Speed is his name and speed is his game. No, seriously, that’s his actual name, as established at the beginning of this in-depth interview with the drummer for one of the premiere bands tearing up the underground today, Herakleion. In their short four year run, these tech death-thrash maniacs have managed to drop two acclaimed EPs and share sold-out stages with such legends as Cavalera, Obituary, and Coroner, just to name a few. Having just released their debut live album, Live Through Eternity, there seems to be no stopping the Herakleion attack. We sat down with Speed to discuss the band’s creative process, rigorous touring schedule, and live albums that are ACTUALLY live.
Greetings Speed and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Speed: I am doing excellent, Joe. It is good to be here.
It is great to have you on! Before we go any further with this interview, Speed is your real name, not your metal name, correct?
S: Yeah, from birth, man.
It doesn’t get more metal than that. You were bound to get behind the kit.
S: That’s right *laughs*.
When did you start drumming?
S: I started when I was 2. My mom had a drumkit in the house and I was always going into that room when I wasn’t supposed to and banging on stuff. That same Christmas, I got my first kit. It’s been a daily routine everyday since. It’s a good stress reliever and all that stuff is just what I do.
And clearly it’s paid off. Last week saw the release of Herakleion’s debut live album, Live Through Eternity. Could you give us some background on this specific show we hear on the album, and why the decision to record a live album?
S: We were coming off of 20 shows in 20 days with Exhorder earlier in the year. While we were on that tour, we got added to a date of Obituary’s Cause of Death anniversary tour. It was gonna be at a nice venue that has nice sound and we always pull well. We were on the road and called up some friends. We were like, “Hey.” We just had a hunch. We were like, “We think this is gonna be a good show. Just come record the audio, record the video, and get it captured.”
We’ve been wanting to do a live record because we don’t feel that the studio records really fit the vibe of what we’re intending for those songs. It’s still good. It serves a purpose, but live, we’re a bit more angry and raw. We really wanted that on some kind of format for everybody. We had a hunch about this show and it ended up being right. The show was really good. We didn’t have to add any other tracks or anything to it at all, not that we would’ve anyway, but it was good, just live off the floor. The full front to back set came out great.
It most certainly did, especially in an age where many, myself included, sometimes look at live releases as a copout. This album really feels in line with those old school live albums of the ’80s. Having seen you live firsthand, I can vouch for what you’re saying about those songs getting that extra push onstage.
S: Yeah, it’s a weird thing because live records are kind of overplayed and overdone. The thing for me that we didn’t want at all was one of those instances where you put out a really great live record: KISS’s Alive, Iron Maiden’s Live After Death, Slayer’s Live Undead. And then, 20 years later, you find out it actually wasn’t live, or it was from 30 days worth of shows and they took the best parts. We wanted something where it doesn’t suck, but it gets the job done and it was done in one take. That just seems fair.
What are some of your favorite shows you’ve played with the band thus far?
S: We just got off a weekender with the Cavaleras. That was unreal. Half that reason that we started playing was because of records like Beneath the Remains, Schizophrenia. Just being there, getting to talk to Igor and Max about things, it was just unreal. The shows were unreal too. We were expecting decent turnouts, but two of the three sold out. One of them was 30 under capacity. It was wild. Those for sure come to mind. A lot of our headline stuff’s great too, just getting to see everybody, play some awesome shows, and meet a lot of cool underground bands. We haven’t had a show that we regret at all. They’re all highlights in their own way.
Playing live as frequently as Herakleion does, I imagine it impacts both the band as a unit and the direction of the music. In what ways have you noticed the band evolve over the years?
S: Playing live as often as we do and the way that we record has made us tighter in a way because a lot of bands that I hear about, they write really complex, cool songs and it sounds great on record, but there’s a lot of punching in and a lot of touching up in post. Because we’re having to play live and rehearse so often, by the time that we do go press record, you either get the take in full or you don’t. It also geared us to write things that we know aren’t easy, but we know that we can pull off, especially live, and that would carry in a live setting. We don’t wanna put out a record where 90% of the stuff is just not gonna work live. Most underground metal bands, ourselves included, are pretty much live bands, at least until people get to know your stuff. It’s gotta be able to work in a club. It’s gotta be able to work in a small theater where we’re opening up for whoever.
What is your favorite live album and why?
S: My first record I ever got was KISS’s Alive!, so that definitely holds a place, but there’s a lot of good live “bootlegs”. Bolt Thrower’s Live War comes to mind. I’ve got a ton of old Sepultura boots. To me, a good live record, you need to be able to make out what they’re playing and it’s gotta have more energy than the original recording. That’s the qualifier. It can’t sound too much like garbage, but it’s still gotta have a little bit of that garbage in there so that it feels real *laughs*.
I agree, and speaking to your point on being more energetic than the original, that was the case with a lot of those ’70s live albums. One of the biggest offenders that comes to mind are my fellow Illinoisians, REO Speedwagon. You listen to their ’70s albums and they’re OK. Maybe a song here or a song there. Then, you put on the live album (Live: You Get What You Play For) and it’s like, how is this even the same band? It’s practically metal for the era.
S: Yeah, it’s kind of like Foghat. Foghat’s Live is good. Their other stuff might have a song a record at that.
That’s another band that comes to mind. The studio albums are great, but more blues and boogie based. Live? Again, very metallic!
S: Yep!
Although Herakleion formed in 2021, it has been quite a sudden rise for the band in the years since. What events led to the band first getting together and how soon were you working on music?
S: We pretty much started writing immediately. (Vocalist/guitarist) Apollo and I met and we jammed on a couple covers, just to get our footing. This is the first band I’ve been a part of outside of school jazz band, so I didn’t really know what I was doing. He had done one thing previous, but we just knew what we liked and started writing. By the time that we got (bassist) Christian in the band, we already had a 5 song EP worth of stuff, but it was really…I don’t know. It felt like a warmup, so we ended up scrapping all of that.
By the time we got him in the band, instead of it being more so the straight up thrash oriented stuff that we were working on, we all had a common thread in old school death metal and the edgier thrash stuff. Especially around that time, death metal and thrash was lacking as far as the metal scene went. It was a lot of hardcore, a lot of New Orleans worship, not that anything’s wrong with that. I don’t know. A lot of doom metal and stuff. It was like, no, we wanna play fast and angry and sound like Kreator and Pestilence, evil shit. We pretty much got immediately on it.
I think the main rush, that was kind of weird, is the night we met our bass player, Ben (Falgoust II) from Goatwhore was like, “Hey, I heard you guys are writing stuff. Be ready. We’re gonna have y’all open.” We’re like, “We don’t have a bass player.” *laughs* We found Christian the same night and then started writing. Then, we got the phone call a couple weeks later that they were doing a Halloween show, so we were like, “Well shit, we gotta record this whole thing and try to have CDs for it by then.” The technical release date of our first thing (Curse of Eternity) was February of ’22, but it was out before that. We had it done for that show, so there was a little bit of a rush. We started and immediately put out the first EP. I’d say the reason we started the band was an outlet to sound more like this than what is out now.
Well you’re doing a fine job at it, and I couldn’t agree more with your observation. A lot of these so called OSDM bands are just glorified death metal/hardcore amalgamations, and that’s not really my cup of tea. Meanwhile, Herakleion nails this very specific era that I’ve always gravitated towards, where thrash is morphing into death metal, roughly ’88, ’89. It’s an era where, in hindsight, people today will argue over a band like say Kreator. Is it thrash? Is it death? Is it both?
S: Yeah.
It’s the same with you guys: Fast, evil, raw, organic. What I’ve also noticed, from both the records and live performances, is that the three of you are technical players, and you manage to incorporate that amidst the riffs and brutality. Was that something that came naturally while the songs evolved, or was it a conscious effort on the band’s behalf?
S: It’s a bit of both. All of the writing’s conscious, for sure. That just comes from us liking a lot of non-metal, progressive stuff. A lot of that early ’70s prog rock stuff, even if it doesn’t sound like there’s a lot going on, they’re not slouches on their instruments. Our translation definitely comes from liking things like mid-late ’80s Voivod and Coroner and stuff like that. It’s progressive and it’s definitely technical, but it’s not sacrificing the songwriting. That was the key. We want to do stuff that’s interesting and ear-catching and technical, but not to the point where it just becomes, “Check out the guitar player. Check out the bass player.” It distracts from the song.
Much of the band’s lyrics pertain to sci-fi themes and Lovecraftian mythos. Is there any one member responsible for this or is it a shared interest?
S: We wrote a lot of that stuff. The first EP, it was all three guys contributing ideas. We’re all nerds for that stuff. I’d say it was a conglomerate. The Necroverse EP was a lot of Apollo’s ideas lyrically. We were mostly focused on the instrumental stuff for that record.
The way the band goes about writing music now, is it a group effort or do you guys write your own individual parts before eventually getting together and seeing what you got?
S: There’s a lot of working out ideas in our free time, and then getting together in a room and going over things, kind of working on it in the room, but having a direction beforehand. We found that easier because when we started, we had a lot more time to just meet up for 8 hours, 10 hours, and be like, “Let’s write a song.” Between having to rehearse and not wanting to be one of those bands that’s like, “We’re taking a year off to write.”, because that’s just…I don’t know. Do what you want. We’re not gonna do that. Rather than do that, it’s like, “OK, we need to divide our time in the room between working our new stuff and rehearsing” It’s easier if we already have little sketches here and there. I have these three riffs and this guy’s got these three riffs. We all get in. All of us write guitar stuff, so it’s just whoever’s got cool stuff as a jumping off point, we’ll start there.
Now when I saw you guys last month at LiveWire Lounge, you played an encore of a new song that was still in the works. Which song was that and does the band often woodshed new music live?
S: We like doing it. We really like doing it because if it works live, it’s gonna work on a record. Almost anything can work on a record. Not everything works live, so we like trying out different stuff. We got a whole bunch of new stuff. It’s been cool. None of it’s really got solid song names. It’s mostly up in the air right now, but that was, I think, new song #2 of 4 we got going right now. We’re gonna have another 3 or 4 by spring, so it’ll be cool.
Thus far, we’ve gotten two ripping EPs from the band. Can we expect a full length in the future, or does the band prefer the EP format?
S: EPs are cool. To me, it’s all about the intent of the music. We’ve had new stuff since before Necroverse was recorded, but it didn’t really fit the motif of the EP, so we didn’t want to have 5 songs that were really working well together and gelled, and 2 songs that were a different thought. It was like, “OK, if the writing’s going more in this direction, we’ll just keep riding on that and we’ll put out a full length.” Full length’s hopefully gonna be fall of next year. It’ll be cool. We’re keeping it short because no one wants a double record from a new band. It’s gonna be short and to the point, and somewhere in between both EPs in terms of the aggression of the first one and the technicality of the second one.
That’s a great point about runtime. Look at the essential extreme metal albums: Reign in Blood, Horrified. Need I go on?
S: True. Most classic extreme metal albums aren’t long. I can’t think of one offhand that’s the hour and 30 minute magnum opus *laughs*. There’s probably some, but I don’t know. That’s stretching it.
Circling back to those songs that didn’t fit on Necroverse, is having an overarching concept, whether it be musically or lyrically, important for the band on a release?
S: I think so. You gotta have a point behind what you’re doing. There’s been certain bands, whether it’s heavy or otherwise, that are popular, but I’m a big fan of listening to a record front to back. A lot of bands, you can’t do that with. Not so much with death metal or thrash, but we just want to put out something that’s cohesive and doesn’t have a side A and a half of something that fits a certain mood, and then, all of a sudden, have a polka song on side B for some reason. It wouldn’t jive. We had a certain point to get across on that one and the other stuff didn’t really fit the vibe.
Despite Herakleion’s rising star, you remain an independent act. Is this by choice? Furthermore, how does the band go about this process of self-releasing music? I imagine a few labels have shown some interest by now.
S: People have offered interest in distribution. We could do distro. We go play shows and we get money to put out records. That part of it really doesn’t concern us. I’m sure getting signed is good for promotion and attracting booking agents, but truthfully, as long as we are independent, I don’t think we’re necessarily worried about it because we also have the artistic freedom to put out whatever we want, whenever we want. I’m sure if we were on a label, whether it’s big or small, after putting out two EPs and we were like, “We’re gonna do a live record.”, they’d be like, “Why?”
There’s a reason. We can do what we want right now as far as when we want to put out music, what formats, and have full creative control of the packaging. There’s a few underground bands that I really dig that I went and bought the physical release. It’s not their fault, but the record label didn’t put the attention into the packaging. If you’re gonna put out a physical release, it’s gotta be cool. You gotta have somebody stoked on buying it other than an empty jacket with a record in it. It’s just cool. If we get a cool offer from somebody that fits where we’re at, I’m sure we’d jump at it, but we’re not in a hurry. We’re able to do whatever we want right now.
That has to be one of the coolest things going for you right now. As the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
S: Yeah, as far as a label goes on promotion and all that, our social media and the overall presence as a whole isn’t really the focus as much as currently being that underground band that comes to your town and plays to 20 people and fuckin’ stomps it. Then comes back, plays to 70 the next time and just does it on our own. It’s known physically more so than, “Oh yeah, I saw those guy’s pictures in this magazine and they look cool.” I don’t care how we look. I wanna just show up and fuckin’ do what we do.
In closing, what does 2026 have in store for Herakleion?
S: We’ve got a tour. I say tour. We got a weekender in December. We’re going to open up for Obituary again in Florida. We’ve got some plans with some friends’ bands. I don’t know if I can say who yet, but January, February, and March, we’re gonna be pretty busy doing that. March, we’ve also got a couple shows with Acid Bath. One is at the Caverns in Tennessee and the other one is Dallas on April, 4th. Before then, we’re gonna have a single out. It’s gonna be physical only, a 7 inch single. That should be January or February, and then a full length record in the Fall. It’ll be cool. Lots of stuff next year. Even busier than this year, so it’ll be nice.
The new Herakleion live album, Live Through Eternity, is available now. For more information on Herakleion, click here.