It was fantastic to reconnect with Francis M. Howard (guitar/vocals) and chat with him about the latest Opprobrium happenings. They have quite a few interesting things going on in 2024, so read our discussion to find out the details.
Greetings to you Francis! A new Opprobrium album is currently in the works. How many songs will be on it and where will you record it?
- There will be 10 songs. The drum tracks are all done. We are taking our time on this one. It's being recorded in Florida.
Will you continue the musical line of "The Fallen Entities" album or will there be minor changes this time?
- Every album is different. This new album will be different from "The Fallen Entities".
Bassist Mark LaVenia rejoined the band last year. How is your cooperation going? Did he also bring ideas for the upcoming record?
- The songs were already written before Mark. So it has only my input and Moyses on this new album.
Now that the line-up is complete, we can finally expect live performances from Opprobrium, and as I can see, a lot of shows have already been confirmed for next year. Please tell us more about your 2024 tour plans and what we should know about your partnership with BeerBong Booking?
- BeerBong is booking Europe. We are in contact with Asia too. The US is going kind of slow, but we will try to get some shows in the US. So far we only got a cool festival already booked.
Since your debut album "Serpent Temptation" celebrated its 35th anniversary this year, your label High Roller Records has released some fantastic reissues of it. How do you personally feel about these re-releases and their different formats? Please tell readers more about the bonus material. By the way, which format was your favorite and why?
- We finally got a reissue of ST and ST the alternate version the way we wanted to be released. It took us a lot of work to get the details on these two releases. HRR did a great job and gave us complete artistic freedom. I like all formats that we got out.
You have special trademarks within the death metal you play, so it would be interesting to know which musicians and bands have had a big influence on you. What was the first metal album that piqued your interest and started the band?
- Before I sang I use to play guitar only. I really liked the guitar style of Vivian Campbell when he used to play for Dio back in the days. The first metal album that I picked up was Iron Maiden, Mötley Crüe, ZZ Top and many others at that time.
Do you still keep in touch with former members like Scot Latour, André Luiz or Brian Jeffrey? Do you know what they are doing now? Few people know, but you played with Scot and Brian in Decibel Demon and released an album in 2016 called "Declassified". What do readers need to know about this formation?
- The album "Declassified" is a bootleg album. Brian used to be our singer back in the days when we used to play heavy metal, but my song writing at the time came out very hardcore like lol. We try to stay in contact with Brian and Scot as much as possible. But we are all with so much responsibilities that is very hard to stay in touch, but as soon as an opportunity present itself we will definitely have a beer with those guys, they are very cool people to hang around with.
At the very beginning of the year, "Discerning Forces (First Mix Version)" was released exclusively in digital form on your bandcamp page. Are you sure you don't want to release this stuff as a bonus on some future "Discerning Forces" LP/CD/MC reissues?
- It's a great version indeed for something like that.
What's the metal scene like in Lady Lake, Florida? Do you regularly go to metal concerts these days? Do you have a favorite place to hang out with your friends?
- Florida scene has changed a lot. I like to hang out at comic book events, BBQ events, Bike Ride festivals. My clubbing days are over lol. I just like to chill at places that are more calm.
I'm sure it's hard to make a living playing in a death metal band, so what day jobs are you doing lately? By the way, how often can you rehearse together?
- If you look back in history, musicians back in the 1800's, if I am not mistaken, used to travel across the United States from town to town to play music. Back then they use to be called "Itinerary Musicians", that's how they used to make a living, so now the bands are back doing the same thing they used to do back then. 2024 we will be playing shows. It's not impossible that's for sure, but now bands have to keep on touring and sale merch to keep on going. Back in the 70's and 80's the record sales used to be the main source of income for bands, now touring is the main source of income for the bands since the arrival of the internet. But yes, there's a lot of bands making a living out of touring and merchandise sales.
We rehearse whenever we can. Professional musicians need only to get together a couple of days before a show. There are so many options to rehearse nowadays like videos a band can record to help each other learn a song, live Skype video calls for detail of a specific riff and also our band can do real time rehearsals at our warehouse that we rent. Each band member does their homework at home 90% of the time and then get together when there is a question or get together a couple of days before a show.
Thank you very much for answering my questions. Now please give your final thoughts to the readers.
- The new album is coming out better than we've expected. It's taking some time, because we want the best when it comes to song writing. So hang in there guys. Also I like to thank everyone that supports Opprobrium, be it a like on YouTube Channel or if buying a digital song or a physical copy from us. And when we start playing live again, please do the best to come to our shows and support us. Hope to see you all soon and get ready we will do our part and play some great songs live for you guys. It's all about having fun and enjoying life, that is what I want to be every show that we play. Once again thank you for this great interview and a thousand thanks for our fans worldwide, you guys rule!!!!!
