Veteran old school metal act True Strength is now five albums into a career that got its start in 2014 with the independent release to its full length debut The Cross Will Always Prevail. The project of founding member and guitarist/bassist Ryan ‘the Archangel’ Darnell signed with Roxx Records for its 2017 sophomore effort Steel Evangelist and conceptual based third and fourth from 2019 and 2020, respectively, Sanguinary Vivification and The Mighty Hand Of Yahweh. Former focused on the parallel between the Prophecy of the Suffering Servant in the Book of Isaiah and the life of Jesus Christ, while the latter centered upon the Book of Joshua.
June of 2022 released fifth True Strength album and fourth on Roxx Records, The House, The Holy, The Third, also deals with Old Testament themes by basing around the Book of Ezekiel. Angelic Warlord had the recent opportunity to talk with Darnell, who goes into detail about the challenges to The House, The Holy, The Third recording process, the meaning behind the albums title and cover art and what the future holds for True Strength.
True Strength recently released its fifth album, The House, The Holy, The Third. Tell us a bit more about The House, The Holy, The Third, specifically the writing and recording process.
Thank you Andy for the incredible opportunity to speak to your readers here at Angelic Warlord! We are always honored to participate!
I began writing most of the material for "The House, The Holy, The Third" back in 2015 and polished it up until midway through 2020. The concept I originally had for a Book of Ezekiel-themed album was going to be one focused on the prophetic visions in the book. The original name of the album was going to be "The Destruction of Gog and Magog", which later became the name of one of the songs. The initial direction of the songwriting was focused on creating a doom metal feel but gradually I began incorporating more epic metal and power metal elements into the songs.
We went into the studio a week after we released "The Mighty Hand of Yahweh" in October of 2020 to begin recording "The House, The Holy, The Third" album. This was our second time recording with producer Josh DeHaan at DeHaan Studios. In the last months of 2020, I laid down the rhythm guitar tracks for most of the songs, including two that were later removed, rewritten and re-recorded. Our drummer Chris Lee Faulkenberry-Alfano started recording his drum parts on the songs in January 2021; it was during this time that Chris began having panic attacks and developed a strange bout of depression that was both uncharacteristic and completely unexplained. He went to the doctor to find out what was wrong, and they discovered that he had a severe heart arrhythmia and was advised that he would need to have a surgical consultation in March 2021. Everything kind of paused for a bit during this time.
In March 2021, DeHaan Studios was hit with a spring blizzard that left ten-foot snow drifts that flooded the studio, stopping miraculously short (only several feet) of the studio equipment. A few days after the flood, Chris was informed during his consultation that he would need heart surgery to correct the arrhythmia, which was then scheduled for May 2021. I began doubling up my guitar tracks in the studio during all this, including adding lead rhythms over the music between March and May of 2021. Then after a torrential downpour on May 17th, 2021, DeHaan Studios experienced more major flooding to the recording room, missing the equipment again (miraculously). Five days later Chris underwent successful heart surgery on May 21st, 2021 to correct his arrhythmia. Amazingly, Chris was already up and recording drum tracks within a month after his surgery and it was around this time that we hired his childhood friend and accomplished keyboardist Carl Borsick.
We pushed hard until the summer when the DeHaan family suddenly found themselves under heavy spiritual attack in July-August 2021. I was under a lot of mental stress around the summer of 2021, and I developed a Shingles outbreak which spread all over my neck where my guitar strap sat, and it was incredibly painful. Everyone in the band was experiencing some level of personal, spiritual, or physical attack from August to October 2021. To make things worse, the DeHaan family contracted COVID-19 in early-October 2021 and Josh had severe complications that sent him to the hospital, and he was put on oxygen- this shutdown recording for a bit until Josh and his family could fully recover. On October 13th, 2021 Chris was informed by police that his brother was found dead in Denver, which understandably devastated him. Carl began recording his keyboard parts on and off from October through the end of 2021. Carl informed us that he came to Christ and was baptized on November 23rd, 2021, so not all the news was bad!
A week after Christmas 2021, my family and I contracted COVID-19 and I was shut down for several weeks. After I recovered, I got back all the lead guitar parts from Takis in January and began plugging them into the tracks with Josh. But as soon as things started picking up again, Chris ruptured his left ear drum, and it became severely infected in mid-January 2022. Then in February we found out our studio violinist Irina Markevich from Ukraine (who played on the ballad "Mourn Not the Delight of Your Eyes") was in a city besieged by Russian forces, which filled us with worry for her and her family, hoping and praying that she would be kept safe. George Tsalikis finished recording his lead and backing vocals in late-February and we began the process of editing everything together. Chris went to California with his longtime girlfriend Joanne Alfano and the two got married on the beach in Los Angeles at the end of February.
Mixing the album was a gargantuan task, we wanted to make sure everything was as good as it could be, so we spent the next two months mixing the album. We finished up mixing in the middle of April 2022, and then sent it off to Rob Colwell at Bombworks for mastering. As much as we had planned on getting the album done in 2021, it just wasn't in the cards for us. God had other plans and I truly believe that in the long run it was for the best because we really took our time recording and mixing this album, the results of which can be clearly heard. As I mentioned earlier, two of the songs on the album were rewritten and rerecorded- those songs were "Mourn Not the Delight of Your Eyes" and "The Lord Will Be Israel's Shepherd". I wasn't happy with the original versions of either song (which were both completely different songs). I especially think the rewrite of the ballad was critical to the success of this album because the version that made it to the album is by far one of the best songs on it.
What is the meaning behind the The House, The Holy, The Third title? Also, please go into detail in regards to the cover art.
The title I had gotten from a term used in an old biblical commentary (the name of the author escapes me) I read on John 2:19, which connects the verse to Ezekiel's Temple Vision. As I stated earlier, originally, the album was going to be called "The Destruction of Gog and Magog" but after reading that commentary, I started to imagine a deeper, more complete take on the Book of Ezekiel and sought to connect it to the New Testament somehow (not an easy feat since Ezekiel is one of the least referenced Old Testament books in the New Testament!). The title track really expands on this by describing some of the typology in the Book of Ezekiel and how it connects to the New Testament.
The cover art was done by a good friend of mine and fellow Christian, Ward Silverman. Ward is an extremely accomplished artist and has done amazing work with Topps and Star Wars on both their comics and trading cards. When we were discussing the concept for the album cover, I told him that I imagined the album cover featuring the scene of The Valley of Dry Bones from Ezekiel 37:1-14, which inspired him to design and paint the albums' incredible cover you see today! I absolutely love the job he did on it; the detail he put into features like the skulls and the flesh being sewn by lightning over the bones is just so cool and so metal!
I understand that The House, The Holy, The Third is also a concept album. What is the concept in question?
Absolutely, the album concept is the Book of Ezekiel from the Old Testament. The album covers the entire book from beginning to end and contains lyrics derived from actual Scripture. I wanted to capture the entire essence of the Book of Ezekiel while connecting it typologically to the New Testament. The Book of Ezekiel is often skipped over, misunderstood, and misquoted. It has been used by ufologists to equate Ezekiel's vision of the Chariot of God to Aliens and UFO’s, and I've recently seen little to no pushback from Christians about this, which is disturbing. I wanted to present Ezekiel to a modern audience using a truly biblical lens, the way it should be and not through a post-modern/New Age/hypothetical lens which leads to destructive interpretations and heresies.
Here are the scripture references for each song:
True Strength "The House, The Holy, The Third"
1) Arrival of the Glory of The Lord (Intro)
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 1:22-28
2) Chariot of God
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 1
3) Ezekiel's Call
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 2-5, Ezekiel 33
4) Dwelling of Abominations
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 6-10, Ezekiel 18-24
5) Harlot Bride
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 16
6) Mourn Not the Delight of Your Eyes
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 24:15
7) Judgement Will Come Against the Nations
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 25-32, Ezekiel 35
8) The City Has Fallen / 587 B.C.
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 33:21-33
9) The Lord Will Be Israel's Shepherd (Instrumental)
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 34
10) Valley of Dry Bones
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 37:1-14
11) Destruction of Gog and Magog
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 38-39, Revelation 20:7-10
12) The House, The Holy, The Third (John 2:19)
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 40-48, John 2:19-22, John 4:10-14, John 7:38, 1 Peter 2:4-10, Hebrews 6:16-20
What are your feelings about The House, The Holy The Third? Are you happy with the way the album turned out? How has the response been so far?
We are all very pleased with how the fifth album has turned out! Everything started kind of rough, with some of the songs initially sounding forced. I am glad I made the decision to scrap and rewrite those songs as their finalized versions are superior to their initial iterations. The album is truly a work of love- a love for Christ, a love for our family, friends, and fans around the world. The feedback has been amazing, and we are so happy that people love these songs! Earlier, we were honored by Jacob Folk and Christian Molten Metal webzine when he named "The House, The Holy, The Third", Metal of the Month for May-June 2022 (the second such honor for our band, with the first being "Sanguinary Vivification")! We have seen extensive play on various Christian rock and heavy metal radio stations, which has been incredible!
What are some of your favorite songs off the album?
My favorite songs are “Chariot of God”, “Mourn Not the Delight of Your Eyes” and “The House, The Holy, The Third (John 2:19)”. I love “Chariot of God” because it is so high energy and fun, I love “Mourn Not the Delight of Your Eyes” because it is such a beautiful ballad with an amazing hook and I really love “The House, The Holy, The Third (John 2:19) because of the instrumentation and tones used in the song, which really sets the mood! I love the chime of my bass guitar in that song! I know Chris is a big fan of “Dwelling of Abominations”, as well. Chris and I were discussing that probably almost every song on this album could have been a candidate for a single.
The House, The Holy, The Third is the fourth True Strength album released on Roxx Records. What are the advantages to working with a label as opposed to being independent?
Bill Bafford and Roxx Records have been great to us! I can't thank them enough for the support they have provided for us and our music over the past six years. The advantages of working with a label is you are not alone in promoting your music; it does help having someone in your corner, fighting for you and getting your music into places you would've likely never been able to get into had you been independent. Plus, the cost of printing your own CD jewel cases/booklets and pressing discs independently can be daunting, especially after fronting so much cash into production. Another advantage to having a label is distribution- it's hard mailing out discs and merchandise all around the world being independent, not to mention expensive. I recommend to younger bands the importance of getting at least some sort of distribution label to help get their music into the hands of fans. I suggest getting a distribution deal on every continent (if possible) to help you move your CDs. We and Roxx Records work with distribution labels in the Americas, Europe, and Australia to get our CDs distributed to fans across the world.
I would like to talk about the previous True Strength album The Mighty Hand Of Yahweh. Is it also concept related? Musically, how does it compare to previous True Strength albums?
Indeed, the previous album, “The Mighty Hand of Yahweh” is a concept album! It is based on the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament, we covered the events of the book from beginning to end, as faithful to scripture as possible! “The Mighty Hand of Yahweh” was a unique album for True Strength because it featured a musical side of our band that we hadn’t shown before on previous releases. Being heavily inspired by 70’s rock and early heavy metal I set out to make an album that showcased these inspirations by combining them into the True Strength sound. It was the first album that prominently featured keyboards; it really set the tone for “The House, The Holy, The Third” album where keyboards continued to be used on a more straightforward metal album. This album was also the first to feature the intricate drumming of Chris Lee, his signature rolls and hybrid style of playing. It was also the first to feature the lead guitar work of Takis Koroneos who introduced us to his European power metal style of soloing.
The Mighty Hand Of Yahweh found True Strength making use of keyboards for the first time. Why did True Strength decide to implement keyboards? What impact have they had on the True Strength sound?
I have always been a fan of keyboards in rock and heavy metal music, I think it adds an element to the music to make it feel richer and fuller which leads to a much more rounded out sound. We briefly used keyboards on our debut album on the song "Starve the Fires of Moloch" and listening to it today, you can hear how complete that song sounds with it. The 70's rock/protometal/metal approach to the songwriting on "The Mighty Hand of Yahweh" made the use of keyboards necessary. I believe that keyboards have certainly had a positive effect on our music! We have been blessed to work with two amazing keyboardists on these past two albums, which has taken the songs to a whole another dimension. For the epic nature of our biblical themes, keyboards really set the mood!
On The Mighty Hand Of Yahweh, True Strength introduced guitarist Takis Koroneos as part of its lineup. What led you to work with Koroneos? I found Takis after Josh Cirbo departed the band after the "Sanguinary Vivification" album. It was a daunting task because Josh is an incredible lead guitarist and finding his replacement was going to be difficult. I stumbled onto a video of Takis playing an incredible lead solo and I immediately hired him for "The Mighty Hand of Yahweh" album! Takis and I share a lot of the same influences- Iron Maiden and most European Power Metal, so we connected right away. Takis is in Greece, and since True Strength is (at the moment) a studio band it is easy to collaborate with him on recordings. Takis is an incredible guitarist and one of the best I have ever worked with, he is extremely professional, laser-focused, and always delivers the solos we are looking for! I am truly thankful to have been able to work with him on the last two albums and I hope to continue working with him for many more!
What does the future hold for True Strength? Is a sixth album in the works? Will it also be concept related?
God-willing, we hope to continue making albums as long as possible as we are never short of inspiration and ideas. We have written the sixth album and have already begun recording it at DeHaan Studios in June! Like its recent predecessors, it will also be a concept album. We are continuing our goal of bringing every book of the Bible to life via heavy metal. The sixth album will be about the Book of Daniel from the Old Testament and will be called "Ancient of Days"! We hope to record it through the rest of 2022 into early 2023 for a late-2023 release. In addition to this, we are releasing a 'Best of' album in October 2022 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of True Strength's founding in 2012. The title of the 'Best of' will be called "Maximum Strength: The Best of the First Decade of True Strength" and will feature 15 songs (3 from each album) of our most popular/most downloaded songs. Original artwork for the 'Best of' is being done by our friend Ryan Close.
I would like to close by thanking you for honoring Angelic Warlord with this interview. Do you have any last words you would like to offer our readers?
Thank you very much, Andy! The honor is all ours! We appreciate the time and effort you put into your reviews and interviews! Thank you for this opportunity to speak to your readers, we are deeply humbled for the opportunity to do so! We would like to thank first and foremost, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns forever. We would also like to thank our families. In addition, we would like to thank Bill Bafford and everyone at Roxx Records and my sponsor Steve Clayton, Inc. for personalized guitar picks and guitar accessories.
Normally, I would share my salvation story / testimony here, as I have done for the past several interviews with Angelic Warlord, but this time I would like to do something different but is no less important. 2021 into 2022 was a very difficult time for us, our families and friends associated with True Strength. We wouldn’t have gotten through this incredibly difficult year without our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His Grace, His Mercy helped us get through it all. This year alone is a testimony of God’s goodness in our lives! We are eternally grateful for all of God’s blessings, and He shows us time and time again that no matter what, even if we fail, The Cross Will Always Prevail! It was hard seeing Chris go through his heart issues and personal tragedies; seeing Josh DeHaan and his family go through all they had gone through the past year… it was immensely difficult. I even learned of the deaths of a couple of people that were old friends of mine over this past year and that was heartbreaking.
Throughout all the ups and downs in life the Lord has been there for us. It’s difficult to imagine that so many people in this world eschew God to try and deal with these things on their own. I plea to those people to turn to Christ and Christ alone! If you are out there reading this and you are not sure whether you believe, I am humbly asking you to give Christ the chance to change your life. Being a Christian is not easy, it is a very difficult life, but all those who endure to the end will be saved. There are a lot of charlatans, and false teachers out there who try to tell people that becoming a Christian will grant you an easy life and enrich you materially- these people are liars and sent by the Devil. As a Christian we don’t live for this world, we live for the world to come, the Eternal Kingdom of God! If you are hurting, suffering, feeling lost, feeling lonely, feeling like you can’t go on anymore, Christ is waiting for you, my friend! Jesus invites us with this verse:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” -Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus Christ loves you, my friend… God loves you!
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." -John 3:16
So please, believe, not for my sake, but for your sake. Remember that no matter what you may have done in your life you can be forgiven through Jesus Christ! I pray in Jesus' name that all of you will be saved! We love you! God bless you all!
True Strength online: https://truestrength.band & www.facebook.com/True-Strength
Interview by Andrew Rockwell
