps people connected, so there is that. That’s good about it. The industry has adapted to that; they use it as a tool. It’s not all bad, there are definitely some down sides. There used to be some charm about hearing about bands through word of mouth, record stores and picking up a CD. Now everything is all digital and in the machine with the comments sections. It can be toxic but also be good. It’s just the nature of it. The music industry is doing what they can to keep the genre alive. It’s kindred spirits doing what they can to keep pushing things out. I think that’s good.
Dead Rhetoric: Would you ever consider Helms Deep playing live shows, even if it’s on a smaller festival basis?
Sciortino: Yeah, I think eventually we are going to have to do a live band. It’s going to be awesome if we play this stuff live. At the moment, it’s tough for us because we are all in different states. Hal, he just had twins recently, so he’s wrapped up with the kids. We would also have to get together for at least a month. I would have to sleep on Ray’s couch, live on his couch for a month and practice every day. It’s a big ask for people to leave their whole life, but if it’s something that’s really worth it, we would be down to do it.
Dead Rhetoric: What sorts of hobbies, interests, or activities do you like to pursue away from music when you have the free time and energy to do so?
Sciortino: I have a lot of hobbies. I really like fishing, I ride motorcycles. I do Muay Thai, combat sports like Thai boxing. I do that religiously, five days a week. I work, but around work that’s probably what I do the most as I compete at it competitively, it’s so much fun. I love the intensity; it’s an adrenaline thing for me.
Dead Rhetoric: What would you say are three of the most important albums that helped shape your outlook on the metal genre? And what’s your favorite concert memory as a member of the audience, and what made this so special to you?
Sciortino: That shaped Helms Deep I can give you. Stained Class – Judas Priest. I wanted to sing like that, even the guitar playing. I wanted to write riffs. Riot – Thundersteel shaped us. These aren’t necessarily my favorite metal albums of all time necessarily, because that changes on a day-to-day basis. I think Stained Class is one of my favorite albums of all time. I can safely say that. Thundersteel is awesome, but I don’t know if it’s top three ever. It shaped Helms Deep, I wanted to do some speed metal. Iron Maiden – Somewhere in Time had an influence on this stuff too, the creation of the new album and the project in general.
As far as concert memories, there are a lot of those. Favorite – that’s a tough one. I have some funny stuff that’s happened at concerts that I love to think about. I had a friend who was holding two beers, we were at a King Diamond concert, and we walked up near the stage. I guess some guy crowd surfed but there was no music playing, and he made my friend spill two beers out of his hands. He got mad, wanted the guy to buy him two beers, yelling at the kid, and King Diamond walks out. He didn’t see the first half of what happened, he only saw my friend being a dick to this kid. He looked at my friend and was like, no, no, no’ (laughs). We used to joke around that King Diamond hates you.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the horizon for anything related to Helms Deep over the next twelve months or so? Has work already begun on the next set of material – and if so, how do you see things shaping up?
Sciortino: Things have just started glimmering for some new stuff. I have a couple of ideas, not complete songs. The riffs are always just flowing, and I record them as they come. It’s coming a little slower than in the past, you get a little burnt out after writing eleven to twelve songs. You have to exert that kind of creative energy. I have more gas in the tank, and there definitely will be new songs. It’s going to go probably in more of a weirder direction than this last one. That’s what I could imagine.