Merciless Terror Interview about their very first Japan tour!

“getting up on stage to thousands of screaming metal heads will be a moment that stays with me for a long time.”

How was your very first flight to Japan? Was good? I heard that Dale doesn’t like plane at all, haha.

DALE: Well the first part of the flying was fine. The flight to Germany from England was good because I decided to get drunk on the plane! However the long haul flight to Nagoya was a different story. My T.V on the plane was the only one that didn’t work and the beer was wearing off, so I had to endure 11 hours of boredom and crappy airplane food (Laughs). It was actually better than I expected though, considering I am a very nervous flyer.

Could you tell me the first impression about Japan when you landed in Okinawa?

DALE: The First thing we noticed when we got off the plane in Okinawa was the heat and humidity. It is a very different climate to what we are used to in England so this was a slap in the face! Once we met the organizers (Jason & Clay) They drove us to where we were staying, so we got to see a bit of the Island and we were impressed with the beautiful scenery and the large number of Daihatsu’s driving on the roads!

I should say that many of us (the people in Tokyo) haven’t been in Okinawa for sure. How could it be possible to have an opportunity to play gigs there?

DALE: Well we were kind of lucky to be honest. We hooked up with the Rocktoberfest organizers and they basically liked what we done and offered to sort us out a few shows including the festival slot. Personally my advice from being in a band in general is to try getting hold of bands in Okinawa and trying to arrange some gig swaps with them. There are plenty who I spoke to who would love to come over to the mainland!

Did you enjoy Rocktoberfest and other gigs there? How did you feel about those shows?

MIKE: The fans are crazy and very appreciative of bands that make the effort to travel such a long way to entertain them. The show at club Fujiyama was a great warm up to Rocktoberfest. I think people were surprised at how aggressive and direct we were yet we were nice guys to talk to after the show. Rocktoberfest was probably the most amazing experience for me personally thus far. Having our intro blasting out then getting up on stage to thousands of screaming metal heads will be a moment that stays with me for a long time.

Did you meet with your old and new fans there? What do you think about metalheads in Japan? I guess there’s a lot of American people from US forces at every MT show in Okinawa though.

DALE: The metal heads were awesome! And yes we played to a lot of the US Military, but there were a lot of locals there too. Everyone seemed friendly and really pleased to have us play in Okinawa.

Which songs did you play at Rocktoberfest?

DAN: We brought our current set list over to Japan, which covers material from our demo and ‘Perpetual Devastation’ E.P. As a treat for this tour we decided to add a brand new track to the set, which comes off of our new E.P we recorded exclusively for our trip here called ‘Eternal Decay’.

I’m curious about MT live seriously, hope you’ll be back in Japan and have a tour through Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo in the near future. Did you have any time to see Tokyo this time by the way?

DALE: We would love to come back and hit Mainland Japan too! Were actually hoping to do this next year so I’m sure you’ll get to witness the Terror live. And we managed to drive around Tokyo but never got to go look around unfortunately.

I would love to introduce MT to the people who haven’t heard about the band yet. Could you tell me about the members and the band’s history?

DALE: The band formed in April 2009 by myself, David Siddons and original drummer Dan Mulligan. He then introduced Aiden Hornbuckle into the band on bass duties. After several lineup changes over the years the current lineup we believe is now the strongest unit we’ve ever been as musicians and as friends which is: Dale Linsdell – Vocals, David Siddons – Guitar, Dan Oldcorn – Bass & Michael Brush – Drums.

How do you describe your music and its genre for new listeners?

DALE: I would describe our music as ‘Death/Thrash’… basically we take the elements of the early 90’s era of death metal such as bands like Bolt Thrower, Obituary & Napalm Death and combine them with the Thrasher stuff, such as Sepultura, Kreator, Sodom & Slayer. So if you like your metal Fast and aggressive I think you’ll dig us!

Okay thank you so much guys! The last line belongs to you. Leave some message to metalheads in Japan or whatever you like. :)

MIKE: Thank you to all of our new fans in Japan, you made us all feel very welcome. We'll definitely be back to do a bigger and longer tour very soon.

DALE: Yes we made a lot of new friends and fans on our trip and would like to thank you all who made it an amazing experience for us! We WILL be back once the full-length album is released next year… Let The Terror Reign!

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