High Command: Ready For Battle
As indeed it should, metal has taken many weird and wonderful forms in 2022, but for many of us there remains an itch that only a record like Eclipse Of The Dual Moons can ever really scratch. The sophomore album from the Worcester, Massachusetts thrashers HIGH COMMAND has that instantly ‘classic’ feel to it – from its eight-song tracklist, to its closing 12-minute epic, to the way it soundtracks tales of swords and sorcery with a wonderful mix of thrash, trad and first wave black metal. Like many great works in the world of music and beyond, it seems to exist outside of any particular time period or zeitgeist, which was of course entirely the band’s intention.
“We don’t really pay attention to what’s going on to trends at the moment when we set out to make a record,” explains guitarist Ryan McArdle. “We just do whatever feels right to us at the moment and most importantly, we have fun with it. I have to admit I’m kind of bad at keeping up with modern metal at times; a lot of what’s in my rotation is the same as when I was a teenager (Ride The Lightning, Blizzard Of Ozz) so that probably contributes to why HIGH COMMAND records are formatted like they are. I think the end result is pretty cool still, even in the era of Spotify and streaming and all that. I think if people are inclined to check it out they might feel the same.”
“We are kind of in our own lane over here in Worcester MA,” McArdle elaborates, this time in response to a question of whether he and the band felt any pressure to follow up their already excellent debut in 2019’s Beyond The Wall Of Desolation. “Our main goal when we set out to make a record is to make an album that is unequivocally a HIGH COMMAND record, the challenge is to figure out what that means to us conceptually at the time. Our greatest critics have always been ourselves anyways, it takes many long hours of going through riffs and passages with a fine tooth comb before we don’t hate the songs anymore.”
The process certainly seems to work, and while McArdle confesses to some wholly understandable creative stagnation during the worst of the pandemic – its outbreak coming infuriatingly soon after the band had released their aforementioned debut – it doesn’t sound like it took them long to get the creative juices flowing when they were finally able to start pulling together what would become Eclipse Of The Dual Moons.
“HIGH COMMAND is always a collaborative effort and being able to get together after so long apart really reignited the songwriting process,” confirms McArdle. “I think with the first LP we hinted at a few directions we were trying to go that we didn’t have the knowledge or technical prowess to translate at the time. With Eclipse Of The Dual Moons I think it’s a bit more [of a] refined listen, we’ve definitely grown as a band and have the capabilities now to explore different influences and contextualise them within the HIGH COMMAND bounds.”
“[Vocalist] Kevin [Fitzgerald]’s lyrical subject matter is vast and epic and we wanted the music to match that level,” he continues, agreeing that the band have pushed themselves more than ever before on this record. “We definitely spent many nights in the practice space doing pre-production and honing in on what would become Eclipse Of The Dual Moons.”
His answer touches on another aspect of what makes HIGH COMMAND who they are: their world-building. Inspired by legendary pulp writers like Robert E. Howard, Eclipse Of The Dual Moons takes the listener back to the band’s richly-detailed and self-created world of Secartha. “I’m pretty sure Kevin spends most of his life living in Secartha in his head,” muses McArdle. “Since HIGH COMMAND records are vastly conceptual I always try to get an idea of where the story is going during the songwriting process. Sometimes I try to ‘score’ parts of the story within the songs. Whether it be an icy riff while our hero is journeying up a mountain or a massive solo during an epic battle, the lore and the music are forever intertwined.”
Acting as something of the final piece of the puzzle is producer Seth Manchester – the band’s frequent collaborator whose seasoned hands give Eclipse Of The Dual Moons something of a crisper production edge than is often found in many of the classics that no doubt spend hours spinning on McArdle and co.’s record players. “Seth is an extremely talented engineer and we knew we were in good hands with a record this ambitious,” offers McArdle. “The vibe in [Manchester’s studio] Machines with Magnets is unmatched, it’s always a blast when we get in there and cut a record. I think he helped us greatly in creating a sound that is unique to HIGH COMMAND alone.”
One of the last questions we ask McArdle is what it is he wants listeners to take away from the experience of listening to Eclipse Of The Dual Moons; his answer, concise and emphatic, is “ALWAYS BE READY FOR BATTLE” – in all caps of course. As for his hopes for the future of the band, those are similar enough too: “Crush our enemies, see them driven before us and hear the lamentations of their women!”
Eclipse Of The Dual Moons is out now via Southern Lord Recordings.
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