They hail from Minneapolis in the United States and categorize themselves as an apocalyptic, female fronted, genre defying metal band. Led by Liz Ziegler on vocals and with veterans Will Maravelas and Aaron Caulfield on guitar, Neal Pruett on bass and Aaron Lanik behind the drumkit, you may still have never heard of PLAGUE OF STARS. And yet, they have released two albums since their inception in 2012 plus a live album, and a third one is coming soon via Wormholedeath, “Extinction”. We hope Liz has big feet, as she steps into the shoes of none other than Melissa Ferlaak, the former singer of PLAGUE OF STARS. But we can always ask her, of course… and so it happened!
You joined PLAGUE OF STARS in 2023 to replace Melissa Ferlaak. How is it to step into the shoes of someone who provided the voices for one of Visions Of Atlantis’ best earlier albums “Trinity” and two PLAGUE OF STARS releases?
“It’s incredibly humbling! Melissa is an amazing singer (and human!) and I was incredibly humbled and equally flattered / excited when I was asked to step in!”
You also sing in a band named Imaginaerum, clearly a Nightwish cover band. Is that where Aaron and Will found you?
“It is! We’ve all known each other for years through the scene here, but I only did backing vocals in my previous band (Portraits Of War) and focused on keyboards, so I don’t think people really got to hear what I was capable of vocally until we started Imaginaerum.”
You already did some live shows with PLAGUE OF STARS, among others a farewell show together with Melissa and as support act for Unleash The Archers. How was that for you, to be on stage with Melissa and the rest of the band?
“So much fun! I think we did something really special with Melissa’s retirement show. Not too often do you get to end an era and usher in a new one in the same night! It was an amazing night! As far as shows since then, me and the boys gelled instantly and have been having a lot of fun! The Unleash The Archers show was a blast! It was the first sold out show I’ve played in years, and I forgot the energy that that amount of people bring to a show! They were so jovial and supportive!”
The first tones from you with PLAGUE OF STARS was on a teaser for “Gods Of Old”. When will the single and video for that song officially be released?
““Gods Of Old” was released Friday, January 10th as a single and as a music video! You can find it here: https://youtu.be/ZG7zjS52b14”
Speaking of the old Gods, that is a real brutal song with almost clipping over-the-top vocals. What ancient Gods are we dealing with?
“It’s a bit deeper than that. The song is really about when Christianity came in and took religious control, forcing people to choose between converting or, in most cases, death. As the song progresses, it tells this story and towards the end it comes full circle with the large populations of people turning away from organized religion today, essentially erasing ‘their god.’”
Title track “Extinction” starts quite surprisingly and is the odd one out on the album for me. Is this the song that characterizes the term genre defying metal most?
“This song is one of my favorites on the album! This song is a conversation between Mother Nature and mankind, and even when mankind eventually kills themselves off, the following 100 years will be even more destructive due to all of the unmanned nuclear power stations that will fail, essentially causing nuclear winter. Ultimately though, Mother Nature will reclaim the planet, like she always does, and we will be just a memory. Due to this content, we were able to use many different styles of music to help illustrate this conversation. As far as genre defying, this song definitely varies, but I just think every song on this album is so different from the next. We write riffs that we like, and they don’t always fit into one category, so we like to give ourselves the freedom to write whatever we want, while always keeping that ‘apocalyptic’ undertone.”
One of my favorites on the album is “Corporatocracy” and not only for the almost unpronounceable title, but also because it is so different from the rest. But that also goes for “Shift”. Holy Moses, who comes up with all these ideas, musically and lyrically?
“A lot of the musical material was already written by the time I joined the project, so you can thank Will and Frodo for most of that. I was told the original concept for this album was going to be an opera about religious psychosis, so a lot of the themes came from there. “Corporatocracy” was actually completed and released as a single inbetween albums, and was originally released with Melissa on vocals. We then decided to re-record it with me on vocals and include it on the album. It’s definitely the most thrashy / power metal song of the album. As for “Shift,”
this is kind of the ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’ of the album. The song was originally over 8 minutes long and we chopped it up and sewed it back together in what you hear now, which turned into almost an angry jazz tune about climate change.”
Both “Akerra” and the album closer “Akelarre” start exactly the same, so there must be some kind of relationship here. Although the first is only 55 seconds long and the latter over 10 minutes! What’s the connection between the two, what do the titles stand for and what is “Akelarre” about?
““Akelarre” is hands down my favorite song of the album! It took me months to write this one and get things just how I wanted them. It translates to The Witches Sabbath, or more literally ‘a diabolical assembly.’ It’s essentially a feminist anthem, dedicated to all strong women who live life how they chose to. Hundreds of years ago, people would accuse women of witchcraft for being strong willed and going against the norms of the community. They were often referred
to as an ‘Akelarre.’ This song is about the misconceptions of these women and how many of them chose death over conversion, as you can hear in the last lines of the song: “Standing before their god with my back turned. Surrendering myself to the flame, to nourish the Mother once again.” “Akerra” is the male goat that oversees the Akelarre. I chose to name the intro of the album after that, as it oversees the whole album, and then Akelarre tied back into it with that familiar theme.”
PLAGUE OF STARS has produced a remarkably varied album that hopefully will find its way to many metal fans. Who do you hope to reach most with “Extinction”?
“Honestly, as Will has said in other interviews, I’m just grateful to anyone who gives it a listen. Even if they hate it, they still gave us a small part of their life. So my hope is that there is at least something in there that they can attach themselves to and enjoy! We put so much time and energy into it, I hope people can feel it! Thanks so much for giving us your time!” ■
Henk van Nieuwenhoven