The day I heard “Reaper’s Call” for the first time it hit me again. That’s what exactly happened to me with Temtris‘ “Ritual Warfare”, I was dumbstruck! “Reaper’s Call” comes from the sophomore LUTHARO album “Chasing Euphoria” that will make your ears bleed starting March 15th, when Atomic Fire Records launches the record. Immediately after I had come to my senses, I contacted vocalist Krista Shipperbottom for an interview and started with asking her how she feels about the new album, almost two and a half years after “Hiraes” was released.

Interview by: Henk van Nieuwenhoven

“Hello! We are all incredibly excited for the much anticipated release of “Chasing Euphoria”! We have worked SO hard on the creation of this album and everything surrounding it, so we hope it is well received.”Before the release of the new album you first dropped a couple of singles, five in total. One of them, “Reaper’s Call”, is for me already the single and video of the year. Please tell us how this fantastic song was created.
“Wow thank you so much, glad you love it! This song was actually one of the first songs created for the new album but had many twists and turns until it’s final result. We wrote it as a team as we do with all of our songs, the guys bring in a riff or an idea which gets expanded on and I add my lyrics and vocal melody. Once we heard the final product we knew this would be an album opener.”

On February 16th, LUTHARO released the fifth single, “Creating A King”. The circumstances for recording the video were not ideal with all the running in the snow and the creating of and BTS videos show a cold crew.
“Yeah, that was a rather brutal video to shoot for us but we had a vision in our head and had to see it through! Now looking back, had there not been snow that day, I don’t think it would have had the same vibe. It really sold the video for us.”On the day “Chasing Euphoria” is released you embark on a big tour through Canada and the United States, supporting Raven and Vicious Rumours. That’s perfect timing!
“Yes! This all couldn’t have worked out any better honestly and we are beyond excited to hit the road!”

But we’re here for the new album, of course. A glance at the album cover art shows a woman’s head, but for the rest… we need your help.
“The album artwork has a ton of different meanings for us. One of them being what your brain looks like when you’re experiencing an extreme state of bliss and harmony for a moment in your life.”

Just like on “Hiraeth”, the new album also opens with a cinematic instrumental track called “Gates Of Enchantment”. It looks like this will be a recurrent item on future LUTHARO albums.
“Yes for sure! We love to have a dramatic entrance and exit to an album!”

After that we hear the familiar tones of LUTHARO again on “Reaper’s Call” with your screams and guitar solos at breakneck speed. It has a great video, too! By the way, in that video there are two guitarists, but as far as I know Victor Bucur is the only official guitarist in LUTHARO. So who’s the mystery man?
“The guitarist in the “Reaper’s Call” video (other than Victor) is our former guitar player John Raposo. Currently we are without a second full time guitar player but we do have our eye on some prospects.”

Speaking of fire-breathing guitar solos, that one on “Ruthless Bloodline” is as fast as Max Verstappen in his Red Bull Formula One car on the straight with DRS on. Does Victor still have skin on his finger tips or just callus?
“Barely! I’ve seen him lift some really hot dishes and not flinch so I don’t think he has much feeling left in his fingertips.”

You use so many different styles in one song. In “Time To Rise” you alternate between almost poppy vocals and loud screams with a clean voice in between and then end up with lamenting vocals. Self-taught?
“I would say that I’m mostly self-taught, yes. I did go to the legendary Melissa Cross and Mary Zimmer (ex-Helion Prime) for some pointers and basic techniques, but everything else for me has been 98% trial and error.”“Born To Ride” immediately evokes associations with the culture film “Easy Rider” from 1969 with Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. Is Krista also somebody who would cruise Canada (or follow Route 66 in the US) with her friends on a motor bike?
“Maybe in a dream scenario but this Krista can’t drive so unfortunately not, haha.”

Okay, we’ve discussed five of the eleven tracks on “Chasing Euphoria” already and the video for “Creating A King”. Let’s not give everything away and talk about touring. LUTHARO would be more than welcome in Europe after the Canada/US tour and just in time before the festival season starts.
“We would absolutely LOVE to return to Europe! There has a been a little bit of feelers put out there for another European tour so we hope this happens soon!”

And finally for something completely different. What is Krista Shipperbottom doing when her mind is not on music?
“That’s tricky because my mind is constantly consumed with music, LUTHARO and things that need to be done in order for us to move forward. So I would say, not much else because being a musician is extremely tasking. This is my passion though so I wouldn’t have it any other way!” ■