MORGAN Y. EVANS: Your sound really draws from a wide range of influences, though bands like Down and Danzig leap to mind. It seems like you are really aiming for the best of many eras in your influences, however. I like how your MySpace page says, "The wheel is not being reinvented, it's being reinforced." That's a cool way to look at it.

ALEX DEMENTIA (Vocals): Thanks man! We always appreciate it when someone understands where we are coming from. The saying goes, "You either get it, or you don't." Right?

MYE: What has the band been up too? Are you sick of NYC or do you think the rock scene there still has a pulse? What's the vibe? You guys seem really about bringing back some much needed power and sludge to the scene.

AD: We are releasing our first full length, Hour Of The Wolf, in October and booking the tour trying to stay as far away from NYC as possible! There are great bands here but not too many fans unless your are on a larger scale, so when you book a show you better bring it and make it count. We are doing our CD Release show Saturday, November 21st at the Trash Bar in Williamsburg. We are making it this huge event with beer sponsors and giveaways. Seventh Void, featuring members of Type O and Danzig, are also playing. I guess you can say that we are doing all we can to bring the "vibe" back and let people know that heavy music is alive and well in NYC.

MYE: Yeah, spread the word, brother. What are your favorite places to play in New York these days, on that note?

AD: The venues are always coming and going these days but I love playing the Trash Bar and Ace of Clubs. The people who run those two venues are great, They care about the bands and do all they can to make a show rock.

MYE: How was working with Joe Hogan? He always produces great stuff and your band seems like a great pairing with him.

AD: He is the man! A very mellow guy but an amazing engineer and a genius at making the instruments sound nice and big. He just let us do our thing and didn't intervene that much during the tracking. Although when he did have a suggestion or told us that something wasn't working with a song it was usually spot on. Also, he got electrocuted twice. It was pretty funny, or at least I enjoyed it....

MYE: For those who don't know, can you elaborate on how the idea of the band came about and the ball started rolling faster and faster?

AD: Yikes! Its been a long haul so its gonna be a long answer! It was the fall of 2007 and I was in a transition period with my old band After Dark. There had been so many line-up changes in that band's history that I spent more time auditioning new members trying keep us on the road rather then focusing on making killer music. That's when I called Alex Coelho and asked him if he would be interested in writing some tunes together for a possible full length, he was into it and we clicked instantly. The riffs where just pouring out of us. Our goal was to get back to our roots and get back to the core of why we started down this path so many years ago. We recorded every fucking riff we had on this little tape machine I have in my apartment. I literally have a shoe-box of almost 40 tapes, 60 minutes on each side, of music from our writing sessions. It’s insane! Some tunes where "frankensteined" together and others where about 75 percent complete at the get go. It took us about 3 months to get it together enough so we could bring in a drummer and the only one we had in mind was Louie Gasparro. It was a long haul getting him on board because of his schedule, but it was well worth the wait. He is the most talented drummer in the NYC heavy metal scene today and he knew exactly where we were coming from the minute he heard the tunes. We rehearsed for almost a year as a three piece.

MYE: That's a lot of practice!

AD: Yeah, Lou on drums and Alex C. on guitar with me barking melodies and lyrics, demo-ing the tunes. The project really took on a new life and we "officially" started calling ourselves The Resurrection Sorrow. We started tracking for the record in January 2009 with heavyweight engineer Joe Hogan. Alex C. was tracking both bass and guitar ‘cause we didn't have an "official" guitar player yet. The tracking was done at three different studios over the course of three months. At that point, Zak Gross came into the fold as a guest solo-ist. We jammed with him and he said he wanted to stick around as a permanent member, which was great because Alex C. was able to switch back to playing bass. The record was mixed at One East Studios in NYC by Joe Hogan. We mixed everything down to two track 1/2 tape. It was mastered by Fred Kevorkian (Iggy Pop, White Stripes) over at Avatar Studios, and the band’s artwork was created by Australian artist Seldon Hunt. We think we did everything in our power to make the best record possible with the resources we had. We are all really proud of the material and worked our balls off to get it done.

MYE: What have you brought along in your bag of tricks from other experiences in your previous bands and what have these learning experiences added to the way The Resurrection Sorrow functions?

AD: As a band we have found that being patient and sticking to your vision are the best devices that you can have. It's gotta be your way or the highway and you have to be willing to risk it all to make it happen.

MYE: How has the songwriting process changed since you have solidified a full line up? How'd you meet Zak Gross and know he was right for the lead guitarist job?

AD: I met Zak in Jan. 2009 when I was at the NAMM convention in Los Angeles. At that time he was actually living in NYC and was out there recording.I walked into my friends house in Hollywood and he was literally passed out on a blow up mattress with his guitar laying by his side. He rolled over and started spooning it, needless to say it was all downhill from there. Anyway, I saw him play and thought he was amazing. A couple of months went by and I dropped him a line asking him if he wanted to be a "guest solo-ist". He said he was happy to do it but wanted to know if we had found "anyone permanent". At that point we had options but nothing solid. He came down to the studio to audition and just ripped through two songs like he had been playing them for years. There really wasn't a discussion, he was the right guy. And as for the new songs, all I can say is that the riffs are flowing like blood red wine!

MYE: What is the allure to playing music for you when it is such a daunting task sometimes, an uphill battle? I stay in it because it is always rewarding to find passionate bands like you guys or, in a different genre recently, Dead Confederate, obviously putting a lot of energy into their songs. It's a snapshot of life.

AD: Totally. We do this cause we love it and that's it. Its full-time job at sweatshop wages but its worth every fucking second of time and energy that we put into it. Our reward is making music that we love and our proud of. We worked really hard on this record and it cost us a pretty penny to produce but in the end its always worth it when you're on stage and people in the audience are digging the tunes.

MYE: Why does "Sweet Home Alabama" get so much attention when "That Smell" is the best song ever? I want a t-shirt that says "Ooh, that smell".

AD: I know! What the fuck?!? I live in the East Village and "That Smell" is my theme song to summers on the Lower East Side.

MYE: Awesome. What can you tell us about your occult leanings? Is it a lot of reading, marijuana and incense or do you really dig up corpses and dance in the moonlight like Jimmy Page allegedly did back in the day-o?

AD: It's a little from Column A and a little from Column B. [laughing] I think my neighbors have come to accept that the dude next door isn't exactly Joe the Plumber.

MYE: What is on the menu for you guys in 2010? Any big plans coming down the pipe or just keep on truckin'?

AD: More like "space truckin'" it! We are gonna keep pushing like always, I mean what else can we do? We have only just gotten started brotha'! We really want to tour the states and then possibly get something-going in Europe in the fall of 2010. We also have plans to do a music video next winter for "Soul of the Soulless". So we got some stuff in the works and are trying to keep things interesting for ourselves.