In 2014 former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo – whose CV also includes Fantomas, Philm, Mr Bungle and more – explained why The Fall of Troy were his prog heroes.
My sons always expose me to new music, whether it’s Evelyn Evelyn with Amanda Palmer, The Raconteurs or Dead Weather. But five or six years ago they introduced me to a band called The Fall Of Troy – and when I heard them I was like, “Wow!”
I love originality and they challenged my listening. The trio challenged my knowledge of drumming and the connection between the patterns that the drummer uses in relation to the guitar riffs.
Their album Doppelgänger [2005] was an eye-opener for me in terms of what music could be and where it was going – at least in the progressive style. It was heavy, powerful, dark; and you feel like there’s a lot of emotion in that music.
You can tell it’s recorded live. There isn’t the help of computers, or if there is it’s minimal, which I respect – that’s the way I like to record. These guys just blew me away. I have them on both my iPod and vinyl.
I’m more into music that’s groove-driven; in other words it stays on a certain beat for a while. When there are too many changes and it’s too complicated, I feel like it’s showboating and I really don’t like it very much. But this band isn’t about showboating.
It’s a band working together in a room and creating these patterns and guitar riffs that are unique, they’re powerful and they have soul. The guitar player, Thomas Erak – his ability to play and sing and do all this complicated music live on stage, it’s just phenomenal.
I once watched a video of them in a small room practicing their songs and my mouth just dropped. Are you kidding me? Listen to the fluidly, how easily these guys play this: seamless, and that’s impressive to me.
I feel more musicians need to try to work in that environment because you feel naked. You feel stripped down to just the bare elements of music. This is music that comes from the soul and these are guys communicating in their own musical language and creating this. It’s out of this world.
